Good Thursday morning, I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Flash Briefing,

sponsored by the Better Medicare Alliance. And I'm Jake Sherman. We got through about half the week

before Donald Trump caused an uproar. This time it was his decision to withdraw protections

for transgender students. The move underscores three truths about Trump's presidency.

First, the power resides at the White House. Trump is not showing deference to his cabinet picks, as many in Washington hoped he would do.

Two, Trump is continuing to deliver for his base. This order, which puts him squarely in the middle

of the culture wars, will be extremely popular on the right, particularly among

evangelicals who came out in big numbers for Trump.

Three, Trump is using precious political capital to take on issues many congressional Republicans

would rather he ignore.

They'd rather him use political capital on passing tax reform or rewriting health care laws.

As Republicans across the country continue to face screaming constituents

back home, Trump choosing to focus on transgender bathrooms doesn't give them anything to say to people

worried about losing their health care. There is a lot of buzz this morning about Rex Tillerson

and how the State Department has been sidelined. The Washington Post has a story on the State

Department and Tillerson being

benched in the early days of Trump's administration. And our colleague Holly Toosy has the

scoop on how Tillerson is instructing aides to put together a plan to increase his media profile.

While Tillerson is struggling to increase his political standing, Annie Carney has the scoop on Trump's open-door

Oval Office policy. Senior aides with walk-in privileges to the Oval Office include

Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, Senior Policy Advisor Stephen Miller, Chief of Staff Reince Prebus,

Jared Kushner, Kellyanne Conway, Don McGahn, Hope Hicks, and Keith Schiller, Trump's longtime private security aide,

...