Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the preparations, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s transition. POLITICO Pro subscribers receive a version of this newsletter first. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren | Email Lisa | Email Megan In recent days, staffers inside JOE BIDEN’s White House contemplated DONALD TRUMP’s triumphant return to campus with dread. But when the former president and now president-elect pulled up to the South Portico on Wednesday morning, dozens of administration officials gathered on the Navy steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and craned their necks to get a glimpse. “Curiosity,” one official said in explanation. “We haven’t had anything exciting happen here for awhile, let’s be honest.” Eight days out from his victory, Trump wants to show the world he’s back. Trump’s actual return to the nation’s capital amplified a buzz that's been building here since last week’s election was called, that forgotten but suddenly familiar frenzy that characterized the former reality TV star’s melodramatic four years in office. The president-elect has sent reporters scrambling this week with a rat-a-tat of personnel announcements via Truth Social, media leaks and formal announcements. Some have even shocked a political class who assumed their nerves were already fried, none more than Trump’s announcement Wednesday afternoon that embattled GOP Rep. MATT GAETZ is his pick to run the Justice Department — a choice that makes Tuesday night’s announcement of Fox News Channel host PETE HEGSETH as Defense secretary seem almost conventional by comparison. Rumors are running rampant as those angling for positions are, once again, looking to influence the process both in private and through leaks to the press. Well aware of what’s coming, lobbyists across town are looking for opportunities. Democrats, meanwhile, are looking for jobs. On Wednesday, cable channels carried live footage of Trump’s black and gold 757 landing at Joint Base Andrews. His morning appearance with House Republicans added to the drama at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, where GOP senators met for a secret vote to pick their next leader (congratulations, Sen. JOHN THUNE , and good luck). And the White House welcomed a far larger press contingent than has been typical throughout the Biden era, with many foreign correspondents and dozens of TV cameras on tripods fighting for space in the north driveway. Even KAITLAN COLLINS was back. But if it feels like Washington is reverting to the same unpredictability, adrenaline and exhaustion that characterized the first term of a president motivated as much by attention and adoration as advancing policy, Trump’s second go-round in the Oval may be different. Many Democrats fear that Trump, who has remade the Republican Party in his own image, will have less internal resistance over the next four years, more ambitious policy aims and a team of loyalists eager to help him dismantle much of the executive branch. Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.), who acknowledged in an interview she “didn’t sleep much” during Trump’s first term, said she’s been thinking a lot about how to prepare for what’s coming. “There's different levels of preparation: How do I prepare my community for what is about to come? Everything from huge potential … cuts to SNAP with Medicare, Medicaid, immigration raids?” she said. “How do I prepare personally? How do we prepare [Congress] as an institution, because last time he was here, there was a terrorist attack on this building. … There's also, how do we prepare politically to fight back?” Trump’s initial return is also a reminder of his innate ability to command attention — and Biden’s failure to do the same. After Trump’s first term, the country may have been ready for a president they didn’t have to think about all the time. But Biden’s struggle to hold the spotlight, to communicate clearly and convincingly about his accomplishments, vision and values is at least part of why voters went back to Trump. When the two met in the Oval Office on Wednesday, they shared a hearty handshake and exchanged only a few words — 120 between them, according to the official White House transcript — in front of the press pool. It was another strikingly surreal moment involving Trump, largely because it had been, until his own defeat four years ago, standard practice. Nicholas Wu contributed to this report. MESSAGE US — Are you KEVIN McCARTHY? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
| 
