Qatar-a-Lago

Politico

14-05-2025

Presented by
With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
Good Wednesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — THE ELON EFFECT: You've seen the anti-Elon Musk bumper stickers. You've read about the anti-Tesla vandalism. Today, new polling makes it clear: Public opinion on the world's most valuable car firm now splits dramatically down partisan lines. Buying a Tesla has become a political act.
Sixty-one percent of Democrats now have a negative view of Tesla, a survey by the Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report found, while only 17 percent view Tesla in a positive light. By contrast, just over half of Republicans (51 percent) have a positive view of Tesla, compared with 17 percent who view the company negatively. There's little doubt about what — or rather, who — is driving this extraordinary split.
To be clear: Views of car manufacturers do not normally split so completely down partisan lines. In the same survey, only 4 percent of Democrats and 7 percent of Republicans had a negative view of Honda. Because — who really hates Honda, right? It's just … Honda. But Tesla is not like that. Not any more.
Despite popping up with Trump in Saudi Arabia yesterday, Elon Musk has been gently backing away from the political scene. Strikingly, his X feed is now largely free of political content. But the $460 billion question is — can the brand recover once he's left the White House? And what are the implications for the EV market if it does not, with Chinese giant BYD gaining ground around the world? Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
FURTHER READING: The FT's Joe Miller and Chris Cook just published a decent deep dive on Musk's efforts to cut government spending with DOGE. For all the noise (and the $2 trillion promises), actual taxpayer savings have been tiny, they report. (Maybe this governing thing is harder than it looks.)
In today's Playbook:
— Donald Trump is headed to Qatar aboard old Air Force One for the second leg of his Mideast tour.
— Dems are in meltdown over that Joe Biden book.
— Congress stayed up all night to get the one 'big, beautiful bill' done. But we're not there yet.
DRIVING THE DAY
LEAVING ON A ($400 MILLION) JET PLANE: Donald Trump has just departed Riyadh as he heads on to the second — and most controversial — leg of his Middle Eastern tour. The president should be touching down in Qatar within the next half hour for a whirlwind visit to the Arabian peninsula, with more big-money investment deals to unveil.
BUT WHO CARES? Because all anyone is interested in now is the damn jet plane, which will be top of mind while Trump rubs shoulders with the very same Qatari royals planning to gift it to him. Even Trump himself can't shut up about it. 'You see Saudi Arabia, you see UAE and you see Qatar, they have these brand-new 747s mostly,' the billionaire U.S. president complained on Fox News, in one of his less-relatable moments. 'You see ours next to it. This [Air Force One] is like a totally different plane. It's much smaller and less impressive … My attitude is — why wouldn't I accept a gift?' (One possible answer: The Constitution.)
And it didn't stop there: Posting on Truth Social from Riyadh last night at **checks watch** 2:50 a.m. local time, Trump couldn't let it lie. 'The Boeing 747 is being given to the United States Air Force/Department of Defense, NOT TO ME!' he wrote, adding: 'Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE … Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our Country.'
And by 4:05 a.m. local time … Trump had taken to re-posting comments comparing the $400 million freebie luxury jet plane to France's gift of the Statue of Liberty in 1884.
Truth is, plenty of Trump supporters are rattled by this story, which — along with the revelations about Joe Biden's decline — has dominated discourse in D.C. all week and largely overshadowed Trump's first overseas tour since returning to power. Joining MAGA favorites Laura Loomer and Ben Shapiro in voicing their concerns about the jet freebie yesterday were several notable GOP senators, as POLITICO's Eric Bazail-Eimil and Robbie Gramer reported. And the Murdoch-owned, Trump-supporting New York Post hates the idea. 'What is President Trump thinking?' its editorial board fumed.
But Trump really wants that plane. And AG Pam Bondi won't stop him. Will Congress? Will the Supreme Court? Will the midterms? Certainly, Dems are licking their lips at such a visual illustration of the story they want to tell voters about Trump — of a wealthy, out-of-touch president cutting dodgy deals with the mega-rich while cutting basic support for struggling families. The DNC told Playbook it plans to fly a 'Welcome to Qatar-a-Lago' banner over Palm Beach later today.
This all followed yesterday's glitzy business summit in Riyadh, where, as POLITICO's Irie Sentner notes, the guest list was unusually VIP even by Trump's standards. Strikingly, in amongst the Elon Musks and the Sam Altmans and the Larry Finks — rubbing shoulders with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the president — was Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the L.A. Times, who famously blocked his own newspaper from endorsing a presidential candidate last November. He was toe-curlingly quick to humblebrag about the meeting on social media yesterday … POLITICO's Will McCarthy has more on him.
But missing in action … was Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder and Democratic mega-donor who is not exactly a popular figure in the White House (or with Musk). His presence in Riyadh was wrongly announced by the Trump administration before his spokesperson issued a correction, as POLITICO's Emma Anderson and colleagues report.
The White House buzz: Amusingly, my ace Playbook colleague Dasha Burns says Trump world people have spent the past few days gleefully sharing this NY Post scoop about Hoffman's links to an air taxi firm which has been pitching for a photo shoot on the White House lawn. So disliked is Hoffman that the photo op looks unlikely to be approved, the Post (and these White House staffers) report. 'This is yet another example of MAGA world turning their ire on any institution or business with ties to anti-Trump interests,' Dasha texts in. 'The president has been relentless in his vengeance tour — but so have the Trump world warriors.'
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Before departing Riyadh this morning Trump met with Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa a day after lifting all sanctions on the country. It's a pretty extraordinary moment, given al-Sharaa was once a key figure with al-Qaeda in Syria. The 30-minute summit was closed to the press.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: Tune in tomorrow for POLITICO's big security summit here in D.C., with guest speakers including Trump's counter-terror adviser Seb Gorka, Senate Armed Services Committee member Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), and former national security advisers John Bolton and Jake Sullivan. Sign up here! Dasha and myself will also be onstage.
FOR YOUR RADAR: Tomorrow also marks the day of the will-they-won't-they Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going, as is Marco Rubio. But as things stand, Vladimir Putin and Trump are not.
NEWS FROM THE WILDERNESS
MORNING JOE: The Dems are braced for another day of revelations from the book that's got all D.C. talking — Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper's forthcoming exposé on Joe Biden's disastrous re-election bid, 'Original Sin' ($27). The buzz around D.C. is that the authors have hired NYC PR guru Risa Heller to help with the rollout of the book — which certainly gives it some added oomph — alongside Penguin's Elisabeth Calamari. Heller was dubbed New York's 'crisis-communications warrior of choice' in a memorable NYMag profile in 2023.
Best so far: You've presumably already read the New Yorker's excerpts, but Biden's reported failure to recognize George Clooney — and this was before he dyed his hair for Broadway — is quite a moment. … As is his forgetting the names of half his top team. The recriminations were already flying last night, and throughout the Democratic Party, an array of unconvincing defenses are being deployed.
The Biden world line — nothing to see here: 'We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job,' an unnamed Biden spokesperson told NBC. (Question: Does 'doing his job' extend to a presidential debate with Trump?)
Politics 101 — Blame the consultants: 'To blame Biden now is to shift the accountability from the people who lost the race: the consultants, the so-called gurus,' DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge told NBC's Natasha Korecki. 'I find it rich that consultants who lost that election are now trying to blame Joe Biden.'
Don't look back in anger: Other senior Dems are just refusing to engage at all with the not-exactly-unserious allegation that they helped cover-up a catastrophic decline in the basic functions of the president. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would only tell CNN's Kasie Hunt — repeatedly — that he was 'looking forward' rather than back. During his own CNN hit, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker complained the discussion was 'backward-looking,' but insisted Biden had always 'brought to the table a lot of good ideas.'
For those who were close to Biden, it's excruciating stuff. Speaking at an event in Iowa last night (per Playbook's own Adam Wren), Biden's Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he accepted that 'with the benefit of hindsight … most people would agree' Biden should never have run in 2024. But he added: 'Every time I needed something from him, from the West Wing, I got it.'
BORN TO RUN: At the same event, Buttigieg admitted he is thinking about 'what I bring to the table' ahead of a potential 2028 presidential bid, Adam reports, marking the clearest acknowledgement yet of his ambitions for the White House. Adam notes that Buttigieg is tapping in again with small-dollar donors, meeting old campaign aides and diving headfirst into the world of manosphere podcasts. We all know where this is headed.
OMA GOODNESS: Democrats are at least waking up to one victory this morning — in a mayoral election in Omaha, Nebraska. Dem candidate John Ewing Jr. pulled off an upset over incumbent GOP Mayor Jean Stothert, who had cruised to reelection twice before. The Omaha World-Herald's Henry Cordes notes that a host of headwinds worked against Stothert, including (but not exclusively) voters' sentiments about Trump's leadership of her party. Ewing will be the city's first Black mayor.
MEANWHILE ON THE HILL
MEGA-BILL LATEST: The marathon markup sessions continued overnight, and we have the snapshot of where things stand this morning, from our intrepid (and bleary-eyed) colleagues behind Inside Congress — which you can sign up for here:
Yesterday was about the SALT Republicans … Speaker Mike Johnson held a meeting with SALT Republicans yesterday evening, where they discussed a plan to use some wiggle room in the tax bill to boost the limitation on the state and local tax deduction, POLITICO's Meredith Lee Hill reports.
Today is about the conservative hard-liners … who, as POLITICO's Mia McCarthy and Lisa Kashinsky write, are making their displeasure about the mega-bill quite clear. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) said 'not nearly enough' is being done to win over conservatives. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) said parts of the package are 'disturbing.' Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said 'the proposal to stop waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid will do little to achieve that.' Watch for House leaders to be asked about all of it at their midweek media scrums a bit before noon today.
It's not just in the House, either: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is 'no stranger to being a squeaky wheel inside the Senate GOP. Now he's asking for trillions of dollars worth of grease,' POLITICO's Jordain Carney writes, noting that Johnson's 'increasingly vocal warnings are an early indicator for Senate GOP leaders and the White House that they've got major headaches awaiting across the Capitol.' Says Johnson: 'I think there's enough of us that would say, 'No, that's not adequate.''
Speaking of … You can hear more from Sen. Johnson at POLITICO's 'Manufacturing in America' today at 8:30 a.m. Other key speakers include Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) and Gilbert B. Kaplan. More details here … Watch it live on YouTube
BEST OF THE REST
WHAT ELSE TO WATCH: A handful of Cabinet secretaries are coming before Congress today, including a trio that has a penchant for making news.
Bill of health: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s appearance before the Senate HELP Committee at 1:30 p.m. could provide the most explosive moments, as he sits for the first public hearing chaired by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has thus far maintained a nonconfrontational approach that he believes is keeping RFK Jr. mostly away from his anti-vax impulses, POLITICO's Carmen Paun and Adam Cancryn write. The health chief is preparing to defend the sweeping cuts at HHS, per POLITICO Pro's Sophie Gardner, even though the administration asked some of the thousands of workers it laid off to return permanently.
One question on our minds: Will anyone ask RFK Jr. about his not-so-sanitary family dip in the sewage-spoiled Rock Creek?
The ICE box: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is before the House Homeland Security Committee at 10 a.m. to talk about her agency's budget. One thing you can be certain will get some airtime: the fracas over Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's arrest at an ICE facility in New Jersey, which has set off a furor among Democrats. After Noem spoke about the incident on Fox News last night, bashing Baraka, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said in a post on X that he was 'looking forward' to questioning Noem.
Plane-ageddon: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will sit for a grilling at 10 a.m. by a House Appropriations subcommittee. There's plenty to discuss with Duffy, as a string of snafus lead to increased stress on an already-hamstrung air travel system. The latest disaster is out of Newark, where technical and staffing issues crippled the airport — something that Duffy says we could see more of across the summer as he tries to foist blame for the disruptions on the Biden administration.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Republicans' primary from hell: Texas AG Ken Paxton's challenge of incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is turning into a 'cash-burning demolition derby' that 'threatens to fracture the party, force the White House to intervene and perhaps even put an otherwise safe seat at risk in November,' POLITICO's Ben Jacobs reports this morning, in a must-read deep dive on the early contours of the campaign. A shock poll earlier this week shows Paxton is miles ahead in the primary. But there are profound doubts about his ability to win in a general election. All that and more in the full piece
COURT IN THE ACT: A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled the Trump administration can use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act for deportations, so long as migrants are given a proper head's up in the future, WaPo's Jeremy Roebuck and Marianne LeVine report. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines dubbed Trump's past use of the Alien Enemies Act as 'constitutionally deficient,' and said the government must give migrants at least 21 days' notice and a chance to challenge their removal in court.
FOR YOUR RADAR: The Trump administration's war against the judiciary isn't going away any time soon. A federal grand jury indicted a Wisconsin circuit judge 'on charges she helped a man in the country illegally evade U.S. immigration authorities looking to arrest him as he appeared before her in a local domestic abuse case,' allowing the case to move forward despite protest from Democrats and local officials, AP's Todd Richmond reports. The judge is expected to enter her plea tomorrow.
TALK OF THE TOWN
PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — This week marks two months since the Senate passed its emergency fix for D.C.'s budget woes — since when the bill has sat stalled in the House, preventing the District of Columbia from spending about $1 billion of its own cash, our POLITICO colleagues Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus note. 'I'm very concerned — worried about the District of Columbia's budget, and that they're going to have to start cutting back on police services,' Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins told Jennifer and KTM.
IN MEMORIAM — 'William H. Luers, U.S. diplomat and Met museum leader, dies at 95,' by WaPo's Harrison Smith: 'A tall and rangy Illinois native, Mr. Luers operated for years at the intersection between art and diplomacy, working with writers, artists and other cultural figures in the United States and overseas. Long before the term 'soft power' came into vogue, he looked to the arts as a way to exercise American influence, build relationships and foster understanding, whether as a top envoy in Caracas during the late '70s oil boom or as an ambassador in Prague shadowed by the secret police.'
OUT AND ABOUT — Rebecca Kutler hosted a salon dinner last night at Lafayette in New York City to celebrate the launch of 'The Weekend: Primetime' and toast to the show's co-hosts, Ayman Mohyeldin, Catherine Rampell, Antonia Hylton and Elise Jordan. SPOTTED: Greg Kordick, Jesse Rodriguez, Raelyn Johnson, Joy Fowlin, Scott Matthews, Madeleine Haeringer, Brian Jacobs, Sharon Chang, Mark McGrath, Olivia Metzger, Mike Hogan, Chris Conlon and Kenza Fourati.
— SPOTTED at a dinner last night at the Capitol to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the Laffer Curve, hosted by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity: Speaker Mike Johnson, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Kellyanne Conway, Arthur Laffer, Steve Moore, David Zervos, Mike Faulkender, Lisa Nelson, Jimmy Kemp, Alexandra Preate, Frank Cassidy, Richard Rahn, Charles Glazer, EJ Antoni, Judy Shelton and Grover Norquist.
— Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck yesterday evening celebrated its 30th anniversary in the nation's capital and its new office location at 600 Massachusetts Ave NW, where founder and chair Norm Brownstein delivered a toast to lawmakers, administration officials, clients, colleagues and longtime friends of the firm. SPOTTED: Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Jeff Hurd (R-Texas), Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), Rob Wittman (R-Va.) and Ann Wagner (R-Mo.).
TRANSITIONS — Paul Ray is now of counsel at Covington & Burling. He most recently was director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, and is a former administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in Trump's first term. … Seth Williford is joining the Business Roundtable as senior director for policy. He previously was general counsel for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). … Carli Kientzle is joining NP Agency as SVP. She previously was a VP at Conexion. …
… Laszlo Baksay is joining DHS/ICE as deputy assistant director for media affairs. He previously was managing director at DCI Group. … Artealia Gilliard is joining the American Clean Power Association as chief comms officer. She previously was head of environmental and sustainability comms and advocacy at Ford Motor Company. … Alex Przybelski is now VP of digital comms and strategy at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. He previously was director of digital strategy at the National Association of Manufacturers.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Diana Rayes, Georgetown School of Foreign Service and Atlantic Council scholar, and Adham Sahloul, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, recently welcomed Danny Husam Sahloul, whose name is an ode to his maternal grandfather and his parents' Syrian heritage. Pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: White House chief of staff Susie Wiles … Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) … Mark Zuckerberg … Tom Donilon of O'Melveny & Myers … former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) … POLITICO's Jason Beeferman, David Guide and Dari Gessner … Emily Golden … J.B. Poersch of Senate Majority PAC … ABC's Karen Travers … NBC's David Gelles … Semafor's Kadia Goba … Jon Vogel of MVAR Media … Sydney Thomas Stubbs of Americans for Prosperity … Aneiry Batista … State Department's Akhil Bery … former Reps. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), Mimi Walters (R-Calif.) and Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) … former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen … Cassie Scher of Rational 360 … Bloomberg's Josh Eidelson … Rob Levinson … Kara Allen … Judith Barnett … Brian Canfield … Elizabeth Mulkey … Jill Stein … Erwin Chemerinsky … Caleb Randall-Bodman of QuestEnd Advisors … Audrey Henson … Howard Wolfson … Elizabeth Harnik … Sam Newton … David Marchick … Anna Gratzer of Everytown for Gun Safety
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