| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | BREAKING — “Special counsel Jack Smith calls for a halt in Trump prosecution,” by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein GREAT, SCOTT — Sen. TIM SCOTT (R-S.C.) announced this morning that he is launching a bid to take over as chair of the NRSC for the 2026 cycle. In his statement, Scott also touted the support for his bid from colleagues STEVE DAINES, JOHN BARRASSO and MARCO RUBIO. More from Ursula Perano WHERE THINGS STAND — “State of play: The battle for Congress,” by Anthony Adragna: “The remaining two uncalled Senate races look good for Democrats, while the GOP has the inside track on retaining House control.”
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The impacts of Donald Trump's return across a range of industries — and countries — is coming into focus. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO | TRUMP 2.0 COMES INTO FOCUS — The aftermath of Trump’s victory is already “cascading through global supply chains, where companies are grappling with his promises to remake international trade by raising the tariffs the United States puts on foreign products,” NYT’s Ana Swanson reports. “Much remains unclear about his proposals, including which countries other than China would face tariffs, what products might be excluded and when they would take effect. But given Mr. Trump’s history of imposing taxes and the challenges those pose to global businesses that depend on moving products across borders, many executives are not waiting to see what he does. Some companies “are preparing to stock up their U.S. warehouses before tariffs might go into effect. Others have been accelerating plans to move out of China, reaching out to lobbyists and lawyers in Washington and calling board meetings to discuss what the tariff threats could mean for their businesses.” To wit: EDWARD ROSENFELD, the CEO of Steve Madden, said he’s moving as much of his company’s production out of China as possible, citing Trump’s looming tariffs, NYT’s Alexandra Stevenson reports. The company has been working to “build up a factory base outside of China in places like Cambodia, Vietnam, Brazil and Mexico for several years. But quitting China has proved tough to pull off.” Bloomberg’s Josh Eidelson is up with a look at the impact that Trump could have on workers’ Biden-era gains. During his first administration, Trump “filled key enforcement roles with management-side attorneys who pushed for companies to have more control over workers’ tips, more time to run anti-union campaigns and more discretion over who gets paid overtime. Now that he’s had some practice, he’s likely to do more, faster, with ‘a deregulatory emphasis.’” The global view: As “like-minded populist European politicians in Germany, the Netherlands, Serbia and elsewhere” prepare for Trump’s official return, “this week’s election not only returned a fellow believer in tough immigration policies to the White House. It also sent a message to their own constituencies that history is moving in their direction and that political rivals they revile as woke, out-of-touch elitists are on the run,” NYT’s Andrew Higgins reports. One such leader, Hungarian PM VIKTOR ORBAN, is predicting that Trump’s administration will cut off funding for Ukraine in its war against Russia, per AP’s Justin Spike and Raf Casert in Budapest. However, on a call with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY this week, Trump and his team “were somewhat more reassuring to the Ukrainians,” Axios’ Barak Ravid reports. But there was also a surprise guest who joined the call: ELON MUSK. Meanwhile, the neighbors to the north are recalibrating. Canadian PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU said yesterday he is “re-establishing a special Cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations to address his administration’s concerns” over Trump’s second presidency, AP’s Rob Gillies reports from Toronto. Related read: “American interest in Canadian citizenship is spiking again,” by Dave Levinthal FOR THOSE WONDERING — Trump’s son-in-law JARED KUSHNER ruled out a formal return to Trump’s incoming administration, but he could serve as an adviser on the Middle East, FT’s Felicia Schwartz reports. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Argentine President JAVIER MILEI, a top ally of Trump, will speak at the CPAC Investor Summit being held in Mar-a-Lago next week. Milei also plans to meet with Trump on his trip. Other dignitaries attending and speaking at the CPAC event include RIC GRENELL and MATT WHITAKER. Milei is also hosting CPAC Argentina in early December. Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.
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Donald Trump has vowed to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who is crypto’s top foe in the nation’s capital. | Andrew Caballero/AFP via Getty Images | 1. TALES FROM THE CRYPTO: “Crypto won the 2024 elections. Now comes the easy part,” by Jasper Goodman: “The industry’s wish list includes legislation that would carve out a bespoke path to legitimacy among regulators who have for much of crypto’s existence put a strong emphasis on reining in its potential risks to consumers and the financial system. The top target would be limiting the reach of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which in the Biden era has cracked down on the industry. Trump has vowed to fire SEC Chair GARY GENSLER , who is crypto’s top foe in the nation’s capital, and said he will enact new regulations that ‘will be written by people who love’ crypto.” 2. MUSK READ: “Musk Believes in Global Warming. Trump Doesn’t. Will That Change?” by NYT’s Brad Plumer: “Musk, who spent election night at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and posed for a group photograph with the president-elect’s family, is expected to have a direct line to the White House in the coming months. Mr. Musk’s companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, already make billions from government contracts and federal policies, and he is expected to seek additional advantages for his businesses. But whether his persuasion might extend to other realms, such as climate issues, remains to be seen.” 3. AUTOPSY REPORT: Rep. MARIE GLUESENKAMP PEREZ entered this cycle widely seen as one of the most vulnerable House Democrats on the map. But on a night when the party faced massive losses across the country, the Washington incumbent showed real power. “Preliminary results showed her outrunning Vice President Kamala Harris by seven percentage points in two of the reddest counties in her district,” NYT’s Annie Karni writes . Gluesenkamp Perez sat down for an interview to offer her take on this week’s results. “I just refused to let this race be nationalized. It’s not about the message. It’s about my loyalty to my community. The messenger is the message in a lot of ways. My awareness of my community has been durable, and it’s reflective in my vote record. That is a huge asset. The fundamental mistake people make is condescension. A lot of elected officials get calloused to the ways that they’re disrespecting people.”
| | | | REGISTER NOW: Join POLITICO and Capital One for a deep-dive discussion with Acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman, Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and other housing experts on how to fix America’s housing crisis and build a foundation for financial prosperity. Register to attend in-person or virtually here. | | | | | 4. SPENDING SAGA “How Kamala Harris plowed through $1 billion,” by The Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky: “The story of how Harris pocketed record sums while failing to gain support from voters will be studied by campaigns for decades to come. … The Harris campaign and its affiliated committees dropped more than $654 million on advertising from July 22 to Election Day, whereas Trump spent $378 million, or 57% less, in the same category, according to data from AdImpact.” The new age of spending: “A source familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner that the Harris campaign spent six figures on building a set for Harris’s appearance on the popular Call Her Daddy podcast with host ALEX COOPER.” 5. RACING TO REINFORCE: The approaching Trump 2.0 administration next year has also “set off a scramble among political appointees and career bureaucrats alike to lock in Biden’s landmark environmental initiatives,” with many saying they learned the hard way in 2017 when Trump rolled back Obama administration moves, WaPo’s Maxine Joselow reports. What it looks like: “At the Energy Department, experts are racing to finalize a study justifying the Biden administration’s pause on approvals of new liquefied natural gas exports — a pause that Trump has promised to end on his ‘very first day back.’ At the Interior Department, officials just moved to limit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” and Interior officials today “moved to save an imperiled bird by limiting drilling, mining and livestock grazing across parts of the American West.” 6. MEDIAWATCH: “Trump’s Win Cemented It: New Media Is Leaving the Old Guard Behind,” by WSJ’s Isabella Simonetti and Anne Steele: “TV news remains a massive draw for Americans in the biggest moments. But younger audiences have fled, and there were signs even on election night of an overall erosion in the medium. The main three cable channels were down 32% in viewership collectively compared with 2020, to around 21 million, with CNN losing almost half its audience. The upshot: Americans are hearing very different narratives about current events from very different places. Many factors might have contributed to the election’s outcome, but the media world’s fracturing is hard to ignore.”
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | Katie Wiles, the daughter of Susie Wiles, is getting a promotion. Trent Russell, who accessed and leaked Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s medical records, was sentenced to two years in prison. Mohamed Bahi could cut a deal to testify against his former boss Eric Adams. IN MEMORIAM — “Jim Hoagland, Distinguished Journalist on World Affairs, Dies at 84,” by NYT’s Clay Risen: “Jim Hoagland, whose long career as a foreign correspondent, editor and columnist for The Washington Post brought him two Pulitzer Prizes and made his work a must-read among the nation’s top diplomats and politicians, died on Monday in Washington. He was 84. His daughter, Lily Hoagland, said the death, in a hospital, was from a stroke.” Plus a tribute from WaPo’s Keith Richburg OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED last night at the Center for Education Reform’s Power of Innovation Summit at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Kellyanne Conway, Michael Donnelly, Josh Robertson, Marie Royce, Kevin Chavous, Pennsylvania state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, West Virginia state Sen. Patricia Rucker, Janine Yass, Michelle Malek Olson, Jeanne Allen and James Rosen. 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.
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