The politics of the mess

May 25, 2023

Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.

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For the first two years of President JOE BIDEN’s administration, the White House mess was only open for takeout due to the Covid pandemic.

That changed roughly three months ago when the U.S. Navy-run restaurant, located next to the Situation Room in the West Wing basement, started accepting reservations for in-person dining.

White House staffers are still free to order food at the mess’ takeout window, but not everyone can dine-in. Those privileges are reserved only for Cabinet members and commissioned officers — staffers with the title “assistant to the president,” “deputy assistant to the president” and “special assistant to the president.”

Officials with dining privileges are free to invite guests to join them for a meal at the mess, including more junior administration aides, friends and family members. And over the past few weeks, White House staffers have taken notice of who is and isn’t scoring an invite.

Being able to say that you ate in the wood-paneled restaurant has become the most recent symbol of internal clout at the White House, and the dynamic has escalated envy among junior staffers who have yet to be invited. But as much as getting an invite is a signal of status among non-commissioned officials, administration staffers say it’s also become a way to judge their bosses.

Working in the White House can be a demanding job. The hours are long and staffers get very little time off. The gig comes with few perks, but getting to eat in what is known as Washington’s most exclusive dining room is one of them.

So when senior officials invite their family members and their friends, but not their more junior team members, it gets noticed.

“It’s a small thing to do for the people that work for you, but it goes a long way,” said one White House staffer. “It’s a huge morale booster.”

Officials who make an effort to bring their staff to the mess earn a lot of good will. Interior Secretary DEB HAALAND, for example, invited a small group of department staffers to lunch a few weeks ago as a way to thank them for their work. White House chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS has also taken his front office staff and other junior staffers to the mess and hosted a happy hour for the mess staff when it first reopened.

The White House mess opened in 1951 under President HARRY TRUMAN and has been beloved by officials across administrations. When DONALD TRUMP was in office, the White House had to ask then-EPA Administrator SCOTT PRUITT to stop eating in the mess so frequently. In the Obama White House, staffers raved about the mess’ signature “Chocolate Freedom” dessert.

The food is cheap compared to meal prices elsewhere in downtown D.C. — billing statements from 2017 show that a cheeseburger cost just $6.35 while a skirt steak was $10.25. And the food is actually really good. Biden staffers get excited for the rare Friday special of a to-go order of chips and queso and affectionately call it the “Michelin Mess,” a title backed up by its Yelp reviews.

As one Yelp review from 2016 put it, the service is “outstanding” and the steak is “perfectly cooked.” The only downside, it noted, was that they don’t have “true southern sweet tea” — if you order it, they bring a glass of unsweetened iced tea with sugar on the side.

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POTUS PUZZLER

With help from the White House Historical Association

Which president was inducted into the Lakota Tribe?

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

THEIR KEVIN: We wrote earlier this week about the White House's frustrations with the coverage of the debt limit negotiations. In their view, the media has normalized Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY's willingness to threaten an economic collapse in order to extort Democrats into accepting spending cuts. Since then, we've heard the grumbling within the West Wing has focused on one reporter in particular: Punchbowl News' JAKE SHERMAN.

Frustration with Sherman's reporting has grown in recent days, according to people familiar with internal emails and conversations. White House press aides have even begun referring to Punchbowl as "McCarthy State Media." They also have been frequently sending one another Sherman's McCarthy-focused tweets, including one Wednesday hyping a TV interview — "@SpeakerMcCarthy will be on Kudlow at 4," he wrote — and shared TV screenshots of Sherman smiling while at McCarthy’s side during one recent gaggle.

A Punchbowl News spokesperson sent us this statement in response: “We take great pride in being the most wired team on Capitol Hill, and appreciate the White House and competitors focusing on our scoops.”

“THE PRESIDENT SHOULD BE OUT THERE”: However cathartic it is for the White House press shop to vent about Punchbowl, even fellow Democrats concede McCarthy has been outfoxing them in the press. The Speaker’s flood the zone, rush to the sticks, gaggle in the hallway approach to the media throughout the negotiations stands in contrast to the more limited deployment of the president.

As negotiations near an end stage and Democrats contemplate swallowing the bitter pill of spending cuts, several are venting about the White House’s approach. Our colleagues JEN HABERKORN and ADAM CANCRYN have a good look at that dynamic here. “They need to use the power of the presidency. I don’t buy this argument that [public silence] helps the negotiation,” said Congressional Black Caucus Chair STEVEN HORSFORD (D-Nev.).

A CRUEL SUMMER: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS is set to travel to the Bahamas next month, where she’ll meet with Prime Minister PHILIP DAVIS and co-host a gathering of the leaders of CARICOM, the coalition of 15 Caribbean communities. More from the Miami Herald’s JACQUELINE CHARLES.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This story by NYT’s ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON about the Biden administration’s national strategy to tackle antisemitism: “The actions include workshops to counteract bias in hiring and the workplace, enhanced Holocaust education programs offered by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and an interagency effort to eliminate barriers to reporting potential hate crimes.” White House deputy communications director HERBIE ZISKEND tweeted out the piece Thursday.

— Second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF, the first of Jewish faith among the president, vice president and their significant others, delivered remarks about the efforts. Harris aide OPAL VADHAN snapped a picture of her boss tuning in:

Tweet by Opal Vadhan | Twitter

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by POLITICO’s GAVIN BADE about how Biden’s promise to “replace the old paradigms of globalization — free trade and a reliance on markets — with a ‘worker-centered’ trade policy that raises wages not just for Americans, but around the world” is in motion, but the administration’s plans to get there are murky. “And if Biden fails in his quest to reshape the global economy — and sell his reforms to voters — Trumpian populism is waiting in the wings, ready to assert its own, more nationalistic alternative to the neoliberal order,” Bade writes.

PRAISE FOR THE PREZ: In a speech to Johns Hopkins University graduates Thursday, Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY praised the U.S. for its support throughout the war. “President Biden, a strong bipartisan coalition in Congress and most of all the American people have … risen to this occasion and are leading the free world to secure freedom in Europe,” he said. Our MATT BERG has more.

Filling the Ranks

AND THE NEXT JOINT CHIEFS CHAIR IS…: Biden on Thursday nominated Gen. C.Q. BROWN, the Air Force’s top officer and the first Black person to lead any branch of the military, to serve as his next Joint Chiefs chair, our LARA SELIGMAN reports. Lara, PAUL MCLEARY and ALEXANDER WARD reported earlier this month about the president’s intention to nominate Brown for the post over Marine Corps Commandant Gen. DAVID BERGER. Brown would be the second ever Black Joint Chiefs chair, after Gen. COLIN POWELL held the role in the GEORGE H.W. BUSH administration.

Agenda Setting

KLAIN IN CHI-TOWN: Former White House chief of staff RON KLAIN spent the last two days with Democratic attorneys general at DAGA’s Chicago Policy Conference. He took part in a closed meeting Wednesday with Delaware AG KATHY JENNINGS and in a conversation Thursday before the entire conference with its host, Illinois AG KWAME RAOUL. The meeting comes as Democratic AGs are working closely with the administration on key items like abortion access.

MOVING ALONG: With the potential debt default deadline just days away, our KATHERINE TULLY-MCMANUS, DANIELLA DIAZ and JENNIFER SCHOLTES report that negotiations between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the White House are making progress. Rep. PATRICK MCHENRY (R-N.C.), one of McCarthy’s negotiators, said Thursday the parties are “on approach on so many issues. Closer? Yes. Is it more difficult? Yes.”

SENSING SOME TENSION: Although there’s talk about an easing of tensions between the U.S. and China, Beijing “seems skeptical of any progress,” our STEVEN OVERLY, PHELIM KINE and DOUG PALMER report. U.S. progress in its trade talks with Taiwan, coupled with China’s new restrictions on U.S.-chipmaker Micron, are the latest roadblocks in the relationship. “The U.S. says it wants to speak to the Chinese side while seeking to suppress China through all possible means … is there any sincerity in and significance of any communication like this,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson MAO NING said this week.

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What We're Reading

Supreme Court Limits E.P.A.’s Power to Address Water Pollution (NYT’s Adam Liptak)

Sports no sure respite from politics when title-winning athletes visit the White House (AP’s Josh Boak and Chris Megerian)

A majority of Californians say Feinstein is no longer fit for office, a new poll finds (LAT’s’ Ben Oreskes)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

In 1927, President CALVIN COOLIDGE met representatives from the Lakota Tribe in Deadwood, S.D. HENRY STANDING BEAR addressed Coolidge during this meeting, along with CHAUNCEY YELLOW ROBE and his daughter, ROSEBUD. After remarks by Standing Bear, Chauncey bestowed the Lakota name Wanblee-Tokaha, or “Leading Eagle,” upon Coolidge, and Rosebud placed a feather bonnet on Coolidge’s head. First lady GRACE COOLIDGE was presented with moccasins, according to the White House Historical Association.

A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.

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