The Friday news dump from hell

Politico

17-05-2025

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President Donald Trump was wheels down at 9:08 p.m. last night, back from his Middle East trip. The flight was bumpy at times but uneventful.
He returned to a news cycle far more turbulent.
On his way back from Abu Dhabi, he sent a crystal-clear message to Capitol Hill, as our Rachael Bade writes in her latest Corridors column: 'Tidy up the house, kids, because dad's coming home from his big work trip.'
'Republicans MUST UNITE behind, 'THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!' … STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!' Trump said on Truth Social.
OMINOUS MOOD MUSIC: 'Don't be surprised in the coming days when the White House activates allies on the outside while Trump employs the inside game to move people to 'yes,'' Rachael writes. 'Indeed, the Trump administration official whom I texted with Friday warned obstructionists they'll pay a price. 'Voters gave them a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass a good bill,' the person told Rachael. 'And for those who vote against, they should know their careers are in jeopardy.''
One to watch: After failing to advance the megabill in a dramatic vote yesterday, the House Budget Committee has noticed a 10 p.m. vote on Sunday for the legislation as negotiations between the holdouts and leadership continue. More from POLITICO's Jennifer Scholtes
BULLETIN: Trump will hold a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine on Monday at 10 a.m., the president said in a post on Truth Social this morning.
DRIVING THE DAY
A news dump from hell came for Republicans and Democrats alike Friday, and Trump's Washington is still sorting through the collateral damage this morning. Like the Red Wedding episode of 'Game of Thrones,' few characters escaped its wrath.
Its blowback threatens to extend deep into the coming days.
LET'S GO TO THE TAPE:
3:46 p.m. — Trump's efforts to expel alleged Venezuelan gang members suffered another legal setback from his own Supreme Court, with seven justices extending the block on deporting dozens of men held in a deportation center in Texas. Only Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
THE DAMAGE: It's a temporary blow to Trump's strategy of using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to aid his immigration agenda. BUT: 'Friday's ruling noted that it was not resolving the legality of Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act,' as POLITICO's Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney write. 'That question is being litigated in lower courts.'
Trump railed against the decision on Truth Social, posting that 'The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.'
4:45 p.m. — Moody's Ratings downgraded the U.S. government's Triple A credit rating for the first time in a century, citing 'the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns.'
The White House immediately went into attack mode. 'If Moody's had any credibility, they would not have stayed silent as the fiscal disaster of the past four years unfolded,' White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the news 'should be a wake-up call to Trump and Congressional Republicans to end their reckless pursuit of their deficit-busting tax giveaway.'
THE DAMAGE: 'The announcement comes as Republicans are debating President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' that would extend 2017 tax cuts, with some hard-line conservatives fighting to limit the increase to federal spending deficits,' POLITICO's Victoria Guida writes. 'But those deficits would increase even under conditions outlined by that group.'
BUT: OMB Director Russ Vought is clapping back at those critiquing the bills cost. 'The bill satisfies the very red-line test that House fiscal hawks laid out a few weeks ago that stated that the cost of any tax cut could be paid for with $2.5 trillion in assumed economic growth, but the rest had to be covered with savings from reform,' Vought said in a lengthy post on X.
6:08 p.m. — POLITICO reports that audio of former President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur would soon leak.
Now, Republicans are using it to again eviscerate Biden. 'Whoever had control of the 'AUTOPEN' is looking to be a bigger and bigger scandal by the moment,' Trump posted earlier this morning on Truth Social. 'It is a major part of the real crime, THAT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLEN!'
WHAT REPUBLICANS ARE SAYING: 'We all knew that President Biden suffered from severe mental decline during his presidency,' Mike Davis, the GOP lawyer and close Trump ally, told Playbook this morning. 'But the Hur tapes make clear it was much, much worse than the American people knew. The Biden White House and its Cabinet engaged in the biggest cover up and scandal in American political history by hiding this.'
WHAT DEMOCRATS ARE SAYING: 'Trump was extra chaotic yesterday because he doesn't want to talk about the economy — Walmart raising prices, our credit rating getting downgraded, record-low consumer sentiment, or the GOP budget chaos,' said Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and senior adviser to Kamala Harris' 2020 presidential primary campaign. 'Instead, he throws out bullshit distractions: attacking Taylor Swift and leaking the Hur tapes to embarrass Biden — the latter being a completely classless move.'
Biden aides were not expecting the audio to drop as early as this weekend and had been told as much by the Justice Department, according to two people familiar with the back and forth. But they did ultimately expect it to drop soon: By May 20, DOJ had been ordered by a judge to say whether it will stand by Biden's assertion of executive privilege to block the release of the tapes.
Biden advisers had expected the audio to come out by that date — and it was one of the reasons they brought on extra communications help.
It all amounts to perhaps one of the best-timed book releases in recent history. 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,' ($27) the book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson, will be officially released on May 20. Thompson was one of two authors on the Axios report Friday on the audio.
6:36 p.m.: Axios publishes its first crack at the audio.
THE DAMAGE: Biden's legacy and reputation took another significant hit. Harris also took a hit, as Axios notes: 'Biden's defenders included then-Vice President Harris, who blasted Hur's report and called his comments about Biden's age 'gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate,'' they write. ''The way that the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated —gratuitous,' Harris said then. '.... We should expect that there would be a higher level of integrity than what we saw.''
'The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago,' Biden spokesperson Kelly Scully said. 'The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public.'
LISTEN: Axios posted the full audio.
THE BIG PICTURE: Surveying all of this from a careful remove is former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), one of the few elected Democrats who spoke up at the time Biden decided to run for reelection and mounted his own ill-fated primary bid.
My colleague Holly Otterbein checked in with Phillips, who texted some spicy takes after the story went up. Phillips told Holly he isn't convinced that Democratic primary voters will care about the topic in 2028.
'Based on their overwhelming selection of Joe Biden in 2024 despite abundant evidence that doing so would result in disaster, I suspect the gaslighting by 2028 aspirants won't matter a bit,' he said.
RELATED READS:
Another unforced error: 'When a Guatemalan man sued the Trump administration in March for deporting him to Mexico despite a fear of persecution, immigration officials had a response: The man told them himself he was not afraid to be sent there. But in a late Friday court filing, the administration acknowledged that this claim — a key plank of the government's response to a high-stakes class action lawsuit — was based on erroneous information,' POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reports. ICE officials 'now say they have no record of anyone being told by the man, identified only by the initials O.C.G. in court papers, that he was unafraid of going to Mexico.'
Laying down the law: A federal judge in Maryland 'upbraided the Trump administration Friday for what she described as 'bad faith' delay tactics in the face of court orders requiring the government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by U.S. immigration authorities,' Kyle and Josh report. Notable quotable: 'I'm like the cat with the ball of string and I'm trying to keep up with the ball of string,' U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said.
More Biden scrutiny: The House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into Biden's use of an autopen to issue pardons in the final days of his presidency. Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told the Republican National Lawyers Association's policy conference yesterday that he believes they've 'identified the staffer' who operated the autopen, The Washington Examiner's Kaelan Deese writes. 'If what we think is going to play out on the autopen [investigation], it's going to create a strong case on the pardons,' Comer said.
9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US
1. A NEW GAZA PLAN: The Trump administration is 'working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya,' NBC's Courtney Kube, Carol Lee and Gordon Lubold report, noting that the plan is 'under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libya's leadership.' In exchange, the U.S. would 'potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that the U.S. froze more than a decade ago.' However, the report was met with pushback after publication. An admin spokesperson told NBC that the reported plan was 'untrue,' adding that the 'situation on the ground is untenable for such a plan. Such a plan was not discussed and makes no sense.'
On the ground: Just a day after Trump left the region, Israel 'launched a major operation in the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages, following days of strikes across the Palestinian territory that killed hundreds of people,' AP's Ibrahim Hazboun and Samy Magdy report.
2. MORE ON THE TRUMP TRIP: Trump's sudden announcement this week that he was lifting sanctions on Syria 'triggered a scramble across the US government to implement the decision,' CNN's Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler and Alex Marquardt report. 'Trump administration officials had for months been carrying out quiet engagements to pave the way for sanctions relief and a potential high-level engagement with the former jihadist turned interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, but the announcement sanctions would swiftly be removed altogether took some officials by surprise.'
On Iran: Trump's stated intention to strike a nuclear deal with Iran — which was the subject of much chatter during his Middle East trip — is likely to 'test the harder-line wing of Mr. Trump's supporters in the Republican Party and whether they will fall in line with what would be a departure from their longstanding demands that Iran dismantle its nuclear program,' NYT's Steven Erlanger writes. 'More than 200 congressional Republicans urged him in a letter this week to stand firm with Iran.'
3. MAGA REVOLUTION: Trump's desire to dramatically overhaul the federal government appears to be well on its way to becoming reality. The administration's 'push for early retirement and voluntary separation is fueling a voluntary exodus of experienced, knowledgeable staffers unlike anything in living memory,' WaPo's Hannah Natanson, Dan Diamond, Rachel Siegel, Jacob Bogage and Ian Duncan report.
The scale: 'The first resignation offer, sent in January, saw 75,000 workers across government agree to quit and keep drawing pay through September, the administration has said. But a second round, rolling out agency by agency through the spring, is seeing a sustained, swelling uptick that will dwarf the first, potentially climbing into the hundreds of thousands, the employees and the records show.'
4. THE TAIL WAGS THE DOGE: 'How DOGE has tried to embed beyond the executive branch,' by NPR's Shannon Bond and Stephen Fowler: 'NPR has identified close to 40 entities — inside, adjacent to and outside of the government — where DOGE and the Trump administration have turned their attention in recent weeks. Some of them have already been effectively dismantled by DOGE … Some have been targeted for elimination by the president in his budget proposal for next year … Some of them aren't government agencies at all … Nearly all of the meetings have been conducted by a small group of young staffers, including at least one college student, with no federal government experience and little apparent knowledge about what these entities do.'
5. COMEY COMES IN: James Comey was questioned by the Secret Service over a social media post in which the former FBI director posted a photo showing the numbers '86 47' arranged in seashells on the beach, which quickly set off the right, who claimed that Comey was calling for a threat against Trump's life, NYT's Eileen Sullivan and Michael Schmidt report. 'The interview is said to have taken place at a Secret Service office in Washington. Mr. Comey is said to have voluntarily consented to the interview, the official said, and was driven to the interview by Secret Service agents.'
6. THE NEW IVF DEBATES: 'Inside the I.V.F. Deliberations at the White House as Key Report Nears,' by NYT's Caroline Kitchener: 'Provide insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization to all members of the U.S. military. Declare I.V.F. to be an 'Essential Health Benefit' — and extend coverage to the nearly 50 million Americans insured through the Affordable Care Act. Push Congress to pass a law requiring private insurance companies to cover I.V.F. procedures for any person struggling with infertility. Those are among the sweeping potential policy changes under discussion at the White House as aides prepare to release a highly anticipated report on combating infertility.'
7. TALES FROM THE CRYPTO: 'Meet 'Ice,' 'Ogle' and other crypto millionaires who bought a night with Trump,' by WaPo's Drew Harwell, Jeremy Merrill, Chris Dehghanpoor and Carol Leonnig: 'The gala dinner at the Trump National Golf Club on Thursday will link the president to an unusual collection of deep-pocketed crypto players from around the world, some of whom have told The Washington Post they hope to influence his views on how their industry is regulated or otherwise capitalize on the presidential access.' The identities of these invitees have mostly remained hidden and 'they may be able to stay that way, with one crypto investor saying he was told by the event's organizers that no cameras or journalists would be allowed in the room.'
8. RAISING ARIZONA: The conventional wisdom for Democrats trying to win in battleground Arizona is that they need to 'do nearly everything right — and still hope for a little luck. By that standard, next year's elections are looking worrisome for Democrats in the Grand Canyon State,' NYT's Kellen Browning writes. 'Their standard-bearer, Gov. Katie Hobbs, is among the nation's most vulnerable Democrats seeking re-election in 2026. And, rather than bolstering her with vital political muscle and support, the party has been consumed by an acrimonious and seemingly petty feud between the new state Democratic chairman and Arizona's two Democratic senators.'
9. YOU DON'T KNOW JACK: 'Meet New Jersey's JD Vance,' by POLITICO's Daniel Han: Jack Ciattarelli, 'a former state lawmaker who is making his third run for governor, has embraced Trump's agenda. It may be enough to propel Ciattarelli to the party nomination next month given Trump's popularity among the party base and Ciattarelli's own narrow loss to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021. But if it does, Ciattarelli would likely find himself navigating thorny terrain much like Vance has: Appealing to a broad spectrum of voters as a commonsense conservative while remaining sufficiently loyal to Trump.'
CLICKER — 'The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics,' edited by Matt Wuerker — 17 funnies
GREAT WEEKEND READS:
— 'Stephen A. Smith Is Running. To Be Joe Rogan,' by NYT's Matt Flegenheimer: 'America's best-known sports-talker is hosting boldface Democrats and MAGA luminaries and teasing a 2028 run. But what he really wants is ubiquitous political influence, and things of that nature.'
— 'The Big Takeover: The secret plans to give Trump command of America's police,' by the Phoenix New Times' Beau Hodai: 'For months, a Project 2025 subgroup drafted plans to place domestic law enforcement under Trump's thumb. We have their files.'
— 'Addicted to ICE,' by Bloomberg's Rachel Adams-Heard, Polly Mosendz and Fola Akinnibi: 'Like a growing number of US communities, Torrance County, New Mexico, is convinced its financial survival depends on locking up immigrants.'
— 'How the Trump Administration Is Weakening the Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws,' by ProPublica's Jesse Coburn: 'At least 115 fair housing cases have been halted or closed, according to HUD officials, some of whom fear race-based cases could be the next category abandoned.'
— 'Is Jeff Bezos Selling Out the Washington Post?' by The New Yorker's Clare Malone: 'How the paper that brought down Richard Nixon is struggling to survive the second term of Donald Trump.'
— 'Coming Out of the Closet Was a Liberation. Why Are Some Peeking Back In?' by NYT's Mark Harris: 'Long a place of hiding and shame, it's now being reconsidered in queer culture — and beyond.'
— 'Anna Wintour becomes an unlikely activist as Washington quashes DEI,' by WaPo's Robin Givhan: ''It's a challenging time,' the longtime Vogue editor in chief said. 'I feel we need to be courageous.''
— ''We're Definitely Going to Build a Bunker Before We Release AGI,'' by The Atlantic's Karen Hao: 'The true story behind the chaos at OpenAI.'
TALK OF THE TOWN
Donald Trump will not attend the Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend, a spokesperson confirmed.
Sean Combs is actively lobbying some Trump associates for a pardon if he faces jail time — which, as Rolling Stone notes, is straight from The Onion to reality.
PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — 'FBI leaving Hoover Building, moving 1,500 employees out of D.C. area, director says,' by Washington Business Journal's Michael Neibauer
OUT AND ABOUT — Tammy Haddad, Teresa Carlson, Helen Milby and Juleanna Glover hosted a party for Edward Luce's new book, 'Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet,' ($29.12) last night. SPOTTED: British Ambassador Peter Mandelson, Polish Ambassador Bogdan Klich and Anna Klich, New Zealand Ambassador Rosemary Banks, Stuart Jones, Peter Baker, Don Graham, Karalee Geis, Bob Costa, Phil Rucker, Josh Dawsey, Alex Marquardt, Evan Hollander, Matt Gorman, Kevin Walling, Alex Slater, Senay Bulbul, Liz Johnson, Charlotte Smith, Maryam Mujica, Adam Branch, Govind Shivkumar, Sydney Paul, Peter Pham, Chloe Autio, Tina Anthony, Jeremy and Robyn Bash, Ed Roman and Angeli Chawla.
— SPOTTED at the Wicked Game acoustic guitar concert at Marx Cafe last night with Sidewalk Soul: Christina Sevilla, Jack Doll, Neil Grace, Raquel Krähenbühl, Josh Meyer, Tim Noviello, Steve Rochlin, Jack Detsch, Alina Bondarenko, Nihal Krishan, Shaila Manyam, David Lunderquist, Riikka Hietajarvi, Gilles Bauer, Ruth Schipper, Barbara Wegerson, Victoria Leacock Hoffman, Adam Forbes and Fabian Giorgi.
TRANSITIONS — The Congressional Management Foundation has added Karsen Bailey as director of congressional outreach and Colin Driscoll as senior manager of congressional events. Bailey previously director of operations for Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and is a Bob Casey alum. Driscoll previously was scheduler and operations manager for Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) and is a Joe Courtney David Cicilline alum. … Colleen Roh Sinzdak is now a partner at Milbank's Supreme Court and appellate practice. She previously was assistant to the Solicitor General at DOJ. … Patrick Clifton is joining Fierce Government Relations. He most recently was VP of corporate affairs at LG and is a Trump White House and Rob Portman alum.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo … NYT's Mike Shear and Reid Epstein and Peter Wallsten …… Mike Smith … NBC's Kelly O'Donnell and Courtney Clawson … Rachel Palermo … Rick Wiley … Margarita Diaz … WaPo's Olivia Petersen … POLITICO's Sean Scott, Maura Reynolds and Thao Sperling … WSJ's Robin Turner … Cheryl Bruner … The Intercept's Akela Lacy … Randy Schriver … Shannon Buckingham … Phillip Stutts … Derrick Robinson … Deirdre Murphy Ramsey of Precision Strategies … David Brancaccio … Margaret McInnis of Rep. Marcy Kaptur's (D-Ohio) office … Brielle Hopkins … Nik Youngsmith of the House Administration Committee … Tim Del Monico … Emily Druckman of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association … Ralph Neas … former Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) … Adi Sathi … former Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) … Jenna Lowenstein … Jeremy Lin … EPA's Wynn Radford … NRCC's Pieter Block
THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here):
CNN 'State of the Union': Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent … Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) … Van Jones and David Axelrod.
ABC 'This Week': Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) … Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus, Sarah Isgur and Faiz Shakir.
FOX 'Fox News Sunday': Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … Speaker Mike Johnson … Adam Boehler. Legal panel: Ilya Shapiro and Tom Dupree. Sunday panel: Kevin Roberts, Susan Page, Tiffany Smiley and Juan Williams. Sunday special: Modern Warrior Live.
NBC 'Meet the Press': Mike Pence … Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent … Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Panel: Ashley Etienne, Stephen Hayes, Andrea Mitchell and Amna Nawaz.
NewsNation 'The Hill Sunday': Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) … Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.). Panel: George Will, Sarah McCammon, Julie Mason and Julia Manchester.
MSNBC 'The Weekend: Primetime': Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) … DNC Vice Chair David Hogg.
CBS 'Face the Nation': Robert Gates … retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
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