FIRST IN PI — RETAIL LEADERS NUDGE BESSENT, LUTNICK TO HEM IN TARIFFS: A top trade group representing retail executives wants Trump’s Commerce and Treasury secretaries to focus on extending the president’s 2017 tax cuts — not that other “T” word related to trade policy that Trump loves to wield as a cudgel against other governments. — In a letter today to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s top lobbyist Michael Hanson lauded the 2017 tax law for slashing the corporate tax rate and pledged to help Republicans usher through their bill to “to give businesses the certainty they need to hire and invest.” — “Retailers are urging this administration to stick with the playbook they wrote in the first term, which will continue to make America the best place to invest and innovate,” Hanson wrote. That theme should extend to trade policy as well, Hanson argued, via a focus on trade agreements like the USMCA that “set clear rules of the road” and a long-term solution to the so-called de minimis loophole — as opposed to Trump’s barrages of tariff proclamations. — While the industry “recognizes the administration views national security and protecting American innovation as a top priority,” Hanson added, “we strongly believe the President and his team can accomplish those goals and minimize disruption to the U.S. economy while protecting household goods by utilizing smart and targeted tariffs – accomplishing the President’s goal of bringing down prices for American families.” MUSK’S STATEHOUSE DOGEHOUSE: “Elon Musk is taking Washington by storm, but in statehouses controlled by Democrats on both coasts, his lobbyists are facing a frigid welcome,” POLITICO’s Marie French reports. — “Tesla’s ability to sell electric vehicles directly to consumers remains restricted in several states where the deeply entrenched franchise dealership model prevails. Musk’s company has lobbied to be allowed to set up its own sales locations in those states over the last few years — with only limited success.” — “In the past, blue state Democrats and environmental groups pushed for allowing Tesla and other electric vehicle makers to set up shop rather than requiring customers to buy online. … But Musk’s growing political clout and alignment with Republican President Donald Trump is making that a harder sell.” BARRASSO AIDE JOINING CGCN: John Tanner has left the Hill, where he most recently served as deputy staff director for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee under new Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), to join CGCN Group as a partner. — Tanner previously worked in the Interior Department for almost all of Trump’s first term and before that spent 14 years on the Hill working for former Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and the late Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). FROM ‘BOZO’ TO BESTIES: “Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos last summer privately urged Donald Trump to pick Doug Burgum as Trump's vice president, saying he'd be an ‘excellent’ choice,” per Axios’ Alex Isenstadt, who details how “Bezos was engaging with Trump on political issues months earlier than previously reported.” — “It wasn't until late October — three months later — that Bezos spiked the Post editorial page's planned endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, and his outreach to Trump came into focus,” but “the seeds of the Bezos-Trump alliance were planted in the July phone call” following the assassination attempt against Trump at a Pennsylvania rally. — The relationship has only progressed since then. Bezos dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election and donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, which Bezos attended, all of which appears to have culminated in Bezos’ announcement yesterday that the Post’s “progressive-leaning opinion page would shift its mission to promote ‘personal liberties and free markets.’ The move was praised by Trump allies such as Elon Musk but created an uproar at the Post, where David Shipley, the opinion editor, resigned.” — It’s all a far cry from Trump’s first term, Isenstadt notes, during which Bezos criticized Trump during the campaign, prompting the president’s ridicule and even an attempt by Trump to hike USPS shipping rates for Amazon packages. HOLLAND & KNIGHT ADDS DEFENSE LOBBYISTS: Holland & Knight has added Mike Wakefield as a partner and Joseph Sopcisak as a senior policy adviser in the public policy and regulation group and the firm’s newly launched national security and defense industry group. — Wakefield was most recently senior counsel and a professional staff member on the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and Sopcisak was a technical director in the Pentagon’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. SPOTTED on Wednesday a reception following the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Coalition’s inaugural fly-in, per a tipster: Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), United Airlines’ Tom Michaels, American Airlines’ Amy Lawrence, Airlines for America’s Kevin Welsh, Alpine Group’s Alison Graab, World Energy’s Scott Lewis and Growth Energy’s John Fuher. — And at a “tax tales and cocktails” reception at Bullfeathers hosted by the American Petroleum Institute, Business Roundtable, National Retail Federation, and the RATE Coalition, per a tipster: Reps. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Ron Estes (R-Kan.), Eric Schmitz of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office, Claire Trokey and John Crews of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s office, Garrett Puckett of Rep. Lisa McClain’s (R-Mich.) office, Ian Foley and Lillian Bay of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office, Elle Collins, Kathryn Chakmak, Allie Kotsovos, Carl Griffin, Kyle Perel and Scott Greenberg of the House Ways and Means Committee and more. — And at a reception hosted by Farmers for Free Trade, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Corn Growers Association, the Ag Trade Education Council and the Wine Institute, per a tipster: Reps. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.); Brian Kuehl and Bob Hemesath of Farmers for Free Trade, Christine LoCascio, Denzel McGuire and Lisa Hawkins of DISCUS, Kristin Bodenstedt of Bacardi North America and Kate Coler of Moët Hennessy USA. — And at a fundraiser benefitting the DSCC hosted by Van Scoyoc Associates’ Emily Katz, Nathanson+Hauck’s Melanie Nathanson and SplitOak Strategies’ Sarah Egge, per a tipster: Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.); Vijay Yadlapati of the National Association of Realtors, Orrin Marcella and Betsy Tower of GE HealthCare, Sandra Max of Perspectum, Javier Barajas Martinez of Davita, Priscilla Ross of the American Hospital Association, Elizabeth Brown and Darian Burrell-Clay of the Children’s Hospital Association, Natalie Williams of American Academy of Family Physicians, Deirdre Parsons of Alnylam, Teresa Skala and Dave Caruolo of Anheuser-Busch, Wendy Sussman of Johnson & Johnson and Karen Antebi of Prime Policy Group.
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