Presented by BP.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Playbook Deputy Editor Zach Stanton. It is Friday, December 20th,

and here's what's driving the day. Right now, the U.S. is teetering on the brink of a government

shutdown after the collapse of Speaker Mike Johnson's spending plan yesterday in the Republican-controlled

house. That, despite President-elect Donald Trump's loud advocacy for it, despite Elon Musk's

megaphone in support of it, and despite the likelihood that members of Congress will face

brutal headlines in the days ahead if the government shuts down and federal workers

and service members

have to go without pay over the holidays.

It's a lot to unpack, and joining me now to do just that is Playbook editor Mike De Bonas.

Good morning, Mike.

Hey, Zach.

So, for a while yesterday, it looked like this was all really coming together for Republicans,

and we were even

talking in Playbooks group chat about how this looked like Trump was on the verge of sort of a

major political victory here. And in a matter of hours, it all sort of frayed and came apart.

What happened? I think there was just a fundamental misapprehension at play, which is that

if Donald Trump wants it to be so, that every Republican in the party will jump and make it so.

We found out last night that that just isn't necessarily the case. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the

House, puts this bill on the floor. Donald Trump endorses it in this very sort of firm message saying

this is a great bill. Everyone should get behind it. And yet, 38 Republicans decided that it wasn't good

enough. They had big problems with it. They voted against Donald Trump. They voted against Mike Johnson.

...