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The Playbook Podcast

The message-less White House, immigration tensions, and Iran

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Politics, Government

3.9699 Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The White House claims it has a midterm message — but nobody seems to know what it is. Adam Wren dives into the GOP's messaging confusion. Then Megan Messerly discusses the tension between immigration headliners and the Trump administration's promises on mass deportations. And more on Iran.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:24.0

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0:32.9

Today on the Playbook podcast, is the White House's midterm messaging focused on redistricting

0:40.6

maps or the big beautiful bill? No one seems to know. Adam's going to get into that for us.

0:46.0

Meanwhile, Trump says a deal with Iran might not happen, but could also happen any day. This comes

0:51.9

from the White House after the two countries exchanged fire

0:54.7

yesterday. And immigration hardliners aren't buying the Trump administration's mass deportation

1:00.7

promises. Hello, I'm Megan Messerly. And I'm Adam Wren, and it's Friday, May 8th.

1:08.8

Good morning, Adam. We made it to the end of another insane week, a particularly insane one for you.

1:15.1

Yeah, it's been a wild week, and I feel like we're just going to say that through the end of the year every week as the midterms heat up here.

1:22.7

Yep, no rest for the weary, Adam.

1:24.9

So in light of that, midterms, you have some interesting reporting in today's

1:31.1

playbook, really looking at the midterm messaging from the White House. And this is actually something

1:36.3

I've been spending some time this week thinking and calling sources about myself. And it really

1:41.5

feels kind of like a muddled message here. The White House says it has a

1:45.3

message, but a lot of folks aren't really sure what the message is. What did you find when you

1:49.1

were calling around to folks? Megan, we've seen the White House expend a lot of political

1:54.0

capital when it comes to sort of working the refs and figuring out what the midterm maps are

...

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