| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard | Presented by the Coalition for Medicare Choices | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine Good Thursday morning. This is Jack Blanchard, cracking out the Union Jack bunting for a big day ahead in D.C.
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | THE BRITISH ARE COMING: President Donald Trump is gearing up for part two of a Euro triple-whammy this morning with the arrival of U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to the White House. Sandwiched between French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit on Monday and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hotly anticipated trip tomorrow, Starmer is in town to deliver much the same message as his diminutive Euro counterparts: that Europe still needs American military muscle to ward off the threat of Russian aggression. Whether Trump is any more receptive to the idea than he was on Monday (or Tuesday, or Wednesday) remains to be seen. How the president’s day pans out: Trump receives his intelligence briefing at 11.15 a.m. … Starmer is due at the White House at 12.15 p.m., and we can expect warm words and handshakes at the top … After that there’s a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office followed by a private working lunch … and then the main public-facing event, a Trump/Starmer press conference in the East Room currently scheduled for 2 p.m. … Though don’t be surprised if all those times slip. High stakes: This is Trump’s first in-person meeting with Starmer since his return to the White House and is being billed as a huge moment for transatlantic relations back in the U.K., where the shockwaves from Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speeches in Munich earlier this month are still being felt. Britain’s entire security architecture since the 1940s has been underwritten by U.S. military power, and never once in the decades since has that commitment felt remotely in doubt — until now. Friends at home have started sending your author half-joking texts about World War Three ... Some warm words from Trump would help soothe a nation’s rattled nerves. All eyes on Ukraine: The most immediate topic is Ukraine, of course, with Trump expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for peace talks in the coming weeks. The U.K. has prided itself on its full-blooded support for Kyiv since Putin’s invasion, and Starmer aims to ensure the coming deal does not hand Russia a victory it could not have secured on the battlefield. Europe’s big fear is that “peace” will prove nothing more than a short cessation of hostilities while Putin rearms his exhausted war machine — before the tanks roll back into Ukraine in a few years’ time to finish the job. What to watch for: The key question at this afternoon’s press conference is whether Trump shows any sign of coming around to the idea of a U.S. military guarantee protecting Ukraine from future attacks. Starmer and Macron are offering up a European peace-keeping force to enforce whatever borders are agreed on the ground — but still want a U.S. military “backstop” to warn Putin off another invasion. “The security guarantee has to be sufficient to deter Putin from coming again,” Starmer told reporters on the plane yesterday, per my POLITICO colleague Dan Bloom. Good luck with that: Trump has rejected such talk out of hand, demanding that Europe not just take the lead on Ukraine’s postwar security but shoulder the entire burden. “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” Trump told his Cabinet yesterday. “We’re going to have Europe do that.” Macron emerged from his meeting with Trump on Monday with little more than platitudes to show for his efforts, and you have to assume it’ll go the same way for Starmer today. Also worth watching for: The Brit press pack are also in town this week, boozing with Starmer — along with half of D.C. — at the U.K. ambassador’s residence last night (guest list further down this email). They tend to be pretty punchy in their questioning at these types of event — so how will Trump react? And will his top aide Elon Musk be able to resist wading in on X, given his vociferous attacks on Starmer in the past? An interesting day may lie ahead. The odd couple: Helpfully for Britain, Trump does at least seem to have taken to the U.K. PM — unexpectedly, given buttoned-up lefty lawyers aren’t normally his type. But Starmer has put an awful lot into this relationship, picking up the phone to candidate Trump last summer in the hours after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and flying to Mar-a-Lago soon after for an intimate two-hour dinner. Trump also tends to respect foreign leaders who win bigly — and Starmer recently secured the biggest landslide election win of any British PM since Tony Blair. Strikingly, Starmer chose this particular week to cut foreign aid and boost U.K. defense spending, which surely can’t hurt. What Trump wants: Starmer is also helped by Trump’s natural affinity for Britain and its Royal family, with the promise of a grand state visit featuring historic pomp and ceremony plus tête-à-têtes with King Charles, William, Kate & co. sure to keep relations warm. It’s an affinity shared by the wider public, too — a new J.L. Partners poll shared with Playbook finds 43 percent of American voters name the U.K. as America’s biggest ally, way ahead of Canada in second on 24 percent. Frankly, Starmer needs every bit of leverage he can get. … Because let’s face it: None of these Euro leaders has much leverage over the world’s only superpower, and especially one led by a bullish president happy to paint Zelenskyy as a “dictator” while refusing to blame Russia for its illegal invasion. And with Zelenskyy himself in town tomorrow, time is running out to change Trump’s mind. The two leaders are poised to sign an economic agreement offering U.S. access to Kyiv’s natural mineral wealth — though Zelenskyy still insists security guarantees should be the price. "If we don’t get security guarantees, we won’t have a cease-fire,” Zelenskyy said yesterday. MAGA pushback: One of the most prominent Republican rising stars in Congress, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), has a stern message for European leaders complaining about the administration’s approach to Ukraine. He tells POLITICO’s “Power Play” podcast: “I’ll tell Europeans all day long, ‘If you’d like a settlement with Putin, you should punish him. Why don’t you take the $200 billion in frozen assets and actually seize them? Europeans are like, ‘Oh, well, we can’t do that.’ Then shut up. That’s why you don’t have a seat at the table.” Listen here And the bigger picture: Whatever warms words Starmer extracts from Trump today are hardly a guarantee of future relations. Andrew Overton, a former spokesperson at the British Embassy in Washington, recalls how his old boss — ex-U.K. Ambassador Kim Darroch — was hailed as a “star” by Trump in 2017. Three years later, a series of angry Trump tweets got Darroch fired from his post. “The lesson for the U.K. and other countries? The wins rarely last, ” Andrew tells Playbook via email. “Your stock with Trump rises and falls with the latest news cycle. And his core beliefs stay the same: allies are ripping off the U.S. on trade and they are not paying their fair share on defense.” Plus ça change.
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Learn more at https://medicarechoices.org/ | | | THE MAGA REVOLUTION ROBERTS TO THE RESCUE: The Supreme Court last night made its first major intervention of the Trump 2.0 era, handing President Trump a win in his battle to dismantle USAID. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts dismissed a midnight Wednesday deadline imposed by a lower court judge for the Trump administration to unfreeze billions of dollars in unpaid foreign aid, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney report. Roberts’ intervention heads off the possibility of Trump administration officials being held in contempt for failing to comply with a previously issued judicial order demanding the government settle unpaid invoices from foreign-aid contractors. Roberts’ decision is only temporary, with the matter now likely to be referred to the full Supreme Court for deliberation. What’s in store: Disclosures made in the court filings reveal the full scale of USAID cuts, AP’s Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Lee report. Trump officials say they’re slashing more than 90 percent of America’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world. Holy moly: But as DOGE’s work continues, all those warnings about possible conflicts of interest for Elon Musk are coming to a head. WaPo’s Ian Duncan and colleagues report that the FAA is close to canceling a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon to overhaul a communications system integral to its air traffic control system — and awarding the contract to Musk’s Starlink instead. Yikes. Reminder: “A team of employees from SpaceX, Starlink’s parent company, has been working inside the FAA in recent days,” WaPo notes. And Musk himself has been criticizing Verizon’s platform on his social media company, X. The WaPo report says senior FAA officials have refused to sign paperwork authorizing the switch to Starlink, and that Musk’s team is now seeking help to secure the deal from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau. If correct, this one seems like a pretty big deal. Coming attractions: In the meantime, Musk’s work continues apace, and WaPo’s Emily Davies, Jeff Stein and Hannah Natanson have the latest on the next round of DOGE cuts coming down the line. “The General Services Administration told its staff in an email that terminations are imminent,” they write. “Social Security Administration leadership is under instruction to swiftly produce plans to cut its staff by half …. And an office within the Labor Department that enforces equal employment opportunity laws is developing a plan to reduce its workforce by 90 percent.” And there’s more: Officials also plan to “shutter more than 110 IRS offices that have taxpayer assistance centers,” WaPo’s Shannon Najmabadi and colleagues report. The plan “comes in the midst of the federal tax filing season” and after the IRS last week began laying off approximately 7,000 probationary employees. No sign yet of Elon slowing down. Cleanup on aisle Trump: In one rare retreat, however, the White House has walked back Trump’s eyebrow-raising comment that the EPA would cut 65 percent of its workforce, which rattled employees at the agency. Officials say the president meant to say that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin plans to cut 65 percent of spending, which is not the same thing. POLITICO’s Alex Guillén has more on the confusion. … And Veterans Affairs has “temporarily suspended billions of dollars in planned contract cuts following concerns the move would hurt critical veterans’ health services,” AP’s Tara Copp and Carla Johnson write. Farewell to Washington: Federal agencies have until mid-April to “suggest relocations of bureaus and offices out of the D.C. region, a move that would have widespread impacts on the local economy,” WaPo’s Aaron Wiener writes. New guidance issued yesterday directs agencies to submit “any proposed relocations of agency bureaus and offices from Washington, D.C. and the National Capital Region to less-costly parts of the country” by April 14. Washington might grumble, but you’d imagine this one will be wildly popular out in the real world. The DOGE days aren’t over: There is one growth industry inside the Washington government, at least — at DOGE itself. Every government agency is now to have its own “mini-Musk” installed, via a fresh executive order from Trump yesterday. The president wants all agencies to have their own DOGE representative, a kind of political commissar to monitor efforts to cut the size and scope of government, POLITICO’s Ben Johansen reports. The Elon ethos: As Musk remakes the entire government bureaucracy, POLITICO’s Sophia Cai explores whether his tech-sector mindset — cut first, see what breaks and expect to fail before you succeed — is really suited to the grind of public service delivery. “When you have a tech company, every day you’re failing because you’re trying to bring something that doesn’t exist into existence,” says one former Trump official turned tech entrepreneur. “In government, you’re just trying to deliver legally guaranteed services to the public. You can’t fail. You have to succeed slowly.” MEANWHILE ON THE HILL FROM ONE CRISIS TO THE NEXT: The House and Senate GOP conferences might have got their initial budget resolutions through, but the drama on the Hill shows no sign of abating. Attention has instantly switched to the prospect of a government shutdown in little over two weeks’ time. “We’ve got to get through the March 14 deadline,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters yesterday after a meeting with Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson at the White House. Johnson insisted a continuing resolution is “inevitable at this point,” POLITICO’s Jordain Carney reports. The Dem dilemma: Essentially, it’s now decision time for Democrats to figure out how to position themselves regarding a shutdown. Dems have been demanding guardrails around Trump and Musk as the price for their support, amid deep anger on the left about the rampant reshaping of the government. But Republicans officially rejected that proposal yesterday. POLITICO’s Nick Wu and Katherine Tully-McManus lay out the inflection point: Do Dems hold firm, refrain from bailing Republicans out and allow an unpopular shutdown? Or do they fold and risk the ire of liberal voters eager to see the party stand its ground against Trump and Musk? RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: Senate Republicans said yesterday they were prepared to switch to the House’s one-bill approach after spending more than two months pushing a competing two-bill plan. The catch? They want major, contentious changes to policy choices embedded in the House plan, POLITICO’s Jordain Carney, Katherine Tully-McManus and Benjamin Guggenheim report. Senate Majority Leader Thune called the House-approved product “a first step in what will be a long process, and certainly not an easy one.” Fun times ahead. In the other chamber: Speaker Johnson is ruling out some of the biggest potential cuts to Medicaid, Ben Leonard and Mia McCarthy write. In an interview on CNN last night, Johnson said per-capita caps on Medicaid would not be in the eventual budget reconciliation bill. Johnson also suggested deploying an accounting trick to make Trump’s tax cut extensions seemingly cost nothing “makes good logical sense.” If Johnson can get that one past the GOP hardliners, it removes a major obstacle to making the cuts permanent, POLITICO’s Benjamin Guggenheim writes. TODAY’S DRAMA: The marquee moment to watch on the Hill today comes at 9:30 a.m., when Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s Labor secretary nominee, sits before the Senate HELP Committee for a confirmation hearing. This one could be interesting, as Chavez-DeRemer is facing firm opposition from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over her past support of the PRO Act. But Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) threw LCD a lifeline this week, saying that she would back the former House member. Another one through: Jamieson Greer was confirmed by the Senate yesterday to serve as Trump’s U.S. trade representative, albeit by a far narrower margin than is traditional for the president’s top trade official, per POLITICO’s Daniel Desrochers and Doug Palmer. Just five Democrats joined with 51 Republicans to confirm, by a vote of 56-43. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the only Republican to oppose the nomination. BEYOND THE BELTWAY FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Lawyers in lockstep: Those seeking the new resistance to the Trump presidency can find it on Microsoft Teams. The country’s 23 Democratic state attorneys general hold a 30-minute virtual chat every day to coordinate their efforts to push back against the Trump administration, POLITICO’s Rachel Bluth and Melanie Mason report this morning. The AGs share updates on cases moving through the federal courts and debate whether to treat Musk as a lawful arm of the government or an uncredentialed interloper. And they plot where the next response will come, leveraging time zone differences to expand the workday. Vive la résistance: With Dem lawmakers still trying to find their footing in the whirlwind Trump 2.0 era, the AGs see themselves as the final backstop between the president and untrammelled power, Rachel and Melanie write. Their efforts are the product of a plan in development for up to a year before Trump’s return to the White House, according to interviews with more than half of the Democratic attorneys general, former holders of the office and their staff. IMMIGRATION FILES: As Trump attempts to carry out his pledge of mass deportations, the administration is “preparing to invoke a sweeping wartime authority to speed up” the process, CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez and Alayna Treene report. The measure that Trump is getting ready to deploy — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — gives the president sweeping authority to remove undocumented immigrants. TARIFFS ARE COMING … AT SOME POINT: Trump suggested yesterday that he will delay tariffs on Mexico and Canada another month, the latest in a series of conflicting statements about the timeline for how those and other tariffs will be rolled out, POLITICO’s Ari Hawkins writes. Trump promised “April 2 ... for everything” during yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, only two days after insisting the 25 percent tariffs “are going forward on time, on schedule,” on March 4. A White House spokesperson said afterward the tariffs on Mexico and Canada are indeed still expected to take effect on Tuesday. Clear as mud. Interesting ripple effect: “Trump’s Threats Lift Canada’s Liberals From Almost-Certain Defeat,” by WSJ’s Vipal Monga in Toronto and Paul Vieira in Ottawa.
| | | | A message from the Coalition for Medicare Choices:  
| | | BEST OF THE REST FIRST AMENDMENT WATCH: In the escalating battle over a free and independent press corps covering the White House, the White House Correspondents Association announced yesterday that it would no longer coordinate shared White House coverage. The WHCA, which represents more than 60 news organizations, said it would no longer manage the rotating cast of reporters who attend White House events or compile the shared accounts of news that are widely used in American political journalism. What comes next: “Each of your organizations will have to decide whether or not you will take part in these new, government-appointed pools,” said WHCA President Eugene Daniels, who is also chief Playbook correspondent and a White House reporter for POLITICO. Eugene also told members to stop sending reports to an association listserv that allows their work to be shared by other journalists, saying the WHCA “cannot ensure that the reports filed by government-selected poolers will be held to the same standards that we have had in place for decades.” More from POLITICO’s Ben Johansen GET YOUR SHOTS: The Trump administration has “canceled a federal vaccine advisory committee meeting expected to be held next month that was intended to help select the makeup of next winter’s influenza vaccine,” WaPo’s Lena Sun and Rachel Roubein report, the second such cancellation since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as HHS secretary.
| | | | A message from the Coalition for Medicare Choices:  
| | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | WELCOME TO AMERICA: British PM Keir Starmer was in party mode last night ahead of his meeting with Trump today. Starmer addressed a reception at the U.K. ambassador’s residence for his new man in D.C. Peter Mandelson, hailing the current “buzz” around Washington. Starmer said you could tell there’s a new leader in town — someone accomplished in the arenas of business and politics, a one-of-a-kind figure, whom many love and many love to hate — before delivering the punchline: “But to us, he’s just Peter.” SPOTTED: Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Reps. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, FBI Director Kash Patel, Saudi Ambassador Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng, Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova, Canadian Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, Italian Ambassador Mariangela Zappia, Jordanian Ambassador Dina Kawar, Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Elaine Chao, Kellyanne Conway, Mark Thompson, Will Lewis, Fred Ryan, Wilbur Ross, Dan Bloom, Tina Brown, Mark Burnett, Stephen Schwarzman, Ruth Porat, Jane Fraser, Christopher Ruddy, Emma Tucker, Sergio Gor, Mark Ein, Sam Feist, Matt Kaminski, Andrea Mitchell, Dana Bash, Kasie Hunt, Adrienne Arsht, Rob Crilly and Tammy Haddad. GRENELL’S AMBASSADOR PARTY: Special envoy Richard Grenell, whom Trump has also named president of the Kennedy Center, is using the latter perch to host a party for foreign diplomats in town. POLITICO’s global security team obtained a copy of the invitation email to one ambassador. Envoys are asked to stop by the “Diplomatic Reception hosted by Ambassador Richard Grenell” next Thursday evening at the Skylight Pavilion in a wing of the center called the REACH. Grenell is a former U.S. ambassador to Germany who sought to be Trump’s secretary of State. The party is a chance for him to network with a group of people key to America’s relations with other nations. Grenell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It’s unclear if Secretary of State Marco Rubio is invited to the reception; his spokesperson didn’t respond when we asked. The people invited get a plus one, so, uhh … call us, maybe? SPOTTED: Wolf Blitzer having dinner at Cafe Milano yesterday with Eric Newman, Noah Oppenheim, Mike Schmidt, Lesli Linka Glatter and Jonathan Glickman, the producers of Netflix’s new series, “Zero Day,” which features a cameo from Blitzer. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The Economic Security Project is adding Mike Konczal and Adriane Brown, both from the Biden White House. Konczal will be a senior director of policy and research and previously was special assistant to the president for economic policy and chief economist for the NEC. Brown will be senior comms director and previously was director of public affairs at the U.S. Agency for Global Media. TRANSITIONS — Arie Dana is joining the Republican Jewish Coalition as deputy director of government affairs/director of executive branch relations. He most recently was chief of staff for Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.). … Mary Beth Hervig is now PAC manager at the National Association of Broadcasters. She was previously a federal affairs assistant at the National Beer Wholesalers of America and is a Brendan Boyle alum. … Julie Kearney is joining DLA Piper as co-chair of the space exploration and innovation practice and a partner in the telecom group. She previously was chief of the FCC’s Space Bureau. … … Jeremy Kreisberg is now of counsel at Munger, Tolles and Olson. He previously was special assistant to the president and senior associate counsel in Biden’s White House Counsel’s Office. … Emily Childress is now an associate attorney at Blank Rome LLP. She previously was an associate attorney at Stoll Keenon Ogden. … Jay Hulings is rejoining Davis & Santos as a partner based in D.C. He most recently was a senior counsel in DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) … Reps. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) and Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) … Chelsea Clinton … Ralph Nader (91) … Greg Speed of America Votes … Robbie Aiken … Sasha Johnson of United Airlines … Rebecca Sinderbrand … Gary Knell … David Merritt of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association … Jill Adly … Dan Hull … Kate DePriest … Trevor Kolego … Mark Blumenthal … former Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Luke Messer (R-Ind.) … Eric Lesser … Maria Koklanaris Bonaquist … POLITICO’s Kelsey Wessels and Kirsten Messmer … Adrienne Morrell … Aria Austin of Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) office … Nils Bruzelius, celebrating with breakfast in bed in Swedish style … Anthony Daniels … Fox News’ Ashley DiMella … Julie Merz … Ava Bogart of Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-Alaska) office … Michael Smitsky of the Child Support Directors Association of California … Kirsten Messmer … Jove Oliver of Oliver Global 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.
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