| | | | |  | | By Myah Ward, Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan and Ben Johansen | Presented by ACLI, Finseca, IRI, NAFA and NAIFA | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren President JOE BIDEN’s major move to crack down on the border — the one we’ve been talking about for months — is actually coming in June, according to outside advocates and Hill aides who have been in touch with the administration. White House and DHS officials are finalizing the details. The administration this month already rolled out new actions to speed up the asylum system. And now Biden is expected to announce a new policy that gives him the authority to “shut down” the border in between ports of entry should a specific number of illegal daily crossings take place. The New York Post reported Wednesday that the figure will be 4,000 daily border crossings over the course of a week, a trigger that mirrors the one included in a bipartisan border deal that failed earlier this year. Two people given readouts of the administration’s plans told West Wing Playbook that they’ve heard similar figures, but cautioned that the number is subject to change. A White House official also noted that until a final decision is made on any policy moves, the timing and details could shift. The White House has been working on the executive action for months, as the president tries to stay above water on the politically vexing issue. The policy changes were first anticipated ahead of Biden’s State of the Union address, but White House officials shelved them in part because of a downtick in border crossings due to increased enforcement in Mexico. But those officials also wanted to give Biden and Democrats as much runway as possible to hammer Republicans for killing the bipartisan deal at DONALD TRUMP’s behest. The party’s messaging blitz was on full display again today, when a slew of Democratic senators posted on X that it’s been 100 days since Republicans “killed” the border bill. The DNC followed suit with its own statement. Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER has said he is looking to resurrect the bipartisan border bill for a vote, which could come next week. Should that vote fail — and there is no indication that the situation has changed since the last roll call — it could give the White House another layer of cover to move ahead unilaterally. Unilateral moves would fit into Biden’s election-year strategy on immigration, in which he is attempting to show voters that he exhausted all of his options to try to solve the problem ahead of his rematch with Trump. A June announcement would likely come after Mexico’s election on June 2, half a dozen people familiar with the timeline told West Wing Playbook. It would also allow the White House to roll out the policy before election season really heats up and before the conventions later this summer. The current timeline will also put the president on track to announce the executive action before his debate with Trump at the end of the month. But political timelines are the easy part. Biden’s move will likely face legal challenges, just as the Trump administration did when using section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to shape the immigration system. The president is also set to face steep political blowback from the left. And operationally, immigration policy experts warn that even with the administration’s attempt to curtail asylum-seekers during border spikes, smugglers and traffickers will continue to target nationalities — like Cubans, Venezuelans and Colombians — that can’t be easily removed to countries that haven’t consistently accepted deportation flights from the U.S. or Mexico. They also warn that triggered border shutdowns — should certain crossing levels be hit — will lead to more erratic surges at the border in desolate areas, upending Border Patrol’s security posture. While Biden administration officials believe the executive actions can help relieve the political pressure facing the president, they know it will do little to resolve the immigration challenge. Without congressional action, the administration is focused on keeping border numbers down, while ramping up attacks on Republicans and Trump, who continue to poll better than Biden on immigration. “Every week, they’re just going to whittle away at the narrative politically,” said a former administration official. “And this is just another move to do that.” MESSAGE US — Are you SYDNEY HARVEY, adviser for public engagement? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
| | | | A message from ACLI, Finseca, IRI, NAFA and NAIFA: Annuities deliver financial certainty like traditional pensions of old. They are a legally enforceable promise made by an insurance company to provide guaranteed monthly income throughout retirement. The Department of Labor’s fiduciary-only rule will shut down access to options for middle-income savers. It’s out of step with bipartisan support in Congress to expand access to guaranteed lifetime income. Congress needs to stand up for retirement savers. Protect retirement for all. | | | | | How did CALVIN COOLIDGE often exercise? (Answer at bottom.)
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President Biden speaks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington on Friday. | AP/Susan Walsh | | | NO MORE PEANUT GALLERY: A year ago, as Donald Trump took the stage at a CNN town hall, his boisterous crowd of supporters took control. Biden advisers quickly noticed, our JOANTHAN LEMIRE reports. They agreed that if Biden and Trump were to ever take the stage again, there would be no crowd for the former president to feed off of. That demand became a major focus in the campaign’s agreed-upon proposal with the Trump camp this week. An empty TV studio is now in store for the upcoming debates in June and September. Among their concerns were that audience noise could disadvantage Biden, who sometimes has trouble hearing. “Trump feeds off the crowd, they give him life,” said one Biden adviser. “We wanted to take that away.” AH BON! The White House is not thrilled over French President EMMANUEL MACRON’s decision to invite a Russian representative to attend next month’s commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, Eli and ALEXANDER WARD report. “We would defer to the government of France, which organizes the commemoration at Normandy,” one official said. “But perhaps this will remind the Russians that they actually fought real Nazis once, not imaginary ones in Ukraine.” France invited a representative of VLADIMIR PUTIN’s Kremlin to attend, and potentially cross paths with President Biden, who will also be going. BUT NO OBAMA: French media was reporting that BARACK OBAMA would also be in France for the D-Day ceremony. Since we are salt of the earth reporters here, we asked the former president’s office if this was true. “Not true - thanks for checking,” they replied. 70 YEARS AFTER BROWN: Biden on Friday marked the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that desegregated American schools. In a speech at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, the president declared that “Black history is American history” and recognized the descendants of the plaintiffs in that historic case. “Seventy years ago, you changed the world,” he said. Biden’s focus on Black history is part of an effort to shore up his flagging support with a constituency that’s critical to his reelection chances. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by PennLive’s J.D. PROSE, who reports that more than 80 Pennsylvania physicians and other healthcare providers have signed a letter warning that Donald Trump would take the state “backwards” if elected, by targeting the Affordable Care Act and women’s reproductive rights. One signee, Dr. SHAREE LIVINGSTON said she grew up in poverty and knows firsthand what it's like for people to lack healthcare access, adding that she is “very concerned” about the impact another Trump term would have on Black women’s reproductive rights. The campaign’s states communications director JOSH MARCUS-BLANK shared the piece on X. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This op-ed from the Financial Times’ Editorial Board, which writes that President Biden’s trade tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and other goods, puts America’s image as a longstanding champion of free trade “further on the line.” The board writes that the tariffs will raise costs for battery makers, which are already struggling with expenses, in order to prevent Trump returning to the White House. The piece argues that it’ll insulate American industry from competition, stymying innovation and raising costs for consumers. “That is before considering any retaliation from China, which dominates supply chains essential to America’s economy.”
| | | | THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY. | | | | | | | | MEETING THEM WHERE THEY ARE: On Saturday, one day before Biden’s commencement speech at Morehouse College, the president plans to visit Georgia voters. He will also deliver a NAACP speech Saturday night. On Sunday, he will head to Detroit to meet with small business owners following the commencement speech, NBC’s MARQUISE FRANCIS reports. According to a memo from the Biden campaign, the stops are aimed at meeting Black voters where they are. “This campaign will not take a single voter for granted,” TREY BAKER, a senior adviser for the Biden campaign, wrote in the memo. “We are not, and will not, parachute into these communities at the last minute, expecting their vote.”
| | FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: DOMINIQUE HARRISON has joined the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s office of Minority Broadband Initiatives as deputy director, our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She most recently was founding principal of Equity Innovation Ventures and is an alum of Citi, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the Aspen Institute. MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: ERIC BEANE is now deputy under secretary for industry and security at the Department of Commerce, Lippman has also learned. He most recently was SVP of regulatory and government affairs at Unite Us and also previously worked for GINA RAIMONDO when she was governor of Rhode Island and the Department of Justice. HEADED PRIVATE: MICHAEL LEACH, former White House chief diversity and inclusion officer and special assistant to the president has signed with Buchwald for entertainment and literary representation, Deadline’s TED JOHNSON reports. Leach left the White House in January, and later founded the consulting practice BridgeTrust Partners LLC.
| | | | A message from ACLI, Finseca, IRI, NAFA and NAIFA:   | | | | | MUCH NEEDED: Trucks carrying humanitarian aid began moving ashore into the Gaza strip on Friday, using a newly built U.S. pier. The design is to deliver much needed assistance to a besieged enclave, AP’s LOLITA C. BALDOR and JON GAMBRELL report. The shipment is the first in the U.S. military operation to facilitate the delivery of aid, which officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day. But U.S. officials and aid groups warn that the pier project is not an adequate substitute for opening up more aid deliveries. MIND GAMES: National Security Adviser JAKE SULLIVAN told a group of 17 foreign ambassadors Wednesday that the U.S. believes Hamas leader YAHYA SINWAR withdrew from hostage talks last week in hopes of increasing pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza, Axios’ BARAK RAVID reports. Ravid also reports that Biden’s top Middle East adviser BRETT MCGURK secretly visited the Qatari capital of Doha on Wednesday and met with Qatari Prime Minister MOHAMMED BIN ABDULRAHMAN AL THANI to discuss resuming the hostage talks.
| | U.S. officials see strategic failure in Israel’s Rafah invasion (WaPo’s Karen DeYoung and Shane Harris) ‘Political Malpractice’: The Debate Commission Chief Thinks Trump Blew It (POLITICO’s Ryan Lizza) At Justice Alito’s House, a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol on Display (NYT’s Jodi Kantor) Former White House Insider On How Biden Should Address Morehouse Graduates (Gevin Reynolds for The Root)
| | | | A message from ACLI, Finseca, IRI, NAFA and NAIFA: Annuities close retirement security gaps for workers.
They help people navigate anxieties about savings lasting throughout retirement amid economic uncertainty and market volatility.
Congress recognized the real challenges people are facing and the importance of annuities in addressing them. Bipartisan legislation in 2019 and 2022 made guaranteed lifetime income more accessible to savers.
The Department of Labor’s fiduciary-only rule undermines this good work by limiting access to options for a protected retirement. Congress needs to act to protect options for retirement savers. Protect retirement for all. | | | | | Coolidge enjoyed horseback riding throughout the White House grounds …. with an electric horse named THUNDERBOLT. “The horse looked like a barrel with a neck, and it was made of wood, metal and leather,” WaPo wrote in 2018. “The rider used a saddle, and electricity powered the horse. You pushed a button to vary gaits, from a trot to a gallop.” Coolidge would ride three times a week — first thing in the morning, just after lunch and when his work was finished. A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it! Edited by Sam Stein
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