| | | | |  | | By Mike DeBonis | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | | 
President-elect Donald Trump has plenty to be thankful for this year. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | We’d like to start with this: Thank you, Playbookers, for your loyal readership and constant feedback through this long, crazy, consequential year. We’re thankful that you choose to start your day with us, not just today but every day. And today is a chance to express our sincere gratitude for making our team’s hard work worthwhile. HAPPY TRUMPSGIVING — Now, speaking of thanks … DONALD TRUMP just delivered his customary holiday greeting on X: “Happy Thanksgiving to all, including to the Radical Left Lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy our Country, but who have miserably failed, and will always fail, because their ideas and policies are so hopelessly bad that the great people of our Nation just gave a landslide victory to those who want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” That’s great as far as it goes — he’s not generally known for getting super intimate with his gratitude — but we thought, given all that he has to be thankful for this year, he might want to get a little more specific with his thanks. So we thought we would help him out and draw up a list of people the once and future president ought to be grateful for today as he enjoys his Mar-a-Lago turkey and reflects on all that has happened and all that is to come … JOE BIDEN There’s the obvious reason Trump should be sending Biden a thank-you note: History will harshly judge the incumbent’s decision to stay in the race long after polling showed that the American public had serious doubts about his capacities at age 80-plus. But we’ll alight on this reason instead: Numerous journalists have chronicled how Biden’s snub of ELON MUSK at a 2021 electric vehicle event set the tech magnate on an ever-rightward path. Is it a bit of a just-so story? Perhaps, but it’s not all that hard to see how Biden could have kept a major cultural figure best known for green vehicles and holding huge government contracts via SpaceX and Starlink from going fully into Trump’s fold, to the tune of $200 million. RON DeSANTIS Trump is probably not feeling especially gracious toward the now-humbled Florida governor who assembled the best-funded and best-equipped Republican effort to take down his comeback campaign. But he should look at it this way: Had DeSantis not fired his erstwhile top adviser SUSIE WILES after winning the governorship in 2018, Trump would not have had available to him the skilled and accomplished political mind who charted his way back to the top of the GOP after his 2020 loss and all that followed. We’ll slightly modify a sentence Michael Kruse wrote back in April: “She’s one of the reasons Trump is [president] and Ron DeSantis is not.” RON JOHNSON From the very beginning of his political career, Wisconsin’s senior senator has loved charts. He campaigned his way to a surprise 2010 victory with a plot of federal spending and debt, but little did he know then that a future graph of his — of migrant encounters at the southern U.S. border — could credibly be said to have saved a president’s life. That’s the chart Trump was gesturing toward when a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his ear in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, and by Trump’s own account, looking up at it “probably saved my life.” If Johnson hadn’t shown a version of it to him three months prior, Trump’s head at that moment might have been in a more devastatingly vulnerable position. MITCH McCONNELL Again, Trump has an obvious reason to be grateful for the longtime Senate GOP leader: He opted against seizing the opportunity to lead a clutch of Republicans in convicting Trump at his second impeachment trial, which would have exterminated any chance of a political comeback. But the real reason Trump ought to be grateful now is just how profoundly he is set to benefit from McConnell’s 40-year effort to remake the federal judiciary. Starting with June’s dramatic expansion of presidential immunity, every court ruling in Trump’s favor these next four years — on immigration, on the environment, on executive power itself — owes a little something to the taciturn Kentuckian.
| | | | A message from Instagram: Instagram Teen Accounts: a protected experience for teens, guided by parents
Teen Accounts are designed to address parents’ biggest concerns, with automatic protections for who can contact their teens and the content they can see. Plus, only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16.
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Learn more. | | | NATHAN WADE & FANI WILLIS Rewind one year, to when Trump was facing four serious criminal indictments: the federal cases in Washington and Florida, the STORMY DANIELS hush money case in New York and the Georgia election subversion case. Trump was convicted in New York, the least serious of the cases, but he caught magnificently lucky breaks in all the others. None was more fortuitous than Willis’ decision, as Fulton County, Georgia, DA, to engage in an intimate relationship with Wade, a subordinate she had hired to help prosecute the Trump case. It almost single-handedly derailed what had once seemed like the fastest-moving case into Trump’s 2020 election machinations. THE HOPIUM MERCHANTS So how was it that it took a disastrous debate performance and four ensuing weeks to get Biden out of the race? And how was it that KAMALA HARRIS persisted with an ultra-cautious and ultimately disastrous campaign strategy afterward? For that, Trump can thank a handful of Democratic Pollyannas who always seemed to have a narrative to spin or a data point to rebut the larger story that was becoming glaringly obvious. To be fair, they got a big assist from the ultimately misleading 2022 midterm results, which manifested the trends that led to Trump’s big 2024 win but did not result in big, expected GOP gains. That led too many Democrats to stay happy thinking all was well when it certainly was not. CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD It’s destined to go down in the annals alongside the 1964 “Daisy” ad, the 1988 WILLIE HORTON spot and the 2004 “Windsurfing” ad as one of the most devastating attacks in presidential campaign history. Trump’s ad on transgender rights — with its memorable tagline of “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you” — was, by Democrats’ own admission, among the most effective of the race. But the ad’s initial punch was delivered by the “Breakfast Club” host, a Harris supporter, who was captured on his show expressing his genuine shock at the position she had taken in an interview with a transgender rights group during her 2019 presidential run: “Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners.” He didn’t have to say out loud what he was obviously thinking: Are you kidding me? BARRON TRUMP Among the many election postmortems, Trump’s mastery of the podosphere has been something of a motif. From the NELK BOYS to THEO VON to the grandaddy himself, JOE ROGAN, Trump made himself available to some of America’s most potent messengers to young men — and for that, he can partly thank his 6-foot-9, 18-year-old, publicly silent son. Time’s Eric Cortellessa first reported the younger Trump had been a gatekeeper of sorts for Trump’s pod politicking, and Trump senior adviser JASON MILLER told Playbook Deep Dive this fall that Barron was “very involved in selecting or recommending” his father’s bro-y interlocutors. “Every single recommendation he’s had has turned out to be absolute ratings gold,” Miller added. Good morning, and happy Thanksgiving. As Playbook’s editor, writing this newsletter in gratitude for the whole crew has become one of my favorite holiday traditions. Thanks, as always, for reading Playbook. Drop me a line: Mike DeBonis. ZUCK AND COVER — Meta CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG met with Trump and other future administration members at Mar-a-Lago yesterday evening, Natalie Allison reports. STEPHEN MILLER claimed on Fox News that Zuckerberg wants to be a part of “this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading.” It’s quite the turn-around from the strained relationship Trump and Zuckerberg had in years past. Said a Meta spokesperson in a statement, “It’s an important time for the future of American innovation.” ALMOST DONE — The AP called two of the last three remaining House races yesterday: Democrat DEREK TRAN unseated Rep. MICHELLE STEEL (R-Calif.), while Rep. MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS (R-Iowa) held onto her seat. Tran’s Orange County flip came in the country’s most expensive House race, where he sought to eat into Steel’s Asian American support, Melanie Mason notes. Miller-Meeks, who prevailed in her second ultra-close race in three cycles, saw her margin against repeat Democratic challenger CHRISTINA BOHANNAN largely unchanged after a recount, per the Des Moines Register’s Marissa Payne. With Democrat ADAM GRAY leading in the last California race, a 220 R-215 D House now looks most likely (with three of those Republican seats likely to be vacant for months at the outset of the Trump administration). As Dave Wasserman notes, that remarkably means Democrats would have flipped the House this year if not for Republicans taking control of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 2022, which paved the way for the GOP to redistrict three Dems out of office. THE MAN AND HIS MOVIES — “Inside JD Vance’s Hollywood,” by Ian Ward: “[O]n the campaign trail [VP-elect JD VANCE] revealed himself to be something of a cinephile. … While the movies Vance alluded to cover a range of styles and genres — from MARTIN SCORSESE’s historical epic Gangs of New York to the rom-com Forgetting Sarah Marshall — they tell a coherent story about his cultural outlook.” EYEING 2028 — Rep. RO KHANNA (D-Calif.) “certainly wouldn’t rule out” a bid for the White House in 2028, he told POLITICO’s “Power Play” podcast. “What I’d love to see is 10 to 15 Democratic leaders from the next generation emerging from different wings of the party to try to help us get out of our stupor,” he said. “I hope there is a long, drawn-out primary, tough primary where we’re polite, but also go after each other in terms of ideas.” Listen here
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House Biden and first lady JILL BIDEN will make calls to thank members of the military at 11 a.m. Harris and second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF will do the same in the afternoon.
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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had an “excellent” conversation with President-elect Donald Trump. | Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. NEW TARIFFS IN TOWN: Trump spoke with Mexican President CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM yesterday after his recent tariff threat and declared it a win, trumpeting on Truth Social that she’d agreed to stop migration through her country to the U.S. and work on halting the flow of drugs. Sheinbaum also called their conversation “excellent” but had a somewhat different description, indicating that she’d told Trump most migrant caravans are being stopped in Mexico before reaching the U.S. — which is already the reality. Earlier in the day, Sheinbaum had warned that Mexico would retaliate with its own tariffs if Trump made good on his threat, saying hundreds of thousands of American jobs were at risk, per Reuters. More tariff fallout … Canada: Our northern neighbors are also considering imposing their own retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. goods if Trump goes through with his, AP’s Rob Gillies reports from Toronto. At the same time, some Canadian premiers said PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU needs to step up border security to mollify Trump, Bloomberg’s Melissa Shin and Laura Dhillon Kane report. China: Beijing could get a lot tougher with retaliatory measures against American companies than it did during Trump’s first term, experts tell NYT’s Alexandra Stevenson and Paul Mozur. Fentanyl: Though Mexico has already clamped down significantly on migration, stopping the cartels’ drug trafficking “might be an impossible ask,” thanks to the power of organized crime and ongoing American demand, WSJ’s José de Córdoba and Vera Bergengruen report. Reuters’ Joseph Ax, Helen Coster and James Oliphant write that Trump’s approach is “high-risk, high-reward”: It’s a bold step to shake up a deleterious status quo, but threatening recent improvements on coordination with China in particular could move things in the wrong direction. 2. WAR IN UKRAINE: Trump announced that retired Lt. Gen. KEITH KELLOGG will be special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. The former NSC chief of staff has called for the U.S. to seek negotiations to end the war, WaPo’s Patrick Svitek and Alex Horton note. His selection could signal that Trump will push Kyiv into peace talks to continue receiving military support — and/or push Moscow into peace talks for fear of the U.S. sending more weapons to Ukraine. Rep. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-Fla.), the incoming national security adviser, is considering plans from Kellogg and others to wind down the war, CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen report. His proposal would seek a quick cease-fire and postpone Ukraine’s effort to join NATO. But Biden isn’t done helping Ukraine, with his administration planning a new $725 million military aid package, Reuters’ Patricia Zengerle scooped. U.S. officials are also urging Ukraine to shore up its military by expanding the draft and lowering the mobilization age from 25 to 18, AP’s Aamer Madhani reports. Even so, there will be lots of money left over from congressional authorization for Ukraine aid that Biden won’t have spent by the time he leaves office. The current drawdown authority total is $6.5 billion, WSJ’s Lara Seligman and Nancy Youssef scooped — and what to do with at least some of that money will be up to Trump. The latest U.S. intelligence assessment concludes that Biden giving the green light for Ukraine to fire more long-range missiles into Ukraine has not raised the likelihood of Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN using nuclear weapons, Reuters’ Erin Banco and Phil Stewart report. Instead, Russian sabotage in Europe could ramp up. Clicker: “A Trump-Sized Hole Is Looming in Ukraine’s Defenses Against Putin,” by Bloomberg’s Maxim Edwards, Jason Kao, Julia Janicki and Alberto Nardelli 3. THE ATKINS DIET: “Trump Team Eyes Atkins, Ex-SEC Commissioner, to Succeed Gensler,” by Bloomberg’s Lydia Beyoud, Saleha Mohsin, Stephanie Lai and Hadriana Lowenkron: “PAUL ATKINS [is] a veteran financial regulator and eminence grise of conservative financial circles … Trump is expected to make a pick in the coming days, and no decisions have been made … He is a strong proponent of digital assets and fintech companies. He has also testified before Congress on ways to restructure the agency’s operations and reduce what some industry participants would consider duplicative or overly burdensome regulations.”
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | 4. THE KENNEDY CENTER: How would ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. actually lead a major federal agency? Some former campaign staffers say he’s more of a lawyer, public communicator and advocate than a manager, and wasn’t very involved with day-to-day management, Brittany Gibson reports. They have questions about how he’d handle 80,000 HHS employees. Meanwhile, NBC’s Brandy Zadrozny unearthed explosive comments Kennedy made in 2019, likening the CDC’s vaccine program to fascism and its handling to the cover-up of pedophilia in the Catholic Church. He has long promoted false claims about vaccines. The step back: “How Will Trump’s Covid Contrarians Handle the Next Pandemic?” by NYT’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg: “Trump’s selections to run the nation’s health agencies are alarming infectious disease experts.” 5. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: With Israel and Hezbollah now moving into a fragile cease-fire, the Biden administration is taking its next steps toward a major $680 million package of weapons sales to Israel, the FT scooped. The bombs and munition kits would help Israel replenish stocks run down by its war against Hamas and Hezbollah, which have killed tens of thousands of people. Biden officials have been coordinating with the Trump team and projecting a (relatively) unified U.S. front as they worked toward the Lebanon cease-fire, WSJ’s Alex Ward notes. Related read: “With Trump Returning and Hezbollah Weakened, Iran Strikes a Conciliatory Tone,” by NYT’s Farnaz Fassihi 6. IN THE WILDERNESS: “What’s a Democratic Billionaire to Do Now?” by NYT’s Teddy Schleifer: REID HOFFMAN “has told friends and allies that he is weighing a move overseas … [H]e is worried about retribution from a president who has promised to go after his political opponents … Several major donors or their advisers have privately floated the idea of moving abroad, while many others are squinting apprehensively at the future — or trying to shape it. Some are distributing memos meant to guide the postmortem analysis for Democrats, beginning to kick around ideas for new media companies or imploring their peers not to let liberal fund-raising dry up.” Related read: “Republicans Built an Ecosystem of Influencers. Some Democrats Want One, Too,” by NYT’s Shane Goldmacher and Ken Bensinger 7. POLITICAL VIOLENCE WATCH: Several more Trump Cabinet picks said their homes received bomb threats or swatting calls, per WaPo: LEE ZELDIN, BROOKE ROLLINS, SCOTT TURNER, PETE HEGSETH and Rep. LORI CHAVEZ-DeREMER (R-Ore.) were all among those targeted. 8. WHAT MARCO RUBIO IS READING: “More Oil for Fewer Migrants: Trump Is Urged to Make Deal With Venezuela,” by WSJ’s Kejal Vyas and Patricia Garip: “American oil executives and bond investors are urging President-elect Donald Trump to abandon his first-term policy of maximum pressure on Venezuelan strongman NICOLÁS MADURO and instead strike a deal … Some businessmen such as HARRY SARGEANT III … are trying to show the incoming administration what they say are the perks of negotiating with Maduro instead of seeking to dislodge him. … The goal of restoring democracy in Venezuela, a cornerstone of Washington’s carrot-and-stick strategy in recent years, would be less of a priority for now.” 9. DRONING ON: “The drone rangers: Trump world declares war on fighter pilots,” by Paul McLeary: “Several high-profile billionaires and backers of President-elect Donald Trump are waging a public battle against crewed aircraft and tanks, arguing that drones can do the job better, and more cheaply. Recent public comments from [Musk, MARC ANDREESSEN and others] could point to a major new effort in Trump’s Pentagon in which several expensive weapons programs could face the ax in favor of pilotless planes and driverless vehicles.” Related read: “Shares of drone maker Unusual Machines surge more than 100% after Donald Trump Jr. joins advisory board,” by the N.Y. Post’s Taylor Herzlich
| | | | Want to know what's really happening with Congress's make-or-break spending fights? Get daily insider analysis of Hill negotiations, funding deadlines, and breaking developments—free in your inbox with Inside Congress. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Elon Musk called for abolishing the CFPB. Ray Epps’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News was tossed out. Tony Sayegh might just save TikTok. Mehmet Oz isn’t taking a holiday break from his pitchman duties. Mike DeWine signed a transgender bathroom bill in Ohio. Loretta Lynch removed herself from a Chinese company’s lawsuit against DOD. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — A new “Meet the Freshmen” report from Marathon Strategies offers lobbyists, lawyers and everyone else a breakdown of where new members of Congress stand on a variety of hot-button issues, pulling information from publicly available sources. Check it out here IN MEMORIAM — A reception last week honored the late Rep. Bob Carr (D-Mich.) in the House Appropriations Committee room, where speakers included Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Ally Carr, Chris McCloskey, Jenny McCloskey and Bernie Schroeder. Also SPOTTED: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Jim and Janet Blanchard, Tom McMillen, Marty Russo, Jo-Ellen Darcy, Diane Blagman, Marilyn DiGiacobbe, Tom McCloskey, Paul Frick, Ellen Globokar, Doug Sosnik, Howard Edelson, Lynn Lockwood, Tom Boyd, Eric Schertzing, Dave Dempsey, Jan McGoldrick, Karen Kovacs Trevino, Carol Barnes, Alan Fox, Mark Collatz, Beverly Swain, Natalie Goldring, Stan Greenberg, Fred and Sheila Ritter, Kim Ploussard, Chris Koepke, Ginny Terzano and John Lawrence. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at Sen. Mark Warner’s (D-Va.) 38th annual Pilgrims luncheon at the Palm, which raised more than $75,000 for the Arlington Food Assistance Center yesterday: Steve Brady, Raul Fernandez, UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, World Bank President Ajay Banga, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Dem Chair Susan Swecker, Virginia state Del. Luke Torian, Eileen Filler-Corn, Jim Margolis, Geoff Garin, Jonathan Davidson, Russ Ramsey, Chris Krebs, Anne Neuberger, Paul Nakasone, Brian Moran, Brett Freedman, Elizabeth Falcone, Will Wu, Rachel Cohen, Zack Golden, Steve Clemons, Stephanie Doherty, Rex Wackerle, Gary Slaiman, Lauren Marshall, Bo Machayo, Kristin Sharp, Lot Kwarteng, Jeff Carneal, Mike Harney, Marvin Figueroa and Paul Rinaldi. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: National security adviser Jake Sullivan … Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) (6-0) … WaPo’s Matea Gold … POLITICO’s Jonathan Lemire and Cally Baute … Judd Deere … Sean Rankin of the Democratic Attorneys General Association … Stephen Jordan ... CBS’ Susan Spencer … CNN’s Tim Skoczek … Michael Sargeant ... Bryan Corbett of the Managed Funds Association … Ryan Hedgepeth … Anna Weinstein of Green Mountain Strategies … FTI Consulting’s Chris Tucker and Mickeala Carter … Mandy Gunasekara … Ashley Baker of the Committee for Justice … former Reps. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) and Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.) … Lindsay Biscardi … former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) … Lesley Lopez … former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff … Taylor Keeney … former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki … Danielle Okai … Shawn Balcomb of the American Association of Port Authorities … Elaine Sciolino … Harris Walker … Daniel Neuffer 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 editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Corrections: Yesterday’s Playbook misidentified the district Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) represents. It is the 1st District. It also misspelled Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s name. It also misstated the size of the unanticipated cut the IRS faces. It is $20 billion.
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