President Donald Trump is raking in cash for his political operation, building up funds that could allow him to continue to be a political kingmaker even as he cannot seek reelection.

The president’s primary super PAC brought in a whopping nearly $177 million in the first half of the year, while his leadership PAC raised $28 million, according to filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission late Thursday.

Those two groups alone reported a combined $234 million cash on hand at the end of June, the filings show — a massive sum. And a separate joint fundraising committee had $12 million more in the bank, much of which will later be transferred to other groups in Trump’s political network.

The Trump-linked groups have largely not begun to deploy that cash, instead building up a war chest the president could use next year in primaries or to boost Republicans’ prospects in the midterms. Trump has already shown substantial interest in the 2026 elections, with the White House intervening to encourage some GOP incumbents to run again, pushing potential challengers out of primary fields and asking Texas Republicans to draw new districts with the hopes of gaining seats.

Having millions of dollars at Trump’s disposal — an unheard of amount for a sitting president who cannot run again — could allow him to become one of the biggest single players in next year’s midterms, alongside longstanding GOP stalwarts like the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund. Trump could boost his preferred candidates in GOP primaries, or flood the zone in competitive general election races in an effort to help Republicans keep control of Congress.

Trump has a smattering of political groups. His primary joint fundraising committee, Trump National Committee, spent $17 million on operating expenses while transferring just over $20 million each to the Republican National Committee and Never Surrender. A range of other political groups, including his former campaign committees from his 2016 and 2020 presidential bids, continue to spend relatively small amounts of money and get transfers from older joint fundraising committees, but largely are not involved in building up his cash.

Trump’s primary leadership PAC now is Never Surrender, which was converted from his 2024 campaign committee. It ended June with $38 million cash on hand, after spending $16.8 million, the majority of which was expenses lingering from Trump’s campaign last year.

MAGA Inc., the primary pro-Trump super PAC, reported a whopping $196 million cash on hand, after spending only a few million dollars.

The group, which does not face donation limits, benefited from fundraisers featuring Trump and Vice President JD Vance this spring. It raised money from a range of longtime GOP megadonors and cryptocurrency interests:

• Jeff Yass gave $16 million
• The pro-Trump dark money group Securing American Greatness gave $13.75 million
• Energy Transfer Partners gave $12.5 million, as did its CEO, Kelcy Warren
• Foris DAX, Inc., a cryptocurrency-linked entity, gave $10 million
• Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency company, gave $5 million
• Elon Musk, who has publicly feuded with Trump in recent months, gave $5 million

The super PAC also received some donations made in bitcoin. Trump signed a landmark cryptocurrency bill favored by the industry in June, and his business empire has quickly expanded its crypto interests.

Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs personifies the conflict within her party over U.S. support for Israel and the nightmare in Gaza — and the increasingly precarious balancing act for any politician trying to navigate it.

The third-term member of Congress from San Diego is Jewish. She has family in Israel. So the country’s security is not an abstract notion. As a millennial, and the youngest member of Democratic leadership in the House, she doesn’t view criticism of Israel as off the table. But she also sits on the Armed Services Committee and represents one of the nation’s most military-centric districts, so she is acutely aware of Israel’s security needs and its role as a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.

All of those roiling elements were on full display last night, in Washington and at a town hall meeting in her district. The Senate voted down a resolution from Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) to block the sale of U.S. weapons to Israel. The measure failed, but 27 Democratic senators, more than half the caucus, voted in favor — a sign that the horrific images of starvation coming out of Gaza in recent months are starting to erode the largely unconditional support that Israel has long enjoyed among many Democrats.

Jacobs says she would have voted in favor of the resolution, though she wants the U.S. to continue supporting Israel’s defense, including by helping to pay for the Iron Dome missile defense system.

She tried to lay out her nuanced position at the town hall, where pro-Palestinian protesters gathered noisily outside the high school auditorium in a suburban section of San Diego where the event was held. Inside, one of the first questions was what is she doing to ensure the people of Gaza are receiving humanitarian aid and whether Israel has committed genocide.

Jacobs, who worked for the United Nations and State Department before she was elected to Congress in 2020, tried to thread the needle — saying that Israel “might” have committed genocide.

“But I am not a lawyer, and that is a legal determination,” she told the restive audience. “I think we've clearly seen serious atrocities. I think we've likely seen war crimes, and we've definitely seen forced displacement that could amount to ethnic cleansing.”

Soon, members of the audience were yelling at her — and each other. Her efforts to explain her support for a ban on offensive weapons, but not for defense, were drowned out. “Weapons are weapons,” a woman shouted. A man stood and chanted “free free Palestine” while waving a black-and-white keffiyeh. Members of the crowd shouted back at him.

After about 20 minutes, police escorted the man with the keffiyeh out of the auditorium and the town hall turned to other topics — mostly expressions of anger about various actions by President Donald Trump wrapped into a question.

Jacobs said the next day that she welcomed the protests and is less worried about the politics of the issue within the Democratic Party than she is about addressing the larger issues. “The thing that needs to be worked out is how we get unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza, and then how we get back on a path to a situation where you have two states where Israelis can live safely and securely and where Palestinians can live with dignity and autonomy and self determination,” she told POLITICO today.

The bitter politics of the conflict aside, Jacobs contends there’s a middle position in which people can condemn both the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and the Israeli response that authorities say has led to about 60,000 deaths, mostly civilians in Gaza.

“I truly believe both that Oct. 7 was horrible and we should be calling for the release of the remaining hostages, and that what's going on in Gaza right now is horrible, and those don't have to be mutually exclusive,” she said. “Civilians shouldn't be blamed for their government actions, and that's true of Israeli civilians, and it's true of Palestinian civilians, and it's true of American civilians.”

Despite what happened at her town hall, the protests over the war in Gaza around the U.S. have, for now at least, ebbed since last year and many Democratic voters in general have turned their attention to other issues. But it’s not clear how long politicians like Jacobs, or her party, will be able to walk this precarious middle ground.

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A month after saying he had “done enough” political spending — and amid a bitter falling out with President Donald Trump — Elon Musk gave $10 million to help Republicans keep control of Congress.

The contributions came as Musk publicly feuded with Trump and was slamming Republicans for voting for the megabill that he argued would blow up the deficit. Still, the SpaceX CEO donated $5 million each to the Congressional Leadership Fund and the Senate Leadership Fund on June 27, according to both groups’ filings with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday.

The next week, the world’s richest man said he would start his own political party.

Musk, who spent $290 million of his own money to boost Trump and other Republicans last year, led the cost-cutting efforts of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency in the first few months of the Trump administration. When he left that role in May, he also suggested he was done with political giving for the time being: “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t currently see a reason,” he said at the Qatar Economic Forum.

He then engaged in a harsh public fight with Trump in June amid the push to pass the president’s signature budget bill, breaking with the president and, later, the GOP.

Musk’s donations to CLF and SLF were enough to make him the largest known individual donor to the main House and Senate GOP super PACs so far this year, although they reflect only a fraction of the money both raised. Congressional Leadership Fund brought in $32.7 million in the first half of the year, while Senate Leadership Fund raised $26.4 million.

A spokesperson for the Congressional Leadership Fund said it does not comment on donors. Senate Leadership Fund and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Musk also poured another $45 million of his own money into his super PAC, America PAC, this spring. That group spent primarily on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race in April, which Musk was heavily involved in publicly.

Its expenses included $27 million for petition incentives, $12.7 million on campaigning related to the Wisconsin race and three controversial $1 million payments to spokespeople selected for signing Musk’s petition opposing “activist judges.” Musk’s preferred candidate in that Wisconsin race, conservative Brad Schimel, lost by 10 points in what was widely seen as a sign of Musk’s electoral drag on Republicans.

In July, Musk said he would create his own political party, the America Party. But Thursday’s FEC filings, which cover only through the end of June, provide no insight into what that effort might look like.

With help from Amira McKee

IN MEMORIAM: Five candidates running for New York City mayor — as well as hundreds of NYPD officers — paid their respects this afternoon to Didarul Islam, who died in uniform in Monday’s tragic mass shooting.

Mayor Eric Adams, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and independent candidate Jim Walden all gathered at the Parkchester Jame Masjid, where Islam’s body lay.

The officer’s death became an instant political test for Mamdani, who was away on an 11-day vacation in Uganda at the time of the shooting. Cuomo drew attention to Mamdani’s anti-NYPD activism in the wake of the shooting. And within hours of his return to the U.S., Mamdani was pressed about his prior support for defunding the police and his call to disband the NYPD unit that responded to the shooting.

Aside from the mayoral hopefuls, Gov. Kathy Hochul and several other officials attended the funeral, including NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Attorney General Letitia James, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council member Yusef Salaam, and Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Richie Torres.

Reporters were there to cover the memorial to the slain officer — and to carefully watch for signs of political differences between the candidates.

Adams eulogized Islam at the event and spoke of the pain of losing a loved one — but he made a point to thank the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, the elite police unit Mamdani has previously called to eliminate.

“I want to say thank you to the men and women of the New York City Police Department in general, but specifically to the men and women of SRG,” Adams said. “They entered the building while the shooter was still alive, and they conducted a floor-by-floor search. They wanted to ensure that everyone in that building would have come out safely.”

Mamdani said Monday he no longer supports defunding the police, but he also doubled down on eliminating the SRG. The unit is tasked with policing political demonstrations and has faced criticism from the New York Civil Liberties Union and others for its use of heavy-handed tactics.

Islam, a Bengali immigrant and father of two with a third child on the way, had been working as a security guard when a gunman armed with a military-style rifle entered a Park Avenue building and carried out the deadliest mass shooting in the city since 2000. The three-year NYPD veteran was in full uniform when he was murdered along with three others who perished that day.

Unlike the other candidates and officials there, Mamdani sat with Islam’s family during the service and was greeted by them upon his arrival. He also remained to join his fellow Muslims in prayer after the political speeches concluded, as other officials filed out.

While the intimate service was limited to family, friends and invited guests, hundreds of men and women, many in uniform, gathered on the surrounding blocks in the hours before the funeral, setting up food trucks and tents to eat and socialize. As the funeral began, police cleared the street outside the mosque to allow space for prayer.

“The residents of this city, indeed, this state, must show greater platitudes and gratitude for our police force, they have not received enough in years of late, in my opinion, and that must be rectified,” said Hochul, dressed in a black headscarf in line with Muslim tradition. “They need our support.” — Amira McKee and Jason Beeferman

NORTH COUNTRY SPECIAL LOOMS: The impending resignation of Assemblymember Billy Jones will open up a potentially competitive special election in a North Country district that straddles the Quebec border.

Jones, who’s serving his fifth term, has been as secure in his seat as any rural Democrat in recent years. He’s run unopposed in three of his past four elections and won the other by 24 points.

That was due in part to his personal popularity, but the district is as competitive as can be on paper: There are 30,392 Democratic and Working Families Party members compared with 29,920 Republicans and Conservatives.

“Republicans, for the first time in a long time, have a real chance to win this one,” Essex County Conservative Party Chair Bill McGahay said.

Malone Mayor Andrea Dumas is among the Republicans being discussed as a candidate for the seat.

Several Democrats have expressed interest in running as well, and Plattsburgh Supervisor Michael Cashman is “gaining traction,” according to Clinton County Democratic Chair Brandi Lloyd.

“Democrats are definitely optimistic that this will hold,” Lloyd said. “We’re seeing a trend across the whole country — in rural areas as well — where seats are staying blue or flipping blue.”

Jones announced Tuesday that he’d be stepping down later this summer. Several people familiar with his plans said they expect his resignation will come at a time that would allow Hochul to call a special election that coincides with the Nov. 4 general. — Bill Mahoney

‘MY HEART IS BROKEN’: Hochul demanded today that Israel work with the United States to rectify deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza — a departure for a governor who counts herself as a staunch supporter of the Jewish state.

“Allowing innocent children to starve to death is simply unconscionable, and as a mother, my heart is broken by these images of famine,” Hochul said in a statement.

The reports of starvation that sparked the governor’s latest remarks have also motivated other New York Democrats who support Israel to speak out against the government. Hochul has been outspoken in her support in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, visiting Kfar Aza and advocating for the release of hostages taken by Hamas.

The tides of war abroad and politics at home have shifted significantly since then.

On Saturday, Reps. Jerry Nadler, Pat Ryan and Paul Tonko were among the moderate Democrats to sign a statement released by New York Attorney General Letitia James calling for immediate access to humanitarian aid in Gaza. Though Hochul was not a signatory on that statement, her recent remarks offer additional evidence there’s a consensus building among Democrats, who have been deeply divided on Israel.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Israel this morning with plans to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visit an aid distribution site in Gaza, a move Hochul said she hopes will be a turning point for the crisis.

“Support for the people of Israel also requires us to demand that the Israeli government do what is right,” Hochul said. “At the same time, we must continue to demand that Hamas release all hostages and finally bring an end to this conflict. This humanitarian crisis has gone on for too long, and it is time to secure a lasting peace that protects the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians.” — Amira McKee

FREEZE THE FARE: With all the talk about freezing the rent, some New York Democrats are now pushing to freeze the fare.

The MTA announced Wednesday that it plans to hike subway fares, and electeds are saying the increase would be too much for New Yorkers to bear.

“Proposing a fare hike without demonstrating meaningful improvements is offensive to hard-working New Yorkers, and that’s why I’m urging all board appointees to vote no on this proposal,” Adams said, referring to the Senate-confirmed MTA body responsible for approving the plan. “We strongly oppose this fare increase and remain committed to fighting for a more affordable and equitable city.”

Under the transit authority’s proposed increases, the price of a subway ride would jump from $2.90 to $3. LIRR and Metro North tickets would spike up to 8 percent. And tolls for bridges and tunnels would increase 7.5 percent.

The MTA said the fare and toll changes “are small and occur at regular intervals to keep up with inflation and avoid surprising customers with unpredictable or double-digit increases.”

The hikes will need to be approved by the MTA board following a trio of public hearings in August, and would take effect in January 2025 if approved.

Mamdani, who ran an affordability-focused campaign, wants to persuade Albany to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations to make MTA buses free. The MTA so far has signaled opposition to the idea.

Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, the chair of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus, is also railing against the hikes.

“At a time when the federal government is deriving new ways to crunch the middle class and siphon their hard-earned dollars, New York State must be clear that we will not add to the burden,” she said. “This proposed rate increase must be rejected, and I encourage all New Yorkers who are able and willing to make their concerns known to the MTA Board.”
— Jason Beeferman

VETO, AGAIN: Mayor Adams vetoed a bill that would have decriminalized illegal street vending, a late Wednesday night surprise that shocked the City Council.

Existing criminal penalties are “an important enforcement tool,” Adams wrote in a brief veto message.

The bill was meant in part to protect street vendors — many of them immigrants — from deportation. The bill’s sponsor, Council Member Shekar Krishnan, was furious, saying in a statement that “Adams did Donald Trump's bidding by vetoing my legislation that protects our immigrant small business owners.”

Adams spokesperson Zachary Nosanchuk denied the veto had anything to do with the mayor’s coordination with the Trump administration. Instead, he said the mayor was concerned the law would prevent the NYPD “from intervening, even in the most egregious cases.”

Adams’ stamp of disapproval came hours after he also vetoed the council’s decision that would have blocked a casino bid from moving forward in the East Bronx.

Speaker Adrienne Adams’ office has not yet said whether she’s planning to schedule votes to override the vetoes. — Jeff Coltin

— BIG ‘RIG’: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries bashed the Trump administration, accusing the president of attempting to “rig” Texas’ congressional map. (Daily News)

— FLOOD WATCH: Hochul declared a state of emergency for New York City, Long Island and parts of the Hudson Valley as the National Weather Service raised the region’s flash flooding risk. (Gothamist)

— ANOTHER SUBWAY MELTDOWN: The city’s beleaguered transit system continues to struggle after another system power outage this morning. (New York Post)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

'Overcorrections': McBride on some Democrats' remarks on transgender people | The Conversation

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For more than five decades, Joe Biden’s existence was not only incredibly public but busy — his waking hours spent surrounded by a coterie of devoted aides and strategists, his calendar filled with speaking engagements and meetings, his home a bustling and buzzing swarm of activity.

In “What It Takes,” Richard Ben Cramer’s magnum opus on the candidates who sought the presidency in 1988, he captures the scene in the Biden household on the eve of his campaign announcement: “there were typists upstairs, waiting, and gurus present for consultations, and Joe's parents were over, just to help out … there were a hundred media calls and a million staff and volunteer calls and VIP arrangements — train passes and hotel rooms, Wilmington cops, and state cops and Amtrak cops, the height of the podium (wrong, of course), money bigs with suggestions, food for the staff, people at the airport, people called and said ‘Is Joe there?’”

Ultimately, Biden had what it took to win the presidency.

Now, he’s on the other side of the mountain. And his life has entered a new phase that is quieter and smaller.

He’s staffed by only one or two aides and a small Secret Service detail. He holes up for hours at a time in Delaware working on his memoir with a new ghostwriter, while undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He flies commercial, an aide tells POLITICO, with little of the luxury or exclusivity that is often associated with former heads of state.

He’s still Amtrak Joe. But he’s also American Airlines Joe.

“He’s very in the wild,” a person familiar with Biden’s comings and goings told POLITICO. “His footprint is significantly smaller, and it’s sort of shocking.”

In quiet moments outside the Beltway, Biden is often greeted warmly by passersby offering handshakes.

But in Washington, his closest and most loyal advisers sit for closed-door depositions and transcribed interviews on the alleged “cover-up” of his decline and his use of an autopen as president. And as his own party’s still-developing 2028 primary bursts at the seams, Biden’s presidency is still something of a millstone around its neck.

That’s the split screen Biden steps into Thursday night, when he speaks at the closing gala of the National Bar Association’s Centennial Convention in Chicago. His remarks will center on “the progress we’ve made, and the important work that remains to further the cause of justice in America,” a person familiar tells POLITICO.

Biden’s post-presidency is already striking. His memoir sold for $10 million — a major sum, but tens of millions less than Barack Obama’s. At least one report has suggested he may be struggling to raise money for his presidential library, though a spokesperson described this characterization to POLITICO as “unfair.” This June, in San Diego, he spoke to SHRM25, a conference of human resource managers, telling them “thanks to you, the people in your workplace feel secure and respected. I think you underestimate what you do.”

In official Washington, there is little such expression of appreciation for the former president.

The former president still casts a long shadow over his party. In recent days, his former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had to answer for whether he said all he knew about Biden’s cognition in office. (“I told the truth, which is that he was old,” Buttigieg told NPR’s Steve Inskeep. “You could see that he was old.”) And had his former Vice President Kamala Harris actually run for California governor, the NYT noted, she would “have faced difficult questions about how much she knew about President Biden’s decline and whether she participated in shielding his diminished health from the public.”

Hours before Biden speaks in Chicago, Mike Donilon, his trusted aide of some four decades, will go behind closed doors to offer transcribed testimony for the House Oversight Committee.

That comes one day after former Biden aide Steve Ricchetti’s hourslong testimony in which he attacked Republicans’ “efforts to taint President Biden’s legacy with baseless assertions about President Biden’s mental health,” calling them “an obvious attempt to deflect from the chaos of this Administration’s first six months.”

Oversight Republicans were unfazed by the Biden aide’s accusation. In an appearance last night on Fox News, Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) turned the focus back to Biden world’s insistence that the former president hadn’t experienced cognitive decline. “It’s almost like they’re a cult,” Comer said.

Biden, a son of the Senate who is respectful of congressional authority, has kept himself at a remove from the Oversight proceedings and the former aides who are testifying, receiving briefings from lawyers and aides after each session, two people familiar with Biden’s thinking told POLITICO.

“He’s really keeping himself at a distance — deliberately and intentionally — because he honors the oversight process,” one of those people said.

A Republican source familiar disputed this, telling POLITICO that during Wednesday’s transcribed interview, Ricchetti stated he had recent conversations with Biden regarding his legal strategy before the transcribed interview.

A person close to the Biden side outside the investigation said “being updated and being kept abreast on the investigations is far from being involved or putting pressure for a specific tactic for former staff.”

Still, Biden’s orbit views the Oversight Committee’s efforts as not having rated in the news cycle.

“It really hasn't been meaningfully breaking through for a wide array of reasons,” said the first person familiar with Biden’s thinking. “They're more or less trying to make the damning case that Joe Biden is and was old in office. … Everybody that has been interviewed knows there is no smoking gun. Everything that happened or didn’t happen was reported in the books. The reputational damage to some folks was already baked in, and there's nothing new.”

A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee disputed this. “Americans have witnessed President Biden’s cognitive decline with their own eyes, yet his inner circle continues to claim that everything is fine,” Jessica Collins told POLITICO. “The American people see through these denials, especially now, as President Biden’s doctor and some of his closest aides are pleading the Fifth to avoid self-incrimination. The Oversight Committee is currently conducting a thorough investigation to gather information through depositions and transcribed interviews, and will release a report of its findings upon conclusion."

Biden’s allies have also sometimes grimaced at his son Hunter Biden’s recent incursion into the news cycle, as when he sat down for more than three hours with Channel 5, went on an expletive-laden tear and suggested that his father’s disastrous debate performance in June 2024 was attributable to Ambien.

Was Hunter acting as his father’s anger translator, saying what the elder Biden wishes he could say but can’t?

“He probably thinks he is and thinks he is doing what is best and defending his father,” a former Biden White House official told POLITICO. “But it’s not helpful.”

A storm of clinical and critical tell-all books mostly behind him, Biden is now regularly writing his own book, according to an aide.

But he’s not doing it with Mark Zwonitzer, the writer who helped Biden with 2007’s “Promises to Keep” and 2017’s “Promise Me, Dad,” and decades earlier worked as a research assistant on Richard Ben Cramer’s “What It Takes.” A Biden Foundation spokesperson declined to say who was helping him craft his memoir this time around.

Biden’s smaller entourage now often includes just Annie Tomasini, Biden Foundation spokesperson Kelly Scully and a Secret Service detail.

That smaller footprint allows for some genuinely unscripted moments, members of Biden’s team tell POLITICO. While waiting for flights at major airports, he has posed for photos with other passengers and took the time to handwrite an encouraging note to a Boy Scout during one such interlude in Philadelphia.

Last month, at a Juneteenth celebration at the Reedy Chapel-AME Church in Galveston, Texas, the president who made it an official federal holiday celebrated with congregants, lingering for hours — doing a photo line, speaking with church leadership.

“We were there for three, four hours — it was a long program. And he wanted to stay,” a person traveling with him said. “Anyone who wanted to talk to him had the opportunity to talk to him.” Biden and his small entourage didn’t arrive back at their hotel, the Marriott Marquis in Houston, until after 11 p.m.

All of it recalls that vivid scene in Cramer’s book — the swirl of activity around Biden, the typists upstairs and the gurus present for consultations, the money bigs with suggestions and the people who called and asked “Is Joe there?"

The answer is yes. Joe is still here. But fewer people are around him now, and it’s far closer to the end of a political life than the beginning of one.

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U.S. President Donald Trump once again threatened to suspend trade talks with Canada, this time over Ottawa’s promise to recognize Palestinian statehood.

On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his country intends to recognize a Palestinian state ahead of September’s United Nations General Assembly, joining France and the U.K. on that path.

But Trump, despite acknowledging there is “real starvation” in Gaza on Monday, remains a staunch Israel ally. He argued earlier this week that recognizing Palestinian statehood would reward Hamas, the militant group behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!” the president wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday night.

With a Friday deadline looming to strike a deal or face steep U.S. tariffs, negotiations between Canada and the U.S. have stalled, and no deal framework has been set.

POLITICO reported this week that U.S. officials have been recycling grievances at trade talks without offering a path forward, according to Canadian officials. In June, the White House pushed Canada into rescinding its planned digital services tax to unfreeze the talks.

Israel has been losing its international support over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which is “on the brink of famine,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday.

Hamas-led militants killed more than 1,000 people and abducted 251 in their Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war. Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed around 60,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Canada, as well as France and the U.K., cited the suffering of civilians in Gaza as one of the reasons for recognizing Palestinian statehood now. All three countries also argued that Hamas must disarm and can play no role in any Palestinian state.

Since Trump returned to office, he has frequently trolled Ottawa by calling Canada the 51st state, threatening to annex it and referring to the former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau.”

With help from Amira McKee

‘OUT OF STEP:’ Zohran Mamdani distanced himself from “defund the police” posts he made in 2020, saying today they were made “amidst a frustration that many New Yorkers held at the murder of George Floyd.” He said multiple times that the posts were “clearly out of step” with his current view of policing and his campaign platform.

The Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City was speaking at a press conference held hours after he returned from an 11-day vacation to Uganda.

Mamdani has faced backlash over his past comments critical of the NYPD following the city’s deadliest mass shooting in 25 years, where four people, including an off-duty police officer, were killed in Midtown Manhattan.

“I am not defunding the police; I am not running to defund the police,” Mamdani told reporters today. “Over the course of this race, I’ve been very clear about my view of public safety and the critical role that the police have in creating that public safety.”

There was little the NYPD could have done to stop the shooter, who drove in from out of state and was in public only briefly before he began pulling the trigger. Still, the tragedy has resulted in an outpouring of support for the department and its members, and has raised questions about how Mamdani would lead the force as mayor, POLITICO reports.

Mamdani is returning to a city where polling shows him as the clear favorite, and he’ll try to maintain that lead through the tumult of a crowded general election in an unpredictable city. His opponents have homed in on his relatively limited political and management experience, and the past few days have served as a test of how the democratic socialist frontrunner would respond to a crisis — and the pressure that entails.

During the news conference, Mamdani stood with the Bangladeshi American Police Association, of which slain NYPD officer Didarul Islam was a member, and building service workers union 32BJ, which represented Aland Etienne, an office security guard who died in the attack.

Like other Democrats, Mamdani placed blame for the shooting on easy access to firearms.

“No matter how strong our gun laws are in this state, they are only as strong as the weakest laws in our nation,” he said. “I echo the call from Governor Hochul for a nationwide ban on assault rifles.”

Mamdani also slammed his opponent Andrew Cuomo for criticizing his prior calls to defund the police in the aftermath of the shooting, saying it was a way for Cuomo to “score such cynical political points.”

“We want to honor the New Yorkers who have been taken from us far too soon,” Mamdani said. “And yet, here we have a former governor calling every reporter he can find to speak about tweets. What kind of leadership is that?”

Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said it was fair game.

“I liken that to every time there is a mass shooting, Republicans say it’s not the time to talk gun control,” he said in a statement. “This is very much the time to talk about what our candidates for mayor said then vs. now.” — Jeff Coltin & Jason Beeferman

A LONG FIGHT AHEAD FOR REDISTRICTING AMENDMENT: On the same morning that Texas Republicans unveiled a potential gerrymander to create five new Republican-friendly congressional seats, New York Democrats officially introduced a constitutional amendment that would let them make mid-decade changes to the Empire State’s maps.

But don’t expect any imminent or drastic action in New York, POLITICO Pro reported today. Any amendment couldn’t be approved any earlier than November 2027. That means any new lines wouldn’t take effect until 2028, even if they can avoid legal hiccups and court-ordered stays that spring.

And the new maps would still need to adhere to existing prohibitions on gerrymandering — so don’t expect districts combining Staten Island with Plattsburgh, as you might see in other states.

The amendment is sure to be at the center of an extremely expensive battle at the ballot box if it moves forward. A different proposal to change the redistricting process was defeated as a referendum in 2021 — a year with mayoral races that drove out more Democrats than can be expected in 2027.

“It’s the perfect type of legislation to beat at the ballot box,” state Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar said. “Frankly, it’s likely to turn out the vote and help us elect other officials.”

Democrats are hopeful they’ll be better prepared this time around, though.

“I would hope for a campaign from the national party, from the state party, from other interested parties,” Senate Deputy Leader Mike Gianaris said. “This is something with national implications, so I would hope there’d be a huge effort.” — Bill Mahoney

MAP FIGHT: Despite the severely limited menu of options for New York Democrats to redraw House lines before the 2026 midterm elections, Hochul today signaled she’s in ongoing talks over the issue.

In a statement to Playbook, Hochul blasted Texas GOP lawmakers for revising their House lines — a change that will add five additional seats Trump carried by double digits.

“We’re not going to sit by while Donald Trump and Texas Republicans try to steal this nation’s future,” she said. “I’ve been in active talks with local and national leaders, and in the coming days we’ll meet to align on our next move.”

Hochul has spoken with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffires about redistricting in New York, as red states — including Texas and Ohio — move forward with changing their maps this year.

Two state lawmakers have proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow New York to redistrict mid-decade, but such a change would not be in place soon enough to impact the high-stakes House races next year. — Nick Reisman

CHILD HEALTH CARE ROLLBACK: A new federal policy slated to take effect in 2027 will jeopardize health insurance coverage for more than 750,000 children in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said today.

The Democratic governor bashed President Donald Trump’s administration in a statement, calling the rollback of programs that provide continuous Medicaid coverage a “misguided policy” that “threatens the progress we’ve made in keeping young children connected to care,” POLITICO Pro’s Katelyn Cordero reports.

The federal government last year approved New York’s proposal for continuous Medicaid and Child Health Plus coverage for enrollees up to the age of 6. The state is now required to roll back that policy by 2027.

New York’s continuous coverage policy was implemented this year under a federal waiver. It requires continued access to health care for children regardless of changes to family income.

The waiver will not be revoked, but the Hochul administration received a letter from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicating that it will not be renewed in 2027.

“We will use every tool at our disposal to protect access to Medicaid and Child Health Plus for the more than 750,000 young children across New York State who depend on it for a healthy start in life,” Hochul said in her statement. — Katelyn Cordero

QUIT POLITICKIN’: Senate Republicans are decrying one of Hochul’s commissioners for using government resources to promote attacks against Republicans in D.C.

“We understand Governor Hochul is gearing up for a tough re-election, but the use of state resources to amplify partisan messaging must cease immediately,” the GOP state lawmakers wrote in a letter to Barbara Guinn, commissioner of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Guinn, who was appointed by Hochul to lead the office in 2023, penned an op-ed with Democratic state Sen. Roxanne Persaud criticizing the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Her agency — which is tasked with overseeing food, heat and cash assistance programs — then shared the opinion piece on its government website.

“If you are struggling to put enough food on the table and also struggling to find gainful employment, Republicans in Washington, including seven representing New York State, say you are on your own,” Guinn wrote in the piece, adding that the federal bill “cruelly slashes SNAP in ways that were previously unthinkable.”

In a separate letter sent to state lawmakers under government letterhead, she also decried how “actions by the federal GOP will likely lead to limited benefit access,” she wrote.

While Hochul freely uses her taxpayer-funded communications team to slam Republicans in Congress and the White House, many unelected commissioners in Albany steer clear of partisan attacks.

Senate Republicans are arguing that Guinn crossed a line: “These talking points are best left to the Democratic National Committee, not parroted by a state agency that performs vital public service,” they wrote in their letter.

Guinn’s office did not respond to a request for comment. — Jason Beeferman

— ALL AGAINST MAMDANI: Five separate groups have emerged, all planning to raise millions of dollars to defeat Mamdani. (The New York Times)

— OLD VS. NEW: 26-year-old Liam Elkind is launching a primary challenge to 78-year-old Rep. Jerry Nadler, saying he no longer has the energy nor mindset for the job. (CNN)

— BRONX CASINO BID IS ALIVE: The mayor vetoed a measure from the City Council that some thought permanently ended the chances of a Bronx casino. (POLITICO Pro)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.