| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | Good Tuesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard. ON CONSEQUENTIAL PRESIDENTS: Thanks to all who emailed in to suggest Franklin D. Roosevelt had a more impactful start to his presidency than the latest iteration of Donald J. Trump, per the question posed in yesterday’s Playbook. Long hours of trawling through the historical archives (OK, reading this Wikipedia entry) suggests you may have a point. From Wiki: After his inauguration in March 1933 FDR “immediately summoned the United States Congress into a three-month special session, during which he presented and was able to rapidly get passed a series of 15 major bills designed to counter the effects of the Great Depression. With President Roosevelt's urging, Congress passed 77 laws during his first 100 days as well, many directed towards reviving the economy of the United States.” Fifteen major bills and 77 laws? Mike Johnson is going to have to up his game. EO Watch: Roosevelt also “signed 99 executive orders” in his first 100 days, “more than any other president.” Trump 2.0 should smash that record, at least — though it’s unclear whether FDR busied himself with such burning issues as which name we use for the oceanic basin off the Florida coast. The main complaints in 1933 came from FDR’s political opponents, who said his activities “cost too much and overstepped the government's authority.” Which certainly sounds familiar today.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff meet with Saudi and Russian officials about a peace deal in Ukraine, at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 18, 2025. | Pool Photo by Evelyn Hockstein | WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team of U.S. negotiators this morning opened historic peace talks with their Russian counterparts as the Ukraine war enters its endgame. Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff are meeting right now with veteran Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and co. in Saudi Arabia to try to hammer out a process to end the war. The talks kicked off at 2 a.m. ET in the grand surrounds of the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh — and as the picture above confirms, there was no room around the Saudis’ table for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy nor any of Europe’s democratically elected leaders. Quick reminder: Lavrov — Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs chief for the past 20 years — is still sanctioned by the same U.S.government which invited him to these talks. “President Putin and Minister Lavrov are directly responsible for Russia’s unprovoked and unlawful further invasion of Ukraine, a democratic sovereign state,” the Treasury Department said in 2022. “As foreign minister, Lavrov has advanced the false narrative that Ukraine is the aggressor as he has aggressively sought to justify Russia’s actions globally.” Funny how things turn out. Talks about talks: In theory — though who really knows? — these are no more than talks about talks, creating a framework for a future Russia-Ukraine negotiation which the U.S. wants to mediate. It’s possible they’ll confirm plans for a Trump/Putin summit in the coming weeks. In the last few minutes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin is also prepared to meet with Zelenskyy "if necessary," per the BBC. First read this: The FT published a useful primer ahead of today’s summit, noting this is “the first high-level effort to broker an end to Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since its early stages almost three years ago, when negotiations fell apart amid the Russian president’s intractable demands.” So what’s changed since 2022? This time, the FT notes, “the U.S. has appeared to make significant concessions to Putin before negotiations even begin — by dismissing Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO and restore control over land at present occupied by Russia.” Shouting into the void: Europe’s leaders are deeply upset at their exclusion from the first round of talks, although French President Emmanuel Macron did grab a “friendly” 30-minute phone conversation with President Trump last night to update him on the European position. But in truth, Macron can’t have had a great deal to say — given yesterday’s “crisis summit” of European leaders in Paris broke up with little agreement over how to proceed. Europe gonna Europe: “After a 3.5-hour huddle at the Elysée presidential palace, the response of leaders to the biggest security calculus shift in decades was underwhelming,” my POLITICO colleagues Nicholas Vinocur and Victor Goury-Laffont report. “Leaders came up with no new joint ideas, squabbled over sending troops to Ukraine, and once again mouthed platitudes on aiding Ukraine and boosting defense spending.” Oh dear. Inside the room: The big row was over sending in troops to keep the peace. France has committed to doing so, as has the UK — although PM Keir Starmer says he wants U.S. military backup. But Poland said it needs its troops to protect its own 144-mile border with Russia, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said any talk of peacekeepers is "highly inappropriate" at this stage. Scholz then left early to campaign in this Sunday’s German election. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni turned up nearly an hour late. Why it matters: Europe’s only hope of avoiding a straight Trump/Putin carve-up of the continent is to make itself a relevant force in this negotiation — ideally with military might. “Just sitting at the table without contributing is pointless,” Dutch PM Dick Schoof acknowledged yesterday, per AP. That point was echoed by Trump’s envoy to Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg — himself excluded from the talks in Riyadh — who said it won’t be “feasible to have everybody sitting at the table,” adding: “Our point is keeping it clean and fast.” Lavrov was even more dismissive of European voices, saying: “I don’t know what they have to do at the negotiations table.” Why Europe wants a seat: The biggest fear for Europe is that in its absence, Trump, having already handed Putin a big win on Ukraine’s NATO membership, will go further and offer up Russia’s biggest strategic aim of all — a return to the Cold War settlement. “Putin wants NATO troops removed from the whole of the former Soviet empire,” writes the FT’s Gideon Rachman. “European officials believe Trump is likely to agree to withdraw U.S. troops from the Baltics and perhaps further west, leaving the EU vulnerable to a Russian army that NATO governments warn is preparing for a larger conflict beyond Ukraine.” What Trump wants: Scoop of the day goes to the London-based Daily Telegraph, which has bagged of a copy of the post-war peace plan Trump’s team presented to Ukraine last week. And it’s a jaw-dropper — a $500 billion contract granting the U.S. much of the “economic value associated with resources of Ukraine”, including “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, [and] other infrastructure.” Essentially, Trump wants massive payback for the military support the U.S. has offered up these past three years. The FT had some of the same details at the weekend, when Zelenskyy rejected the plan out of hand. Potsdam 2.0: “The terms of the contract … amount to the U.S. economic colonization of Ukraine in legal perpetuity,” the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes. “It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved … with terms normally imposed on aggressor states defeated in war. They are worse than the financial penalties imposed on Germany and Japan after their defeat in 1945 … [and] amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty.” (The Telegraph is one of Britain’s most conservative, Trump-friendly news sites, for what it’s worth.)
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance: More than 34 million Americans choose Medicare Advantage for better care at a lower cost than Fee-For-Service Medicare. But two straight years of Medicare Advantage cuts have left seniors feeling squeezed, with millions experiencing plan closures, higher costs, and reduced benefits. Seniors are already struggling with high prices for everyday necessities; they can't afford to pay more for health coverage and get less.
Protect seniors' affordable health care. Protect Medicare Advantage. Learn more at SupportMedicareAdvantage.com. | | | THE MAGA REVOLUTION MUST-SEE TV: The latest installment of the Don & Elon show plays out on Fox News this evening as America’s two most powerful men sit down for a joint interview at 9 p.m. with Sean Hannity. Fox has been chucking out clips over the weekend and we’ve already seen the two men railing against the MSM for daring to suggest this unlikely bromance between two famously tempestuous figures might just end in tears. In particular, teasing references to “President Musk” are divisive and simply not OK. (Playbook can only apologize for past crimes.) Speaking of President Musk … He’s not quite MSM yet (give it another year or two), but Trump world guru and podcast king Steve Bannon seems awfully keen to stoke those same divisions. Speaking to UnHerd’s James Billot, Bannon describes Elon Musk as “a parasitic illegal immigrant” who “wants to impose his freak experiments and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, values, or traditions.” Which is pretty strong. Bannon also describes the Department of Government Efficiency’s work thus far as “performative,” and demands massive cuts to the U.S. defense budget as the next step. And while we’re here … Bannon says he’s actively “exploring” options to try to deliver Trump a (seemingly unconstitutional) third term in office in 2028. “I don’t have right now a tremendous amount of support on this legally,” Bannon admits, “but remember, I faced longer odds on many other topics in my life.” On what basis would he even make the argument, seeing as the 22nd Amendment explicitly limits presidents to two terms? “I’m working on making sure they have a correct interpretation of the Constitution,” he says. You suspect this is going to be a recurring conversation these next four years. A DOGE by any other name: Here’s an unexpected one — the White House asserted in a legal filing last night that Musk is technically not part of DOGE at all, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney reports. Instead, Musk is “an employee in the White House office,” per the filing, which specified that Musk’s title is “senior adviser to the president” — likening his status to that of Anita Dunn during Joe Biden’s presidency. Come for the king: Michelle King, the acting head of the Social Security Administration, “left her job this weekend after a clash with DOGE over its attempts to access sensitive government records,” WaPo’s Lisa Rein, Holly Bailey, Jeff Stein and Jacob Bogage report. Though it “was not immediately clear precisely which data the Musk associates wanted,” the billionaire has “increasingly turned his attention to Social Security in recent days, arguing that the program is rife with fraud and erroneous payments without offering evidence for his claim.” Watch this space: Social Security is the ne plus ultra of third rails in American politics, and any whiff of altering it is likely to be met with ferocious political opposition. (Some members of the Playbook team are old enough to remember 2005, when Republicans had undivided control of Washington, began to pursue Social Security reform, quickly lost control of the narrative and faced major blowback. The Democrats retook the House and Senate in a blue tsunami the next year.) How Dems are messaging: “At this rate, they will break it. And they will break it fast, and there will be an interruption of benefits,” Martin O’Malley, the Social Security commissioner under the Biden administration, told the Post. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt hit back on Fox News Monday night, attacking “fake news reporters” who she said were trying to “fearmonger” about Social Security payments. She said Musk is only interested in tackling fraud. Trying to stoke the fires: With the House in recess this week, congressional Democrats are seeking to ramp up local protests against what they describe as Musk and DOGE’s moves to “gut federal health, education and human services agencies,” reports AP’s Steve Peoples. House Dems are targeting “nine days of visibility,” with members urged to host “at least one community event that highlights the ‘devastating impacts’ of Trump and Musk’s actions.” … Separately, the progressive organizing group Indivisible is encouraging its activists to protest at Congress members’ offices and outside Tesla dealerships. … and later this week, DNC Chair Ken Martin and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are separately touring key states The enemy within: Playbook’s sister newsletter Inside Congress notes today that GOP opposition to Musk’s slash-and-burn approach is slowly bubbling up on the Hill. Some Republican senators are also pretty spooked by the sweeping tariffs President Trump imposed last week, fearing economic pain for their communities, WSJ’s Gavin Bade reports. Trust in the media update: U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan looks poised to reject an effort by Democratic-led states to bar Musk’s team from “accessing data or causing firings across a broad swath of the federal government,” POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report. While acknowledging that “DOGE appears to be moving in no sort of predictable and orderly fashion,” Chutkan said the plaintiffs had relied primarily on news reports as evidence. “The courts can’t act based on media reports,” she said. “We can’t do that.” The White House will be lapping up that one. THE ST. VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE: “Trump administration fires thousands for ‘performance’ without evidence, in messy rush,” by WaPo’s Hannah Natanson, Lisa Rein and Emily Davies … “Hundreds of FAA employees are let go as Trump's mass layoffs continue,” by NBC’s Aaron Gilchrist and Natasha Korecki Up next: “Department of Homeland Security preparing to fire hundreds of senior leaders this week,” by NBC’s Julia Ainsley … “Musk’s DOGE expected to arrive at SEC in coming days,” by POLITICO’s Declan Harty
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance:  
Millions of seniors are experiencing higher costs and fewer benefits due to Medicare Advantage cuts. Seniors can't afford to be squeezed more. Protect Medicare Advantage. | | | BEST OF THE REST NEWS FROM THE HILL: The Senate is back in session today and will vote to confirm Howard Lutnick as Commerce secretary and advance Kash Patel as FBI director at 5:30 p.m. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Join us tomorrow morning for the latest “Playbook: The First 100 Days” breakfast event at Union Station, which this week focuses on healthcare. Our guests on stage include Senate HELP Committee member Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), former CMS administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and former CDC director Robert Redfield. Register for free. EMPIRE STATE OF MIND: A historic showdown looms in New York as Gov. Kathy Hochul calls a crisis meeting today to discuss whether to remove scandal-plagued NYC Mayor Eric Adams, POLITICO’s Seb Starcevic reports. Top of her concerns is the mayor’s alleged “quid pro quo with the Justice Department to drop criminal charges against him in exchange for aiding the Trump administration’s immigration policies.” Yesterday, four of Adams’ eight deputy mayors resigned — an extraordinary vote of no confidence in his continued leadership, per the NYT’s Dana Rubinstein and William Rashbaum. What Hochul is saying: The “alleged conduct at City Hall that has been reported over the past two weeks is troubling and cannot be ignored,” the governor said in a statement last night, announcing that she is summoning “key leaders” to her Manhattan office today to discuss “the path forward, with the goal of ensuring stability for the City of New York.” What Adams is saying: “I was listening to some of Dr. [Martin Luther] King’s teachings, and he talked about the book ‘Mein Kampf,’” Adams said yesterday, referencing Adolf Hitler’s manifesto, according to the Daily News’ Chris Sommerfeldt. “He said if you repeat a lie long enough, loud enough, people will believe it is true, and that’s what you’re seeing right now. This is a modern-day ‘Mein Kampf.’” Righto.
| | | | 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. | | | | | IMMIGRATION FILES: As Trump and congressional Republicans crack down on sanctuary cities across the U.S., the relationship between immigration advocacy groups and House Democrats is growing tense, POLITICO’s Nicholas Wu and Myah Ward report this morning: “Democratic leadership expects to whip against the sanctuary city bill when it comes up for a vote. … But the political considerations for swing-district Democrats haven’t changed all that much.” ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER CRASH: Passengers on a Delta Airlines flight from Minnesota which flipped upside down on the runway upon landing in Toronto yesterday were saved by improvements in airline safety, CNN reports. A total of 18 people were injured in the latest serious plane crash to hit North America — but former FAA safety inspector David Soucie said improved seats and aircraft design, which caused the wings to break off when the plane flipped over (rather than tearing apart the fuselage), likely saved many lives. SOUTH OF THE BORDER: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country will sue Google if the tech giant’s maps continue to label the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” across the entire body of water for U.S.-based users, CNN’s Michael Rios, Billy Stockwell and Karol Suarez report. Colleagues at AP can surely sympathize with Google’s predicament. FOR YOUR RADAR: “Pope Francis remains in hospital as doctors treat ‘complex’ infection,” by Reuters’ Joshua McElwee: “The 88-year-old pontiff has been suffering from a respiratory infection for more than a week and was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Friday. … Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni did not specify whether the pope was suffering from a bacterial or viral infection.” This morning, the Vatican cancelled the pope’s weekend engagements.
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance:  
More than 34 million Americans rely on Medicare Advantage for affordable health care. Learn more. | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Pete Hegseth said the IRS targeted him in a “sham” audit. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — “The Week Trump Mounted an Unprecedented Takeover of the Kennedy Center,” by WSJ’s Erich Schwartzel, Josh Dawsey, Jessica Toonkel and John Jurgensen OUT AND ABOUT — Day one of the global Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Forum kicked off with 4,000 delegates from 90 countries on Monday morning at ExCel London yesterday. The morning session kicked off with a welcome introduction from Baroness Philippa Stroud, followed by remarks by Speaker Mike Johnson and a keynote by Jordan Peterson. Other speakers included Jeff Rosen, Arthur Brooks, Erica Komisar, John Mackey, Niall Ferguson, Scott Tinker and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. SPOTTED: Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Denise Gitsham, Austin Bishop, Neal and Jeff Harmon and Kevin Roberts
| | | | With a new administration in place, how will governors work with the federal government and continue to lead the way on issues like AI, health care, economic development, education, energy and climate? Hear from Gov. Jared Polis, Gov. Brian Kemp and more at POLITICO's Governors Summit on February 20. RSVP today. | | | | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Chris McNulty will be national sales director at Field Strategies He was most recently EVP at Causeway Solutions and is an RNC and NRCC alum. TRANSITIONS — Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) has announced new senior members of his Senate team: Rebecca Card Angelson will be chief of staff, Joshua Eck will be state director, Jess Andrews will be deputy chief of staff, Sean Dunn will be senior adviser and counsel, Maggie Ward will be legislative director and Katie Tomko will be director of operations and administration. … … Channing Grate is now a principal at Mazur & Co. She previously was comms director at the GSA. … Kichelle Webster is now manager of federal government relations at Philip Morris International. She previously was director of financial services and health policy at Stewart Strategies & Solutions. … … Lauryn Fanguen is now an account director on the Impact Team at BerlinRosen. She previously was a regional press secretary at the DCCC and is a Planned Parenthood and GMMB alum. … Jess Wysocky will be the director of health policy at National Association of Manufacturers. She previously was legislative director for Rep. Jack Auchincloss (D-Mass.). ENGAGED — Brian Simonsen, congressional affairs specialist at ATF, proposed to Annie Clark, SVP at ROKK Solutions & a Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) alum, on Saturday on a walk in snowy Central Park after lunch at Tavern on the Green. The couple had their first date at Denson Liquor Bar in downtown D.C. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), Steve Womack (R-Ark.) and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) … Keith Urbahn … James Hohmann … Rachel Martin … Bill Bertles … Kiara Pesante Haughton … Al Quinlan … FT’s Janan Ganesh … Marc Lampkin … Abby Blunt … NBC’s Rebecca Kaplan … Angela Chiappetta … Elizabeth Kanick … Matt Burgess … Adam Prather … Jesse Purdon … former Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) … Ben Wofford … former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner … Ayodele Okeowo … Aneysha Bhat … Denise Dunckel Morse … BBC’s Helena Humphrey … Lucien Zeigler. 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.
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance: Medicare Advantage is now the primary form of Medicare coverage in the United States. Over 55% of Medicare beneficiaries — more than 34 million seniors and people with disabilities — choose Medicare Advantage for comprehensive care that delivers better health outcomes at a lower cost than Fee-For-Service Medicare.
But for two years in a row, Medicare Advantage has been cut even as medical costs and utilization have been going up. Now millions of seniors who rely on Medicare Advantage are feeling squeezed, with widespread plan closures, higher costs, and reduced benefits.
President Trump and his Administration can keep their promise to protect Medicare for seniors by ensuring adequate funding for Medicare Advantage moving forward.
Seniors need affordable health care. That means protecting Medicare Advantage.
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