Today on the Playbook podcast, as we approach the nine-month mark of Donald Trump's presidency,

he is only accelerating with what he's trying to do. We'll talk you through what and why and how.

And it is day 16 of the government shut down and now the Democrats have a new demand.

Hello, I'm Jack Blanchard.

And I'm Dasha Burns. It is Thursday, October 16th.

And this is the Playbook podcast, Dasha, we've got you back. How are you doing? Welcome home.

I'm back. I'm sorry. I've been kind of a little busy the last few nights. We all enjoyed watching your adventures on Air Force One over Sunday and Monday. Did you have a good time?

You know, it was intense. It was historic. I laughed. I cried. It was, you know, every emotion, every experience in the book. But I got very intimately familiar with Air Force

1, 24 hours on that airplane. You sure did. And you sure ask a lot of questions? I ask a lot of

questions. I'm sorry. I'm a curious gal over here. Not everybody loves it. That is our job. Let's talk

about Donald Trump. On Monday, Dash, it will be nine months to the day

since the inauguration day. And it feels like a good time just to take a little step back,

because I was thinking yesterday about those first few months, and you remember the absolute

sugar rush of the first few days and weeks and months of this presidency. You remember the way

that they flooded the zone. It felt like a fire hose to me more than a sugar rush, but I remember

Steve Bannon talking about it as days of thunder. Do you remember that? They've told you actually.

Yeah, you told me that. I think like week two of my tenure at Politico. Right, exactly.

If you'd have said to me then that we would get to the middle of October, nine months later,

and Donald Trump would only be accelerating what he's doing, I would not have believed you.

But as I was thinking about this yesterday, and I've written about this in the top of the playment newsletter today,

that is exactly

what is happening.

...