| | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | Presented by the Coalition for Medicare Choices | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | CHOPPING LOGS — The Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky scoops the not-so-surprising but still notable news: “The White House will not release visitor logs during President Donald Trump’s second term, a move that aligns with the policy of his first administration, according to a White House official.” THE LATEST UPHEAVAL — Two top officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stepped down this morning, saying they could no longer carry out their roles in light of the Trump administration’s order to cease all work at the agency, Katy O’Donnell reports. “Assistant Director for the Office of Enforcement Eric Halperin and Assistant Director for Supervision Policy Lorelei Salas each sent emails to their teams notifying them of their resignations.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing forward with a new budget plan before the House adjourns for recess next week. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | VIBE CHECK IN THE HOUSE — House Republicans’ budget plans could be moving down the conveyor belt soon after GOP leaders struck an optimistic note this morning about their latest roadmap and indicating it could get taken up in committee as soon as Thursday, Meredith Lee Hill reports. Speaker Mike Johnson said in a brief interview earlier today that he had “very productive” conversations last night about the new fiscal blueprint he has been circulating among key GOP factions. “I’m very optimistic,” Johnson said as he entered a closed-door conference meeting. That plan — which would tee up a massive GOP-only tax, border and energy bill — would increase spending cuts but also leave less room for Trump’s sweeping tax policies. Still work to do: Leadership is still waiting for final Budget Committee feedback, and inside the meeting this morning, Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told members “we’re so close” on a final way forward. Notably, Johnson didn’t share his plans with a wider group of hard-liners before this morning’s meeting, Meredith reports. And Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a brief interview that Arrington “is talking to his members to continue to get there.” What comes next: Arrington announced that his panel will meet on Thursday for a markup on the budget blueprint, per Meredith. But but but: Some senior Republicans are skeptical they can finalize details by then of Johnson’s plan. But Arrington is under pressure to move quickly, especially as the Senate Budget Committee is moving forward with its own budget resolution in a two-day markup beginning tomorrow morning. Plus, the House is set for recess next week, which Johnson said today he is “not anticipating” canceling. Not so fast: House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) says that the HFC would be releasing its own plan this week for achieving Trump’s tax priorities after a separate bill addressing border and defense initiatives, Benjamin Guggenheim reports, throwing up a new speed bump for Johnson to unite the disparate wings of his party around one path. ACROSS THE AISLE: Democrats remain divided on whether they should use the threat of a government shutdown as a political cudgel, Nick Wu and Mia McCarthy write. The split: Key progressives want to use every point of leverage the minority party has at its disposal to push back against the slashing of federal agencies being undertaken by Trump's budget office and Elon Musk's team at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. But top leaders continue to take a more measured approach, with some in the party nervous about being blamed for a shutdown. AMERICAN EXPORT — VP JD Vance took the administration’s “America First” message abroad this morning, speaking at the AI Action Summit in Paris, where he vowed that the White House “would prioritize U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence, delivering sharp criticism of the European Union’s sweeping efforts to regulate the tech sector during a conference intended to foster international cooperation,” WaPo’s Cat Zakrzewski reports from the French capital. “Vance cautioned that the Trump administration will not accept foreign governments ‘tightening the screws’ on American tech companies. He warned that a ‘risk-averse’ approach to AI regulation could paralyze the emerging technology. ‘We need our European friends in particular to look to this new frontier with optimism, rather than trepidation,’ he said.” CLICKER — WaPo is out with its “Next 50” list highlighting people “who will be notable and whose work will be significant — locally, statewide or nationally” in 2025, executive editor Matt Murray writes. Among the selections: Shawn Fain, Steven Cheung, Wes Moore, Jonathan Mitchell, Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Susie Wiles, Mike Waltz and many more. Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Who’s on your watchlist for 2025? Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.
| | | | 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/ | | | | | 8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | 1. STOP THE STEEL: European leaders are vowing to retaliate against Trump’s aluminum and steel tariffs, “even as they held out hope that they would be able to negotiate a deal” with Trump’s whipsawing administration, NYT’s Melissa Eddy and Jeanna Smialek write. “European Union officials have argued that Europe and the United States are deeply intertwined and that igniting a trade war would hurt both sides. But they have also been quietly preparing to hit back against possible U.S. tariffs, and have said they are ready to enact countermeasures if no trade solution can be found.” However, it remains unclear exactly what retaliatory efforts the European nations might engage in. “Unjustified tariffs on the E.U. will not go unanswered — they will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. Meanwhile, NYT’s Rebecca Elliott reports from Indiana, where companies are bracing to shoulder the brunt of Trump’s Canadian oil tariff. “No matter how much oil the United States pumps — and it already is the top producer in the world by far — its refineries were designed to run on a blend of different types of oil. Many can’t function well without the darker, denser, cheaper crude that is hard to find domestically. Canada is flush with that oil, known as heavy crude. And facilities like this one, BP’s refinery in Whiting, Ind., were built around that supply.” Related read: “Is It Made of Metal? It Could Get More Expensive Under Trump’s Latest Tariffs,” by NYT’s Lydia DePillis 2. BANNON DECISION: Steve Bannon this morning pleaded guilty on a fraud charge related to misleading donors who contributed money to an effort that claimed to be building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s “part of a plea agreement that spares him from jail time in the ‘We Build the Wall’ scheme. He received a three-year conditional discharge, which requires that he stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment,” AP’s Michael Sisak writes. “Asked how he was feeling as he left the courtroom, Bannon said, ‘Like a million bucks.’” Don’t miss this deep dive by WSJ’s Maggie Severns on Bannon’s “War Room” program, which has — against all odds and barriers — become the stop on the D.C. media circuit for the MAGA crowd. “Congressional aides say they know when their boss is on the program because the calls, emails and social-media posts coming into the office surge, even more so than during hits on Fox News or CNN. Only the late-night shows can compete, one Senate communications director said.” 3. TURNING OFF THE TALENT MAGNET: Trump’s decision to slash funding for research through the National Institutes of Health is threatening to completely upend a decadeslong partnership between research institutions and the federal government that has spurred scientific and technological innovation, drawing the best and brightest minds to the U.S. — an edge that the U.S. could now cede. “Research leaders contend that the NIH decision will damage America’s ability to compete with China and other nations on the frontier of biomedicine,” WaPo’s Carolyn Johnson, Susan Svrluga and Joel Achenbach report. 4. IT’S GOOD TO BE THE KING: “How Elon Musk’s crusade against government could benefit Tesla,” by AP’s Kimberly Kindy and Brian Slodysko: “Investigations into companies like Tesla can be shut down overnight by the new leaders of agencies. And safety programs created through an agency order or initiative — not by laws passed by Congress or adopted through a formal regulatory process — can also be quickly dissolved by new leaders. Unlike many of the dismantling efforts that Trump and Musk have launched in recent weeks, stalling or killing such probes and programs would not be subject to legal challenges.” 5. WAITING FOR WEDNESDAY: “Why This Week’s Inflation Report Is Especially Important,” by WSJ’s Nick Timiraos: “Not every monthly inflation report is created equally. In an economy with price pressures, January has packed a bigger punch. Price hikes in recent years have been exceptionally strong in the month of January, reflecting outsize turn-of-the-year price resets. The upshot is that inflation reports due this week could show whether the Federal Reserve’s fight to bring inflation down has cleared a key hurdle.” 6. DISPATCH FROM THE WILDERNESS: The flurry of immigration moves Trump has already made underlines what has been and will be a critical question for Democrats if the party wants to reverse Republicans’ gains: “Does the rightward lurch of Hispanic working-class voters have staying power, or can Democrats win them back?” NYT’s Edgar Sandoval writes from Edinburg, Texas. In the communities that are most likely to be directly impacted by Trump’s orders, there is a “new breed” of young Latino leaders “emerging in this once-solidly Democratic enclave to find the answer.” On one hand, there’s 21-year-old Alexis Uscanga, a former fan of Barack Obama, charges that the GOP is “here to stay.” Rep. Greg Casar, the 35-year-old Democrat, “sees the turmoil both on the border and in the nation’s capital as a return ticket for Hispanic voters attracted by Mr. Trump’s appeals to the working class, and potentially repelled by the emergence of a billionaire, Elon Musk, as a force in the president’s government.” 7. SAY TO Z: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is reiterating his call for the U.S. to get behind his country in any negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, telling The Guardian’s Shaun Walker that Europe alone cannot guarantee Ukraine’s security. “There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no,” Zelenskyy said, adding: “Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees.” The latest comment comes as Zelenskyy is set to travel to the Munich Security Conference this week, where he is expected to meet with Vance. 8. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS: “China’s Xi Is Building Economic Fortress Against U.S. Pressure,” by WSJ’s Brian Spegele, Jason Douglas and Yoko Kubota: “China is racing to make itself less reliant on the outside world’s products and technology — part of a yearslong effort by leader Xi Jinping to make China more self-sufficient and impervious to Western pressure as tensions with the U.S. rise. Beijing has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into favored industries, especially in high-end manufacturing, while exhorting business leaders to fall in line with the government’s priorities. In many ways, the effort is succeeding.”
| | | | A message from the Coalition for Medicare Choices:  
| | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) has drawn up a bill to authorize Trump to acquire Greenland and rename the country: “Red, White, and Blueland.” Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched a bid for New Mexico governor. IN MEMORIAM — “Beverly Byron, Md. congresswoman and Armed Services member, dies at 92,” by WaPo’s Emily Langer: “Beverly Byron, a Maryland Democrat who was vaulted to Congress in 1978 when she was elected to succeed her late husband, and who quickly established herself as a House member in her own right, with a conservative profile and a prominent role on the Armed Services Committee, died Feb. 9 at her home in Frederick, Maryland. She was 92. The cause was congestive heart failure, her granddaughter Mollie Byron said.” OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at Cafe Milano last night for a dinner taking stock of U.S. foreign policy and geotech, geoeconomic and geostrategic competition hosted by Steve Clemons and The National Interest: Gina Raimondo, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Stephen Hadley, Wolf Blitzer, Andrea Mitchell, Daniel Yergin, Ludovic Hood, Japanese Ambassador Shigeo Yamada, Lithuanian Ambassador Audra Plepytė, Romanian Ambassador Andrei Muraru, Rwandan Ambassador Mathilde Mukantabana, Slovenian Ambassador Iztok Mirošič, Estonian Ambassador Kristjan Prikk, Slovakian Ambassador Radovan Javorcik, John Phillips, Karen Kornbluh, Linda Douglass, Paul Saunders, Jacob Heilbrunn, Nate Tibbits, Suzy George, Jack Blanchard, Kristen Silverberg, Maureen White, Margaret Carlson, Andy Moffit, Neal Bradley, Jane Lute, Paula Dobriansky and Evelyn Farkas. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Ian Barlow is now of counsel at Wiley. He previously was deputy director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning. TRANSITIONS — James Galkowski is now a professional staff member on the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. He most recently was a technical consultant at Bondi Partners and is a Defense Department and Trump White House alum. … Eric Ellman will be president of the National Consumer Reporting Association. He previously was SVP for public policy and legal affairs at the Consumer Data Industry Association. … … Kate Lair is now deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for public and media affairs. She most recently was comms director for Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and is a Trump White House alum. … Mercy Beehler is now VP of government relations at the National Retail Federation. She previously was head of policy comms at the Alibaba Group. ENGAGED — Alayna Treene, a White House reporter for CNN, recently got engaged to Fred Hoban, a professional poker player. The couple met through Fred’s sister, who also lives in D.C., and he proposed in their hotel room on New Year's Eve while they were in Palm Beach, where she was covering Trump. Pic 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 deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | |
