| | | |  | | By Adam Wren | Presented by the Coalition for Medicare Choices | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine Good Sunday morning from a snow-shrouded Midwest. A big storm appears headed for DC midweek, too. Drop me a line: awren@politico.com.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
President Donald Trump is rolling back political cancel culture. | Samuel Corum/Sipa USA | REHABBER IN CHIEF — After another whirlwind week of the second administration of Donald Trump, it’s worth taking a step back and surveying the unlikely people his coalition now includes. This week saw both Trump’s Justice Department pressure DOJ lawyers to drop the pending corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the president issue a full pardon for Rod Blagojevich on Monday, five years after commuting the former Illinois governor’s federal prison sentence for corruption. It’s not just Adams and Blago. Trump’s halo effect has extended to members of his Cabinet, helping them survive controversies of their own. Capturing the head-spinning nature of it all, Christopher J. Scalia, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, posted to X that “You’re not a real conservative this week unless you support RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Eric Adams.” Then there’s the case of Marko Elez, the 25-year-old DOGE staffer who posted to social media from an anonymous account that he was “being racist before it was cool” and argued for normalizing "Indian hate." Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance both argued for his reinstatement. Trump's coattails in his first term weren’t nearly as long: It was basically Teflon Don and no one else. HHS secretary Tom Price, for example, couldn’t survive his private jet scandal. And Paul Manafort did jail time for financial fraud.
| | | | A message from the Coalition for Medicare Choices: Protect Medicare Advantage: 34 million seniors are counting on it.
Over half of America's seniors choose Medicare Advantage because it provides them better care at lower costs than fee-for-service Medicare. With their coverage and care on the line, seniors are watching closely to see whether policymakers keep the bipartisan promise to protect Medicare Advantage by ensuring this vital part of Medicare is adequately funded.
Learn more at https://medicarechoices.org/ | | | CANCELING CANCEL CULTURE: Now, Trump isn’t just remaking government. He’s remaking the lives of politicians and people in his orbit who once found themselves cast out of polite society. Trump is rolling back political cancel culture. As he does so, he is welcoming into his coalition people whose past partisan affiliations — and occasionally racist or criminal past acts — would mark them as persona non grata or perhaps even toxic in almost any other presidential administration. Playbook spent the last few days asking folks about this trend. We learned there are two related forces at play. “He's transferring his popularity to his favorite elect,” Jeffrey Toobin, the veteran legal reporter who is out this week with “The Pardon,” a new book about presidential mercy. POWER PLAY: At bottom, Toobin says, Trump relishes what is ultimately an exercise in blunt, unchecked force. “Trump has discovered that there is no penalty for using the pardon power,” Toobin told Playbook. “Basically since the immediate aftermath of Ford's pardon of Nixon, there was this kind of taint associated with pardons, and that's why presidents sort of stuck them all to the ends of their term, so they couldn't be held accountable for them. Trump realizes that, rather than be ashamed of pardons, he can use them as expressions of dominance and control.” Sean Parnell, in an interview with Playbook, says he sees a different dynamic unfolding. Parnell, you’ll recall, suspended his Pennsylvania Senate campaign in 2021 after losing a fight for custody of his children to his estranged wife, who accused him of abuse in court testimony. Now he’s Trump’s chief Pentagon spokesperson. Parnell’s case is different in degree and nature than someone like Blago: He faced no charges or prison time and won back custody of his kids. But Trump’s embrace of him shows a newly emboldened president who thinks differently about building a team, Parnell says. Parnell describes Trump’s ability to rehab reputations as the result of a citizenry more distrustful of the media — and of a president who has been through the wringer himself and wants to surround himself with scandal-stiffened spines. There do appear to be limits. Darren Beattie, who, as NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt reported, “has repeatedly voiced support for mass sterilization of ‘low-IQ trash,’” and who was appointed to a role at the State Department, is now out at State, Semafor reported earlier this week. Matt Gaetz also couldn’t survive his scandal. So far, Trump’s approval rating hasn’t taken a hit. But that may not last, says Toobin: “The way presidents look in their first month is not necessarily the way they look at the end of their first year—much less, second, third, fourth year.” In totality, Trump’s four weeks in the books shows that, for now, his powers to grant second and third political acts in American life in 2025 are unique—and stronger than they were in his first term. “All that matters is his benediction,” Toobin says. “All that matters is his say-so. And that's all anyone needs for rehabilitation.” FROM 30,000 FEET: “An Unchecked Trump Rapidly Remakes U.S. Government and Foreign Policy,” by The New York Times’ Luke Broadwater: “At every step in his second term, Mr. Trump is demonstrating how unbound he is from prior restraints, dramatically remaking both domestic and foreign policy at a scale that has little parallel.”
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| | | SUNDAY BEST … — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an interview with NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker: On Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions: “We believe that Putin will wage war against NATO.” In response to a follow-up question about whether Ukraine has intelligence to that effect, Zelenskyy adds, “No. We have intelligence, we have documents that they are preparing trained mission of a big number of soldiers on the … territory of Belarus. And we just sharing that there is a high risk that he can do the same [with NATO countries]. Maybe not. God bless not. And maybe before it, President Trump and the allies will stop him.” On whether Ukraine can survive without military backing from the U.S. ... “Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance — low chance to survive without support of the United States.” On whether he feels he has Trump’s full support .. “I trust President Trump because he's the president of the United States, because your people, your people voted for him, and I respect their choice. … But of course I want to have real meeting, productive, without just words, with concrete steps.” — National security adviser Mike Waltz on whether European allies are being consulted in peace talks, on “Fox News Sunday”: “[W]e had no less than our vice president, our secretary of state, our secretary of defense, our secretary of treasury, who was in Kiev personally, and our special envoy [for Ukraine and Russia Keith] Kellogg, all in Europe this week, all … engaging our allies. Now, they may not like some of the sequencing that is going on in these negotiations, but I have to push back on this. Any notion that they aren't being consulted. They absolutely are.” — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on the DOJ’s move to dismiss charges against Eric Adams, on ABC’s “This Week”: “[T]he situation is very disturbing. Mayor Adams has a responsibility to convince the people of New York City that he will be able to continue to govern in a manner that puts their best interests first at all times, and that he's not simply taking orders from a Trump administration.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
| | | | Join POLITICO on February 19, for the Playbook First 100 Days: Health Care Breakfast Briefing where we will gather key leaders in health care and Washington to discuss the looming issues that will shape health care policy in 2025. RVSP to attend. | | | | | 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR
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Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will head to Saudi Arabia in the coming days. | Daniel Heuer/CNP | 1. TURMOIL OVER UKRAINE: The news from POLITICO’s Robbie Gramer and Paul McLeary that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Mike Waltz will head to Saudi Arabia in the coming days to start talks on ending the Russia-Ukraine war came as a surprise to one key group: the Ukrainian government in Kyiv. What came next: “U.S. officials sought to reassure Ukraine that it would be at the negotiating table with Russia, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that his country wouldn’t agree to a peace deal imposed on it from above,” per WSJ’s Laurence Norman and Alexander Ward. “Rubio told his Ukrainian counterpart that Washington had no intention of keeping it away from talks and that it would be foolish to do so, according to diplomats who were present at a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.” Still not invited: European officials. Asked in Munich about the possibility that European nations could have a seat at the table, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, was resolute: “I'm [from] a school of realism. I think that's not gonna happen," he said, per Reuters’ Andrew Gray, Lili Bayer and John Irish. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that provoked outcry from the continent — leading Kellogg to reassure European allies later in the day that their non-participation did not mean that “their interests are not considered, used or developed.” Even so: “The United States has asked European nations what they can contribute in terms of security guarantees for Ukraine, [Finnish President Alexander Stubb] said on Saturday,” report Reuters’ John Irish and Lili Bayer. Said Stubb: "There's no way in which we can have discussions or negotiations about Ukraine, Ukraine's future or European security structure, without Europeans," the Finnish president told reporters in Munich. 2. BULL-DOGE-ZER: The mass layoffs and firings of government officials and workers continue apace. The IRS “will lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season … and cuts could happen as soon as next week,” per AP’s Fatima Hussein. “It’s unclear how many IRS workers will be affected.” Immigration judges: “The Trump administration fired 20 immigration judges without explanation” on Friday, AP’s Elliot Spagat reports. This comes as the immigration court system, which has roughly 700 judges, faces a backlog more than 3.7 million cases long. Nuclear safety workers: “National Nuclear Security Administration officials on Friday attempted to notify some employees who had been let go the day before that they are now due to be reinstated — but they struggled to find them because they didn’t have their new contact information,” report NBC’s Peter Alexander and Alexandra Marquez. “The NNSA is tasked with designing, building and overseeing the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.” What’s coming soon: “In the coming weeks … DOGE has planned for the Trump administration to trim staff from dozens of offices across the executive branch, including those that protect employees’ civil rights and others that investigate complaints of employment discrimination in the federal workplace,” scoop WaPo’s Hannah Natanson and Chris Dehghanpoor. “The DOGE team is also looking to place on leave, and ultimately fire, scores of government employees who do not work in DEI roles but who perform functions that DOGE determined were related to DEI, the documents show.” 3. KNOWING KAROLINE LEAVITT: “Trump is said to adore [White House Press Secretary Karoline] Leavitt … But there is no guarantee it will last with a president who cycled through four press secretaries in his first administration,” WSJ’s Joshua Chaffin and Meridith McGraw write in a new profile. The youngest press secretary in White House history, Leavitt “appears to have been designed in a laboratory to provoke maximum distress among a certain breed of progressive. … With her platinum coif, prominent cross necklace and preternatural self assurance, Leavitt is a kind of figurehead for the new MAGA sisterhood.” 4. WOULDN’T HAVE GUESSED: “ICE struggles to boost arrest numbers despite infusion of resources,” by WaPo’s Nick Miroff and Marianne LeVine: “ICE arrests have sagged so far this month, according to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security, declining from about 800 per day in late January after Trump took office to fewer than 600 during the first 13 days of February. The administration has stopped publishing daily numbers, and Trump officials said they will release the data on a monthly basis to conserve resources. It is a level well below the Trump administration’s goal of 1,200 to 1,500 arrests per day.”
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| | | 5. WHOLESALE DISMISSAL: Trump’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission “is moving to dismiss more than a half-dozen workplace discrimination cases filed on behalf of transgender employees, citing President Donald Trump’s recent executive order declaring that the government recognizes only two genders — male and female,” report WaPo’s Julian Mark and Beth Reinhard. “The agency also has stopped investigating new gender-identity complaints, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. The EEOC processes many workplace discrimination claims and has traditionally operated somewhat independently from the White House.” 6. DOGE DATA BREACH: “Agency data shared by DOGE online sparks concern among intelligence community,” by ABC’s Will Steakin, Lucien Bruggeman, and Cindy Smith: “The DOGE website, updated earlier this week to include information about the federal workforce across agencies, contained details about the headcount and budget for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency responsible for designing and maintaining U.S. intelligence satellites, according to a review by ABC News. Multiple intelligence community sources told ABC News that this likely represents a significant breach.” On the other hand: Democrats’ conventional show of resistance to DOGE policies is doing little to counter the “online war” led by Trump and Musk, Elena Schneider reports: “Democrats concede they are losing an asymmetrical battle with the president and his MAGA allies … And there is no consensus among them about how to fix their rapid response problems or who’s to blame.” 7. ON DEFENSE: “Pentagon officials are bracing for Musk's DOGE,” by Defense One’s Patrick Tucker: “DOGE may be able to help the Pentagon streamline ‘the way we acquire weapon systems.’ But, [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth said, ‘We're not going to do things that are to the detriment of American operational or tactical capabilities.’ … That may be a sign that Hegseth will resist the sort of bullying tactics that Musk’s team employed against USAID personnel — and that’s what many in the Defense Department are hoping.” 8. TEST OF TRUMP’S POWER: Last night, a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s second request to move forward with the firing of Office of Special Counsel chief Hampton Dellinger despite a temporary restraining order, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney report. In a 2-1 vote, the judges “justified their decision largely on procedural grounds, noting that U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s current order restoring Dellinger to his position runs only through Feb. 26 and that such short-term orders are ordinarily not subject to appeals court review.” The big picture: “[T]he case is an early test of the sweep of Trump’s power and could wind up at the Supreme Court within days or even hours. … The ruling could have implications for a handfuls of other lawsuits brought by officials abruptly removed by Trump from key positions across the executive branch.” 9. BIRD FLU SURVEILLANCE: As Trump continues his push to shrink the federal government, recent layoffs in USDA’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network program could hamper the federal response to the bird flu outbreak that has caused egg prices to skyrocket, Marcia Brown reports. One expert told Brown that the program’s 14 staffers are “the front line of surveillance for the entire outbreak. They’re already underwater and they are constantly short-staffed.”
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