Latest news with #WaPo
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Internet System Elon Musk Installed at the White House Is Causing Concerns
Elon Musk's lackeys at his so-called Department of Government Efficiency installed a Starlink terminal on the roof of the White House — and then totally blew off the major security concerns raised by communications experts, the Washington Post reports. This is the latest example of the security risks arising from DOGE's sweeping access to federal systems, alongside the high-profile blunders made by key figures in Trump's cabinet. According to insiders, it sounds like the White House communications experts were totally circumvented by Musk's group: they were given no notice that DOGE was installing the Starlink terminal — and once the satellite-based internet service was online, they had no way of actually monitoring the connections. When they voiced these concerns, the communications experts were ignored. At one point, things got heated. The installation of the Starlink roof terminal caused a confrontation between DOGE staffers and the Secret Service, according to WaPo. There was a lot for them to complain about. According to WaPo sources, a "Starlink Guest" WiFi network that first appeared in February is still active. It asks only for a password, with no username requirement or other form of authentication. This is not — or at least, shouldn't be — standard practice. Personal phones on a guest network at the White House typically need a username and a password, which are tracked and expire after a week, per WaPo. Starlink's network, by contrast, sounds more like the free Wi-Fi at Starbucks. "Starlink doesn't require anything. It allows you to transmit data without any kind of record or tracking," an insider told WaPo. "White House IT systems had very strong controls on network access. You had to be on a full-tunnel VPN at all times. If you are not on the VPN, White House-issued devices can't connect to the outside." "With a Starlink connection, that means White House devices could leave the network and go out through gateways. … It's going to help you bypass security," another insider told WaPo. Starlink is generally considered more secure than traditional telecommunication networks in the US, according to the reporting. But they're not impenetrable, and security experts aren't relishing the fact that they're being kept in the dark about what data is being transmitted in and out of the White House via the satellite network. It's unclear if the rooftop terminal remains installed, or if anything will change now that Musk has stepped back from his role as a "special government employee." That's a substantial loose end, because Musk has recently demonstrated a legendary petty streak that saw him lash out at Donald Trump and seemingly burn all bridges with the administration. If Musk is willing to threaten to cut off the US government's space access using his company's spacecraft, what else would he be willing to do? We've seen Musk personally intervene in Starlink's operations in the past for political reasons. When the Ukrainian military launched an ambush on the Russian naval fleet stationed near the Crimean coast, the billionaire ordered his engineers to shut down Starlink in the region to disrupt the attack. Starlink did not respond to WaPo's request for comment. The Secret Service said it could not discuss specific technology systems for security reasons. "We were aware of DOGE's intentions to improve internet access on the campus and did not consider this matter a security incident or security breach," Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told WaPo. More on Elon Musk: Trump Confronted Musk in Private Before Their Blowout Public Fight
Politico
3 days ago
- Business
- Politico
Playbook PM: The next stage of the Trump-Musk breakup
Presented by THE CATCH-UP THE RETRIBUTION PRESIDENCY: 'Trump preparing large-scale cancellation of federal funding for California, sources say,' by CNN's Annie Grayer and Gabe Cohen: '[It] could begin as soon as Friday … Agencies are being told to start identifying grants the administration can withhold from California. On Capitol Hill, at least one committee was told recently by a whistleblower that all research grants to the state were going to be cancelled.' BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO: After initial rumblings of a detente last night between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the president and his White House had some sharper words today for the wealthiest person in the world. Don't let the door hit you where the Lord split you: After Musk started attacking Republicans' reconciliation bill and the administration he just departed, Trump referred to Musk as 'the man who has lost his mind' in an early-morning call with ABC's Jonathan Karl. 'He's got a problem. The poor guy's got a problem,' the president told CNN's Dana Bash on the phone. 'I'm not even thinking about Elon.' (Shades of 'The Fountainhead' there — 'But I don't think of you.') Twisting the knife: Top White House officials made sure to spread the news to all manner of mainstream news outlets — which Musk hates — that Trump intends to sell the Tesla that he got in March and that he doesn't plan to call Musk today. Whither DOGE? Beyond the personal stakes, one big question is how this week's falling out will affect the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, which despite Musk's drama has already had a transformative effect on the federal workforce and millions of lives worldwide. James Fishback, a prominent supporter who came up with the idea of 'DOGE checks,' told POLITICO's Sophia Cai that he's leaving the movement due to Musk's 'baseless personal attacks' on Trump. Then there's the clean-up: Across the federal government, agencies have scrambled to rehire thousands of fired workers, WaPo's Hannah Natanson and colleagues report. And ProPublica's Brandon Roberts and colleagues reveal that a DOGE employee set up an AI tool to figure out thousands of contracts to cut — but it contained errors, sometimes inflating the value of a contract by the power of 1,000. 'Mistakes are always made. I would never recommend someone run my code and do what it says,' the engineer says. At rallies on the National Mall and across the country today, thousands of veterans will protest VA cuts, WaPo's Olivia George reports. Nonetheless: The administration went to the Supreme Court today with an emergency appeal to try to hollow out the Education Department's workforce, per POLITICO's Josh Gerstein. Solicitor General John Sauer asked the justices to undo a federal judge's order that barred the firings of nearly 40 percent of the agency. On the Hill: Despite Trump's comment, Republican leaders in Congress were eager to downplay his tensions with Musk and emphasized that they want everyone on the same page to pass the reconciliation bill, POLITICO's Gigi Ewing and colleagues report. Speaker Mike Johnson said on CNBC and at the Capitol that he hopes for quick resolution: 'I believe in redemption.' Says one top administration official: 'We're just gonna move along and pass the bill. And that's kind of the feeling of everyone right now.' Interesting wrinkle: Advocates for the NASA moon mission are hopeful that the Trump-Musk rift will give the moon a boost relative to Musk's Mars dreams, Sam Skove writes for the new POLITICO Pro Space newsletter. Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@ 8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. JOBS DAY: You can see the ongoing impact of DOGE in the latest May jobs report, which shows that the federal government lost 22,000 jobs last month. As NYT's Eileen Sullivan and Lydia DePillis report, hundreds of thousands of workers forced out of the government en masse are struggling to find new opportunities, with the D.C. area hit especially hard. But the jobs data overall showed a still-solid if cooling labor market: At 139,000, the topline number again came in a bit ahead of economists' predictions, while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent, per Bloomberg. Inside the report: The strength was especially concentrated in health care and leisure/hospitality, while manufacturing ticked down. The big picture is that the economy is holding fairly steady, despite some cooldown and ongoing caution in a period of major uncertainty. The numbers for March and April were also revised downward by a collective 95,000 (the kind of routine change that then-Sen. Marco Rubio last year alleged without evidence was a sign of the Biden administration cooking the books). 2. TO RUSSIA, WITH LOVE: 'White House Quietly Pressures Senate to Water Down Russia Sanctions,' by WSJ's Lindsay Wise and Alex Ward: 'A key provision in the legislation, backed by more than 80 senators, is the imposition of sanctions on key Russian officials and sectors, as well as penalties for countries that do business with Moscow. That, President Trump fears, could harm his goal of reviving relations between the U.S. and Russia … [A]dministration officials have quietly contacted [Sen. Lindsey] Graham's office, urging him to water down his bill, namely by inserting waivers that would allow Trump to choose who or what gets sanctioned … Another way to weaken the legislation would be to turn the word 'shall' into 'may.'' 3. RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: The Senate Banking Committee has released the text of its portion of the megabill. And House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) is projecting confidence about the prospects of the legislation overall. He tells POLITICO's Mia McCarthy that he expects the reconciliation package can still be passed through both chambers by July 4. But he's urging senators not to mess with the state and local tax deduction in particular, given how difficult it was for House GOP leaders to nail that down. Emmer also said he's ignoring Musk's continued attacks. The politics: There are warning signs for Republicans in the latest KFF Health poll, which finds that more than 70 percent of Americans are worried about the impact of Medicaid cuts in the bill leading to more people uninsured and hurting hospitals. But some Senate Democrats are warning that they can't just go negative — they need to tell working-class Americans what they're for, too, like Sen. Jacky Rosen's (D-Nev.) support for axing taxes on tips, Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio reports. The impact: If the Senate retains the bill's defunding of Planned Parenthood for all health services because it provides abortions, the organization says roughly one-third of its clinics could be in danger of closing, NBC's Kaitlin Sullivan reports. That would have a big impact on women who rely on the centers for health care. 4. CLIMATE FILES: 'Planet-warming emissions dropped when companies had to report them. EPA wants to end that,' by AP's Melina Walling and colleagues in Leopold, Indiana: 'Trump's EPA argues [the Greenhouse Gas Reporting program] is costly and burdensome for industry. But experts say dropping the requirement risks a big increase in emissions if companies are no longer publicly accountable for what they put in the air. And they say losing the data — at the same time the EPA is cutting air quality monitoring elsewhere — would make it tougher to fight climate change.' 5. OUT AND OUT: As WorldPride gets underway in D.C., today is the deadline for active-duty transgender troops to voluntarily leave the military. After that, the Pentagon plans to force out any who remain. For thousands of trans service members, it's a brutal parting 'as they mourn years of service and reimagine lives that have been built around the military,' CNN's Elizabeth Wolfe reports. As of this week, there were about 700 voluntary separation requests just in the Army; other branches haven't released numbers. 6. TRAIL MIX: In Tuesday's New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial primary, Rep. Mikie Sherrill is seen as the favorite. But with scant independent polling, likely low turnout and the disappearance of the old party-machine 'county line,' this six-way race has the potential to surprise, POLITICO's Madison Fernandez and Ry Rivard report. A few thousand votes could decide the result, and Sherrill's fellow contenders are hoping to turn out unconventional voters. Sherrill has plenty of establishment support: Will that still be enough? The next big primary: NYC's mayoral race was jolted by the news that state Sen. Jessica Ramos, a candidate herself, is endorsing frontrunner Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, NYT's Emma Fitzsimmons reports. Ramos was outright questioning Cuomo's mental abilities — which prompted his spokesperson to ask if she was sober — as recently as April and was among the state leaders who pushed him to resign in 2021. But Ramos has more recently been frustrated by the ascent of Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in her progressive lane. Coming in November: In Virginia, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears' strong social conservatism — to the right of incumbent Glenn Youngkin on same-sex marriage and abortion — could make it tougher for her to replicate his success in the purple state, NBC's Adam Edelman reports. 7. DISCRIMINATION DIGEST: Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) decried the fact that a Muslim had led prayer in the House today, saying it 'should have never been allowed to happen. America was founded as a Christian nation, and I believe our government should reflect that truth, not drift further from it.' Upon realizing that the man was actually a Sikh, not a Muslim, she edited the post to change the word to Sikh. Then she deleted it. More from POLITICO's Aaron Pellish 8. MIX AND MATCH: 'Cards in deck: Trump keeps stack of orders ready to play as needed,' by WaPo's Natalie Allison and colleagues: 'White House staff have maintained a stash of executive orders and proclamations they can deploy depending on the themes of the moment and the narratives they want to shape … Some orders are put into the calendar well in advance … Others are teed up the night before they are signed depending on impulse, political strategy and the overall mood within the White House … Wednesday evening was the time the president and his team chose to hit the go button on the long-planned travel ban.' TALK OF THE TOWN Donald Trump is the protagonist of a Cantonese opera in Hong Kong, whose latest iteration incorporates the Oval Office blow-up at Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the assassination attempt. Bruce Springsteen's diehard fans in Republican politics — from Chris Christie to Chris Pack to Mike Marinella — are sticking by his music, though not his feud with Trump. IN MEMORIAM — 'Marina von Neumann Whitman, Who Carved Path for Women in Economics, Dies at 90,' by NYT's Clay Risen: She was 'an expert in international trade who in 1972 became the first woman to be appointed to the White House Council of Economic Advisers and who later was one of the few women to join the executive leadership at General Motors.' BATTERING RAHM: Rahm Emanuel is this week's guest on 'The Conversation with Dasha Burns,' where he discussed his reputation for being 'kind of an asshole' and whether he wears that badge with pride. Emanuel said he understands how the perception came about through his years of taking on powerful institutions. 'Yeah, I am tough,' Emanuel tells Dasha. 'Because guess what? The interest groups are pretty powerful and they do need sometimes somebody that's willing to take a two-by-four and smack them upside the head, and I make no bones about that.' The full episode drops Sunday. Watch the preview clip … Subscribe to the pod OUT AND ABOUT — Meridian International Center held its fifth annual 'Culturefix' event yesterday, including awards that honored Roger Goodell, Anna Deavere Smith, Sanford Biggers and Mark Sikes. Also SPOTTED: Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Austrian Ambassador Petra Schneebauer, Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) and Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Ashley Davis, Elizabeth Duggal and Alain Taghipour, Marlene Malek, Luke Frazier and Robert Pullen, Stuart and Gwen Holliday, Michael Bidwill, Geoff Bennett, Grace Bender, Heather Florance, Jessica Glass, DeDe Lea, Fred Hochberg and Tom Healy, Fred Humphries, Stephanie and Mark Robinson, Roy and Manisha Kapani, Randi and Jeffrey Levine, Jonathan Nabavi, Brendon Plack, Jeff Miller, Peter O'Reilly, Samia Farouki, Thomas Lloyd, John McCarthy, Efe Obada, Donté Stallworth, Omar Vargas, Rosie Rios, Jim Sciutto and Gloria Riviera, Rina Shah, Jennifer Griffin and Greg Myre, Lee Satterfield, Lisa Ross and Gordon Sondland. TRANSITIONS — Gustavo Torres is retiring as executive director of CASA, after more than three decades in the role. … Jerzy Piatkowski is now counsel at Fenwick. He most recently was VP of contracts and associate general counsel at General Dynamics Mission Systems. … Kevin Orellana will be a legislative assistant for Rep. Vince Fong (R-Calif.), handling his financial services portfolio. He previously was a legislative aide for Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.). BONUS BIRTHDAY: Jordan Finkelstein Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ 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.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Washington Post Is Secretly Planning to Start Publishing Articles Created Using AI
As the news media continues its often-disastrous pivot towards generative artificial intelligence, the most prominent publication yet has jumped on board: the Washington Post, it turns out, has quietly been building an AI tool designed to let underqualified writers publish content in its storied pages. According to multiple sources familiar with the plan who spoke to the New York Times, since April the newspaper has been secretly building a program known as "Ripple" that appears to be part syndication, part talent network akin to contributor schemes at HuffPost and Forbes. The biggest difference from those prior contributor networks and this one, though, is the way the sausage will be made. Along with partnerships with established writers, the new program will employ an "AI writing coach" called "Ember" designed to guide "nonprofessionals" through the article-writing process. That tool will, per early prototypes described to the NYT, hand-hold aspiring columnists through every aspect of the writing process from start to finish. Its sidebar will instruct writers to devise an "early thesis," list out "supporting points," and provide a "memorable ending" — all while a live AI chatbot weighs in and a "story strength" tracker evaluates their progress. At the end of it all, a human editor is said to review the columns before they go to publication — though in practice, similar promises have often ended in disaster, like at CNET, which promised that editors were reviewing the scores of AI-generated articles it ran before it turned out they were riddled with errors and plagiarism. Though the outputs from WaPo's program wouldn't be entirely generated by AI, it sounds like everything but. And in practice, as we've seen time and again, the temptation with AI is to use it not as a thoughtful creative partner but as a speedrunning tool to churn out large quantities of low-quality material, or to cook up something that sounds confident but is shaky on the undergirding facts and logic. In other words, it sounds like the program could be poised to take everything that's currently broken and controversial about newspaper opinion sections and amplify it using generative AI. WaPo declined to provide comment for the NYT's exposé. It's worth noting that the NYT has been putting significant resources of its own into exploring how AI can be responsibly used in journalism — but while it's using certain machine learning tools for tasks like finding patterns in large datasets, it's pledged not to use generative AI to write any articles. The revelation also comes during a period of broader crisis at WaPo, with significant layoffs coming as its owner Jeff Bezos has increasingly exerted control over the content and ideological leaning of the paper's journalism. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, eat your heart out. More on AI writing: Business Insider Did Something So Stupid With AI That We're Reeling
Politico
13-05-2025
- Business
- Politico
Playbook PM: Trump's big Syria pivot
Presented by THE CATCH-UP POTUS ABROAD: President Donald Trump announced today that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Syria, as he promoted major Saudi investment pledges and laid out a new vision for American foreign policy: more realpolitik, less values-based intervention. 'Oh, what I do for the crown prince,' Trump said in reference to Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman, also citing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as having helped secure the Syria sanctions reprieve. More from POLITICO's Eli Stokols Road to Damascus: This is most immediately a huge shift in Syria policy and a major boon for new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whom Trump plans to greet tomorrow, per Axios' Barak Ravid. The White House framed it simply as a moment to 'say hello,' but it's nonetheless a striking encounter with a man who's still on the U.S. terrorist list — and the first meeting between U.S. and Syrian leaders since 2000. The U.S. sanctions have weighed heavily on the Syrian economy, threatening al-Sharaa's ability to rebuild the country since the rebel leader ousted the Bashar Assad regime five months ago. More from Riyadh: Trump said Saudi Arabia had agreed to $600 billion in investments in the U.S., with roughly half of those deals signed on this trip, though details are scarce for now, per Reuters. (Bloomberg reports that MBS' ultra-costly domestic spending plans could make it harder to deliver.) The U.S. will also sell $142 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia, which the White House trumpeted as the largest such arms cooperation deal ever struck. The Trump administration is also working on a deal for Saudi Arabia to access more AI semiconductor chips, Bloomberg's Mackenzie Hawkins, Annmarie Hordern and Matthew Martin report. The ideological shift: As Trump laid out in his speech, this Middle East trip epitomizes a sharply new isolationist and transactional direction for the U.S. 'Far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it's our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins,' Trump said. It was a striking comment coming in front of MBS, who the CIA has concluded ordered the assassination of WaPo columnist Jamal Khashoggi. 'The so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built,' Trump added, saying he would focus instead on promoting American interests. (At the same time, WaPo digs into his potential personal conflicts of interest.) Other notable moments: Trump encouraged Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel — but added that 'you'll do it in your own time.' Continuing to cast himself as the consummate dealmaker, Trump also encouraged Iran to take his 'olive branch' and negotiate a nuclear deal, or face 'maximum pressure.' More Middle East fallout: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today announced he'll place a hold on all Justice Department political nominations — his first-ever blanket blockade — in protest of Trump saying he would accept a luxury jet gifted by Qatar, Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio scooped. … Axios' Barak Ravid has the backstory of how Hamas freed American hostage Edan Alexander: The Palestinian militant group first reached out to pro-Trump activist Bishara Bahbah to set up a back channel with the U.S. that led to Alexander's release, in hopes of gaining favor with Trump. INFLATION NATION: For the third month in a row, inflation data came in lower than economists expected for April — another sign that Trump's trade wars aren't pushing prices up, at least not yet. The 2.3 percent annual rate was the lowest level of inflation since 2021 and close to the Fed's 2 percent target, per POLITICO's Sam Sutton. The Consumer Price Index 'contained only scant evidence that Trump's tariffs have meaningfully driven up the cost of living.' Consumer products didn't see large jumps from the levies on China, Canada, Mexico and more, and the price of eggs declined; instead, housing remained the principal driver of inflation. But but but: Core inflation remained flat at 2.8 percent annually, and the monthly increase ticked up to 0.2 percent. Economists still anticipate tariffs will drive inflation higher in the future. More tariff fallout: In the wake of the U.S.-China trade agreement, China has lifted its pause on Boeing deliveries, Bloomberg reports. Still, Chinese President Xi Jinping today made a veiled critique of Trump's 'bullying and tyranny,' WaPo's Lily Kuo reports, and Beijing sees the deal as a major win for Xi, WSJ's Chun Han Wong and Jason Douglas report. Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@ 6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: Ahead of this afternoon's crucial committee markups, the latest cost forecast from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation shows that House Republicans' tax cuts would total $3.7 trillion, POLITICO's Brian Faler reports. That's a boon for GOP leaders, since it comes in under their $4 trillion target with some room to spare — perhaps for negotiations on the state and local tax deduction. In particular, new tax breaks Trump proposed would cost less than some experts expected. The overall cost would still vastly outstrip the savings from spending cuts. More key numbers: Meanwhile, the latest CBO assessment of the House Agriculture bill text shows that it would save up to $300 billion over a decade, powered by SNAP cuts, POLITICO's Grace Yarrow reports. Its original target was $230 billion, so the panel could now have the space to include $60 billion in farm bill programs. Trouble brewing: Speaker Mike Johnson may need that extra Ways and Means money to make SALT changes. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) warned POLITICO's Benjamin Guggenheim and Meredith Lee Hill that the bill would be 'dead on arrival' if it comes to the House floor in its current form. LaLota, who wants a much larger SALT boost, said Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) had acted in 'bad faith.' Huge stakes: The Ways and Means bill text would cripple America's green-energy revolution, just as the Inflation Reduction Act's historic climate investments have begun to take root, NYT's Brad Plumer and Harry Stevens report. Slashing the tax credits would yield savings of hundreds of billions of dollars. It would also damage the mostly Republican districts where clean-energy projects were planned — and 'could reshape the nation's power grids,' producing higher carbon emissions. 2. SCHOOL DAZE: The Trump administration slapped another major penalty on Harvard, barring an additional $450 million in grants and contracts because of the school's handling of discrimination against Jews and white people, per The Harvard Crimson's Dhruv Patel and Grace Yoon. The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced the move today, citing a recent report on antisemitism. 'The group did not mention — and appeared unconcerned by — findings of discrimination and isolation in a parallel Harvard task force report on anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and anti-Palestinian bias,' the Crimson notes. 3. UKRAINE LATEST: Special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg will head to Turkey on Thursday for talks about the war in Ukraine, Reuters' Erin Banco, Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk scooped. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to attend too, per the White House pool. Now the big question mark is Russia: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he'll go to Istanbul only if Russian President Vladimir Putin does too. 4. ADD IT UP: 'Trump administration cut $2.7 billion in NIH research funding through March, Senate committee minority report says,' by CNN's Jacqueline Howard: 'That figure [from the Senate HELP Dems] is much higher than some separate estimates that previously suggested targeted grant terminations have affected more than $1.8 billion in NIH funding. … [It says] some of the canceled NIH grants were intended to support not only cancer research but Alzheimer's disease research, cardiovascular disease studies, diabetes science and infectious disease clinical trials.' 5. 2026 WATCH: In Alabama, Sen. Tommy Tuberville's decision about whether to run for governor is keeping fellow Republicans on tenterhooks, NOTUS' Torrence Banks reports. Tuberville hasn't decided yet. If his Senate seat comes open, possible GOP contenders include former Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and AG Steve Marshall. (Former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones hasn't closed the door either.) Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth and former Rep. Mo Brooks sound less interested. If Tuberville does run for governor, Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate may switch his focus from the governor's race to the lieutenant governor's. Look who's back: Democrat Amish Shah, who narrowly lost to Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) last fall, is making another go at unseating him, per the Arizona Republic. … Former Rep. Dave Trott, who was a Republican in Congress as recently as Trump's first term, is weighing another run for his old Michigan seat — which will be newly open — as a Democrat or independent, The Detroit News' Melissa Nann Burke reports. 6. TALKER: 'Biden aides discussed wheelchair use if he were re-elected, new book says,' by Axios' Alex Thompson, adapted from his new book with Jake Tapper, 'Original Sin': 'Joe Biden's physical deterioration was so severe in 2023 and 2024 that advisers privately discussed the possibility he'd need to use a wheelchair if he won re-election … The discussions reflected the extent of the president's declining health — particularly the significant degeneration of his spine … The conversations also reveal the White House's determination to conceal the reality of Biden's condition, at the risk of his own health.' A Biden spokesperson said the worsening of his spine was 'far from 'severe'' and 'evidence of aging is not evidence of mental incapacity.' From another excerpt, in The New Yorker: 'What the public saw of his functioning was concerning. What was going on in private was worse. While Biden on a day-in, day-out basis could certainly make decisions and assert wisdom and act as President, there were several significant issues that complicated his Presidency: a limit to the hours in which he could reliably function and an increasing number of moments when he seemed to freeze up, lose his train of thought, forget the names of top aides, or momentarily not remember friends he'd known for decades. Not to mention impairments to his ability to communicate.' TALK OF THE TOWN JD Vance went to Walter Reed 'for routine check-ups.' IN MEMORIAM — 'Christopher 'Kit' Bond, former Missouri governor and senator, has died. He was 86,' by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Michael Sorkin: His 'career at the top of Missouri politics saw him rise from state auditor to governor to four-term U.S. senator … In the Senate, Bond left no doubt that he saw himself as Missouri's unofficial King of Pork … Bond helped build the modern-day Missouri Republican Party into a formidable and often-feared political operation.' BOOK CLUB — Run for Something's Amanda Litman is out today with a new book, 'When We're in Charge,' from Crooked Media's book imprint with Zando. It's focused on how millennials and Gen Z can become the next generation of leaders. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a party last night for Ed Luce's new book, 'Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet' ($35), hosted by Susan Glasser and Peter Baker: Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Niamh King, Ian and Ginny Brzezinski, Steve and Ann Hadley, Toby Gati, Stuart Eizenstat, Andrea Mitchell, Dan Fried, Sally Quinn, Elisabeth Bumiller and Steve Weisman, Sarah Margon, Marcus Brauchli, Peter Spiegel, Danielle and David Frum, Indira Lakshmanan and Dermot Tatlow, Heidi Crebo-Rediker and Doug Rediker, Jane Mayer and Bill Hamilton, George Conway, Rachel and Phil Gordon, Evan Osnos, Tyler Pager, Shawn McCreesh, Jonathan Martin, Adrienne Arsht, Rafe Sagalyn, and Melanne and Phil Verveer. TRANSITIONS — Thomas Aiello has rejoined National Taxpayers Union as senior director of government affairs. He most recently was a director at the DCI Group. … Ben Napier is joining Andreessen Horowitz team as government affairs partner, leading engagement with House Republicans, per Punchbowl's Jake Sherman, Max Cohen and Mica Soellner. He previously was floor director for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. … Reservoir Communications Group has added Casey Stavropoulos as EVP and Nicky Vogt Osborne as VP. Stavropoulos previously was at JPMorgan Chase. Vogt Osborne previously was at Moody's. … … TSG Advocates is adding Brian Darling, Beau Rothschild and Kaitlyn Roberts, per Florida Politics' Drew Wilson. Darling previously was at Navigators Global and Liberty Government Affairs. Rothschild previously was at Porter Wright Morris and Arthur. Roberts most recently was a corporate adviser at Aramco. … Teisha Garrett is joining the Democracy Security Project as managing director. She previously was VP at Civitech. … Ben Monticello is now legislative director for Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.). He previously was senior legislative assistant for Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.). WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Nick Manetto, a principal and lead of the federal policy team at Faegre Drinker, and Carrie Manetto welcomed Lea Paige Manetto on April 23. She came in at 6 lbs, 15 oz and 19 inches, and joins six big siblings. Pic … Another pic Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CNN Data Guru Touts Historic Poll Showing Trump Most Unpopular Prez Since 1953
President Donald Trump might want to take stock of a historic new poll that has him down as the worst president since modern polling began. 'These numbers are just horrible—there's no way to sugarcoat it,' CNN data guru Harry Enten said while diving into the results of a new survey the network released on Saturday. Full results of CNN's poll show the MAGA president's ratings have plummeted by seven points since the end of February to a measly 41 percent. That's the lowest for any president within 100 days of assuming office—usually a honeymoon period for a new president—since Dwight D. Eisenhower first took office in 1953. At 43 percent, hardly a greater number of people believe Trump is currently carrying out a 'necessary shake-up' in Washington, with a whopping 57 percent saying his agenda has 'unnecessarily' put the United States' national interests at risk. 'You don't have to be a mathematical genius: 41 percent approve of him now,' Enten went on. 'What's so notable here is that throughout his second term as president, he appeared to be running ahead of where he was in his first term. No longer is that the case.' The network further noted that the previous record of 44 percent within the first few months at the White House, now shattered by three points, was also set by Trump during the first few months of his first presidency back in 2017. 'He has broken his own record for being the worst!' Enten said. 'The American people do not like what they are seeing at this point from Donald John Trump.' The Republican president, in fact, appears to have fared worse still in a similar poll, also released Sunday, by the Washington Post, which found only 39 percent of Americans take a positive view of Trump. Just over half of respondents to either poll said they disapproved of the way Trump has handled MAGA's flagship issue of immigration, with both CNN and WaPo finding that 39 percent of people trust his ability to deliver on his economic promises. More than 72 percent of respondents told WaPo they believe it is either 'somewhat' or 'very' likely that Trump's policies will cause a recession. Only a slightly lower number, 64 percent, believe he is 'going too far' with his efforts to 'expand the power of the presidency.' However historic a battering the results represent for the Republican president, they'd nevertheless appear to offer sparse grounds for celebration among Democratic Party ranks. WaPo's numbers suggest the public's faith in the party's ability to 'deal with the country's major problems' barely broke a measly 30 percent against Trump's 37 percent, with almost 70 percent of respondents to the newspaper's survey saying they felt the president's opponents are 'out of touch with the concerns of most people in the United States today.'
