May 23, 2025: Trump and the politics of payback

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Government, Politics

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Revenge, the saying goes, is a dish best served cold. And this week, the Trump administration is serving up a veritable buffet. Whether blocking Harvard University from enrolling international students, launching a Federal Trade Commission investigation into Media Matters, or using the long arm of the DOJ to prosecute Democratic elected officials, President Donald Trump’s government is mounting a show of force against its perceived opponents. But how does this revenge tour align with what MAGA voters expected from Trump 2.0? Playbook supervising editor Zack Stanton breaks it down with contributing author Adam Wren. Plus, swing-district House Republicans are already seeing the political liabilities that come with voting for the sprawling reconciliation package, and a stunned Washington mourns two Israeli embassy staffers murdered in downtown D.C.

Transcript

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0:00.0	presented by BP.
0:08.3	Hello, I'm Zach Stanton.
0:10.1	And I'm Adam Wren.
0:11.2	It's Friday, May 23rd, and this is the Playbook podcast.
0:15.4	First, let's preview three stories driving the day.
0:18.0	The first story driving Washington's conversation today is, yes, the one
0:21.9	big beautiful bill has passed the House after some heavy holdout arm twisting from President Donald
0:26.7	Trump, but now it faces an uncertain future in the U.S. Senate. The fight over the legislation is now
0:32.0	having a secondary effect, signaling the beginning of 2026 midterm fights. House Republicans in precarious districts may soon be
0:39.9	in danger due to the package's Medicaid clawbacks. Plus, some in the populist wing of the GOP,
0:45.3	like economist or in Cass, are warning that the bill is a total mess, mixing old-school conservative
0:51.0	policies and an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts that will add to the deficit despite efforts to curb Medicaid and food stamp spending.
0:59.5	The second story you'll surely need to know today is that Washington is still reeling after two Israeli embassy staffers, Sarah Milgram and Yerone Lashinsky, were shot and killed while leaving an event at the Capitol Jewish Museum on Wednesday night.
1:12.1	Janine Piro, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said that the shooting is being
1:16.2	investigated as a hate crime and as terrorism. And the third thing and biggest topic of the day
1:21.1	is that it's probably safe to say that President Donald Trump's revenge to her has fully begun.
1:29.2	Adam, we're seeing a multi-prong rollout here that has intensified over the last couple
1:34.6	days. We see that the administration is blocking Harvard now from enrolling international
1:39.6	students and is forcing existing ones at the university to transfer or else risk losing their legal status.
1:46.4	We see the Federal Trade Commission going after Media Matters over their work on Elon Musk and his ex-or formerly known as Twitter platform content and allegations that maybe it was conspiring to deprive it of advertising revenue.
1:59.6	We have the Department of Justice investigating
2:01.7	Act Blue, the Democratic fundraising powerhouse for alleged use of straw donors and foreign
	...

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