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

There are 27 days until Election Day. President Donald Trump wrote an op-ed in USA Today with a dire message.

Democrats, Medicare for All Plan, will demolish promises to seniors.

He writes, the truth is that the centrist

Democratic Party is dead. The new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America's

economy after Venezuela. Trump also writes that if Democrats win control of Congress in November,

we will come dangerously closer to socialism in America.

Our colleague, Ben White, has a scoop on Dina Powell being the top pick to replace U.N. Ambassador

Nikki Haley. Powell, who returned to Goldman Sachs after leaving her role in Trump's White House

as Deputy National Security Advisor, is said to be strongly considering the job, but also weighing

family concerns. The big question, could Trump get Nikki Haley's replacement confirmed before

a new Congress is seated in January? That's unclear to us. The already tricky vote dynamics for

Trump get even trickier if Democrats gain in any way. The Washington Post is reporting that John Bolton is expected to

push for a different candidate. One alternative, U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grinnell,

who has already emerged with pro-Trump pundits beginning their public lobbying campaign for him.

In the Department of You Can't Make It Up, Senator John Kyle of Arizona, who was named

to fill John McCain's Senate seat,

has said that he will serve likely until the end of the year. He had previously been working as a

lobbyist for Covington and Burling. Now, how much was he making there? We might never know. He was

granted an extension on his financial disclosure form until no later than January 3rd, 2019.

Here's a playbook look behind the scenes of the midterms.

Senate Majority Whip John Corrin was the special guest at a Ted Cruz fundraiser last night

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