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| By Eli Okun |
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 | THE CATCH-UP | | |
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen indicated that the EU wants to work with President Donald Trump on trade. | Johannes Simon/Getty Images | ON THE WORLD STAGE — President Donald Trump has swept into office with something less than an olive branch to the rest of the world, combining America First retrenchment with trade and expansionist threats. But a wave of early signals today from foreign leaders indicates that other countries are working to swallow their concerns and smooth over relations with the MAGA superpower, at least for now. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a call for the world “to work together to avoid a global race to the bottom” on tariffs, per Reuters’ Leela de Kretser. Without talking about Trump specifically, von der Leyen made clear that the EU would prefer to engage and barter with Washington to avoid an all-out trade war. (She also voiced support for the Paris Agreement from which Trump just withdrew again, per Karl Mathiesen.) You can count Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang too among the ranks of leaders trying to dial down the temperature and work with Trump to stave off tariffs. Ding said China welcomes foreign investment and doesn’t seek to create a trade surplus. He specifically called out plans to bolster imports to China, which could appeal to Trump, per Bloomberg’s Rebecca Choong Wilkins and Josh Xiao. For U.S.-China watchers, Trump’s lack of immediate tariffs on China — or even mentioning them in his inauguration speech — is “raising the prospect of a rapprochement,” Reuters’ Joe Cash and Xiuhao Chen report from Beijing. Estonian PM Kristen Michal got on board with Trump’s demand for NATO members to boost defense spending to 5 percent of their budgets, saying his country needed to ramp up the pace of national security investments. And on one of the most delicate subjects — mass deportations — there are fresh signs of cooperation from India, the source of one of the largest groups of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Bloomberg’s Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Dan Strumpf report that Washington and New Delhi have collectively identified roughly 18,000 people to be deported, and perhaps many more. Indian officials’ hope is that compliance up front will give them some breathing room on a trade war and protect H-1B and student visas for legal immigration. Even in countries that stand to suffer from Trump’s immigration and trade plans, leaders are making plans and projecting a studied calmness. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said today that in the face of Trump’s tariff threats, “it’s important to always keep a cool head and refer to the signed orders beyond the actual rhetoric,” per Bloomberg. Polish PM Donald Tusk said his country is preparing for possible deportations, per the AP. And in Guatemala, President Bernardo Arévalo’s administration has crafted a broad program to both help Guatemalans in the U.S. and lay the groundwork for deportees’ successful reintegration into Guatemala, NYT’s Annie Correal reports. That could help reduce the number of people going back to the U.S. GREAT SCOTT — The Senate Finance Committee pushed through Scott Bessent’s nomination as Treasury secretary this morning in a 16-11 vote, including support from two Democrats. That should tee him up for confirmation soon. More from Michael Stratford STILL TO COME — Trump will meet with Hill GOP leaders this afternoon, per Meredith Lee Hill. … Then he’ll make a “big” announcement about infrastructure, press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed this morning on Fox News. Trump will unveil a major project from OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle called Stargate, which will see the private sector building data centers and other infrastructure for AI, CBS’ Jennifer Jacobs scooped. They’re beginning with $100 billion and could ramp up the investment as high as $500 billion. … Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the chamber will likely vote today on John Ratcliffe’s nomination as CIA director, per Punchbowl’s Andrew Desiderio. … A bit further out, Trump will take his first trips Friday to survey hurricane damage in North Carolina and wildfire damage in California, the N.Y. Post’s Diana Glebova scooped. Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com. RSVP NOW — Trump-era tax cuts are nearing expiration, and Republicans are gearing up to use it as an opportunity to implement more big changes to the tax code. Join Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) tomorrow at POLITICO’s The First 100 Days: Tax Reform event. We’ll explore what individuals and businesses can expect and what policy clashes loom as part of tax reform in 2025. RSVP here
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| 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | |
1. HOME FREE: A prisoner swap between the U.S. and Taliban has freed two Americans detained in Afghanistan, Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, per WaPo. McKenty’s detention had not been previously publicized. In exchange, Khan Mohammed was freed from two life sentences in California, the Taliban said. A Trump official told AP’s Zeke Miller, Jon Gambrell and Aamer Madhani that the outgoing Biden administration had negotiated the deal along with Qatar. There was no news about Mahmood Habibi and George Glezmann, two other Americans held in Afghanistan whose families have been advocating for their release. The Trump White House said it will keep pressing for everyone’s freedom. Pic of Corbett
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Adm. Linda Fagan is out as Coast Guard commandant. | Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo | 2. THE PURGE: The new Trump administration ousted Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan, as Fox News’ Landon Mion scooped overnight. She was the first woman in charge of a U.S. military branch. A top DHS official raked her over the coals to Fox, citing “leadership deficiencies, operational failures and an inability to advance the strategic objectives” on everything from the border to diversity. Trump also ousted some favorite political enemies from various official councils overnight, announcing that José Andrés, Mark Milley, Brian Hook (!) and Keisha Lance Bottoms were now fired. (For his part, Andrés said he’d already resigned upon the end of his term.) 3. PARDON FALLOUT: Senate Republicans reacted to Trump’s mass clemency for Jan. 6 prisoners with a wide range of opinions today. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) voiced opposition to pardons for violent crimes and assaults on police officers, though Collins claimed not to know whether those were included, per CNN’s Manu Raju. (They were.) Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) at first supported all the pardons, but then tried to distance himself from assaults on cops without acknowledging that they’d actually happened. Thune and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), meanwhile, tried to turn the tables back on Joe Biden, saying he’d abused the pardon power first, per Semafor’s Burgess Everett. On that score, they’re aligned with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who told Raju that Biden pardoning his family members makes it “harder to make a critique, to stand on the high ground and make a critique of the Trump pardons.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump’s Jan. 6 move simply “un-American.” 4. THE TRUMP TRIALS: Judge Aileen Cannon delivered yet another favorable ruling for Trump, barring the Justice Department from showing its classified documents case report to members of Congress, per Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney. That makes it more likely that the public will never see lots of special counsel Jack Smith’s evidence in the now-dead case against Trump. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is weighing plans to end the case against Trump’s co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, CNN’s Paula Reid and Katelyn Polantz report. Pardons are likely not in the offing, because Trump officials don’t want to create the appearance that the men did anything wrong. 5. MUSICAL CHAIRS: “A Heavy Favorite Emerges in the Race to Lead the Democratic Party,” by NYT’s Reid Epstein: “Ken Martin, one of the front-runners to lead the Democratic National Committee, said on Tuesday that he had support from 200 members of the party, a level of backing that is close to what he needs to clinch victory. If that support holds for Mr. Martin, the chairman of the Minnesota Democrats, he would be just 25 votes short of the number necessary to win the party elections on Feb. 1.” 6. MORE IMMIGRATION FILES: Immigrant communities around the country are bracing for Trump’s mass deportations, but Chicago is particularly on edge. In some neighborhoods, widespread fear is leading some families to make legal preparations and question whether kids should go to school, NYT’s Ernesto Londoño and Julie Bosman report. In the Little Village, the prospect of imminent raids turned busy streets into a “ghost town,” with foot traffic down 50 percent, Bloomberg’s Miranda Davis, Alicia Caldwell and Daniela Sirtori report. Meanwhile in Springfield, Ohio, legal Haitian immigrants whom Trump targeted during the campaign are watching and waiting to see if he’ll revoke their Temporary Protected Status, WaPo’s Michelle Boorstein reports. Eighteen Democratic-led states sued today over Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship, teeing up a court showdown over its constitutionality, per CNN. But among all of Trump’s moves yesterday, immigrant advocates were most worried by his decision to tap the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act for significant legal powers to go after immigrants, The Bulwark’s Adrian Carrasquillo reports. The end of asylum: “For one Honduran single mom fleeing threats, Trump dashes American dream,” by Reuters’ Alexandra Ulmer in Piedras Negras, Mexico 7. AD IT UP: Protect Our Care is making a preemptive move to pressure Republicans not to cut Medicaid with a $10 million “Hands Off Medicaid” ad campaign, WaPo’s Dan Diamond and Jeff Stein report. They’re focused specifically on 17 representatives and senators, largely moderates and members with a lot of constituents on Medicaid. 8. KNIVES OUT FOR THE GSA: “The U.S. Government Has a Landlord, and Trump Isn’t a Fan,” by WSJ’s Deborah Acosta: “Trump has soured on the [General Services Administration]. That change of heart could soon accelerate a shake-up already under way in the federal government’s real-estate portfolio. … The Trump administration is considering selling two-thirds of the federal government’s office stock to the private sector, according to people familiar with the transition operations.” 9. SCOTUS WATCH: Oklahoma death-row inmate Brenda Andrew got a temporary reprieve today from the Supreme Court, per CNN’s John Fritze and Devan Cole. The justices returned her case to a lower court to examine whether prosecutors “sex-shamed” Andrew while at trial for murdering her husband. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented from the unsigned order. Andrew claims that prosecutors’ moves like calling her a “slut puppy” violated due process and should get her conviction tossed out. The state has said the evidence she calls prejudicial is a small fraction of what was amassed against her at trial. Plus: The Supreme Court declined to take up a legal battle involving former Rep. Steve King’s use of a meme, a win for the “Success Kid” and his mom over King, per USA Today’s Maureen Groppe.
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Donald Trump’s stray mention yesterday of America having “split the atom” has ruffled some feathers in New Zealand, which proudly claims Nobel winner Ernest Rutherford. Andy Ogles had the quote of the day on Fox Business, where he explained his bill to help the U.S. take Greenland by saying that “we are, quite frankly, the dominant predator.” OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at an after-party hosted by The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles and Mayflower Cigars at Shelly’s Back Room last night: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Zachary Levi, Tom MacDonald, Clay Travis, Tim Pool, Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Jeremy Boreing, Andrew Klavan and Chloe Cole. Pic … Another pic — SPOTTED at a reception at the Canadian Embassy yesterday, hosted by Ambassador Kirsten Hillman: Liz Truss, Mary Ng, François-Philippe Champagne, Andrew Furey, Danielle Smith, Dennis King, and Newt and Callista Gingrich. SCENE-SETTER — “MAGA Returns to Washington With ‘Mood-Boosting’ Mocktails, Meme Coins and Paella,” by WSJ’s Annie Linskey, Liz Essley Whyte and Aaron Zitner MEDIA MOVES — Philip Rucker is joining CNN as SVP of editorial strategy and news, per Axios’ Sara Fischer. He most recently has been national editor at WaPo. … Colby Smith is now a correspondent at the NYT covering the Fed and the U.S. economy. She previously was U.S. economics editor at the FT. TRANSITIONS — Steven Dettelbach will rejoin BakerHostetler as a partner in the litigation practice group and a member of the white-collar, investigations and securities enforcement and litigation team. He previously was ATF director. … Derek Theurer is expected to head to the Treasury Department to work with Congress on tax legislation, Punchbowl’s Laura Weiss reports. He currently is a senior policy adviser focused on tax for Speaker Mike Johnson. … Ryan Neuhaus is joining the Heritage Foundation as chief of staff, as Wesley Coopersmith departs to work as chief of staff to Kelly Loeffler at the Small Business Administration. Neuhaus previously was legislative director for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). … … Scott Hodge is now a tax and fiscal policy fellow at Arnold Ventures. He previously was president and CEO of the Tax Foundation. … Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and Institute of Global Politics will add Jennifer Klein as a professor of professional practice and Rachel Vogelstein as an associate professor of professional practice, both leading the women’s initiative. Klein previously was assistant to the president and director of the White House Gender Policy Council. Vogelstein previously was deputy director and special assistant to the president at the Gender Policy Council and special adviser on gender at the NSC. BONUS BIRTHDAY: Washington Monthly’s Matt Cooper 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. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
