POLITICO Playbook Daily Briefing - POLITICO

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August 14, 2025: Buttigieg sets the record straight Aug 14, 2025

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After his appearance last week on “Pod Save America,” Pete Buttigieg attracted incoming fire over his response to a question about Gaza — an answer which critics thought was especially mealy-mouthed. This morning, in an exclusive interview for Playbook, Buttigieg clears the air — and offers the latest sign of just how much opinions within the Democratic Party are shifting on Israel and Gaza. Playbook’s Adam Wren and Dasha Burns talk it through. Plus, the latest on tomorrow’s Trump-Putin meeting, and Dasha talks through her latest scoop on Susie Wiles and Laura Loomer.

August 13, 2025: Laura Loomer's latest target Aug 13, 2025

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After successfully ousting several officials in the Trump administration, far-right activist and MAGA influencer Laura Loomer has sharpened her focus on her next targets: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and one of his top aides. And a big part of the reason why has to do with 2028. Playbook’s Adam Wren and Dasha Burns break it all down and what it could mean for the administration. Plus, the latest geopolitical jockeying ahead of the Trump-Putin summit, and questions abound about the trustworthiness of new economic data from Trump’s Washington.

August 12, 2025: Trump sends in the troops Aug 12, 2025

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Residents of Washington are waking up this morning to a city that looks a little different. At a press conference yesterday morning, President Donald Trump announced he would effectively take over the Washington’s police department for 30 days and deploy the National Guard to patrol the city. What happens next? How are Democrats responding? And what is the conversation Trump is trying to bait them into? Playbook’s Adam Wren and Dasha Burns break it all down.

August 11, 2025: Trump sets his sights on D.C. Aug 11, 2025

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Today at 10 a.m., President Donald Trump is expected to announce that he will deploy federal forces to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., in an attempt to fight crime and “immediately clear out the city’s homeless population.” It comes as Trump has reportedly eyed a federal takeover of Washington in response to what he characterizes as “out of control crime” — even though statistics from law enforcement show that violent crime in the district has dropped substantially over the past two years. Is this an attempt by Trump to control the narrative? How seriously should Washingtonians take the threat of a takeover? And what does this mean for self-governance in D.C.? Playbook’s Adam Wren and POLITICO senior Congress editor Mike DeBonis talk it through.

August 8, 2025: Trump’s ‘law and order’ gambit comes for D.C. Aug 08, 2025

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Last night, the White House announced that it will use federal law enforcement officers to patrol Washington D.C. in a striking escalation of the administration’s antagonism towards the city’s locally controlled government. It comes as Trump has threatened in recent days to federalize the city and take over its police force in response to an attempted carjacking that injured a staffer in the Trump administration. But there’s a bigger picture, too: A pivot on the part of the administration to refocus its message on the “law and order” issues where they feel the safest politically. Where do things go from here? Playbook’s Adam Wren breaks it all down with POLITICO White House reporter Megan Messerly. That, plus Texas’ redistricting melee scrambles the state’s marquee U.S. Senate race, and how the White House is thinking about the prospect of a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

August 7, 2025: Dems’ new dividing line Aug 07, 2025

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As the humanitarian disaster in Gaza shifts American politics and opinions about Israel, the entire issue is quickly becoming the Democratic Party’s first foreign policy litmus test of the 2026 and 2028 cycles. Playbook’s Adam Wren and POLITICO White House reporter Megan Messerly look at how that’s playing out in Michigan’s pivotal Senate primary, which is a microcosm of the broader dynamics shaping the party: a divide that isn’t so much left vs. center or progressive vs. moderate, but institutionalists vs. disruptors. All of that, plus: President Donald Trump’s latest wave of tariffs went into effect overnight, and what we know about the latest rumblings of a coming meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

August 6, 2025: The next big gerrymandering fight Aug 06, 2025

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The White House is turning the screws on red-state elected officials to gerrymander new electoral maps and squeeze more GOP seats into existence ahead of the 2026 midterms. And the next big flashpoint comes not from Texas, New York or California, but Indiana, where Vice President JD Vance will be dispatched this week to meet with Gov. Mike Braun and push him to redraw the state’s congressional districts. Playbook’s Adam Wren and POLITICO White House reporter Megan Messerly talk through the thinking in the West Wing and the statehouse. Meanwhile, is the White House’s latest law-and-order messaging — whether talking about Washington D.C. or the so called Speedway Slammer immigrant detention center — a sign of a broader attempt to shift the dominant storyline in the news? All that and more on today’s Playbook Podcast.

August 5, 2025: August heats up Aug 05, 2025

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Today, the biggest story in Washington is about what’s happening everywhere else: from redistricting fights in Texas and California, to town halls in Nebraska and Michigan, to just a general unsettled mood in Washington. Playbook’s Adam Wren and POLITICO White House reporter Megan Messerly unpack it all and tell you how it’s reverberating in the halls of power in D.C.

August 4, 2025: The mess with Texas Aug 04, 2025

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Today, you can find Texas’ Democratic state legislators in Illinois, New York and Massachusetts. Where you won’t find many of them is Texas. That’s because they fled the state yesterday in an attempt to deny Republicans the quorum needed to enact a new partisan gerrymander ahead of the 2026 elections. The implications extend far beyond the Red River, with resonances for the balance of power in Congress, Democratic jockeying for 2028 and the potential weaponization of government depending just how far Gov. Greg Abbott and President Donald Trump are willing to go in response. Playbook’s Adam Wren and POLITICO White House reporter Jake Traylor unpack what it means and what to expect down the line.

From 'The Conversation': Rep. Sarah McBride Won’t Be Baited by GOP ‘Provocateurs’ Aug 03, 2025

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Freshman Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) is the first out transgender member of Congress. Within days of her election this past November, she faced attacks from Republican colleagues who tried to draw her into a public conflict. Nevertheless, McBride has continued to find ways to forge ties across the aisle.

In this week’s episode of The Conversation, Rep. McBride tells POLITICO’s Dasha Burns why she has prioritized bipartisanship: “Every person in this country goes to work in a workplace where there are people who think differently, live differently, look differently than they do. They figure out how to make it work. They treat one another with respect. This is the one place where we seem to not be able to muster the same maturity and mutual respect that Americans across this country muster every single day when they go into the workplace.”

McBride says she hopes to bring “a sense of kindness and grace” to Congress despite the “reality TV show nature” of today’s politics. The two also discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, how the Democratic Party can rebuild its coalition without “reinforcing right-wing framing” over culture war issues and why her pursuit of bipartisan legislation is in part a direct response to President Trump.

“If we can't figure out how to solve problems across our political divide,” she tells Burns, “then I believe Trumpism only grows and worsens in this country.”

Plus, White House reporter Myah Ward on Trump’s trip to Scotland and what it revealed about the working relationship between the president and European leaders.

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