Good Monday morning. I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing sponsored by UC Davis.

And I'm Anna Palmer. We're kicking off this week with the White House focused squarely on North Korea.

The AP is reporting that Vice President Mike Pence during his South Pacific trip said that, quote,

the era of strategic patience is over. And Bloomberg is out with a

bombshell of a piece, noting that President Donald Trump is still willing to consider a kinetic

military action in the region, including a sudden strike. Trump would still prefer it if China

took the lead in dealing with North Korea. White House insiders are feeling pretty good they have

another week with Congress out of town and are hopeful they can keep up their momentum that they've built up lead in dealing with North Korea. White House insiders are feeling pretty good they have another

week with Congress out of town and are hopeful they can keep up their momentum that they've built

up over the last couple days. Remember, when Congress returns next week, Washington will be in full

shutdown mode. Congress will need to pass a spending bill by that Friday or risk shutdown.

But before the White House can move on to figuring out what role it is going to play in pushing

Congress to fund the government, there is one big hurdle, the Easter egg role.

The annual event can appear to be a quick photo op, but it will be the first time since Trump's

inauguration, where crowd size and overall organization will be on display.

And typically, who gets a ticket for their family and who doesn't is a classic Washington

political currency play.

A few people who will not be at the Easter egg roll, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.

The two were spotted on billionaire David Geffen's super yacht with Oprah, Bruce Springsteen,

and Tom Hanks.

Our invites must have gotten lost in the mail.

Trump is weighing in on the upcoming special election last night, tweeting that Kansas was a really

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