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| By Eli Okun |
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 | THE CATCH-UP | | |
 President-elect Donald Trump's criminal sentencing has been paused. | Angelina Katsanis/POLITICO
| KING OF NEW YORK — President-elect DONALD TRUMP keeps racking up victories in court: Following his electoral win, New York Justice JUAN MERCHAN today postponed his criminal sentencing on his hush-money conviction indefinitely, Erica Orden reports. Instead, Merchan will take up the question of whether the case should be completely dismissed because Trump is heading back to the White House, as his lawyers argue. Their filing on that matter is now due Dec. 2. DROP THE MIKE — Facing a MAGA backlash over the prospect of former Rep. MIKE ROGERS leading the FBI, incoming White House deputy chief of staff DAN SCAVINO announced today that Trump told him Rogers won’t be chosen. “I have never even given it a thought,” Scavino said Trump told him. Along with the selection of PAM BONDI for AG, Rogers’ rejection signals that Trump is hardly abandoning his bid to remake the Justice Department, despite MATT GAETZ’s withdrawal yesterday. Just this morning, Rogers was on Fox News pitching himself as the right man for the job. “The bureau has lost [the] confidence of the American people,” he said, vowing to clean out “rot” at the senior levels. “Somebody like me? I can restore that faith.” Trump had reportedly been weighing Rogers, who despite the Fox News rhetoric was seen as a more establishment-friendly option, or KASH PATEL, a fire-breathing loyalist, to replace CHRISTOPHER WRAY (whose term, of course, doesn’t actually end for another few years unless he leaves or is forced out). CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported last night that Trump was considering a Solomonic move of pairing Rogers at No. 1 and Patel at No. 2, with Rogers considered a much easier lift to get Senate confirmation. But the right-wing backlash has been intense: It’s a MAGA article of faith, though without evidence to back it up, that the Biden Justice Department was weaponized against Trump, and his biggest supporters want a leader like Patel to clean it up — or turn it back against his enemies. Of course, until we get a clear announcement from Trump, anything can still happen.
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Learn more about open source AI. | | | How Trump’s nominees could get tripped up … In private, some Republican senators have discussed wanting to see TULSI GABBARD’s FBI file, Punchbowl’s Andrew Desiderio reports. The former representative, Trump’s selection for DNI, has made some lawmakers uncomfortable with her views on foreign policy and surveillance, and hawkish senators may want more info on her foreign contacts. How Trump’s nominees could sail through … Despite concerns about some of Trump’s choices, a number of key GOP senators could be vulnerable to primary challenges from the right if they don’t fall in line, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Senators say threats from the likes of STEVE BANNON won’t sway them: They’ll advise and consent, of their own accord, like they always do. But potential primary opponents are circling Sens. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas), THOM TILLIS (R-N.C.), BILL CASSIDY (R-La.) and others. THAT ANSWERS THAT — Gaetz won’t return to Congress next year in the wake of his planned AG nomination flaming out, he said in an interview with Charlie Kirk. “Eight years is probably enough time” in the House, Gaetz said, though he pledged to keep fighting for Trump by other means. He also denied the sexual misconduct allegations against him. More from the Daily Mail … On X, meanwhile, Gaetz threatened that he’d soon expose “stories of corruption, treason and betrayal” regarding members of Congress trading stocks. BIG MEDIA MOVES — DICK STEVENSON will be the new NYT Washington bureau chief, the newspaper announced. The Times veteran has most recently been Washington editor. … MARK SMITH will leave his role as deputy managing editor at WaPo to “focus full time on transformation” at the organization, top editor MATT MURRAY announced to staff. Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com.
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 Activists at COP29 are pushing for wealthy countries to pay more on climate. | Sergei Grits/AP Photo |
1. CLIMATE FILES: At COP29 today, international leaders struck a draft agreement for wealthy nations to pay $250 billion over the next decade for climate financing in the developing world, Zack Colman, Karl Mathiesen, Zia Weise and Sara Schonhardt report from Baku, Azerbaijan. But that was a quarter of the commitment poorer countries had hoped to land, and some of them scoffed at the number as final negotiations continue. It also remains unclear who exactly will put up the money, especially with Trump coming to power. And as the U.S. increasingly retreats, “China already calls the shots” on climate for much of the world, Zack and Sara write. In the U.S., the fossil fuel industry may end up advocating for somewhat different priorities than Trump’s campaign-trail slogans. Oil companies are more focused on easing pipeline permits, exporting natural gas and fighting electric vehicles than doing tons more drilling, WSJ’s Benoît Morenne and Collin Eaton report. The clean-energy industry, meanwhile, is hoping that they can save some of their priorities under Trump by making nominal rather than substantive changes, NOTUS’ Anna Kramer reports: If critical-minerals mining and permitting reforms are protected by shifting the focus from climate change to national security, the effect is the same. (But offshore wind and EVs are in trouble regardless.) 2. LITTLE ROCKET MAN: “Kim Jong Un’s Message to Trump: We’re Not Interested,” by WSJ’s Dasl Yoon and Timothy Martin in Seoul: “KIM JONG UN appeared to rebuff the prospect of reviving his nuclear diplomacy with President-elect Donald Trump, according to his first public remarks about disarmament talks since the election. North Korea’s state media reported Friday that the 40-year-old dictator called the U.S. a superpower that operated by force rather than a will to coexist and belittled the value that previous talks had for his cash-strapped regime. … [S]ince Trump left office in 2021, Pyongyang has strengthened its leverage.” Meanwhile across the Yalu River: “U.S. to Add Nearly 30 Chinese Companies to Forced-Labor Blacklist,” by WSJ’s Richard Vanderford 3. THE GRASS IS GREENER: This time around, Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) is expected to support Speaker MIKE JOHNSON for another go at leading House Republicans, Punchbowl’s Melanie Zanona reports. The two have somewhat mended their relationship, and Johnson has quieted his opposition thanks to strong support from Trump. But “there’s at least one House Republican who has privately indicated that they’re a ‘hard no’ on voting for Johnson for speaker.”
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Want to know what's really happening with Congress's make-or-break spending fights? Get daily insider analysis of Hill negotiations, funding deadlines, and breaking developments—free in your inbox with Inside Congress. Subscribe now. | | | | | 4. IN THE WILDERNESS: Will Democrats be able to claw back Nevada? From Las Vegas, NBC’s Sahil Kapur reports that some leading Dems think they’ll do better when ruling Republicans don’t improve voters’ lives, and when they’re not hamstrung by this year’s unique circumstances at the top of the ticket. But Democrats also say they have to improve their appeal and messaging to working-class voters and independents. Republicans are confident they’re just getting started — pointing to down-ballot races they almost won despite limited national support. The 2026 gubernatorial race will be the next big test. 5. LET THE SUNSHINE IN: “Transparency advocates call on Trump to release White House visitor logs,” by the Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky: “It’s unclear if Trump intends to release visitor logs, and spokespeople for the Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment. Still, failing to do so could conflict with Trump’s other plans for the second administration.” 6. IMMIGRATION FILES: For the ascendant “new right” that claims VP-elect JD VANCE as a disciple, clamping down on immigration is an important economic project to improve Americans’ job opportunities, NYT’s Lydia DePillis reports. Especially led by OREN CASS, this argument goes that more Americans who have quit the labor force will return — and see their labor power grow — with fewer immigrants working for low wages. But, DePillis writes, more recent and larger reviews of economic data suggest this theory may not hold water: Studies increasingly find that immigration has very limited negative impacts for native workers, or none at all. 7. PAGING LLOYD AUSTIN: “Twists and Turns in Sept. 11 Plea Process Are Agonizing, Families Say,” by NYT’s Carol Rosenberg: “Families of the nearly 3,000 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks may be divided over whether the man accused of being the mastermind of the plot should someday face a death penalty trial or be allowed to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison. But many agree on one thing: The on-again, off-again plea deal process has been agonizing.”
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| PLAYBOOKERS
| | Dan Gallagher is out for SEC chair. Ritchie Torres is making a name for himself statewide. Angela Merkel says every interaction with Donald Trump is zero-sum. George Will is celebrating 50 years at WaPo. Stephen Lynch wants to buy Nord Stream 2. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a party for Dan Fleutte’s new book, “Rebels, Rogues, and Outlaws: A Pictorial History of WarRoom” ($50), at Butterworth’s on Wednesday: Steve Bannon, Seb Gorka, Dave Bossie, Jeff Clark, Raheem Kassam, Frank Gaffney, Rep-elect. Abe Hamadeh (R-Ariz.), Christina Bobb, Terry Schilling, Rich Miniter, Steven Hatfill, George Santos, Laura Nasim, CJ Pearson, Jerome Riviere, Maureen Bannon, Robert Malone and Tony Lyons. — SPOTTED at Touchdown Strategies’ fifth anniversary party last night at Mi Vida: James Davis, Paul Morrell, Dan Ronayne, Paul Kane, Robb Harleston, Jeff Sadosky, Rob Collins, Brian Walsh, Geoff Holtzman, Doug Heye, Bill Riggs, Lisa Miller, Phil Elliott, Gretchen Reiter and Reese Gorman. — SPOTTED at the U.S. Travel Association’s Future of Travel Mobility conference at Union Station on Wednesday, which focused on the Ryder Cup, FIFA World Cup, America 250 and Olympics all happening in the U.S. in the next decade: TSA Administrator David Pekoske, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), Geoff Freeman, Dara Khosrowshahi, Melissa Alvarado, David Quinalty, Mike Filomena, Linda Jojo, Greg Schulze, Kevin McAleenan, Jeff Bleich, Patty Cogswell, Phillip Washington, Nathan Lump and Tori Barnes. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
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