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Hey, good morning. I'm Chief Playbook correspondent Eugene Daniels. It is Monday. March 3rd. We're already in March, y'all. And here's what's driving the day.

Most of the center stage events this week will happen tomorrow, with President Donald Trump said to deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress since his reelection.

Also, keep an eye out for tariffs.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik reiterated yesterday that U.S. tariffs on Canada and Mexico will go into effect on Tuesday.

But the president would determine whether to stick with

the planned at 25 percent level. And President Trump has elevated Elon Musk's Department of

Government Efficiency Project to the center of his domestic agenda. And he's channeled a lot of political

capital into defending it and Musk from critics.

But ahead of his joint address tomorrow, political's Megan Messerley reports that some of the president's allies are worried that Doge is overshadowing his legislative agenda and dampening his political popularity.

So joining me now to talk through all of back to his White House reporter, Megan Messerly. Good morning, Megan.

Morning, Eugene. Now, you have been covering Doge a lot for us. And you talked to a bunch of Trump allies who, I guess, felt that Doge stands to overshadow President Donald Trump's agenda, right? Like, it's the one thing that we've been talking about, right? We haven't been talking about his thoughts on tax cuts or anything. So for the folks that you talk to, what were their concerns exactly? Yeah. So, I mean, like you mentioned, Doge has just really been in the spotlight. And the folks I talk to, I think there's been some criticism of the media

for this, but a lot of the Trump allies were like, no, it's only natural. Elon Musk is a singular

figure combined with Donald Trump. Like, of course that coupling and Doja's mission is going to

take up all the oxygen, like it's only natural. But the real concern here is that, you know,

although there is a lot of popular support for, you know,

cutting the federal bureaucracy, slimming down the federal workforce, a lot of these folks,

including some folks in battleground states, you know, who are sort of seeing how this is

playing out on the ground, you know, they've told me that they're just really worried about

how these impacts are being perceived, you know, that folks may be fine with the cuts themselves, but they sort of view them as callous and inhumane, you know. It's the process, really. It's the process that folks have. Yeah, exactly. It's the process. Yeah, not the product. That's the biggest concern. And so,

you know, talking to, you know, some Trump allies, the concern here is, okay, Doge is taking

up so much oxygen that the president isn't able to get his message out there on immigration,

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