Stay tuned after the show for a message from the National Association of Realtors.

Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing.

And I'm Jake Sherman. Four years ago today, Donald Trump announced Mike Pence as is running me.

We usually use this space to top a playbook to pose smart questions about strategy, highlight deep reporting from inside the halls of Congress or White House, or to say something provocative to start a conversation. But this morning, our question is simple. What is going on at the White House? It seems as if the president and his aides are in the midst of a fevered dream, bereft of strategy confused, listless, restless, uncomfortable, and desperate.

If you ask some people in the White House, they may scoff and say the media is always wrong,

so pipe down and do your job.

But let's just look at the last day.

At 10.05, Tuesday night, Ivanka Trump posted a bizarre photo to Twitter of her holding a goya bean can with this caption.

If it's goya, it has to be good.

C.S. Goya, Tiena can be good.

Yes, we understand that the chief executive of Goya appears to be a Trump fan, and that's angered

some liberals.

But this is just weird.

It also may be illegal.

Regulations say, executive branch employees may not use their government

positions to suggest that the agency or any part of the executive branch endorses an organization,

including a nonprofit organization, product, service, or person.

Trump used a CBS interview with Catherine Harage to push back on the abolition of the

Confederate flag. He said many people like the battle flag and don't link it to slavery. All I say

is freedom of speech. It's very simple. When he asked why black people were dying at the hands

of police, he said it was a terrible question. So are white people, he said. In an interview with

Town Hall, the conservative site, Treb defended the

...