Presented by BP.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Playbook deputy editor Zach Stanton. It's Friday, February 21st, and here's what's driving the day.

Warning signs are flashing for congressional Republicans as President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency Project escalates its slash and burn approach to federal budget cuts.

Last night, in Deep Red Georgia, an overflow crowd packed into a town hall forum for Republican Congressman Rich McCormick,

barraging him with pointed questions about Doge's cuts in a district that Trump won by 22 percentage points just three months ago.

For me, the scene caused instant

flashbacks to the town halls that preceded the 2010 wave election, where an energized and angry

electorate propelled Republicans to victory and smashed through Democratic control of Congress,

only this time the parties are reversed. Now, whether this ends up actually resulting in that sort of

wave election, we cannot know, of course, but the scene comes as a growing number of congressional

Republicans are desperately trying to back channel with White House officials about Doge's cuts,

worried about political blowback. Republican lawmakers unleashed a frantic flurry of calls and

texts after federal agencies

undertook the latest firings this past weekend, with Republicans particularly worried about cuts

affecting public safety and health roles, as Politico's Meredith Lee Hill reports. And though Republican

members are publicly cheering the Elon Musk-led push to cut the federal government. In private,

many feel helpless to counter the Meat Axe's approach that has been embraced so far. That seems likely

to accelerate in the days ahead, as Doge's cuts to agencies with more political appeal than USAID

are put on the butcher's block. Among those agencies is the Federal Aviation Administration,

where a spate of new cuts is raising alarm among air safety experts at a moment when many passengers

are already jittery. Here to chat with me about that is Politico Aviation reporter Oriana

Pollack. Good morning, Oriana. Good morning, guys. So let's start here. Can you walk us through

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