POLITICO Playbook Daily Briefing - POLITICO

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August 1, 2025: Liberation Day, Part III Aug 01, 2025

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With the markets closed and the August 1 deadline having passed overnight, President Donald Trump followed through on his pledge to impose a wave of new tariffs. But Trump is far from finished. The president announced that in one week, he’ll raise tariffs on more than 60 nations, including a number of close U.S. trading partners. Playbook editor Zack Stanton joins contributing author Adam Wren to discuss what to expect today and in the days and weeks to come.

July 31, 2025: Joe Biden’s next act Jul 31, 2025

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For more than five decades, Joe Biden led an incredibly public existence. But now, in his post presidency, he’s entered a quieter, lonelier stage of life. He’s staffed by only one or two aides and Secret Service, holed up for hours at a time in Delaware working on his memoir with a new ghostwriter and racing against an aggressive form of prostate cancer while undergoing treatment. Most Democrats would prefer he keep a low profile. But what does Biden want? As he reenters the news cycle — both with a speech tonight to the National Bar Association in Chicago and as his former aides go before an adversarial House Oversight Committee — can he avoid being a millstone for the party he once led? Playbook’s Adam Wren and Dasha Burns walk through the implications of this moment and all the rest of the news you need to know today.

July 30, 2025: How to gerrymander your way to a House majority Jul 30, 2025

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We’re halfway between the usual once-in-a-decade redrawing of congressional maps. So why are we talking about redistricting in 2025? As the White House looks for ways to keep its Republican House majority in the 2026 election, it’s pressuring red states to shift their maps and squeeze out a few more GOP seats. And that risks setting off a redistricting arms race, with big red and blue states threatening to one-up each other and remake the 2026 electoral map — literally. Playbook’s Adam Wren and Zack Stanton game out the scenarios in key states, and tell you what else you need to know today.

July 29, 2025: Trump’s turning point on Gaza Jul 29, 2025

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For a decade, President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement has bulldozed through GOP orthodoxy on everything from the national debt to immigration to trade to Russia. Now, there are fresh signs that it could be careening toward its last standing shibboleth: The U.S. special relationship with Israel. With the humanitarian disaster in Gaza sparking global outrage and a public split between Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Playbook’s Adam Wren and Dasha Burns check in on what’s animating the president’s new posture — and what we can expect from here.

July 28, 2025: JD Vance’s stealth-mode approach to being VP Jul 28, 2025

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Vice President JD Vance’s first six months in office have been an exercise in stealth. Yes, he has a very public role. But to understand how Trump’s Washington truly works, you need to pull back the curtain on how Vance has approached his job — and what that tells us both about the MAGA’s present and its future. Adam Wren and Dasha Burns go inside the inner workings of the Trump White House and share their reporting. Plus, President Donald Trump’s Scotland trip continues as he prepares for a meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is expected to press him on the spiraling humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

From 'The Conversation': FDA Head Marty Makary on Food Dyes, Ultra-Processed Foods and the MAHA Agenda Jul 27, 2025

Show notes

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary is getting lobbied by the MAHA movement to restrict food dyes and ultra-processed foods, as well as by the food, agriculture and pharmaceutical industries to reduce government oversight.

“We want to go bold and there are a lot of things to do,” Makary tells POLITICO’s Dasha Burns. “But we also want to find common ground and work incrementally.”

At the same time, he says, “The amount of pressure I feel from industry or other branches of government is zero.” Makary also discusses how the agency is addressing women’s health and access to mifepristone, what he calls a “child vaping epidemic,” and explains the rationale behind FDA staffing cuts as well as some controversial hires.

Plus, White House reporter Jake Traylor joins Burns to discuss the mood inside the White House amid the fallout over the Jeffrey Epstein story, why President Trump is “itching” to get back on the campaign trail ahead of the 2026 midterms and whether GOP candidates in swing districts will welcome him.

July 25, 2025: Trump goes all-in on the midterms Jul 25, 2025

Show notes

Today, even as President Donald Trump heads to Scotland, his attention lingers stateside — and maybe not for the reason you assume. Trump has fully invested himself into the coming midterms, with high stakes both for his political project and for himself. Looming over it all are the ghosts of 2018, when Trump’s Republicans lost the House and handed the gavel to a new Democratic majority that went to work stymying his agenda and launching investigations into his conduct. What did he learn from that experience and how is that shaping the outlook for the 2026 election? Adam Wren and POLITICO White House reporter Myah Ward break it all down.

July 24, 2025: Trump’s Epstein crisis explodes Jul 24, 2025

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It’s the biggest story in Washington: Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell report that Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed President Donald Trump in May and told him that his name — among many others — appeared multiple times in the files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Now, the White House’s Epstein problem has grown into a full-blown crisis and entered a new and potentially more damaging phase. Playbook’s Adam Wren and Dasha Burns unpack it all — the spin, the lines of attack and what you need to know about where things head from here.

July 23, 2025: The Epstein crisis reaches escape velocity Jul 23, 2025

Show notes

For more than two weeks, the Jeffrey Epstein saga has blotted out the sun in Washington. But it’s only now — with the House heading out for a monthlong recess as GOP leaders adjourn the chamber rather than allow a floor vote that would hasten the release of the Epstein files — that the storyline is threatening to break out of the bubble and follow congressional Republicans back to their districts, nudged along by gleeful Democrats. Playbook contributing author Adam Wren and chief correspondent Dasha Burns talk through what that might look like, the potential pitfalls for Democrats and Republicans and what President Donald Trump finds especially frustrating about the whole ordeal.

July 22, 2025: The questions that could decide 2026 Jul 22, 2025

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With no new enterprise journalism published recently on the “Epstein files” front, President Donald Trump’s allies are catching their breath. Democrats are riding what could be a sugar high, having already cost the House GOP some votes this week. But as the aperture widens, are Republicans actually finding themselves in better shape than conventional wisdom would suggest ahead of the 2026 midterms? Playbook contributing author Adam Wren and chief correspondent Dasha Burns talk through that and two other key questions just now coming into focus about 2026.

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