| | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | OVERNIGHT — AP: “Thousands flee as wildfires burn out of control in and around Los Angeles and homes are destroyed” … LA Times: “‘Worst is yet to come’ as winds gain speed” TODAY — President-elect DONALD TRUMP is in Washington today ahead of tomorrow’s funeral of former President JIMMY CARTER. While here, he’ll meet with Senate Republicans at 6 p.m. to discuss the party’s strategy on reconciliation — the “one bill or two?” discussion that has been devouring Capitol Hill. But it’s the items on Trump’s agenda, rather than that process question, that will be driving conversation today. And those items — at least the ones he’s focusing on recently — are a whole lot different than what we heard on the campaign trail. More on that in a moment. But first…
| 
President Joe Biden listens in the Oval Office at the White House, June 17, 2024. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP | BIDEN’S EXIT INTERVIEW — Over the last four years, JOE BIDEN gave fewer sitdown interviews and press conferences than any president since RONALD REAGAN. That’s one reason why it’s worth reading his new interview with USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page — the only one the White House is granting to a print outlet as he ends his presidency. For an hour on Sunday, the president sat down with Page for a “reflective and defensive” exchange, which just published. The highlights: — Biden thinks he would’ve won reelection: “It's presumptuous to say that, but I think yes,” he said, adding that he based that view on polling he had reviewed. — He’s unsure if he could have served another full four-year term: “So far, so good,” Biden said. “But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old? … Who the hell knows?” — He confirmed that he’s considering preemptive pardons for people including former Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) and former NIAID Director ANTHONY FAUCI to insulate them from any possible politically motivated criminal investigations from the Trump administration. And he says he told Trump not to go after his perceived enemies. “I tried to make clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores,” Biden said. How did Trump respond? “He didn’t say, ‘No, I’m going to …’ You know. He didn’t reinforce it. He just basically listened.” — Regrets, he has a few … but they’re probably not the ones you’re thinking of (i.e. running for reelection, the disastrous debate, not articulating his administration’s message very well, etc.). Instead, Biden chose (1) the difficulty in countering misinformation (“[T]here are no editors out there to say ‘That’s simply not true.’”) and (2) the slowness of infrastructure rollout (“Historians will talk about [how] great the impact was, but it didn’t [have] any immediate impact on people’s lives,” Biden said. “I think we would’ve been a hell of a lot better off had we been able to go much harder at getting some of these projects in the ground quicker.”) — His wish for his legacy: “‘I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan [for] how to restore the economy and reestablish America’s leadership in the world,’ Biden said. ‘That was my hope. I mean, you know, who knows? And I hope it records that I did it with honesty and integrity, that I said what was on my mind.’”
| | | | A message from Meta: Open source AI is available to all, not just the few.
Meta’s open source AI, Llama, is free to use – enabling startups like WriteSea to build an AI tool that helps job seekers write resumes, practice mock interviews and learn salary negotiation tactics. It's like a personal career coach.
Now, people have more help finding their dream job.
Learn more about how others are building with open source AI. | | | |  President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a news conference at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images | THE NEW TRUMP EXPANSIONISM — The inescapable chatter in Washington is about Trump’s recent fascination with a drastic expansion of America’s borders, and his suggestion that he is willing to use military force to get it. At a press conference yesterday at Mar-a-Lago, Trump talked about annexing Greenland, renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” reclaiming the Panama Canal and making Canada the “51st state.” (Republicans ought to be careful what they wish for, seeing as a Canadian state would be like adding a second, even larger California to the union and result in a massive Democratic advantage in the House and Electoral College.) As is often the case with Trump, there’s a value in taking him seriously but not literally. Even if this isn’t something he literally intends to do, publicly flirting with the concept signals a seriousness about a foreign policy approach in his second term in which the so-called “madman” theory will play a big role. (That’s the RICHARD NIXON-era idea that the U.S. would gain an upper hand on the international stage if it made adversarial nations think that the president was so volatile that they should avoid provoking the U.S., lest Nixon respond with fury and force.) In that way, it’s a continuation of Trump 1.0. Few of these ideas are wholly fresh. Trump talked about acquiring Greenland during his first term — a fascination that, as NYT’s Peter Baker wrote in 2022, was inspired by cosmetics heir RONALD LAUDER and perhaps fanned by a misapprehension of Greenland’s size due to the Mercator projection (“I love maps. And I always said: ‘Look at the size of this. It’s massive. That should be part of the United States,’” Trump told Baker and Susan Glasser in an interview for their book, “The Divider”). But it’s also a break from the MAGA of old. Trump 1.0 was furious with the neoconversative approach of nation-building and foreign interventionism with the military, which it saw as a failure to put America and Americans first. Trump 2.0 has ambitions for an American empire and claims it is willing to intervene with the military to get it; it seeks to expand the nation not through immigration but through land grabs. That’s a big change, and yet it feels like this could rapidly become a litmus test on the right.
- “I’ll be introducing legislation ASAP to officially change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to its rightful name, the Gulf of America,” Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) posted on X yesterday.
- “I would consider it a privilege to be taken over by the United States of America,” Fox News host JESSE WATTERS told Ontario Premier DOUG FORD last night.
- People in Greenland “would vote for an alliance for the U.S.,” SEAN HANNITY asserted during an interview with DONALD TRUMP JR.
Which leaves us where, exactly? To MAGA diehards, there’s a substantial degree of trolling going on here — a delight in the idea of conquering Canada to own the libs. But to the large number of Americans who voted for Trump simply because they liked his economy — or wanted lower grocery and gas prices, or because they agreed with the idea of putting Americans first instead of the folly of foreign interventionism — this probably all seems like a distraction at best or a bait-and-switch at worst. And that’s something Trump world would be wise to take both seriously and literally. FWIW: “Trump says he will rename the Gulf of Mexico. Can he do that?” by WaPo’s Maegan Vazquez Good Wednesday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line at edaniels@politico.com. REMEMBERING PRESIDENT CARTER — “Jimmy Carter lies in state as Washington begins its commemoration,” by WaPo’s Paul Kane, Olivia George, Joe Heim and Paul Duggan: “With a storm just passed and snow blanketing the region, scores of onlookers flanked Pennsylvania Avenue NW, bathed in icy air and waning sunshine, as a military procession escorted the caisson up Capitol Hill from the U.S. Navy Memorial — a mile-long solemn march that recalled a walk of triumph by the 39th president on a similarly cold and bright afternoon nearly half a century ago.” Photo essay: “Jimmy Carter through the lens of Gerald Ford’s photographer,” by CNN’s Kyle Almond, with photos via David Hume Kennerly/Center for Creative Photography/University of Arizona WHAT GLENN YOUNGKIN IS READING — "Democrats retain control of Virginia legislature in special elections,” by WaPo’s Laura Vozzella THE LATEST FROM LAS VEGAS — Police officials in Las Vegas said MATTHEW LIVELSBERGER, the “highly decorated soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack,” per the AP’s Mike Catalini.
| | | | A message from Meta:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate is in. The House is out. 3 things to watch …
- The new politics of immigration: Yesterday, 48 House Democrats voted for the Laken Riley Act — a crackdown on illegal immigration that would require the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes. That’s up from the 37 House Dems who supported the bill in March, in the latest sign that the national rightward shift on border and immigration politics is reverberating in Washington, as Daniella Diaz, Nicholas Wu and Myah Ward write. Up next: The Senate will take up the bill on Friday, and Democrats in states carried by Trump are already lining up to support it — not just on-cycle Democrats like Sens. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-Pa.) and GARY PETERS (D-Mich.), but also, as of this morning, Sen. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-Ariz.). “If we can’t get 7 [supporters] out of 47 [Senate Democrats], then that’s a reason why we lost” in 2024, Fetterman told Fox News’ Bret Baier last night.
- Confirmation calendar: Senate Majority Leader JOHN THUNE has started feeling out Democrats for a sense of which Trump cabinet nominees they’re willing to help confirm on Jan. 20 shortly after Trump is sworn in, he told our colleagues Jordain Carney and Ursula Perano. Potentially on that list: Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.), Trump’s nominee for secretary of State, and Rep. ELISE STEFANIK (R-N.Y.), Trump’s pick to be U.N. ambassador. Both are expected to get hearings with the Foreign Relations Committee next week — Rubio on Jan. 15, and Stefanik on Jan. 16. Related read: “Marco Rubio Says He’s All In on Trump’s Foreign Policy Vision. Is There Room for His Own?” by NOTUS’ Haley Bird Wilt
- Return of the SALT Republicans: As GOP lawmakers head to Mar-a-Lago on Saturday for a sitdown with the president-elect, there’s a notable policy shift in the offing. Ben Guggenheim reports that the incoming Trump administration “plans to offer an expansion of the state and local tax deduction to Republican lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and California.” In return, they’ll be expected to “fall in line behind a sweeping tax bill the GOP hopes to enact later this year.” The SALT Republicans are due to huddle up today to talk through their strategy ahead of their meetings in Florida.
At the White House Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning. The president and first lady JILL BIDEN will depart Los Angeles in the afternoon to return to the White House.
| | PLAYBOOK READS | | TRANSITION LENSES
| 
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. | Evan Vucci/AP | MAL PRACTICE — The march through Mar-a-Lago continues this week with a dinner for Republican governors on Thursday, Dasha Burns and Gary Fineout report. “The governors’ convening will offer a chance to reaffirm their loyalty — the biggest currency in Trump world. “That’s particularly key for those like ally-turned-rival-turned-ally again, Gov. RON DeSANTIS, who will make the trip down from Tallahassee, one of the people familiar said.” But it’s not just a one-way street: Trump will also need help from these leaders to execute some of his biggest priorities and campaign promises. Also heading to the so-called “Winter White House” this weekend are a number of House GOP groups (the SALT Republicans, the House Freedom Caucus, various committee chairs) who will drop by the compound to game out Trump’s ambitious 2025 agenda. More top reads:
ALL POLITICS
| 
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul at a press on conference at the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 30, 2024. | Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images | RESISTANCE IS FUTILE — With the Democratic Party searching for a potent antidote to the political currents that returned the former president to the White House and delivered Republicans major gains across the country, Dems in New York are trying a new tact: Embrace parts of Trump’s agenda and don’t try to fight him. “There’s more appetite among Gov. KATHY HOCHUL and state lawmakers for seizing on his winning issues rather than confronting him, according to interviews with six legislators, political advisers and Democratic officials and a review of Hochul’s recent moves to embrace cost-of-living concerns,” Nick Reisman reports from Albany. “What propelled Trump back to the White House — immigration, inflation and public safety — is expected to dominate the discourse in Albany. Hochul, a prominent surrogate for President Joe Biden right until he stepped aside, is heeding voters’ concerns over the cost of living with a new ‘affordability agenda’ that included a photo-op grocery store trip and tax benefits aimed at families and low-income New Yorkers.” More top reads:
| | | | A message from Meta:   | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY
| | 
Firefighters battle the Palisades Fire as it burns multiple structures in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. | Ethan Swope/AP | THE LATEST IN CALIFORNIA — Huge swaths of southern Calirodnia are under evacuation orders as fires rage in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Pasadena and Sylmar, with the severity expected to intensify in the coming days as “life-threatening and destructive” winds hit the state, the LA Times reports. The situation derailed a planned visit from Biden, who had hoped to make a final splashy announcement to cement his climate legacy in the state this week to designate two new national monuments, Adam Cancryn reports from Los Angeles. The event Biden had to cancel yesterday was to announce plans to shield more than 800,000 acres across California from oil and gas drilling. He will instead deliver a speech establishing the Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla National Monument at the White House next week, ensuring that “key stakeholders” can still attend. More top reads:
CONGRESS PUSHING FOR PAPERS — The Senate HELP Committee, which is overseeing the confirmation of LINDA McMAHON’s nomination to lead the Education Department, is waiting on documents from the transition team to proceed further, likely punting the hearing to after Inauguration Day, Mackenzie Wilkes reports. INPUT DELAY — “Senate Dems delay Tulsi Gabbard nomination,” by Axios’ Stephen Neukam and Stef Kight: “Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is balking at GOP requests to hold a hearing for [TULSI] GABBARD early next week, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations. … Warner has pointed out that the committee has not yet received Gabbard's FBI background check, ethics disclosure or a pre-hearing questionnaire, a source familiar with the matter told us. Committee rules require the background check a week in advance of a hearing.” COUNTERPOINT — “Democrats’ new push to stop RFK Jr.: Highlight Samoa’s measles outbreak,” by WaPo’s Dan Diamond: “Five months after [ROBERT F. KENNEDY’s] visit, Samoa declared a measles emergency, with leaders warning that vaccination levels had declined precipitously. Thousands of Samoans were infected during the outbreak, and 83 people died of the vaccine-preventable disease — an episode that Democrats say could foreshadow a future American crisis, should Kennedy be elevated to a Cabinet position and sow doubts about vaccines here. Most of Samoa’s measles deaths were in young children.” META CONVERSATION — House Judiciary Chair JIM JORDAN told reporters that he plans to meet with MARK ZUCKERBERG in the next few weeks, as the Meta CEO makes a visit to D.C., Hailey Fuchs writes. Meta announced on Tuesday that it would be getting rid of its fact-checking program, which Republicans have criticized as a way the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has suppressed conservative speech. Related reads: “Facebook Deletes Internal Employee Criticism of New Board Member Dana White,” by 404 Media’s Jason Koebler … “Is Zuckerberg kneeling to Trump? It’s not so simple,” by Derek Robertson POLICY CORNER FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK — “Pentagon files appeal to halt Guantanamo Bay plea deals,” by Paul McLeary and Kyle Cheney: “In an emergency filing with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the department — represented by Justice Department attorneys — asked the federal judges to take an extraordinary step and declare that Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN’s decision to revoke the plea agreements can be reinstated.” ROCK ON — “NASA Will Let Trump Decide How to Bring Mars Rocks to Earth,” by NYT’s Kenneth Chang JUDICIARY SQUARE THE TRUMP TRIALS — An appeals court judge yesterday rejected Trump’s last-ditch bid to halt his Friday sentencing for his criminal conviction in the Manhattan hush money case, Erica Orden reports. In a one-page decision denying the request, Associate Justice ELLEN GESMER appeared skeptical of arguments presented earlier, in particular that presidential immunity should apply to a president-elect, making him or her ineligible to be sentenced.
| | | PLAYBOOKERS | | | Matt Gaetz is thinking about running for Florida governor. George Santos wants his sentencing delayed so he can keep podcasting. J. Ann Selzer is getting pro bono representation from FIRE in Donald Trump’s case over her outlier Iowa poll. SPOTTED: Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker, Phil Rucker and Roz Helderman having dinner at Minetta Tavern on Monday night. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Josh Arnold is joining Andreessen Horowitz as government affairs partner in the D.C. office, leading engagement with Senate Republicans. He previously was EVP at Targeted Victory and is a Cynthia Lummis, Heritage Action and Heritage Foundation alum. TRANSITIONS — Jasmine Yunus is now campaign counsel at the Government Accountability Project, representing government and private-sector whistleblowers. She previously was a litigation fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights. … Max Ernst will be chief of staff for Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.). He most recently was chief of staff for former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and is an Abby Finkenauer and Steny Hoyer alum. … Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.) is staffing up with Diala Jadallah-Redding as chief of staff, Sally Chen as comms director, Mike Bauduy as legislative director and Hannah Smith as director of operations. Jadallah-Redding and Chen were most recently at White House legislative affairs. … … Anna “Boo” Devanny is now media relations manager for Mars Inc.’s global external comms team. She previously was press secretary for Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and is a Johnny Isakson and David Perdue alum. … Evan Swarztrauber has launched CorePoint Strategies, a public affairs firm focused on tech and telecom policy. He most recently was an SVP at AxAdvocacy and a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, and is a Trump FCC alum. … Charles Dahan is now financial services legislative assistant for Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-Fla.). He previously was financial services fellow for Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.). WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Ryan Dierker, legislative director/senior adviser for Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), and Katelyn Dierker, director of political and external affairs at Edison Electric Institute, welcomed Blair Nadine Dierker on Saturday. Pic BIRTHWEEK (was Tuesday): Eli Aguayo HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Anita Dunn … White House’s Andrew Bates … John Podesta … Heather Podesta … Adam Hechavarria … María Peña of the Library of Congress … Elizabeth López-Sandoval of USAID … David Chavern … The Hechinger Report’s Nirvi Shah … Jane Lucas … former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos … James Reed … former Reps. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), Charlie Bass (R-N.H.) and Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) … Avra Siegel ... Angelo Mathay ... former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft ... Deborah Mazol … WaPo’s Emma Brown … David P. White … Laura Pinsky … Boeing’s Nicole Tieman … Casey Stegall … POLITICO’s Joel Kirkland and Casey Arbaugh … Ted Leonsis Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
| | | | A message from Meta: Open source AI is available to all, not just the few.
Meta’s open source AI, Llama, is free to use – enabling startups like Zauron Labs to collaborate with universities to build an AI tool that’s like a spellchecker for radiologists.
Now, radiologists have more ways to reduce the 4% error rate in the 3 billion imaging exams done each year – potentially improving outcomes for millions of patients.
Learn more about how others are building with open source AI. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment