| | | | |  | | By Sophia Cai, Adam Cancryn, Irie Sentner and Ben Johansen | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the power dynamics, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s White House. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. expressed openness to adopting a key progressive proposal for lowering drug prices during a closed-door meeting with Senate Finance Committee staffers, according to three people familiar with the exchange, who were granted anonymity to speak freely about private discussions. President DONALD TRUMP’s health secretary nominee last week indicated he’d consider authorizing the government to seize the patents of high-priced medicines from manufacturers and share them with other drug makers as a way to force down costs, said the three people. The approach — long supported by progressive Democrats and only tentatively by former President JOE BIDEN — would use executive authorities to take certain drug patents developed using taxpayer money and license them to other manufacturers that might make and sell them for less. Advocates for the policy say it would allow new levels of competition for some of the most expensive prescription drugs, which are now protected by patents. Kennedy's comments, which come before his confirmation hearings on the Hill this week, may deepen suspicions among conservatives already wary of his past as a Democrat. Kennedy has little health policymaking experience, and has already faced criticism from social conservatives, including former Vice President MIKE PENCE, for his past comments supporting abortion rights. Embracing such ideas would represent a break from decades of Republican orthodoxy on health care that favors free-market principles and instead align him with liberal Sens. ELIZABETH WARREN and BERNIE SANDERS, who have championed the expansive use of federal authorities to control drug prices. It is not known whether Kennedy endorsed the ideas, which rely on using the government's “march-in” rights and compulsory licensing authority, with Trump’s blessing or whether he was speaking for himself. The remarks came during a question-and-answer session with staffers. KATIE MILLER, Kennedy's spokesperson, disputed the characterization of the back-and-forth. "This is once again another example of POLITICO carrying Democrats' water. After POLITICO was told this did not occur the way Democrats have described it, they're still seeking to publish it in an attempt to denigrate Bobby Kennedy and create a story where there is not one," she said. "The fact remains, this did not occur. This is a smear campaign against Donald J. Trump." The Biden White House endorsed the legality of march-in rights in 2023, amid pressure from Warren and Sanders to study the concept. But even then, it stopped well short of encouraging the use of that power, or recommending any drugs that should be targeted. Republicans at the time blasted Biden over its conclusion. "This kind of short-sighted decision would kill American health care innovation and deny millions of Americans future lifesaving cures and treatments," Sen. BILL CASSIDY (R-La.) said in a statement calling the use of march-in rights illegal. Cassidy, who chairs the Senate HELP Committee, is now one of the key votes on Kennedy's confirmation. A spokesperson for Cassidy declined to comment. The episode also exposes the lack of an overall plan from the Trump administration to lower drug pricing. During his first campaign in 2016, Trump promised to stand up to the drug makers and reduce prices. As president, he made some effort to contain the high cost of prescription drugs: some decisions, which paved the way for states to import lower-priced drugs from Canada, have been fully implemented and kept by the Biden administration, though they've not made a dent in drug prices. Others have languished or were blocked by the courts. On the trail in 2023, Trump again made lowering drug costs a core policy issue. “On Day One of my new term, I will sign an executive order to end this global freeloading on American consumers for once and for all,” Trump boasted in a policy video posted on his campaign website, promising to bring back an executive order he signed in his first term to have Medicare pay the lowest price that other countries pay for drugs. That never materialized after the campaign backed away from the proposal a month before the election, without explanation. MESSAGE US — Are you TULSI GABBARD? 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!
| | | | Power shifts, razor-thin margins, and a high-stakes agenda. We’ve transformed our coverage—more reporters, more timely insights, and unmatched policy scoops. From leadership offices to committee rooms, caucus meetings, and beyond, our expert reporting keeps you ahead of the decisions that matter. Subscribe to our Inside Congress newsletter today. | | | | | | | How many Oval Office desks have there been? (Answer at bottom.)
| | TEE IT HIGH AND LET IT FLY: After a week full of executive orders and calls with world leaders, Trump spent Monday morning hitting the links at his golf resort near Miami. The president is in Florida to speak at the annual House GOP conference. He’ll return to Washington after his remarks tonight, while the conference will continue through Wednesday.
| | PRESSURE, PUSHING DOWN ON YOU: Some Republican senators are pushing to make public a key vote on TULSI GABBARD’s nomination in the Senate Intelligence Committee, an unusual step they hope would exert pressure on more skeptical Republican members of the panel, our RACHAEL BADE reports. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) is being prodded to make the change by Trump-allied senators, according to two Senate GOP officials. Gabbard, who is facing a difficult path to confirmation amid her controversial national security views and history, is set to face the committee in open and closed sessions on Thursday. Typically, aside from certain public hearings, the panel deliberates and votes in private. The talk of forcing open the committee vote underscores concern among some Republicans that Gabbard’s nomination could die before reaching the Senate floor for a vote. LOOKING AHEAD: The Senate will hold nomination hearings for three controversial Trump picks this week:
- RFK Jr. will be first on the docket, appearing before the Senate Finance Committee for his first of two confirmation hearings. Kennedy will also appear in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Thursday. The Finance Committee will consider whether to bring Kennedy’s nomination to the floor.
- KASH PATEL, nominee for FBI director, will make his case before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
- And Gabbard, who is being considered for director of National Intelligence, will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday at 10 a.m.
IT’S A COLD WORLD: Trump appointees at the Justice Department are reassigning the department’s senior career official, BRADLEY WEINSHEIMER, who oversaw a range of sensitive interactions involving prosecutors, Trump’s legal team and the JOE BIDEN administration, NYT’s GLENN THRUSH, DEVLIN BARRETT and ADAM GOLDMAN report. The transfer is a part of a larger effort by the Trump team to exert power over the agency. It follows a similar reassignment of some of the DOJ’s most experienced and highly regarded supervisors, they write, including top officials with expertise in national security, international investigations, extraditions and public corruption. Like many other officials, Weinsheimer, who was serving as associate deputy attorney general, has been given the option of transferring to the department’s sanctuary cities task force — an offer seen by some in the same situation as an effort to force them into quitting. YA LIKE JAZZ? Last week, Trump’s Office of Personnel and Management set up an email for government employees to use for rooting out DEI-promoting colleagues. And now, as The Bulwark’s SAM STEIN reports, it appears to be the target of a mass spamming campaign designed to overwhelm those administering it. A number of prominent non-governmental groups told The Bulwark that in the days after it was created, they began seeing that email address — DEIAtruth@opm.gov — added to their send lists. And as Sam writes, people are now emailing the account with Scientology emails, pornography, the script of “Bee Movie” and “warnings that unqualified, mediocre white people are being hired to head up important government agencies.” PERSONNEL MOVES: BUCKLEY CARLSON, son of TUCKER CARLSON and former deputy chief of staff to then-Rep. JIM BANKS is joining Vice President JD VANCE’s office as deputy press secretary, ABC News’ WILL STEAKIN and HANNAH DEMISSIE report. — MOLLY VASELIOU is now associate administrator for public affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency. She most recently was communications director for Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and served at the EPA in the first Trump administration. — BRAND KROEGER is now a special assistant to the president in the Office of Presidential Personnel. He served in the Army as an intelligence officer for 13 years and is the former national treasurer of the College Republican National Committee. — ADAM STAHL has been named chief of staff at the Transportation Security Administration. He most recently was chief of staff for the corporate security office at Avangrid and is a Trump DHS and CBP alum. — TRICIA McLAUGHLIN is now assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. She most recently was a PR and political consultant and an ABC News political contributor. She is an alum of VIVEK RAMASWAMY’s presidential campaign and the State and Treasury departments during Trump’s first term.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH. AMERICAN STRENGTH. To keep America and its allies ahead of emerging threats, Lockheed Martin is delivering and advancing unmatched air dominance solutions focused on technological innovation—where pilots and drones soar together. Learn more. | | | | | WHO GOES THERE? NOT US: Following Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is immediately halting all collaboration with the global agency, our SOPHIE GARDNER reports exclusively for Pro subscribers. The CDC works with the WHO in a number of ways, including through more than a dozen “collaborating centers” that allow the agency to provide the WHO with technical support to fight health threats and streamline sharing of information. An email sent to senior CDC employees and obtained by POLITICO said: “effective immediately all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means — in person or virtual — must cease their activity and await further guidance.” GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION: The Justice Department is firing more than a dozen key officials who worked on Special Counsel JACK SMITH’s team prosecuting the president after Acting Attorney General JAMES McHENRY said they could not be trusted in “faithfully implementing the president’s agenda,” Fox News’ BROOKE SINGMAN reports. “Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” a DOJ official told Fox. "In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda.”
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| | | | | ‘It will kill people’: Chaos, confusion after Trump halts US foreign aid (POLITICO’s Nahal Toosi, Robbie Gramer and Carmen Paun) ‘A sign of a sickness’: abortion opponents grapple with RFK Jr. nomination (POLITICO’s Daniel Payne and Alice Miranda Ollstein) Denmark and Other Nations Under Pressure Seek Lobbyists With Trump Ties (NYT’s Kenneth P. Vogel) JD Vance’s political team signs on to run Vivek Ramaswamy’s bid for Ohio governor (NBC News’ Henry J. Gomez)
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH. AMERICAN STRENGTH. Achieving air dominance in the 21st century demands unmatched next-gen and existing systems—interoperating and continuously upgraded—with transformative autonomous technology. Air dominance allows America and its allies to project power globally, advance national interests, and deter potential adversaries. It is not merely a tactical advantage; it is a strategic necessity that enables nearly every military mission, and no single platform or technology can do the job on its own. America needs superior piloted aircraft, highly survivable autonomous systems and low-cost drones connected and operating as one team with advanced sensors, radars and artificial intelligence. Peace is an active pursuit, achieved through an all-of-industry approach focused on technological innovation, open architecture systems, strategic partnerships, skilled pilots and the greatest STEM minds. Lockheed Martin is delivering and advancing pressure-tested, integrated solutions, helping to ensure America continues to own the skies. Learn more. | | | | | Since the Oval Office was created in 1909 under President WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, there have been six Oval Office desks. The “Theodore Roosevelt desk” was created in 1903 for then-President THEODORE ROOSEVELT, but was not brought into the Oval Office until 1909, under Taft. It stayed in the Oval until the West Wing fire of 1929. After the fire, a group of furniture makers from Michigan donated a new desk for President HERBERT HOOVER to use, which was later used by FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. “The Resolute desk,” which has become the most notable Oval Office desk, has been used by the past five presidents as well as RONALD REAGAN and JIMMY CARTER. It was first used by JOHN F. KENNEDY after being placed in various offices throughout the White House in prior administrations. The Johnson desk was the only Oval Office furnishing that was used by just one president: LYNDON B. JOHNSON. Former Presidents RICHARD NIXON and GERALD FORD used the “Wilson Desk,” named after Vice President HENRY WILSON. And the “C&O Desk” was used by GEORGE H.W. BUSH, as well as Carter and Reagan in the West Wing study. A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it! Edited by Jennifer Haberkorn, Kaitlyn Locke and Noah Bierman
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