Good Thursday morning, I'm Jake Sherman, and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing.

Stay tuned after the show for a message from SHRM, the Society of Human Resource Management.

And I'm Anna Palmer. We're kicking the morning off with the scoop, tracking trade the president's top priority.

The White House has invited House Republicans on the USMCA, new NAFTA, whip team to meet with President Donald Trump next week.

The invitations split out yesterday to a few offices on Capitol Hill.

Trump's personal involvement here is a new dynamic and it's notable.

Elements in the White House pushed back on us last week when we asked when the president would get involved.

Well, he's now getting involved, speaking to a small

group of Republican members about his top legislative priority. We've got to spotted Clarence Thomas,

the Supreme Court Justice, leaving lunch at the Capitol Grill. He was greeted by a TMZ reporter

who yelled, Justice, Justice, who do you like in March Madness? He laughed and said, I like you.

Iliana Johnson and Daniel Lipman report that White House aides are struggling to see the president's strategy in his fights

with George Conway and the late Senator John McCain. Aside from the plainly obvious observations

about the McCain-Trump feud, President Trump seems to be a bit confused on the substance.

McCain voted against

a skinny repeal, which wouldn't have repealed Obamacare immediately. It was aimed at getting the two

sides, the House and the Senate, into a negotiation. Yes, McCain stopped that, but it's completely

plausible that the process would have gone sideways if McCain had voted yes. There were other

efforts to repeal Obamacare after this

that also blew up, but the president seems to have settled on McCain as a punching bag.

Here's how McCain's allies are responding. The McCain Institute sent out a fact sheet

about the late Arizona Republicans' life. And Senator Lindsay Graham said yesterday that Trump

...