Trump's Rubicon moment

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Good Sunday morning. Zack Stanton here. Get in touch.
YOUR SUNDAY LISTEN: Rahm Emanuel has had just about every job in politics: senior adviser to the president, U.S. representative, DCCC chair, White House chief of staff, U.S. ambassador and Chicago mayor, among others. Could 'presidential candidate' be next on the list?
On today's episode of 'The Conversation with Dasha Burns,' Emanuel joins Dasha to diagnose the Democratic Party's ills and offer a remedy to them — which happens to sound an awful lot like a 2028 message. Watch and listen to it now on YouTube
His message: 'We're going to make the American dream affordable and accessible. We [the Democratic Party] haven't talked about that. We've talked about every other issue that's tangential to the core crux [of voters' concerns].'
Where Dems are united: 'There's a fundamental agreement on the critique that the system is rigged and it's rigged against middle-class, working-class families. … There's more cohesion and coherence in the Democrats than there were 10, 20, 30 years ago.'
Where Dems are divided: 'The biggest thing we're missing is that we don't have a consensus or agreement on the road forward. Put [President Donald] Trump aside: We spend a lot of energy appropriately fighting him, but it has prevented us over the years from figuring out how to fight for America.'
Where Dems have failed: 'We were not only … out of bounds on cultural issues, we made it look like [they] were central.'
On David Hogg's call to primary older Dem incumbents: 'If you have a young face with ideas that don't work, that's not going to solve the problem. You have to have both. … We don't have $20 million to waste on Democratic primaries. Give me that $20 million in a targeted race and you'll pick up a seat and you will stop Donald Trump dead in his tracks.' (More on Hogg below.)
And though he demurred about a presidential bid, when pressed about whether his work for Barack Obama would still resonate on the campaign trail, he had this to say: 'I'm not sure that President Obama is unpopular in South Carolina. We'll see, we'll test that, maybe.' Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts … Spotify … YouTube
DRIVING THE DAY
SLOUCHING TOWARDS WASHINGTON: Welcome to a week that begins with 2,000 members of the California National Guard on the streets of Los Angeles and is scheduled to end with Army tanks parading down the streets of Washington (if you've missed the videos of them arriving by train, they're quite something). Even by the standards of the past decade — we're just a few days short of the 10th anniversary of Trump descending the escalator at Trump Tower to declare his presidential candidacy — it is a jarring moment in American life.
The escalation: Over the past two days, protesters have dramatically confronted ICE agents during raids of businesses in Southern California, resulting in 'several violent clashes,' including near a Home Depot in Paramount, as the L.A. Times reports. On Friday, demonstrators marched around a federal detention center in downtown LA — an action White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called an 'insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States' in a tweet yesterday morning.
Then came last night …
8:09 p.m., California Gov. Gavin Newsom: 'The federal government is sowing chaos so they can have an excuse to escalate. That is not the way any civilized country behaves.'
8:13 p.m., Newsom: 'The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions. LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment's notice. We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need. … This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.'
8:25 p.m., Trump: 'If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!'
9:17 p.m., White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt: 'In recent days, violent mobs have attacked ICE Officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles, California. These operations are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States. In the wake of this violence, California's feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens. That is why President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester. … The Commander-in-Chief will ensure the laws of the United States are executed fully and completely.'
Let's pause here for a moment.
What Trump is doing is incredibly rare: 'It is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state's National Guard force without a request from that state's governor,' NYT's Shawn Hubler and Laurel Rosenhall report, citing Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center. 'The last time was when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators in 1965, she said.'
Also worth flagging: The National Guard 'has nearly non-existent law enforcement training or doctrine despite it always being talked about as a domestic force,' as Military.com's Steve Beynon notes.
What's the basis of the legal authority here? The Times notes that 'the directive signed by Mr. Trump cites '10 U.S.C. 12406,' referring to a specific provision within Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services. Part of that provision allows the federal deployment of National Guard forces if 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.'' Naturally, then, language from the administration aims to underscore the threat of rebellion, danger or invasion.
Back to the timeline …
9:33 p.m., VP JD Vance: 'One of the main technical issues in the immigration judicial battles is whether [Joe] Biden's border crisis counted as an 'invasion.' So now we have foreign nationals with no legal right to be in the country waving foreign flags and assaulting law enforcement. If only we had a good word for that…'
10:06 p.m., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: 'The violent mob assaults on ICE and Federal Law Enforcement are designed to prevent the removal of Criminal Illegal Aliens from our soil; a dangerous invasion facilitated by criminal cartels (aka Foreign Terrorist Organizations) and a huge NATIONAL SECURITY RISK. … if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.'
10:18 p.m., Miller: 'We will take back America.'
10:36 p.m., Newsom: '[T]hey want a spectacle. Don't give them one.'
12:14 a.m., Newsom: 'The Secretary of Defense is now threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens. This is deranged behavior.'
2:41 a.m., Trump: 'Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes and unrest. … These Radical Left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED. Also, from now on, MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests. What do these people have to hide, and why??? Again, thank you to the National Guard for a job well done!'
3:22 a.m., Bass: 'I want to thank LAPD and local law enforcement for their work tonight. … Just to be clear, the National Guard has not been deployed in the City of Los Angeles.'
More protests are scheduled for LA later this afternoon. And regardless of how those demonstrations play out, this storm isn't likely to dissipate any time soon.
'We have been told to get ready for 30 days of enforcement, 30 days of ICE enforcement,' Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.) said this morning on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'So, 2,000 troops to be there for that enforcement, it's a concern. I mean, it's going to escalate the situation.'
In the meantime, there are any number of ways to read the administration's response so far.
With sympathy: 'Active-duty Marines are not going to be put into local law enforcement,' Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said this morning on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'They would be in support roles on it, as we have at the border.' (Of Trump's deployment of the National Guard, Lankford suggested the president is 'trying to de-escalate all the tensions that are there.')
With wariness: 'Important to remember that Trump isn't trying to heal or keep the peace. He is looking to inflame and divide,' Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted this morning. 'His movement doesn't believe in democracy or protest - and if they get a chance to end the rule of law they will take it. None of this is on the level.'
As vindication: This morning, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) posted a screenshot of his famous 'Send In the Troops' NYT op-ed published amid a wave of at times violent demonstrations after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minnesota in 2020. In that piece, he called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the military domestically.
With contempt: 'Don't kid yourself they know they are absolutely getting cooked politically w their terrible bill and rising prices, and they want to create a violent spectacle to feed their content machine,' Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) posted late last night. 'It's time for the mainstream media to describe this authoritarian madness accurately.'
SUNDAY BEST …
— Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) on the millions of Americans projected to lose health insurance from the reconciliation bill's Medicaid cuts, on 'State of the Union': 'What we're doing is getting rid of the waste and fraud. … All we're doing is removing the people that are frauding the American taxpayers out of health care. … You can't point to anyone that's losing coverage that deserves and qualifies for the care.'
— Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) on whether he'd vote for the reconciliation bill if the Senate pares back the state and local tax deduction, on CNN's 'Inside Politics Sunday': 'I've been very clear with leadership all this past week that if the Senate changes the SALT deduction in any way, I will be a no. And I'm not going to buckle on that. And I know in speaking to my other colleagues, they will be a no as well.'
— Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on whether the SALT increase will survive the Senate, on 'Fox News Sunday': 'No, and it shouldn't survive. We should not be subsidizing blue-state governors' wasteful spending. … If that's in there, then Florida will be paying for the state government of New York, and that's wrong.'
TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week's must-read opinion pieces.
9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR
1. MUSK READS: The online war of words between Trump and Elon Musk has quieted after aides on both sides held a call Friday to establish some sort of detente, POLITICO's Dasha Burns and Julia Marsh scooped. On Theo Von's podcast yesterday, Vance said he hoped Musk 'kind of comes back into the fold' despite making the 'huge mistake' of going after Trump. The president himself last week encouraged Vance to be diplomatic toward Musk, WaPo's Natalie Allison reports.
Top talker: New details went viral about a physical altercation between Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, reported by WaPo's Cat Zakrzewski and colleagues. 'Musk then rammed his shoulder into Bessent's rib cage 'like a rugby player,' [Steve] Bannon said, and Bessent hit him back.'
The fallout continues: The Department of Government Efficiency is trying to figure out what's next after Musk's departure — rank-and-file staffers in the office fear their jobs could become just as jeopardized as the rest of the federal government they've slashed, WSJ's Scott Patterson and Ken Thomas report. Increasingly, some Cabinet members are wresting back control of their agencies, a diminishment of DOGE that was underway even before the Musk blow-up, WaPo's Faiz Siddiqui and colleagues report. And NASA and the Defense Department started to move last week to seek alternative options to SpaceX amid the drama, WaPo's Christian Davenport scooped.
But but but: DOGE's intense cost-cutting — and its effects throughout the world — is here to stay. OMB Director Russ Vought is taking up the mantle of dismantling swathes of the federal government, with potentially much greater staying power than Musk, POLITICO's Sophia Cai and Megan Messerly report. Vought knows how to break the bureaucracy, and he's 'pushing change through institutional channels, backroom conversations, and contingency planning.'
The impact: Some effects of the federal spending cuts are just beginning to be felt. In Ohio, food banks are increasingly struggling to serve people in need, Reuters' P.J. Huffstutter reports from Columbus. State and local emergency managers are bracing to handle natural disasters with diminished help from FEMA, WaPo's Scott Dance and Brady Dennis report. And art experts fear for the future of a federal collection of 26,000 works after the General Services Administration staff that oversees it was shaved to less than a third of its previous size, NYT's Lydia DePillis and colleagues report.
2. ABOUT LAST NIGHT: Gina Ortiz Jones was elected the new mayor of San Antonio, a victory for the left in a technically nonpartisan race that became infused with national politics, the San Antonio Express-News' Molly Smith reports. Ortiz Jones took 54 percent of the vote, keeping the fairly blue city in Democratic hands.
3. TAKING EFFECT TOMORROW: 'Trump's ban stalls lifesaving treatment for Haitian children who need to travel for surgery,' by NBC's Claretta Bellamy: 'Leaders of an aid organization that has sent more than 100 Haitian children with serious cardiac conditions to the U.S. for heart surgery said President Donald Trump's ban on travelers from 19 countries will stall or cancel lifesaving procedures for at least a dozen children or young adults. … No such mention [of travel ban exemptions] was made for cases of medical necessity.'
4. WHOA: On a private DNC Zoom call last month, an emotional Chair Ken Martin said the feud with David Hogg had undermined him and made him question the job, POLITICO's Holly Otterbein scooped. 'The other night I said to myself for the first time, I don't know if I wanna do this anymore,' Martin said on the call. 'You essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to,' he told Hogg. Martin responded to Holly now that 'I'm not going anywhere.'
5. DEMS' NOVEMBER TESTS: Can Democrats claw back ground in this fall's two closely watched gubernatorial races? In Virginia, nominee Abigail Spanberger has mounted a push to cut into Republican margins in rural areas and small towns, AP's Olivia Diaz reports from Culpeper. Her approach: 'We have to show how we govern.' Meanwhile, New Jersey's Democratic contenders are trying to win back Latino voters who swung hard to the right last year, AP's Adriana Gomez Licon and Mike Catalini report from Newark. Focusing on immigration is out, and playing up pocketbook issues is their emphasis now.
6. 2026 WATCH: 'Paxton presents an opportunity in Texas — if Democrats can take advantage of it,' by POLITICO's Nick Wu and Liz Crampton: 'Texas Republicans' messy Senate primary is giving Democrats hope that they could finally have an opening to wedge into higher office in the red state — for real this time. But a potential pileup of candidates as the party sees renewed interest in the race could spoil their chances … A [Ken Paxton GOP primary] victory could divide Republicans and potentially even sway some to support a Democrat. Nearly two dozen Texas Democratic members of Congress, party leaders and strategists described a sense of opportunity, but were divided on the type of candidate to run.'
7. SCHOOL DAZE: 'Trump has universities in the bind the right has long wanted,' by POLITICO's Juan Perez Jr.: 'Even as Ivy League schools, research institutions, and college trade associations try to resist Trump's attacks in court, campus leaders are starting to accept they face only difficult choices: negotiate with the government, mount a painful legal and political fight — or simply try to stay out of sight. Groundbreaking scientific research, financial aid for lower-income students and soft power as an economic engine once shielded schools' access to federal funds. Trump has now transformed those financial lifelines into leverage.'
8. RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: Would Republicans' reconciliation megabill unleash massive economic growth and prosperity in America? It's the chief selling point for party leaders, who have dismissed forecasts that the bill would hugely increase the deficit. But nonpartisan experts anticipate smaller benefits — some short-term growth that wouldn't amount to an economic boom paying for itself, WSJ's Richard Rubin reports. 'Broadly, economists across the political spectrum discount elected officials' predictions.'
9. KNOWING THOMAS CROOKS: 'The Quiet Unraveling of the Man Who Almost Killed Trump,' by NYT's Steve Eder and Tawnell Hobbs: '[H]e went through a gradual and largely hidden transformation, from a meek engineering student critical of political polarization to a focused killer who tried to build bombs. For months he operated in secret, using aliases and encrypted networks, all while showing hints of a mental illness that may have caused his mind to unravel to an extent not previously reported. … Mr. Crooks followed his dark path with seemingly little notice from those closest to him.'
TALK OF THE TOWN
Jon Bramnick finds time, even while campaigning for New Jersey governor, for about one or two stand-up comedy gigs a month.
PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — 'WorldPride parade marches through D.C.,' by WaPo's Dana Munro and colleagues: 'Organizers acknowledged that WorldPride this year has not been the massive celebration they originally hoped for — one that was expected to attract up to 3 million people … The parade was [now] expected to attract up to 700,000 attendees, almost double the number in a typical year.'
OUT AND ABOUT — Friends of the National World War II Memorial hosted a commemoration of the 81st anniversary of D-Day at the National World War II Memorial's Circle of Remembrance on Friday. SPOTTED: Navy Secretary John Phelan, Jane Droppa, Kevin Griess, Alex Kershaw, Frank Cohn, Anthony Grant, Harry Miller, Dave Yoho, Andy Hoare, Maite Morren, Kristjan Monaghan, Natalie Pozer, Thibaud Thomas, Simon Gunneweg, Alan Parker, Connie Stien and Dai Bevan.
TRANSITIONS — Jason McMahon will join Valinor Enterprises to build out its federal strategy and government relations efforts. He previously was a professional staff member on the Senate Appropriations Committee. … Rob Simms and Ben Miller have launched Motive Media, a strategy and creative firm. They both previously were at Convergence Media, and Simms is a former NRSC executive director. … Martina McLennan is now director of policy comms for economic and health policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. She previously was comms director for Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) … Cory Fritz of FTI Consulting … Matt Whitlock … Justin Peligri … former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) … Paola Molina … Jonathan Collegio … Kelsey Bolar (Harkness) … Roger Hickey of Campaign for America's Future … Erin Gorman Van Alsten … Paul Winfree … Strategic Partners & Media's Russ Schriefer … WaPo's Sarah Hashemi … Jennifer Dunn of Hill+Knowlton Strategies … Lindsey Wagner-Oveson of Sen. Peter Welch's (D-Vt.) office … The Bulwark's Hannah Yoest … Joshua Matz of Kaplan Hecker & Fink … NBCUniversal's Amanda Kontor … Margaret Reynolds of Rep. Jared Golden's (D-Maine) office … Julianna Margulies … Preston Bell of the House Ways & Means GOP (36) … Kris Coratti Kelly … Alex Daugherty … Becca Winch of No Labels … Lale Morrison
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Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Correction: Yesterday's Playbook misspelled Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) name.

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