Dr. Mehmet Oz, former TV host and Pennsylvania Senate candidate, is one of America’s most famous physicians. Now he’s running the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which means he’s in charge of programs that provide health care for about half of all Americans. He sits down with White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns to discuss potential Medicaid cuts, his big plans to lower drug pricing, why he’s fielding early morning phone calls from President Donald Trump, and his advice to patients to “be curious” about their health.

Plus, Burns is joined by senior political columnist and politics bureau chief Jonathan Martin to discuss his juicy column about the Ohio governor’s race featuring Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel. And senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney joins to discuss the showdown between Trump and the courts over his “Liberation Day” tariffs.

Listen and subscribe to The Conversation with Dasha Burns on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Die erhöhten Einfuhrabgaben sollen bereits ab Mittwoch gelten. Die EU droht mit Gegenmaßnahmen.

Die erhöhten Einfuhrabgaben sollen bereits ab kommender Woche gelten. Die EU droht mit Gegenmaßnahmen.#USA #US-Wahl #DonaldTrump #US-Präsident #DemokratischePartei #RepublikanischePartei #ElonMusk #US-Regierung #JDVance #Repräsentantenhaus #US-Kongress #US-Senat #Ausland #Leserdiskussion #Politik #SüddeutscheZeitung

USA News: Trump: Verdoppelung der Stahl-Zölle auf 50 Prozent ab Mittwoch

^{Kassian Stroh (Süddeutsche Zeitung)}

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Democrats here took a vital first step in delivering Joe Biden the presidency five years ago. Now, they're hoping his tarnished legacy won’t jeopardize their future as an early primary state.

Already, there are hints some Democrats will revert to New Hampshire holding the party’s initial primary contest, while progressives want to see labor-heavy Nevada take the lead. And there's even talk of friendlier southern states, like Georgia or North Carolina, leapfrogging South Carolina.

“The unfortunate part is, Democrats are saying that, and they think that [South Carolina leading] is a bad part of Biden's legacy,” said Bre Booker-Maxwell, a national committeewoman, Saturday on the sidelines of the state party’s convention.

She questioned the rationale of such a decision, before answering herself. “The fact that the man ran the second time, and he probably shouldn't have run?” she asked skeptically. “Some people just need to get over themselves and whatever issues they have with Joe Biden.”

Attempts to move past Biden and the bad aftertaste of 2024 got underway this weekend as state party insiders hosted a pair of out-of-state governors with obvious, but still publicly undeclared, sights on the 2028 nomination.

Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Tim Walz of Minnesota took turns gracing the outdoor stage while onlookers feasted on whiting filet on white bread, at the World Famous Fish Fry, an annual tradition hosted by the state’s Democratic kingmaker, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).

Walz, the first to greet the crowd, spoke of the missteps from the last cycle and Democrats needing to expand their reach beyond a handful of swing states.

“I went to the same seven damn states over and over and over,” Walz said. “People are pissed off in South Carolina, they're pissed off in Texas, they're pissed off in Indiana. … We need to change the attitude, compete in every district, compete for every school board seat.”

Moore, who earlier Friday delivered the keynote address at the state party’s Blue Palmetto Dinner, drew cheers from the mostly Black attendees of the fish fry when he said “we come from a resilient culture” and encouraged them not to run in the face of challenge. He then pivoted to Trump and the havoc his so-called big beautiful bill would create if passed, which Moore suggested would push tens of thousands of kids into poverty while enriching the president’s billionaire buddies.

Once speeches wrapped, several in the crowd broke into line dance while South Carolina crooner 803 Fresh’s campaign anthem “Boots on the Ground” blared over loudspeakers.

It was not the rip-roaring affair of 2019 when a cavalcade of 21 presidential candidates — including Biden — wooed attendees with stump speeches. Friday night's gathering at the EdVenture Children’s Museum was held as many Democrats are still grappling with the pain of widespread electoral defeats.

Biden’s return to the national spotlight — through negative coverage detailing how those in his inner circle shielded the president's deteriorating condition from the outside world — has only resurfaced some long-held misgivings about his legacy.

“All this talk about President Biden and what should have and what could have, what might have, is a bunch of bullshit,” said Trav Robertson, a longtime Democratic operative and former chair of the state party. “We can peck that to death if you want to, but that is in the past. South Carolina represents going into the future.”

South Carolina, a state where Black Democrats make up a substantial portion of primary voters, played a pivotal role resurrecting Biden’s moribund campaign. When Clyburn threw his support behind Biden ahead of the South Carolina primary in 2020, it vaulted him to the nomination and later, the presidency. In return, Biden pressured the Democratic Party to upend its traditional nomination calendar by moving the state to the lead-off position.

But that electoral situation was tenuous. By running for reelection, Biden sapped energy out of the 2024 primary. Now, party officials are bracing for its status as the kickoff state to be ripped away.

“I think it would be a mistake to act like South Carolina's place [at the top] is just because of Biden, when this has been a conversation we've been having for 20 years,” said Nick Sottile, an attorney and executive director of the South Carolina House Democrats.

Like nearly every Democrat in the state, he points out the benefits of South Carolina are vast. In addition to paying homage to a vital Democratic voting bloc, the small state with relatively cheap media markets won’t bankrupt campaigns, which can hit upstate, midlands and the coast — a mix of urban, suburban and rural areas — all on a single tank of gas. Then there’s the robust defense of South Carolina primary voters' history of picking presidents — Bill Clinton in 1992, Barack Obama in 2008 and Biden in 2020 — particularly in contrast to New Hampshire and Iowa.

“We get it right, and it's a proven track record,” Sottile added. “It's not one election and one candidate that we're talking about.”

That feeling is not shared by many outside the state.

A longtime member of the DNC’s committee that helps determine the presidential primary order granted anonymity to discuss informal discussions suggested South Carolina’s current spot atop the calendar will undoubtedly come under scrutiny in the coming months.

“Clearly South Carolina members will want to continue to be first in the calendar for obvious reasons,” the person said. “I think that no one else is going to feel any kind of obligation to keep South Carolina at the top of the calendar — because Biden is gone.”

Biden may have unintentionally shattered South Carolina’s standing next cycle, which only adds to a sense of betrayal over his role in ushering in another Trump presidency.

“There are people who are just mad as hell about everything that happened in 2024,” said Sam Skardon of Charleston.

He admits he was one of the few in the state party who believed Biden’s promise to be a “bridge” candidate to the next generation. He took the job as chair of the Charleston County Democrats in March 2023 hoping to preside over a robust primary. A month later, Biden announced his reelection bid.

“There's a special connection here that’s a deeper attachment, I think, than most states' Democratic Parties have to President Biden, probably up there with Delaware for thinking of him as our own,” Skardon added. “But yeah, then there is additional anger, I think, at Biden for … not not letting us put our best foot forward.”

Some believe Biden is simply too convenient a scapegoat for the party’s broader problems. Backpedaling on giving Black voters more of a say in picking the party’s nominee could erode trust in a bloc that's already drifting away from the party.

“It is a slap in the face … to Black Americans, where people are questioning Joe Biden at this point,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist who resumed his role as emcee of the fish fry. “It was Joe Biden who had the steel spine, the guts and the courage to declare that Black Americans' voices should be heard first in the presidential preference process.”

But Seawright also shared concerns that too many voters here view Democrats as out of touch.

“I think trust was a part of the formula for Trump's success in the last election cycle,” Seawright added. “You had some people who, in my opinion, did not necessarily vote for Donald Trump, they voted against the Democratic brand.”

At the Palmetto Dinner, Jaime Harrison, the chair emeritus of the Democratic National Committee and Orangeburg, South Carolina, native revved up the crowd by putting a positive spin on the party’s standing in state since Biden left the stage.

“We are more organized, we are more energized, and we are more focused than ever before,” he said, heaping praise on the state’s party chair Christale Spain who was elected to a second term on Saturday. “I am going to be on record right now to the South Carolina Republican Party, 2026 is going to be a reckoning.”

Amanda Loveday, a Democratic strategist based in Columbia who worked on Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, is another South Carolina defender. But she is less optimistic given South Carolina’s Democrats, who have long been locked out of power in the state, suffered setbacks last cycle.

“We lost [state] Senators and House members that we have absolutely no business losing,” Loveday said, which included two prominent Black lawmakers including state Sen. Gerald Malloy and state Rep. Joseph Jefferson.

Republicans flipped four state Senate seats last cycle, leaving just 12 Democrats in the chamber. And in the presidential election, Trump’s victory was never in doubt, but he increased his margin by 6 percentage points over 2020.

All this is fueling speculation that South Carolina’s neighbors — North Carolina and Georgia — which have notched statewide wins for Democrats in recent cycles, have better arguments to hurdle South Carolina in the primary calendar.

When top figures in President Donald Trump’s orbit descended on a small town in southeastern Poland this week to rally support for the right-wing candidate in that country’s presidential election on Sunday, they put MAGA’s ambitions abroad on full display.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Karol Nawrocki “just as strong a leader” as Trump, declaring “he needs to to be the next president of Poland.” Matt Schlapp, chair of the pro-Trump Conservative Political Action Conference, which hosted the gathering, said electing candidates like Nawrocki is “so important to the freedom of people everywhere,” while John Eastman, who aided Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, said Poland under Nawrocki would play “a critical role in defeating [the] threat to Western civilization.”

But if the conservative confab ahead of Poland’s vote was an indication of how hard Trump’s allies have been working to expand the MAGA brand across the globe, the results of recent elections, including in Romania, Poland and Canada, suggest Trump’s influence in some cases may not be helping.

“Just like domestically, you see one step forward, two steps back sometimes,” said Matthew Bartlett, a GOP strategist and State Department appointee in Trump's first administration. “The thought of Trump and MAGA is sometimes more powerful than the reality.”

He said, “His thumbprint can help push in certain regions and countries, but there can also be some pushback.”

Trump’s election to a second term in November emboldened far-right movements abroad. It gave Trump’s allies hopes of putting like-minded leaders into positions of power, boosting parties that share his priorities and spreading his populist, hard-right politics beyond the U.S. Meanwhile, conservative politicians in other countries yoked themselves directly or stylistically to his brand.

In the months since, far-right parties have performed strongly in European elections, including in Poland, Romania and Portugal, overperforming expectations and elevating their vote shares with electorates shifting to the right on issues like immigration. The hard-right in Europe, by most accounts, is surging. But they’re not vaulting into government like some Trump allies had predicted.

“I wouldn't say the right has ascended, I'd say it's a mixed package,” said Kurt Volker, who served as Trump’s envoy for Ukraine during his first administration and ambassador to NATO under George W. Bush. “There is a movement effect where the far-right movements seem to draw energy from each other and do well. But there's also this anti-Trump effect, where Trump has challenged a country or a leader and that has only backfired and helped them.”

In Romania, hard-right presidential candidate George Simion, who spoke at this year’s CPAC in Washington and appeared on Trump ally Steve Bannon’s podcast just days before the country’s election this month, lost to a centrist challenger after dominating the first round of voting. In Albania, conservatives hired former Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita to boost their fortunes, only to see their candidate get trounced anyway.

And the movement is bracing for a close election on Sunday in Poland, where Nawrocki — who visited the White House earlier this month — is locked in a tight race with centrist candidate Rafal Trzaskowski after finishing behind him in the first round.

“We have a lot of political leaders here in the U.S. who are camping out in Poland to try to tilt it,” said Randy Evans, who was ambassador to Luxembourg during Trump’s first term. “Whether or not that's enough or not … I don't know. I think it's going to be very close.”

Trump’s allies have been working since his first term to expand MAGA’s influence abroad. Bannon, who had managed Trump’s 2016 campaign, began traveling across Europe pitching himself as the mastermind behind a new global far-right alliance called “The Movement.” He even announced he would set up an academy to train future right-wing political leaders at a former monastery outside Rome.

Those efforts largely fizzled at the time: Bannon’s planned academy got caught up in yearslong legal battles, and support for far-right parties across the continent tanked in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

But rising inflation and growing concerns over immigration helped far-right parties gain back support as the pandemic faded. By the time Trump won the election last November, many of those parties were resurging — and his victory emboldened them further, with far-right allies quickly seeking to tie themselves to the incoming U.S. president and his orbit.

When Vice President JD Vance chastised European leaders for “running in fear of [their] own voters” at the Munich Security Conference in February, he billed the Trump administration as an alternative model — the vanguard of a hard-right movement not only in the United States, but across the West.

“Make Europe Great Again! MEGA, MEGA, MEGA,” Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s billionaire ally, posted on X earlier this year.

In the months since the vice president’s appearance in Germany, hardline conservatives have had some success. In Portugal, the far-right Chega party surged. And Reform UK, the party led by pro-Brexit leader Nigel Farage, made big gains in the country’s local elections earlier this month.

CPAC, which has been holding international conferences since 2017 — including in Japan, Australia, Brazil and Argentina — gathered supporters in Hungary following the Poland meeting this week.

Schlapp did not respond to a request for comment. But he told NPR, “The one thing that's undeniable is that everybody wants to know where Donald Trump is on the issues that matter to their country” and said, “They're really rooting for Donald Trump to succeed.”

But elsewhere abroad, MAGA-style politics not only has failed to spread — it has been a liability. In both Canada and Australia, Trump’s combative and unpredictable trade policy led to an anti-Trump wave that helped tank right-wing candidates who sought to emulate his rhetoric.

Canada’s Pierre Poilievre ran on a “Canada First” slogan and Australia’s Peter Dutton proposed DOGE-style cuts to government. But Trump’s tariffs were deeply unpopular with voters in both countries, and even though Poilievre and Dutton distanced themselves from Trump in the final days of the campaign, voters punished them anyway.

Vance’s speech in February “gave the impression that this is becoming a transatlantic right-wing alliance,” said Liana Fix, a fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “Since then, the reality is … not as drastic as those worst-case scenarios. And that’s not because they’re not trying. You see how the White House is trying.”

Trump’s allies went all-in on the May 18 election in Romania, which was the re-run of a November vote annulled over concerns that a Russian influence campaign on TikTok had affected the outcome. Trump allies had criticized the decision to cancel the original results and bar the winning candidate, ultranationalist Călin Georgescu, from running in the new election.

MAGA loyalists spent months touting Simion, the hard-right candidate who promised to “Make Romania Great Again.” Less than two weeks before Election Day, Simion hosted CPAC’s Schlapp at a business roundtable in Bucharest, and two days before Romanian voters cast their ballots, Bannon hosted Simion on his “War Room” podcast.

“George, you've got the entire MAGA movement here in the United States pulling for you,” Bannon said, predicting victory for the Trump-aligned candidate.

But when the votes were counted, it wasn’t even close. Simion lost the election by 7 points to Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan, a centrist candidate who promised closer ties with the European Union and NATO.

In Albania’s May 11 parliamentary elections, where the conservative candidate, Sali Berisha, hired LaCivita to help his party make a political comeback, the party in interviews heralded Trump and Berisha’s “remarkably similar profiles” of being “persecuted by establishments” and “targeted by their countries’ justice systems.” Berisha’s supporters touted LaCivita’s involvement as proof Berisha was anointed by the MAGA movement.

But on Election Day, Berisha’s party lost badly, handing incumbent Edi Rama and his Socialist Party another term in office.

Rama wasted no time in gloating: Hiring Trump’s campaign strategist and thinking you can become Trump “is like hiring a Hollywood hairdresser and thinking you’ll become Brad Pitt,” he told POLITICO after the vote.

LaCivita told POLITICO on Friday that the connection between MAGA in the U.S. and conservative movements abroad stems from a common concern about an “alignment of issues — governments using their judicial systems to prosecute political opponents, the rising cost of living, reduced opportunities and individual liberties.”

“This alignment was defeated with President Trump’s win in 2024, and while that success may not always be repeated worldwide — once again America is being looked at to provide leadership in securing freedom,” he said in a text message. “Not through the barrel of a gun — but politics.”

Trump spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that Trump’s “message of restoring common sense, halting illegal immigration, and delivering peace resonates with not just Americans, but people around the world, which is why conservatives have been winning elections in all corners of the globe. He is simultaneously restoring America’s strength on the world stage, as evidenced by the 15 foreign leaders who have visited the White House this term.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s allies have largely dismissed defeats abroad, with explanations ranging from blaming the “deep state” to arguing that losing politicians were not sufficiently Trumpian to win.

"MAGA's populist, nationalist, sovereignist right continues to rise despite the full force of the deep state being thrown against it,” Bannon told POLITICO in response to the spate of recent elections.

“These people aren’t Donald Trump. They’re facsimiles,” Raheem Kassam, a former Farage adviser and ex-Breitbart London editor, said of Simion and Nawrocki, noting that their parties are both part of a faction on the European level that has its roots more in traditional conservatism than the MAGA-style populism of far-right parties in Germany, Austria, France and others.

“They’re cheap copies that have been run through a copy machine 40 times,” he added. “It doesn’t work. It’s faded. It’s counterfeit Trumpism.”

Poland, where leaders of the right-wing Law and Justice Party have long cultivated ties to Trump and MAGA loyalists, will offer the next test of whether an affiliation with Trump can help put like-minded candidates over the finish line.

Nawrocki, the Law and Justice Party-backed candidate for president, has gone all-in on his efforts to tie himself to Trump — including flying to Washington in early May for a photo op at the White House.

“President Trump said, ‘you will win,’" Nawrocki told the Polish broadcaster TV Republika. “I read it as a kind of wish for my success in the upcoming elections, and also awareness of it, and after this whole day I can say that the American administration is aware of what is happening in Poland.”

But public opinion polling shows Poles, who have long been among the U.S.’ biggest fans in Europe, are souring on both the country and its current leader amid tariffs and Trump’s close ties to Russia — a tricky issue in a country where many people still view Russia as a threat.

Asked by a Polish public polling agency in April whether the U.S. has a positive impact on the world, just 20 percent said yes — the lowest figure since the poll was first conducted in 1987, and down from 55 percent a year ago. And 60 percent of Poles said they were “concerned” about Trump’s presidency, compared with just 15 percent who were “hopeful.”

“Trump is the most unpopular U.S. president in Europe,” said Milan Nic, an expert on Central and Eastern Europe at the German Council on Foreign Relations. “This means that to some supporters of Nawrocki, the photo from White House with Trump is no longer as powerful as it used to be.”

Volker, the former Ukraine envoy, said right-wing parties need to walk a tightrope of embracing some of the MAGA zeal — but without linking themselves too closely to the polarizing U.S. president.

“You have to think of Trump as like fire: You can't be too close, but you can't be too far away,” said Volker. “If you get too close to Trump you get burned, and if you’re too far away you’re not relevant.”

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Wes Moore made an early and urgent appeal Friday to one of the nation’s most important Democratic constituencies.

The first-term governor of Maryland said Democrats must adapt and change to counter President Donald Trump and improve life for the middle class if they have any hope of returning to power.

“Gone are the days when we are the party of bureaucracy, multi-year studies, panels, and college debate club rules,” Moore said in a speech before party insiders at the South Carolina Democrats Blue Palmetto Dinner. “We must be the party of action.”

South Carolina has a track record of vaulting Democratic primary winners to the White House, and Moore’s premium speaking slot before the state's well-connected party leaders does little to tamp down speculation he’s kicking the tires on an upcoming presidential bid.

In a state where Donald Trump cruised to an 18-point victory nearly seven months ago, Moore said Democrats must also take cues from an unlikely instructor: the president himself.

“Urgency is the instrument of change. And do you know who understands that really well? Donald Trump,” Moore said. “I want to be clear: We can — and we must — condemn Donald Trump’s reckless actions. But we would also be foolish not to learn from his impatience.”

Moore talked about his roots in Charleston, where his grandfather was born, his Army service and record on crime and job creation in Maryland. He also spoke about the perilous times the country faces, and told the crowd that he is on a “mission” to help deliver adequate health care and livable wages for those who need them.

It’s a vision Moore sought to contrast with the “reckless actions” of Trump.

Moore, 46, is seen as one of the party’s most promising young stars and has caught the attention of Hollywood icon and Democratic megadonor George Clooney. While many Democrats are eager to turn the page after difficult electoral losses last cycle, the governor told the party faithful that mustering up the courage to fight can’t wait until the next presidential cycle.

“Anyone who is talking about 2028 does not understand the urgency of 2025,” Moore said.

Earlier on Friday, Moore toured the Scout Motors Production Facility in nearby Blythewood and planned to attend a campaign-style fish fry after the dinner — making his visit seem even more like a tryout for 2028.

Moore, Maryland’s first — and currently the nation’s only — Black governor has drawn the ire of a handful of Democrats back home and in South Carolina over his veto of a reparations bill passed by the state legislature. The measure called for the study of historic race-based inequality in the state.

At least one South Carolina lawmaker, state Rep. John King, called for Moore to be disinvited from the gala.

“The governor's veto doesn't just affect Maryland,” said King, who boycotted the dinner. “It echoes in every state where Black lawmakers are already working uphill. It makes our jobs harder, and that's something we can't afford to ignore.”

The issue of reparations remains politically divisive, with a 2022 Pew Research Center survey showing that 77 percent of African Americans supported them, while less than 20 percent of white respondents did.

In the governor’s veto letter he suggested that with economic headwinds facing his state, it is an inopportune time to fund “another study.”

Moore has also followed other Democrats thought to be eyeing White House runs by sitting for more podcast interviews.

This includes a recent appearance on “The Breakfast Club” co-hosted by Charlamagne tha God and Kara Swisher’s podcast to talk about DOGE cuts and impact to his state. He recently traveled to Georgia, a key swing state, to record an episode of a podcast hosted by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and taped a hoops workout with basketball shooting coach and influencer Chris Matthews.

A person familiar with Moore's schedule said he’s limiting the number of out-of-state invites he is accepting to focus on his role in Maryland. But the person stressed he plans to hit the campaign trail in Virginia and New Jersey — both of which hold statewide elections this fall.

Two potential 2028 Democratic presidential primary candidates will descend on Cleveland in July to headline a rub elbows with the party’s top mayors — auditioning for another group of key surrogates in the unfolding shadow primary.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and California Rep. Ro Khanna will join Democratic Mayors Association President and Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb for a national gathering of Democratic mayors alongside DNC Chair Ken Martin, former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brownand current Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown. Details were shared first with POLITICO.

“The summit will showcase our cities, the work mayors are doing to hold [President Donald] Trump accountable, deliver results, and demonstrate that government can work for the people,” said a person familiar with the planning and granted anonymity to discuss an event that was still being finalized.

The theme of the summit is “Community Over Chaos: A Path Forward.”

“I am excited to welcome my fellow Democratic mayors, special guests, and Democratic partners to my hometown of Cleveland for DMA's National Summit later this summer,” Bibb told POLITICO. “This year’s summit will be a showcase of our cities and how government at the local level still works for the people. Despite chaos in Washington, mayors continue to find solutions and deliver results each day. I can’t wait for everyone to see what Democratic mayors — and Cleveland — are all about.”

The event is in line with Bibb’s vision for the association playing a more aggressive and vocal role than in years past, and this will mark the first year that DMA’s national summit will be open to the public and press.

But it also comes at a fraught time for Democratic mayors, particularly those of big cities, who have found themselves targeted by the Trump administration.

Both Beshear and Khanna have been making early moves that are aimed at a presidential run. Beshear has hired a former spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign and started a podcast this spring. Khanna has been on a nonstop tour of media hits and party events.

But Ohio, once a swing state, has drifted even further away from Democrats in recent years. Brown, a longtime Senator who clung to his seat even as it reddened due to his ties to working-class voters, got booted last cycle. President Donald Trump won the state by 11 percentage points.

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — President Donald Trump's allies are fuming at Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for getting involved in Michigan’s Senate primary, a race that now threatens to divide Republicans.

Duffy is headlining a planned June 4 fundraiser for Rep. Bill Huizenga, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO — a move that puts Duffy at odds with the National Republican Senatorial Committee and 2024 Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita. Duffy has also been advising Huizenga, according to a person familiar with the race.

Duffy, according to the two people close to Trump, never cleared his political engagement with the White House political shop, and has now drawn the ire of Trump’s top political hands. The transportation secretary’s move to fundraise for Huizenga has now prompted threats of a crackdown on Cabinet secretaries’ political activities ahead of the midterms, POLITICO has learned.

“He did not ask for it to be approved,” a person close to Trump and granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive political matter told POLITICO of Duffy’s decision. “It would not have been approved. They are old friends and it’s technically for the House so not going to embarrass him by standing it down, but the fact is administration officials are not free agents politically, even in their spare time. You never get ahead of the President.”

Huizenga has told others that a second Cabinet official could fundraise for him but they're settling on a date. One of the people familiar with Trump's thinking said they would not allow that to happen.

The White House declined to comment.

A spokesperson for Duffy did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Rogers declined to comment.

Trump hasn’t decided who to endorse yet in Michigan’s Senate race, according to two people close to the president, a contest that arguably represents Republicans’ best chance to widen their majority.

National Republicans have coalesced behind former Rep. Mike Rogers in the Republican’s second run for the office, but Huizenga has been taking steps toward a run.

Huizenga spent the week at a gathering of Michigan strategists and elected officials on Mackinac Island preparing a run against Rogers and courting prominent national donors, emphasizing in conversations that Rogers failed to beat Democrat Elissa Slotkin for an open Senate seat in the same year Trump won the state.

“I want to make sure we win,” Huizenga told POLITICO when he said he could announce a Senate bid as early as this summer. “The question is: Are we going to run the same play and expect a different result?”

Huizenga’s plans undermine the National Republican Senatorial Committee's plans to clear the field for Rogers, a former Trump critic. Rogers hired LaCivita as his senior adviser.

The Republican establishment — including the top echelons of Trump world — have started to coalesce around Rogers as the nominee.On Wednesday, NRSC political director Brendan Jaspers reposted a poll on X showing Rogers outperforming Huizenga against potential Democratic rivals and suggesting that “the numbers point to one candidate” who can flip the seat for Republicans: Rogers.

A pro-Trump executive at The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts said he was dismissed after CNN questioned his history of anti-LGBTQ+ remarks.

Floyd Brown posted on social media Thursday that he had been removed from his post at Washington’s premier theater and cultural center just months after joining.

The Kennedy Center has faced an overhaul under President Donald Trump. During his first month, Trump fired the Center’s leadership — including former president Deborah Rutter — and filled the board of trustees with his own supporters. He also announced he had been unanimously elected the board’s chair. Several artists have canceled appearances at the Center as a result.

Brown has previously called homosexuality a “punishment” upon America and said same-sex marriage is “godless” and a “hoax,” CNN reported. He also promoted conspiracies about former President Barack Obama’s birth and religion.

He said on X that he was asked to “recant your belief in traditional marriage” and refused to do so, and that he was let go before the article was published. He accused Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell — a close ally of Trump — of being “intimidated” by CNN and alleged that Grenell, who is gay and a practicing Christian, “preemptively fired me for my Christian beliefs on marriage.”

Brown said he has asked for an explanation regarding his dismissal, along with the chance to speak with Grenell. He claims both requests have gone unanswered.

The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brown said he never meant to offend anyone with his previous comments.

“Comments rooted in my personal Christian views, which I have made in the past, have no impact upon my work here at the Kennedy Center nor do they impinge on my interactions with colleagues who do incredible work for the patrons of the Center. As a Christian I am called to work with others of different beliefs and worldviews,” he said.

Brown added that he was “honored” to work at the Kennedy Center and said he was united with the Center’s and Trump’s mission “to bring wholesome entertainment showcasing the best of performing arts and music to America.”

Brown has a long history of conservative activism. He helped found the conservative nonprofit Citizens United. He also served as an executive for Young America’s Foundation, which offers support to conservative college students, and founded The Western Journal.

MACKINAC ISLAND, Michigan — Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga has been preparing a run for Michigan’s open Senate seat and plans to make a final decision this summer.

If he does enter the primary, he would defy national Republicans, who have been aiming to clear the field for former Rep. Mike Rogers’ second attempt at the office.

“I want to make sure we win. I want to make sure we’ve got the right candidate to do that,” Huizenga said Thursday. “I personally think it should have been won last election. It didn’t. And the question is: Are we going to run the same play and expect a different result?”

Huizenga has been assembling a team, including fundraisers, for a potential bid. He recently traveled to West Point to discuss his candidacy with Donald Trump during the president’s visit last weekend. Last cycle, Trump endorsed Rogers, a former critic, in a crowded Senate primary; he has not endorsed in this race.

Republicans’ Senate campaign arm has been pressuring Huizenga to stay out of the contest, aiming to avert a potentially messy primary as they try to flip retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ seat.

National Republican Senatorial Committee political director Brendan Jaspers on Wednesday reposted a poll on X showing Rogers outperforming Huizenga against potential Democratic rivals with the message, “If Republicans want to flip Michigan’s Senate seat red in 2026, the numbers point to one candidate” — Rogers.

Democrat Elissa Slotkin defeated Rogers in Michigan’s open Senate race last year even as Trump won the state.

With Republicans holding competitive, eat-their-own primaries in the midterms next year, Democrats in the South see an opening to court moderates who are souring on the GOP.

In Texas, state Attorney General Ken Paxton is challenging the establishment-aligned Sen. John Cornyn, and the Georgia GOP primary field is quickly becoming crowded as Republicans attempt to oust Sen. Jon Ossoff. While holding Georgia will be tough and flipping Texas even harder, there’s still an opportunity for the left.

A new class of Democratic leaders in the South are pitching voters on their party’s proposals to lower costs and increase wages, while casting blame on Republicans for an unsettled economy under President Donald Trump. They say that strategy is key not just for the midterms, but part of solving an existential threat for Democrats if they want to stand a chance in coming years at regaining national power.

Longer-term population shifts in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas that went to Trump in November, mean those states are poised to gain congressional and Electoral College seats. Florida — which many Democrats concede is a solidly GOP state — could also expand its influence. Democrats in these states are now warning that failing to mount a comeback could mean that winning the White House after the 2030 Census would be far more difficult.

The fix, according to a dozen Democratic leaders in the South, is to refocus the Democratic Party on the economy and border security — two areas of strength historically for the GOP. Kendall Scudder, a 35-year-old progressive who took over the Texas Democratic Party in March, said Democrats must “do everything we can to show that when we get out of bed in the morning, we eat glass to fight back and protect the working people of this state.”

In Georgia, Charlie Bailey, who was named Democratic Party chair this month, is also stressing that Democrats’ political survival depends on figuring out how to talk to working-class voters — and hammering Republicans on the economy.

“It is that kind of record of the Republicans that has voters with full cause to be angry,” Bailey said. “They know they're being screwed. My job as the chair is to make sure they know who to blame.”

Other Democrats say the national political climate could help turn the tide.

“What's happening on the federal level is unpredictable, but it may be a unique opportunity for a progressive agenda,” said Georgia Democratic strategist Amy Morton. “Republicans are claiming the far right, Democrats have an opportunity to claim everything else. Voters may be hungry for change by the time we get to the elections next year.”

The uphill climb for Democrats in the South is steep. Republicans raise far more money and hold far more seats in state legislatures than Democrats, meaning they control the redistricting process. And following a brutal November that saw many red regions grow redder, Democrats' national brand problem is even more pronounced in the South.

Texas Democrats are taking the fact that they lost ground in South Texas as a warning sign for a party that has counted on the surge of Latino residents in recent decades to help bring the party to dominance. Taking Latinos for granted is “a mistake we'll never make again,” said Texas State Rep. Erin Gamez, who represents a district in South Texas. “It's a mistake we can't afford to ever make again.”

Scudder’s plan to better position Texas Democrats involves creating a Spanish-language communications department and recruiting more local party leaders, citing the fact that half of precinct positions sit unfilled.

Scudder and other new chairs have not shied away from calling out the national party for failing to read the electorate correctly, and say the party needs to stay hyper focused on middle-class concerns like higher wages and more investment in public education. They echo longtime complaints from local Democrats that national party leaders have neglected to help build out a political operation in all corners of Texas that remains strong even in non-election years.

“We need help now,” Scudder said. “We're just simply out-resourced here. When real money starts coming to the state in a long term infrastructure way, that's when I think the state is going to start to really move in the right direction.”

But newcomers are encouraged by the recent election of Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who ran Minnesota's state party for years. Last month the DNC announced it is steering more investment to state parties, with an extra focus on red states intended to help organizers build long-term infrastructure. Under the new formula, red states would get $22,500 per month, a 50 percent bump, whereas their blue state counterparts will get $17,500, a 30 percent increase over current funding levels. That cash can help state parties hire more staff, open new field offices and conduct research that helps state parties hone the right message.

Martin, in an interview, recounted a conversation he had with Brandon Presley, the Mississippi Democrat who came within 3 percentage points of defeating incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves,. Presley said one reason he came up short was there was no infrastructure on the ground to help him.

“That, to me, was a real, real damning indictment, and one that I'll never forget,” Martin said. “The party's responsibility is to build infrastructure so that we meet the moment.”

After a blitzkrieg of a book rollout that saw Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s “Original Sin” dominate the news cycle this week with its clinical autopsy of Joe Biden’s decision to run for reelection, some in Biden world are hitting back, offering fresh complaints about the reporting process and their own fact checks.

When Biden’s reelection campaign needed video of him taking off-the-cuff questions from voters, they turned to a staged town hall in Delaware in April 2024 that they planned to use for a campaign commercial — an episode that went so poorly, people in the campaign determined the town hall yielded unusable material, according to Tapper and Thompson.

The pair write that at the closed-press event, even amid supporters and campaign staff that had the full list of questions, “Biden had trouble. The campaign ultimately decided that the footage wasn’t usable.”

But Biden team’s is pushing back. Three versions of test ads obtained exclusively by POLITICO tell a slightly more complicated story.

While all three are highly edited and feature jump cuts of Biden’s remarks, the footage also shows the candidate engaging with members of the audience. POLITICO viewed dated documents related to the town hall’s planning and a painting in the gym to confirm the date and location.

One is called “Greatest Nation” focusing on democracy; another is titled “They’ve Tried” on the Affordable Care Act; a third, directed at veterans, is called “Defend Us All.”

None ever aired.

Why was that? Though Tapper and Thompson report that it was because the footage “wasn’t usable,” Biden advisers argue that the footage didn’t make it on air simply because of timing.

A Biden spokesperson tells POLITICO that the campaign tested the ads with focus groups but did not deploy them before the president dropped out of the race following his disastrous June 2024 debate.

Asked about the Biden advisers’ claims, Tapper disputed the contention. In a quotation supplied to POLITICO by Tapper, an unnamed Biden adviser said: “While the campaign was able to selectively utilize portions of the footage to craft ads that were eventually tested on focus groups, the consensus from senior and mid level campaign staff present for the event and those privy to the editing process was that the footage was not up to par and would require crafty editorial support. The campaign’s leadership would not have needed to wait nearly four months to (not) release the ads created with the footage if it reflected the picture of confidence they suggest.”

POLITICO has been unable to independently verify the identity of the unnamed Biden adviser supplied by Tapper.

The dispute over the book’s reporting is the latest pushback from Biden aides and allies against what they are keen to depict as a slapdash fact-checking process by Tapper and Thompson.

Tapper and Thompson have made a point of publicly noting that they paid for their book to be fact-checked — a step that many nonfiction books skip — and that Fergus McIntosh, the head research editor at The New Yorker, led that process.

The New Yorker has a stringent and storied process for vetting materials before publication, and, indeed, McIntosh fact-checked both the book and the excerpt from the book that the magazine published last week. POLITICO has learned that McIntosh told at least one person that he was more limited in the facts he could check in the book versus the excerpt, which is common. McIntosh declined to speak on the record.

McIntosh’s role in fact-checking was raised as an issue in a statement Biden’s spokesperson gave The New Yorker, but which the magazine didn’t publish in its entirety. “[T]he New Yorker employee who reached out to fact-check this excerpt also apparently reviewed the book and offered suggestions to the authors as they wrote it,” the statement read. “It's remarkable that neither this fact checker, nor the authors, reached out to fact check the actual book with us, and only the New Yorker is holding them to the high editorial standards that readers of the book should get in the first place.”

In other words, the unnamed Biden spokesperson claims that the first time a Biden aide heard from the independently hired fact-checker was for the magazine excerpt, not for the book. The New Yorker did not respond to a request for comment.

Rufus Gifford, a Biden campaign official, shared video of Biden talking with George Clooney at a moment that the president allegedly did not recognize him — though the video doesn’t seem to definitively prove Gifford’s argument.

Like some of the book’s buzziest anecdotes — including that Biden didn’t recognize Clooney — the town hall anecdote is a matter of perception.

Thompson reports that some people say ads from the town hall weren’t used because the lighting was bad; the lighting looks serviceable in the ads. Others told Thompson that Biden’s performance at the event was poor; Biden, indeed, sounds raspy and old.

In a statement to POLITICO, a spokesperson for Tapper and Thompson said: “Jake and Alex stand by their reporting in ‘Original Sin.’ The Biden team is repeating the same obfuscatory tactics used during their time in the White House, and news outlets continuing to rely on the very same unattributed and unverified voices raises serious credibility questions.”

The spokesperson didn’t want to be named. Tapper declined to identify his source who appraised the Biden town hall.

This story first appeared in POLITICO Playbook.