Playbook PM: Trump hits Harvard again

Politico

27-05-2025

Presented by
THE CATCH-UP
W FOR KATHY HOCHUL: 'Judge Temporarily Blocks White House From Ending Congestion Pricing,' NYT
SCHOOL TIES: President Donald Trump has escalated his campaign against American universities again, with Harvard leading the way.
Down to zero: A new General Services Administration letter outlines a plan for the federal government to ax $100 million of federal contracts with the university — the last tranche remaining, NYT's Stephanie Saul reports. That's just the latest federal attack on Harvard, as Trump seeks to undermine the institution's finances and bend its policies to his will. The letter from Josh Gruenbaum cites grievances from campus liberalism to affirmative action to antisemitism.
Across academia: Though Trump is seeking to bar foreign students from Harvard (a move already blocked in court), the State Department's crackdown extends much further. POLITICO's Nahal Toosi scooped that the U.S. has paused all new interviews for student visa applicants as it considers imposing significantly expanded social-media vetting on them. Some Harvard international students or admits are weighing going to other countries, NBC's Jennifer Jett and Peter Guo report from Hong Kong. With Republicans' reconciliation bill taking aim at university endowments, schools are sketching out new investment strategies, WSJ's Juliet Chung reports.
The other latest threat: Trump's punishment of Harvard is part of a broader assault on civil society institutions, Democrats and Democratic-led states that he sees as political enemies or wants to transform. This morning, he warned that he may block undisclosed federal funding to California over transgender girls competing in girls' school sports, per POLITICO's Amanda Friedman. He ordered local authorities to comply with a federal prohibition, seemingly in reference to a trans track-and-field athlete competing in upcoming state finals.
Fighting back: NPR and a few of its member stations filed suit today over Trump's executive order freezing public media funding, per POLITICO's Gigi Ewing. The outlets argued that Trump, OMB Director Russ Vought and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had run afoul of congressional intent and unleashed 'textbook retaliation' in contravention of the First Amendment. The White House had targeted NPR and PBS for delivering what it called 'biased and partisan' journalism. Notably, the lead counsel for NPR here is GOP attorney Miguel Estrada.
Reality check: Trump has singled out ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform, for federal scrutiny of possible illegal foreign contributions. ActBlue has admitted to more than 200 such questionable donations. Democrats fear that they're being targeted for political retaliation, and that a probe could force ActBlue to shut down. But AP's Brian Slodysko and Steve Peoples sifted through Trump's records and found that he got 1,600 similarly maybe-problematic contributions since 2020 — many through WinRed, Republicans' answer to ActBlue.
The response: The White House didn't specifically address the AP's findings, but said House Republicans had 'uncovered specific evidence of potentially unlawful conduct' by ActBlue.
Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at [e-mail].
8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
1. VAX NOT: 'RFK Jr. cuts COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for healthy kids, pregnant women,' ABC: 'Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday announced the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women -- a move that could alter guidance for doctors as well as some insurance coverage.'
2. TRADE WARS: On Truth Social, Trump sounded another positive note about trade talks with the EU this morning, celebrating rapid initial moves even as he warned about the costs of inaction. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told reporters that 'it's appropriate that there just be a little bit more time for the Europeans to work it out,' since the bloc is a difficult negotiating partner with so many competing constituent states. The European Commission has asked top companies to provide info on their U.S. investments, Reuters' Victoria Waldersee and Christina Amann report.
Stronger signals: The Conference Board's consumer confidence index jumped in May after several consecutive hits, fueled by Trump dialing back his trade wars, per the AP. And stock markets lifted this morning on optimism about the U.S. and EU standing down from tensions. More from Bloomberg
Global tariff fallout: Japan OKed a whopping $6.3 billion economic aid plan to help the country cope with Trump's tariffs, following similar moves by Canada and Spain, per the NYT. U.S. protectionism continues to exact a toll on some surprising and diverse companies, from a Brazilian electric engine maker (per Bloomberg) to a Spanish hatmaker that caters to American Orthodox Jews (per Reuters).
Domestic fallout: More big retailers are considering plans to sell and go private, following in the shoes — so to speak — of Skechers, Reuters' Abigail Summerville reports. NYT's Peter Eavis has the story of a Vermont water bottle startup struggling to navigate the China tariffs.
3. RUSSIA LATEST: 'Putin and Trump agree to prisoner exchange, Russia says,' by NBC's Marlene Lenthang: ''President Trump is a man who wants results,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said … Lavrov did not provide further details on the exchange … If the deal is confirmed by the State Department and comes to fruition, it will be the first exchange since last month.'
Nonetheless: Trump's newly stepped-up warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin continue. 'He's playing with fire!' Trump said on Truth Social this morning, claiming that he has shielded Russia from 'REALLY BAD' things.
4. QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'I sat down with people from the White House, and they asked: 'What if we just let [Somalia] burn?'' So recounts one former State Department official to WaPo's Katharine Houreld and Mohamed Gobobe, who report that Trump's foreign aid cuts and broader pullback from Africa have raised fears of an al-Shabab resurgence. U.S. officials have become more frustrated with Somali leaders, and the al-Qaeda affiliate is on the rise again. Kenya, Ethiopia, Turkey and the Houthis are all watching closely.
More from the DOGE house: Oil executive Tyler Hassen has amassed vast power as a Department of Government Efficiency embed at the Interior Department, without taking the customary steps to forestall conflicts of interest, AP's Martha Bellisle reports. Interior responded that Hassen is enacting Trump's vision. Elsewhere, DOGE's cuts are so sweeping that 32,000 people can be axed without almost anybody reporting on it: WaPo's Sabrina Malhi writes that those cuts hit AmeriCorps last month, 'but went largely unnoticed because most of the jobs were concentrated in nonprofit human services agencies that help underserved communities.' U.S. News & World Report has a big feature on 10 people hurt by federal cuts, far from D.C.
5. 2026 WATCH: Can Republicans defy historical trends and hold the House next year? Trump's team is pushing early and hard for that — wary of Democrats leading another impeachment — by raising and spending lots of money, and by working to shape primaries and avoid retirements, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are whispering about whether progressive Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) might opt out of reelection bids, Semafor's Burgess Everett reports. The 78-year-old Markey says no way, but the 68-year-old Merkley says he'll decide and announce this quarter.
6. E-RING READING: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's controversies may have receded from the headlines in recent weeks, but rifts and dysfunction remain within his Pentagon inner circle, raising questions about his long-term future, WaPo's Dan Lamothe reports. Eric Geressy and Ricky Buria have clashed, and officials say Hegseth needs to start 'imposing order on his own staff.' DOD officially dismissed the tensions as insignificant.
Where Hegseth and Trump have no issues: The Pentagon has rolled over to support Trump's plan for a giant military parade on his birthday, unlike in his first term, when DOD opposed the idea for fear of politicizing the armed forces, NYT's Helene Cooper reports.
7. THE IMMIGRATION DRAGNET: 'ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows,' by 404 Media's Jason Koebler and Joseph Cox: 'Data from a license plate-scanning tool that is primarily marketed as a surveillance solution for small towns to combat crimes like car jackings or finding missing people is being used by ICE … Local police around the country are performing lookups in Flock's AI-powered automatic license plate reader (ALPR) system … giving federal law enforcement side-door access to a tool that it currently does not have a formal contract for.'
For your radar: Border czar Tom Homan disclosed that he previously consulted for the immigration detention contractor GEO Group, which stands to profit from the administration's huge crackdown, WaPo's Douglas MacMillan and Aaron Schaffer report. The White House says he's following all ethics rules.
Vulnerable Venezuelans: Following last week's green light from the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority, many of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status fear imminent deportation, NBC's Nicole Acevedo reports. And NYT's Annie Correal has the story of one Venezuelan mother who decided to leave the U.S. rather than risk being separated from her children.
8. PARDON ME: 'Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner,' by NYT's Ken Vogel: '[W]eeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming [for Paul Walczak] … Then, [Elizabeth] Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump … Less than three weeks after she attended the dinner, Mr. Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon. It came just in the nick of time for Mr. Walczak.'
TALK OF THE TOWN
Cyril Ramaphosa laughed off Donald Trump's dramatic Oval Office confrontation: 'Some people have said this was an ambush. I was bemused,' the South African president said.
MEDIAWATCH — WaPo rolled out new voluntary buyouts for longtime staffers and the opinion, video and copy desks, NYT's Ben Mullin scooped. The offer in the opinion section in particular emphasizes that this is the opportunity to depart for staffers who don't like Jeff Bezos' decision to transform the section in a libertarian direction.
MEDIA MOVES — MSNBC is staffing up for its spinoff with Ken Dilanian as justice correspondent and Erielle Reshef as national correspondent and fill-in anchor. Dilanian previously has been justice and intelligence correspondent for NBC News. Reshef previously has been national correspondent at ABC News. … Haley Talbot is now director of editorial video strategy at Punchbowl. She previously was a reporter and producer covering Capitol Hill for CNN. … Brian Rokus is joining C-SPAN's 'Book TV' as a producer. He previously was an evening supervising producer in CNN's D.C. bureau.
TRANSITIONS — Andy Byford has been named special adviser to the Amtrak Board of Directors, overseeing the redevelopment of New York Penn Station. He has been an SVP at Amtrak and is a former NYC Transit Authority head. … Mira Rapp-Hooper will be a partner at The Asia Group. She previously was senior director for East Asia and Oceania and director for Indo-Pacific strategy at the Biden NSC. … Nick Elliott is now director at L2 Data. He previously was a director at RumbleUp. …
… Carl Holshouser is joining CoreWeave as VP for government affairs. He most recently was EVP and head of federal policy and government relations at TechNet. … Andrew Vontz has launched One Real Voice, a boutique firm coaching political leaders on being podcast guests and hosts. He is a Strava alum.
Send Playbookers tips to [e-mail] or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.