Good Monday morning and happy President's Day.

This is Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Flash Briefing,

sponsored by the Better Medicare Alliance.

We don't expect a ton of action this week as both chambers of Congress are out of session.

The AP is reporting that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is in Baghdad today.

Vice President Mike Pence is in Brussels and will speak

by phone later today with President Donald Trump, who is still in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump, who's

been in Florida for the weekend, has hardly been seen. The New York Times, Peter Baker, who was serving

as White House Pooler, yesterday noted that he had a 14-hour day without ever actually eyeing the subject

of interest. But just because Trump hasn't been seen doesn't mean the town of Palm Beach

isn't feeling the negative economic impact of a presidential visit. While Trump has promised

economic revitalization, his constant trips to the resort area are causing major losses at the local

airport and for the service industry, while costs have increased by tens of thousands of dollars

to pay for the overtime sheriff's deputies who guard the many closed roads. While Trump has been

hold up in Florida, Mike Pence has been acting as a surrogate in Europe. The Washington Post,

Ashley Parker and Michael Burnbaum, have the scoop on how Pence has been trying to reassure

nervous U.S. allies. Still, questions remain on whether Pence actually has any power to focus

on policy details where Trump has not. Michael Flynn may no longer be national security advisor,

but there is still a lot of effort being exerted to figure out what he was doing before he resigned.

The New York Times has an A1 story about a proposal that was sent to Trump a week before Flynn

resigned on how Trump could lift sanctions on Russia.

While Flynn is gone, the proposal still has supporters.

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