President Donald Trump on Tuesday attempted to explain why his national security adviser had the contact information of a reporter the White House loathes, blaming a stunning leak on an unnamed junior staffer without providing evidence. “Somebody that … worked for Mike Waltz at a lower level, had, I guess, [Jeffrey] Goldberg’s number, who called through the app, and somehow this guy ended up on the [chat],” the president told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly in an interview that aired Tuesday night and was recorded earlier in the day. Trump was responding to a question from the conservative anchor about why Waltz — who inadvertently added Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, to a Signal group chat of top administration officials as they planned a military operation in Yemen — apparently had Goldberg’s contact information in his phone. It was the latest example of Trump jumping to Waltz’s defense as others in the White House wondered if the embattled national security adviser would soon be pushed to resign. But Trump brushed aside concerns and reiterated “I feel very comfortable actually.” Earlier Tuesday, Waltz took “full responsibility” for the oversight but denied knowing Goldberg, whom Trump has called a “sleazebag” whose reporting is “bad for the country.” “I can tell you 100 percent I don’t know this guy,” Waltz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. When she pressed him about how he got into the chat, he replied: “Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else’s number?” At no point in Waltz’s interview with Ingraham did he bring up a lower-level staffer with Goldberg’s contact information. In his revelation of the incident on Monday, Goldberg wrote that he was added to the encrypted conversation, presumably inadvertently, after receiving “a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz.”

Reversing decades of precedent, the White House Correspondents Association announced Wednesday that it would no longer coordinate shared coverage of President Donald Trump in an escalating dispute over press access to official events. The association, which represents more than 60 news organizations that regularly cover the president, said it would no longer manage the rotating cast of reporters who attend White House events or compile the shared accounts of news that are widely used in American political journalism. “This board will not assist any attempt by this administration or any other in taking over independent press coverage of the White House,” WHCA President Eugene Daniels, a POLITICO journalist, said in a statement to association members. “Each of your organizations will have to decide whether or not you will take part in these new, government-appointed pools.” Their decision came after the White House, angered over coverage of the administration, has excluded certain organizations from news events in what the correspondents association see as retribution that undermines freedom of the press under the First Amendment and exceeds familiar tensions between presidents and the media. Daniels told members to stop sending reports to an association listserv that allows their work to be shared by other journalists, as the White House had now taken control of the process. The “WHCA cannot ensure that the reports filed by government-selected poolers will be held to the same standards that we have had in place for decades,” he wrote. The decision comes days after the administration won a temporary ruling allowing it to bar The Associated Press from pooled events, and a day after press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the White House will determine which outlets have access to the president as part of the pool allowed into the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One and into other meetings and events that cannot accommodate the full press corps. It also comes the same day that the White House press shop — with no explanation — removed the Huffington Post from the pool of journalists covering the president. The liberal outlet was scheduled to the pooler on Wednesday, until its White House correspondent, S.V. Date, received a late-night text informing him that he would no longer be granted access. Daniels listed out several questions the association — and the White House press corps writ large — have for the administration about how shared coverage of the president will be handled in the future. He also pointed to the White House’s move to bar HuffPost from the pool — and whether moving forward, the rotation will be compiled of news organizations of their choice. “As I said yesterday, this move from the White House threatens the independence of a free press in the United States,” Daniels added. “It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. You will continue to hear me say that in a free society, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.” The annual White House Correspondents Dinner, a high-profile event that presidents other than Trump have attended for decades, is expected to be held as scheduled on April 26, he said.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music – Erstes TV-Duell Scholz vs. Merz: Die Analyse mit Gordon Repinski und Rasmus Buchsteiner. Wie sich die Performance beider Kandidaten in den kommenden Tagen auswirken wird. – Im 200-Sekunden-Interview: Thorsten Frei, Parlamentarischer Geschäftsführer der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion zum ersten TV-Duell. – Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz: Worauf sich EU-Vertreter und die deutsche Politik vor dem Besuch von US-Vizepräsident JD Vance einstellen. – Konservative mit Herz für die Liberalen: Kristina Schröder auf dem FDP-Parteitag. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es morgens um 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team bringen euch jeden Morgen auf den neuesten Stand in Sachen Politik — kompakt, europäisch, hintergründig. Und für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Unser Berlin Playbook-Newsletter liefert jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Hier gibt es alle Informationen und das kostenlose Playbook-Abo. Mehr von Berlin Playbook-Host und Executive Editor von POLITICO in Deutschland, Gordon Repinski, gibt es auch hier:   Instagram: @gordon.repinski | X: @GordonRepinski.

President Donald Trump has chosen Andrew Puzder to serve as ambassador to the European Union — a comeback for someone whose previous nomination to lead the Labor Department in 2017 was derailed by allegations of spousal abuse. Trump praised Puzder as a “successful attorney, businessman, economic commentator, and author,” in announcing the nomination Wednesday in a Truth Social post. Puzder was CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc., parent of international restaurant chains Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s. “During his 17 year tenure as CEO, Andy led the company out of serious financial difficulty, allowing it to survive, become financially secure, and grow. Andy will do an excellent job representing our Nation’s interests in this important region. Congratulations Andy!” Puzder was Trump’s first choice to lead the Labor Department nearly eight years ago. However he withdrew from consideration in February of that year after POLITICO surfaced a 1990 taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in which Puzder’s ex-wife appeared in disguise as part of an episode on “High Class Battered Women.” Puzder has consistently denied those allegations, and the woman — Lisa Fierstein — subsequently disavowed those claims as part of a child custody agreement and said they were a tactic pushed by her attorney during divorce negotiations with Puzder. Still, the revelation, along with Puzder’s admission that he illegally employed an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper for several years, alienated a number of Senate Republicans behind the scenes and doomed his chances at the time. His nomination to represent the administration at the EU will likely rehash many of these issues, though the GOP to date has been more receptive of letting Trump stock his team with his preferred people. Trump subsequently landed on Alexander Acosta to replace Puzder. Acosta’s tenure also ended in controversy due to renewed focus on his kid-glove treatment as a federal prosecutor of Jeffrey Epstein. Nevertheless, Puzder stayed in the periphery of Trump’s orbit during his first administration and joined the America First Policy Institute, which is stocked with MAGA acolytes and has played an influential role in the transition process, as a senior fellow. Puzder has been a prominent Trump supporter and has penned a number of supportive op-eds in conservative publications throughout the 2024 campaign. In the past, Trump’s immigration hawks like Stephen Miller — Trump’s the deputy chief of staff for policy — viewed Puzder skeptically due to his prior support for business-friendly immigration reforms, though that evidently did not stand in his way to being part of the president’s team this time around. Puzder’s appointment is sure to outrage progressive groups, which previously criticized his selection for Labor secretary over a history of pay and safety violations at CKE-owned restaurants and franchisees, as well as Puzder’s opposition to raising the federal minimum wage.

President Donald Trump bolted into his first day in office with an unprecedented show of executive force — signing orders intended to end the right to citizenship by birth, force federal workers back to the office and grant Tik Tok a reprieve from a forced shutdown — as he showcased his desire to circumvent Congress and reshape everything from the economy to energy policy. The new president’s flashy signing ceremonies highlighted a long day of classic Trump showmanship that kept him not only at the center of the festivities, but in front of the cameras, as he criticized his predecessor, stewed about familiar grievances and sent messages to his MAGA supporters. Trump delivered not one but two lengthy speeches on Capitol Hill before holding court at a glitzy congressional luncheon. He then used a rally at Capital One Arena as the backdrop for one of his signing ceremonies, holding up an order pulling the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement before the crowd of cheering supporters. Back at the White House, he spent 45 minutes taking dozens of questions from reporters in the Oval as he pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters — including those convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers and seditious conspiracy — and signed another swath of orders overhauling the federal government’s treatment of immigrants and withdrawing the country from the World Health Organization. “What a great feeling,” Trump said of returning back to the Oval. “One of the better feelings I’ve had.” Many of his moves were intended to grab attention and appeal to his base, including two announced on social media by Trump’s incoming press secretary that would rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and restore the name Mount McKinley to Alaska’s highest peak, which former President Barack Obama renamed Denali in 2015 as a show of respect to Alaskan tribal groups. It’s not yet known which of Trump’s exhaustive list of executive actions will have immediate impact, which are purely symbolic, and whether Congress or the courts can limit their impact. As of 9 p.m., Trump had signed dozens of executive actions, with the possibility he could sign more later Monday night. It was immediately clear, however, that several Day One orders appeared to fall short of the “days of thunder” the incoming president’s allies promised in the lead up to Inauguration Day. Despite recent vows to enact tariffs as high as 100 percent on imports, for example, Trump issued an order merely directing federal agencies to investigate and address trade deficits and unfair trade and currency practices, without levying any new tariffs on foreign countries. The order singles out China as well as Canada and Mexico for evaluation — but does not impose either a universal baseline tariff or tariffs on select trading partners, as many countries feared. That contradicts Trump’s promise in November to impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada on his first day in office in an effort to crack down on illegal migration and the flow of fentanyl into the United States. The decision is likely to irk backers of the hawkish tariff agenda Trump outlined on the campaign trail, which also included imposing 10 to 20 percent tariffs on all imports, tariffs of 60 percent or higher on Chinese imports and replacing the income tax with tariffs. Speaking to a pared-down crowd in the Capitol Rotunda earlier Monday, Trump also pledged to “defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices” but gave no details on how his administration would accomplish that, other than rolling back environmental regulations and boosting fossil fuel extraction. And he vowed to “take back” the Panama Canal, which the Panamanian government has said is not possible under international law. On his most defining issue — immigration — Trump signed several executive orders. He moved to end birthright citizenship, an action that would exclude the children of undocumented immigrants from the right to citizenship by birth that was established under the 14th Amendment. Immigration groups and civil rights organizations were finalizing legal challenges Monday night, setting up Trump for one of his first lengthy court battles. Trump also increased immigration enforcement authorities, declared a national emergency at the southern border, moved to end so-called “catch and release” policies that allow migrants parole while awaiting their court hearings, resumed construction of the border wall and moved to resurrect “Remain in Mexico,” a policy from his first term that required asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for their cases to be processed. The president also issued an order to “clarify the military’s role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States” — suggesting he is trying to make good on his plans to deploy the military for immigration enforcement — directed agencies to provide recommendations for the suspension of entry for nationals of countries of concern and suspended refugee resettlement for at least four months. He also moved to further restrict asylum, designate a series of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and direct the attorney general to seek capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement and capital crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. “I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities,” Trump said. With Monday’s executive orders, the incoming president hoped to send the message that the border is closed to illegal crossings and that anyone living in the U.S. unauthorized, especially those who have committed crimes, will be deported. But it sets up a challenging and pivotal period ahead for the White House and Republican allies in Congress, as the party’s immigration agenda will no doubt face a number of legal and logistical hurdles. Another order focused on the domestic front targets programs across the government that promote DEI — shorthand for diversity, equity and inclusion — in hiring practices and community programs. May Davis Mailman, the former head of the conservative Independent Women’s Law Center, who also served in Trump’s first administration, told reporters that it was “very fitting” to announce on Martin Luther King Jr. Day an executive action to “dismantle the DEI bureaucracy, and this includes environmental justice programs, equity related grants, equity action plan, equity initiatives, these types of things,” adding that it was “one of many to come” and that more actions targeting DEI initiatives would be unveiled “very soon.” Invoking King to tout the end of diversity programs is likely to infuriate civil rights advocates who support those programs and often point out that King fought for economic as well as racial equity. Trump also signed a broad order to roll back programs that recognize transgender and non-binary individuals. “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government, that there are only two genders: male and female,” he said in his inaugural address, a line that drew some of the loudest applause. Trump also signed a broad order Monday eliminating federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary individuals. In practice, said Mailman, the order will mean barring any options other than male and female from government documents, including passports and visas, ending the annual recognition of Transgender Day of Visibility, and excluding trans people from gender-segregated spaces that take federal funding, including prisons, migrant housing and domestic violence shelters. The Trump administration will also seek to eliminate restrictions on so-called conversion therapy — a practice intended to persuade young trans people to reject their identity. “A government entity telling a therapist that they can’t speak the truth that a boy is a boy — that sort of ban has no place in our country,” Mailman said. Conversion therapy is opposed by medical groups like the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, who argue it is both scientifically unsound and harmful for mental health. Whether the administration will be able to implement these orders, however, remains to be seen. The Trump transition was plagued by self-inflicted delays in hiring and coordinating with career federal workers and outgoing Biden officials, and on Monday the new president implemented a hiring freeze that federal worker unions warned would impede his administration’s ability to carry out new rules and policies. “Such blanket freezes exacerbate workforce shortages and contribute to skills gaps,” said American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley. Many Democratic attorneys general and advocacy groups have also pledged to challenge the executive orders in court. And in a move that could bolster those efforts, the progressive legal group Democracy Forward issued 75 public records requests Monday to uncover how the incoming administration coordinated with GOP state officials, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) group run by mogul Elon Musk to prepare the blitz of executive orders. “The incoming Trump-Vance administration has pledged ‘maximum transparency,’ yet their record to date has been irregular, chaotic, and secretive,” said Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman, citing POLITICO’s reporting that the Trump transition used private email servers. “Should the Trump-Vance administration not uphold its commitment to transparency — and comply with the law — we will meet it in court.” Ari Hawkins contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday night withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. The move, which was widely anticipated, will see the U.S. leave the global health body within a year from the official notification to the United Nations and the WHO, which Trump tasked newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to do. Congress doesn’t need to agree, but the U.S. must continue paying its dues, according to the 1948 U.S. resolution accepting WHO membership. However, Trump directed Rubio and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to “pause the future transfer of any United States Government funds, support, or resources to the WHO” with “practicable speed,” in a move reminiscent of the first withdrawal attempt in 2020. Trump also directed the two officials to “recall and reassign” U.S. government personnel or contractors working with the WHO and find “credible and transparent” U.S. and international partners to replace the “necessary activities previously undertaken by the WHO.” The executive order also demands the secretary of State to cease negotiations on the pandemic agreement that WHO member countries have been negotiating for years, with a deadline to conclude set for May. The executive order also notes that actions taken to implement amendments to the International Health Regulations — a set of technical rules governing responses to outbreaks, among other issues — which countries agreed to last year, “will have no binding force on the United States.” Why it matters: The withdrawal will generate a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars for the WHO’s core budget. The U.S. provides about a quarter of that budget as a mandatory membership fee but often gives more — with the figure ranging from $163 million to $816 million in recent years, according to health policy think tank KFF. Trump’s order noted that the “WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.” It cited as an example China, which, with a population many folds bigger than the U.S., contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO. Countries’ membership fees to the WHO are based mainly on the gross domestic product. The loss could hinder the WHO’s ability to swiftly and effectively respond to infectious disease outbreaks and other emergencies around the world, among others. In exchange, the U.S. is expected to lose access to the global network that sets the flu vaccine’s composition every year. It will also weaken the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ability to surveil and contain health threats abroad, according to global health experts. “There are places where we just can’t send CDC epidemiologists, they wouldn’t be safe,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, who headed the agency for eight years under the Obama administration. And American drugmakers could lose the WHO’s help in selling their products worldwide since the WHO system endorsing drugs, vaccines and medical devices for global use that many developing countries rely on could be impaired by the loss of U.S. funding. Background: This is Trump’s second attempt to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO. In July 2020, he sent a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus notifying him of the U.S. intention to withdraw within a year. Trump accused the WHO at the time of helping China mislead the world about the spread of Covid-19. But Trump was defeated in that year’s election, and when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he reversed Trump’s decision. This time, Trump will still be in office when the withdrawal would go into effect. But unlike 2020, the WHO could offset some of the financial losses caused by America’s withdrawal. Last year, it launched an investment round seeking some $7 billion “to mobilize predictable and flexible resources from a broader base of donors” for the WHO’s core work between 2025 and 2028. As of late last year, the WHO said it had received commitments for at least half that amount.

A little over a month ago, President-elect Donald Trump’s top nominees appeared to be entering a world of pain. HHS pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was facing tough questions about his stance on the polio vaccine. Would-be director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was in the barrel over her dealings with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. And top Pentagon nominee Pete Hegseth suffered through mounting questions about his personal and professional life. Now, with a whirlwind of confirmation hearings launching on Capitol Hill, Republicans are more confident than ever that they’ve gotten Trump’s personnel blitz back on track — thanks to a combination of hardball politics, appeals to GOP unity and lots of personal charm. Most Republican senators “are predisposed to let the president have his team absent some extraordinary circumstances,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said on Monday. The biggest question now for Senate Republicans isn’t who they will be able to confirm, it’s how long will it take to confirm them all. GOP leaders are warning senators to prepare for Friday votes or even weekend work in the coming weeks. Democrats, meanwhile, are signaling that they plan to use the hearings less as an opportunity to derail the confirmations but instead to collect fodder to use against the administration down the line. It’s a far cry from even just weeks ago when several of Trump’s nominees appeared to be at serious risk, setting the table for a momentous early clash between the incoming president and Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s conference. That’s not to say that there might not yet be a curveball or two ahead: Hegseth’s hearing Tuesday is being closely watched by several GOP senators, though the reigning belief is that if he does well, he will be on track for confirmation. And Kennedy’s nomination remains endangered, with a powerful committee chair still holding back his support. But while many senators are officially keeping their powder dry until after the hearings, there are signs that GOP senators are preparing to fall in line behind most, if not all, of Trump’s picks. Intelligence Committee Republicans appear ready to embrace Gabbard after she backed a key surveillance program. And early predictions that Kash Patel’s FBI nomination would run into trouble quickly collapsed as he won over potential GOP skeptics in private meetings. “I think [Gabbard’s] moving in the right direction,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said. “I really do. I think she’s had some good meetings. She’s a very quick study, and I think she will do well in her open hearings.” That optimism is shared inside the Trump transition, which has been orchestrating a carefully scripted charm offensive targeting the Senate GOP — with Hegseth, Gabbard and Patel pounding Capitol Hill’s marble hallways particularly hard to woo potential skeptics. “The nominees have done a lot of hard work, and they are ready,” said one transition official granted anonymity to describe the effort, who added that Trump’s convincing victory has helped smooth the path for nominees: “The appetite of the American people for a bunch of theatrics is pretty diminished and it will be seen as obstructionist to play too many games.” The movement from Republican senators in some ways mirrors the movement that some of Trump’s picks have done behind closed doors: In addition to Gabbard, Patel has offered reassurances that the FBI’s mission isn’t political retribution; Kennedy has clarified his vaccination positions; and Hegseth has shifted on issues including women in combat. Kennedy is still working to win the support of Senate HELP Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who declined to endorse his confirmation immediately following a meeting last week. He also met last week with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), another key vote on the health-focused panel, a person familiar with the meeting said. It’s already clear, however, that opposing any Trump nominee would come at a price to any Republican senator. The president-elect’s allies threatened to primary Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) after she indicated that she was undecided on supporting Hegseth; she later offered a more positive assessment. House firebrands have formed a chorus on the party’s right flank pushing Senate Republicans to unite behind all of Trump’s picks and confirm them quickly. While Democrats might not be able to block any of Trump’s nominees outright, they do have some control over when they get confirmed. Thune and Senate Republicans have already started talking with Democrats about who could be confirmed on Day One of Trump’s administration — conversations that were first reported by POLITICO. Accelerating any confirmation votes will require bipartisan buy-in: Any one member can force the Senate to jump through a floor process that can stretch across four days for Cabinet nominees. As Republicans have rallied around Trump’s nominees, stamping out chances of a GOP jailbreak, Democrats have made it clear that while they intend to use the hearings to dig into nominees’ backgrounds, they are perhaps more interested in collecting fodder that they can use against Trump and Senate Republicans in the future. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, during a closed-door lunch last week, told Democrats to hold nominees “feet to the fire” and hold them accountable for delivering on Trump’s sweeping campaign promises to lower prices and improve life for the working class and families. “We will use these hearings to show the contrast between Donald Trump’s agenda of helping the special interests, especially the very wealthy, and the Democrats’ agenda to fight for working Americans,” Schumer said on Monday. “Nominees should expect tough, candid but fair questioning.” Schumer on Monday also had a specific warning about Hegseth, calling allegations of sexual assault and excess drinking against him “deeply troubling, to put it generously.” “He can expect his hearing to be tough, but respectful,” Schumer noted on the Senate floor. “It’s not hard to imagine an emergency situation where the secretary of Defense has to make quick and steady decisions about our military. Is someone with Peter Hegseth’s history really the kind of person we want at the helm in a very, very important situation, dangerous situation, like that?”

Jimmy Carter had such confidence in his improbable path to the White House that he bet Americans worn down by Vietnam and Watergate would welcome a new kind of president: a peanut farmer who carried his own bags, worried about the heating bill and told it, more or less, like it was. And for a time, the voters embraced him. Yet just four years later, in the aftermath of a presidency that was widely seen as failed, it sometimes seemed as if all that was left of Carter was the smile — the wide, toothy grin that helped elect him in the first place, then came to be caricatured by countless cartoonists as an emblem of naïveté. But it was Carter’s great fortune to enjoy a post-presidency more than 10 times as long as his tenure in office — in March 2019, he became the longest-lived president ever — and by the time he died at 100, he had lived to see history’s verdict soften. Carter entered home hospice care after a series of hospital stays, the Carter Center confirmed Feb. 18. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, passed away Nov. 19, 2023. If the 39 th president did not achieve all he sought in four years in the White House — and he did not — his abiding concern for human rights in international affairs, and for energy and the environment as a defining challenge of our time, can now be seen as prescient. If, in later years, his unyielding support for Palestinian rights (and his frequent sharp criticisms of Israel) drew many detractors, his brokering of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt stands as a milestone of modern diplomacy. If he was the first president to confront what we now call “Islamic extremism,” he was far from the last. And if he sacrificed his re-election to the super-powerlessness of the Iranian hostage crisis — and a botched military raid to rescue the captives — his administration’s persistence nevertheless brought all 52 diplomats safely home in the end. From left, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meet at Camp David on Sept. 6, 1978. The three leaders hammered out a historic peace agreement. | The White House via AP At a time when only six women had ever served a president’s Cabinet, Carter had appointed three of them — along with three of the five women ever to serve as departmental undersecretaries, and 80 percent of those to serve as assistant secretaries. There is almost no battle over policy or public image that Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama ever faced as first lady that Carter’s trusted wife, Rosalynn, did not fight first — whether campaigning for mental health, or sitting in on Cabinet meetings. James Earl Carter Jr. could be pious (“I’ll never lie to you,” he pledged while campaigning in 1976). He could be petty (his micromanagement of the White House tennis court was roundly mocked). He could be tone-deaf (lecturing his countrymen on a national “crisis of confidence” in a way that only accented the problem, and dispensing with some of the pomp of the presidency that ordinary people actually liked and expected). But he could also be disarmingly candid, in a political culture that almost never rewards that trait (who can forget his confession to Playboy magazine that he had lusted after women not his wife and committed adultery many times in his heart?) And he had a gift for improbable friendships — not least with the man he so narrowly and bitterly defeated, Gerald Ford, and with John Wayne, the arch-conservative whose support nevertheless helped him pass the 1977 treaty surrendering the Panama Canal. He grew up in a house without indoor plumbing, on a dirt road in rural Georgia, surrounded by poor blacks, and was the only president ever to live in public housing — upon his discharge from the Navy, when he went home to take over his family’s peanut business after his father’s death. He was the son of a staunch segregationist, and in his early career, right up to his election as governor of Georgia in 1970, he often finessed the issue of race. But on taking office in the state house, he proclaimed that “the time for discrimination is over,” and Time magazine hailed him on its cover as the face of America’s New South. Carter’s life had a classic Horatio Alger arc. As a teenager, he joined the Future Farmers of America and cultivated, packed and sold his own acre of peanuts. He fulfilled his dream of an appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and went on to become a protégé of Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy, in the post-World War II submarine fleet. He married a childhood friend of his sister Ruth, and raised four children. His first political post was that quintessential American office: chairman of his local school board, where in the early 1960s, he first spoke up in favor of integration. Two terms in the Georgia State Senate and an unsuccessful run for governor in 1966 paved the way for his election as governor in 1970. By the end of 1972, he had become determined to launch a presidential campaign, but the long odds against him were exemplified in a 1973 appearance on “What’s My Line,” where none of the celebrity panelists recognized him and only the movie critic Gene Shalit eventually guessed he was a governor. But Carter’s status as an unknown outsider was a distinct advantage in the wake of Watergate — an edge understood early by the late R.W. Apple Jr. of The New York Times — and he quickly became the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, winning the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. In 1976, he published his campaign manifesto-cum-memoir, the self-confidently titled, “Why Not the Best?” and the rest is history. Rosaylnn and Jimmy Carter wave during the 1976 Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York. | AP At his inauguration, Carter brought a bracing fresh breeze to Washington, walking from the Capitol to the White House after his swearing-in. But soon enough he brought a stern and scolding tone as well, ordering the White House thermostats to be set at a frigid 65 degrees (a move he ostentatiously announced in a televised “fireside chat,” wearing a tan cardigan), selling off the presidential yacht Sequoia, banning hard liquor from White House parties and limiting the playing of “Hail to the Chief” at official functions. Much of the national media and Washington’s chattering class quickly pronounced the new president a rube, out of his depth and surrounded by a “Georgia Mafia” equally unschooled and uncouth. He requited with prickly disdain for his critics. The very style that had seemed unpretentious and refreshing now seemed sanctimonious and crabbed, and on the substance, he just couldn’t seem to catch a break. He was saddled with a national economy stuck in “stagflation,” and by June 1978, Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution was analyzing why his presidency had failed: because it lacked an overriding vision. In an afterword to excerpts from his White House diaries, published in 2010, Carter would write: “As is evident from my diary, I felt at the time that I had a firm grip on my presidential duties and was presenting a clear picture of what I wanted to accomplish in foreign and domestic affairs. The three large themes of my presidency were peace, human rights and the environment (which included energy conservation).” But, he added, “In retrospect, though, my elaboration of these themes and departures from them were not as clear to others as to me and my White House staff.” In 1980, Carter faced a challenge for re-nomination from Sen. Ted Kennedy, and then lost the November election to his polar opposite, Ronald Reagan. He sulked for a while, then bought a $10,000 Lanier word processor, composed the first of the more than two dozen books he would write on leaving office, and set about establishing his presidential library and Carter Center in partnership with Emory University in Atlanta. The Carters attach siding to the front of a Habitat for Humanity home in LaGrange, Georgia, in 2003. | Erik S. Lesser/Getty Images Over the ensuing decades, he would build houses Habitat for Humanity, monitor foreign elections, conduct semi-sanctioned (and sometimes unsolicited) diplomacy, and continue to offer various unvarnished assessments of his successors of both parties. Posing in 2009 in the Oval Office with all the living members of the presidential club just after Barack Obama’s election, he could not restrain himself from leaving a conspicuous physical distance between himself and his fellow southerner Bill Clinton, an old frenemy whose extramarital affair in office so offended Carter, long the nation’s Sunday school teacher-in-chief. (He continued to live the part: Carter kept teaching Sunday school in Georgia year after year, taking a picture afterward with everyone who attended.) Most surveys of professional historians still rank Carter in the third quartile of effective presidents (as it happens, on par with his friend Jerry Ford). Carter himself preferred the simple summary of his vice president, Walter Mondale: “We obeyed the law, we told the truth, and we kept the peace.” In the long line of the presidency, that’s not the best boast ever. But it’s far from the worst.

Joe Biden is president of the United States for 42 more days. But within the Democratic Party, on Capitol Hill — and even within his own administration — it feels like he left the Oval Office weeks ago. Biden has effectively disappeared from the radar in the wake of Democrats’ bruising electoral loss. Since Nov. 5, he’s largely stuck to prepared remarks, avoided unscripted public appearances or press questions and opted to sit out the raging debate over Donald Trump’s victory, policy conversations in Congress and the Democratic Party’s future. “He’s been so cavalier and selfish about how he approaches the final weeks of the job,” said a former White House official. Across nearly two weeks abroad since the election, Biden spoke just seven words to the media traveling with him. He has yet to schedule a post-election press conference, as Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush did when they were on their way out of office. He went to the Rose Garden to publicly praise a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and spoke to the press Sunday about Bashar Al-Assad fleeing Syria, but otherwise his post-election domestic schedule has been filled with events such as honoring the 2024 NBA champions, thanking longtime supporters at a South Lawn dinner and participating in a Friendsgiving event. Biden’s low profile since the election has contributed to the sense of rudderlessness that’s taken hold across swaths of Washington, as lawmakers, aides and party officials brace for Trump’s return to power and seek a new direction and vision ahead of the midterms and 2028. The White House and Biden, they say, has shown little interest in helping chart the party’s future beyond Jan. 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration. Biden has focused his aides’ energies largely on managing the presidential transition and tending to a few final items meant to burnish his legacy, including a speech on the economy Tuesday. And Vice President Kamala Harris, who cast herself on the campaign trail as the future of the party, has all but disappeared from the scene. “There is no leadership coming from the White House,” one Democrat close to senior lawmakers stated bluntly. “There is a total vacuum.” Some Biden aides acknowledge the president’s absence from the broader discussions about how to address Trump’s coming presidency and the future of the party. They say that reticence is rooted in two factors: Biden’s own recognition that few are eager to hear from him, and his own lingering personal belief that he doesn’t owe much more to a party that unceremoniously pushed him aside. Some aides have also said Biden believes he has to take a more measured approach in how he talks about Trump given his focus on facilitating a peaceful transfer of power. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates defended Biden, saying the president “is making every day of this term count” and is “leading by example for the sake of American democracy, honoring his campaign promise to respect the will of the voters and provide an orderly transition.” Bates noted that Biden, in an exchange with reporters last month, “criticized President-elect Trump’s agenda – including across-the-board tariffs that will force American families to pay higher prices for everyday necessities.” Biden during that brief back-and-forth called such tariffs “counterproductive,” but expressed hope that Trump would reconsider. Still, the void at the top has alarmed Democratic officials who worry and the country is heading toward next year without a concrete plan for combating Trump — or even tangible motivation to put up much of a fight. POLITICO spoke to almost two dozen party officials, lawmakers, current and former White House aides and other Democratic staffers for this story, some of whom were granted anonymity in order to offer their candid assessment. “Elections have consequences — It’s a new sheriff in town,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said. While Biden has offered little in the way of leadership, officials say there’s also not much demand from the party’s rank and file — including lawmakers and aides — to hear from a president they still blame for relegating them back into the minority. Biden, at 82, is at the end of a political career tarnished by his refusal to step aside earlier and a last-minute pardon of his son Hunter. Few are now clamoring for him to return. “In conversations that I’m having, they don’t even mention the president. It’s kind of sad,” said the Democrat close to senior lawmakers. “It feels like Trump is president already.” Many party officials and staffers no longer track Biden’s daily activities or are even aware that he’s spent much of the last month out of the country. In the last week, the dominant conversation among them tied to the president has been about Hunter’s pardon, who got invitations to the White House holiday party and whether current and former White House staffers would get to take the traditional departure photo with the president. “Democrats in Washington just want to get him and the people around him out the door,” said the former White House official. “All he’s done in the last year has hurt the party every step of the way.” There’s some question of whether Biden’s presence has been missed, even if only to tout his accomplishments. Asked last week about the role they see Biden playing within the party, several Democratic lawmakers demurred. “There’s sort of a tradition of former presidents not getting too involved in it, and he’s transitioning into that,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.). “So I think he has to be careful.” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden friend and ally, said that he expected Biden to devote his post-presidency to several specific issues, including cancer research and global diplomacy — leaving his involvement in party affairs up in the air. “I still think he has a lot for us to learn from going forward,” Coons said. “But, you know, there are lots of other standard bearers who are clamoring for attention.” Inside the West Wing, aides have focused primarily on accelerating a final slate of policy priorities before January, including allocating billions of dollars in tech and infrastructure investments and cementing regulations designed to further safeguard consumers from bad corporate actors. Senior White House officials have also spent much of their time managing the nation’s foreign entanglements in Ukraine and the Middle East ahead of an incoming administration that they worry will take both conflicts in a sharply different direction. Those efforts reflect a central agenda that Biden laid out shortly after the election, aides said, and that has consumed much of his own time in the weeks since. Biden aides in the process have sought to more explicitly document the administration’s accomplishments in statements, fact sheets and video clips. That’s partly a legacy project for historians who may comb Biden’s presidential library in years to come. But there is also hope it will provide Democrats with easy reference points during the Trump era for reminding voters how life was under Biden — and comparing it with how key measures like inflation and health coverage have changed since then. Still, Biden officials and allies acknowledged that the president has been conspicuously absent from the broader public discourse, especially as the rest of the Democratic Party debates how best to resist Trump and rebuild the party. The silence from Biden is “a case of just reading the room,” said Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic campaign veteran and a former senior adviser to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. “If him speaking out doesn’t achieve any actual strategic objectives, there’s no real point in doing it,” she said. Biden has avoided questions about what went wrong in the lead-up to the election and where Democrats should go from here and has given no substantive public comments on whether he still believes American democracy is under threat with Trump set to take power. Few expect him to endorse a candidate in the crowded race for DNC chair that could go a long way toward determining the party’s direction, although a Biden adviser said multiple people who are running or considering running for DNC chair have been in touch to ask for the president’s thoughts. The adviser also said Biden was still playing an important role in discussions about the future of the party, which was a topic of conversation at a recent lunch he hosted with Minyon Moore, Donna Brazile, Leah Daughtry, Yolanda Caraway and Tina Flournoy — Democratic operatives close to the Harris campaign. “Typically when you’re in that so-called transition phase, the president and vice president essentially thank the team, thank the staff, help pay off the debts. It’s not like an incoming president who will play a more strategic role in determining the future of the party,” said Brazile, a former DNC chair. But Biden’s overall attitude has left a sour taste in the mouth of some members of the party who feel his supporters who knocked doors, donated money and supported his administration deserve to hear from the president before he leaves office. “It’s just his strategy, even if folks agree or disagree with it: Kind of keeping his head down,” said Mike Ceraso, an alum of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ and Pete Buttigieg’s campaigns. “I think both him and President Obama have looked at the transition period as not trying to make noise or trying to undermine the incoming administration.” Some Democrats also believe that however politically diminished the president may be, there’s still an important public role for Biden to play in his last few weeks in office. “It would be great to be talking about the things that were accomplished under the Biden term and so many things that we got done for the country in terms of the infrastructure, clean air, clean water, addressing climate,” said Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.). “We haven’t gotten that message out strongly enough before the election, but he shouldn’t miss the opportunity to talk about that now.” Biden is expected to make at least a couple higher-profile speeches in the coming weeks, following an initial post-election month devoted to long-planned trips abroad. The president is planning to deliver a speech centered on the economy Tuesday, which will serve at least in part to commemorate an economic recovery and revival of domestic manufacturing that Biden continues to believe is deeply underappreciated. Biden has also discussed making a second address focused on foreign policy, where he would be able to make a final case for a worldview built on global alliances and cooperation that Trump has promised to immediately dismantle. He may also join the next virtual meeting of the 50-plus nations allied behind Ukraine, as he tries to rally the rest of the world to stay united behind the war against Russia. Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, said Biden’s views on the future of the Democratic Party were “pretty irrelevant” to the preparations he and other Democratic organizations are making for the next two years. But he argued that Biden could take a series of more aggressive actions in the next month and a half that would better position the party and Americans as a whole — including speeding processing of DACA recipients and expanding the temporary protected status granted to certain immigrants. Indivisible has pitched those ideas to the White House, Levin said. But there’s little indication so far that Biden is seeking ways to handcuff an incoming Trump team he’s committed to helping orchestrate a smooth transition. “If I were Biden, I would be looking at what they can do to not just protect members of his own family but to protect other Americans that are going to be under threat by the next administration,” Levin said. “[But] if there’s been that directive, I haven’t heard of it.” Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

As Richard Grenell made a bid after the election to be Donald Trump’s secretary of State, a flurry of social media posts from MAGA influencers started popping up, advocating for the president-elect to pick him. Around the same time, an associate of Grenell had approached conservative social media influencers, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, offering paid contracts of as much as five figures to post favorably about Grenell. One such contract, obtained by POLITICO and not previously reported, outlined that the influencer would do so during “peak posting times,” that “content must appear genuine,” and it could not “appear as an overt advertisement or promotional message.” The proposed paid social media campaign, which the organizers told POLITICO never took off, illustrates the lengths to which people close to Grenell went to ensure he got the job. And Grenell, who typically goes by Ric, had made no secret in private conversations over the last three years that he wanted to serve as Trump’s next secretary of State. He told people in Trump’s orbit that it was secretary of State “or bust,” as one person close to the president-elect said. Grenell, Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence — who Trump had been known to call his “wild man,” according to a former administration official — had been one the president-elect’s most loyal foot soldiers throughout the 2024 campaign. But Trump ultimately chose Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for the coveted State job, rewarding one of his top vice presidential contenders, though outwardly less MAGA-aligned, with a key seat in his cabinet and leaving Grenell without his preferred post. Grenell was offered other posts in Trump’s administration, including director of National Intelligence, which he turned down, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Most recently, he has been vocal about helping his friend, Kash Patel, land as FBI Director. And multiple people with knowledge of the transition did not rule out the possibility Grenell will still get some kind of important role. There is no evidence directly linking the influencer campaign to Grenell. In response to a request for comment, Grenell referred to the POLITICO reporter making the inquiry as an “unserious gossip reporter,” and said “none of this is true.” Grenell had put in the work to demonstrate his loyalty to Trump, championing the president-elect’s policies in public and private, traveling the country to campaign for him and raising campaign cash. He is close with Melania Trump, whose only public political activities this year were with the conservative LGBT group Log Cabin Republicans, with which Grenell is affiliated. Some senators close to the president-elect, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), praised Grenell as a standout option for secretary of State, and Grenell even appeared alongside Trump during a meeting with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in September. At Trump’s final rally of the election — a midnight event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Grenell also spoke — Trump praised Grenell as “a man who’s very special, with a great talent.” “I’ll never forget, when I took him out (of the ambassador role), the happiest person in the world was Angela Merkel,” Trump said of the former German chancellor. “When Ric Grenell was taken out, this was the best day in Angela’s life. He was not your typical ambassador.” Trump said of German officials that “they really loved him,” but Grenell was “wise to what they were doing.” In addition to ambassador to Germany, Trump had entrusted Grenell with another top diplomatic role during his time in the White House as a special envoy for Serbia-Kosovo relations. At the end of Trump’s term with Grenell’s diplomatic push, Serbia and Kosovo agreed to restore flights between their capitals in a step toward normalization. In the period after, Grenell continued to meet with foreign leaders to promote Trump and his foreign policy as a kind of shadow secretary of State. But other factors weighed against him. If Grenell was tapped for a Senate-confirmed role, his business dealings in foreign countries — among them plans to build a $500 million hotel project with Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner in Belgrade — would have been scrutinized. The former Trump official’s bid for the top State job also ruffled feathers, and his open lobbying for the position had grated on people in Trump’s orbit. There were concerns that his prickly personality earned him a reputation among people close to Trump for being difficult and less than diplomatic. “People assume the president wants a big personality who is pushing the envelope. That’s not always the case. I think there were a lot of questions about whether Ric was diplomatic enough to be secretary of state,” said a person familiar with the transition. The person added, “Ric was offered several positions that he turned down, it’s not like he was shut out.”After it was leaked that Rubio was Trump’s pick for State, there was an outpouring of support for Grenell from top MAGA voices, who cast doubt that any decision had been made. When one person urged fellow supporters not to give up the fight because a decision wasn’t final, Grenell responded, “BS. Stop grifting. Not true.” Allies of Grenell who advocated for him at all costs may not have helped his cause, either. Rick Loughery, the former chair of the political youth association Young Republicans, who is an associate of Grenell, had contacted conservative influencers after the election offering payments in exchange for positive posts about Grenell on X and Instagram. The contract outlined that the influencers must also “engage in their comment section, quote tweet, share, add to stories and reply in relevant threads and posts.” The money, which was to be paid by Magnify Media Partners LLC, a political consulting firm run by Taylor Strand, would be issued in several installments between November and January, the contract stated. Strand said in an email that the initiative in question was “a project about defending Trump loyalists against mainstream media attacks,” but that “this project never moved forward, and Ric Grenell nor any other MAGA leaders were involved.” She did not respond to a follow-up question about influencers being asked to post positively about Grenell’s bid for secretary of State. Neither Loughery nor the influencer for whom the contract was created commented for the story. A spokesperson for the Trump transition did not comment. It’s not inconceivable that Grenell could eventually secure his dream job of secretary of State, should Rubio leave the post over the next four years, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. “If he’s not doing something or accepting something, it’s because he decided not to,” said one ally of Grenell, speaking on condition of anonymity, explaining that he still was being given options to work for Trump, but noting Grenell’s proclivity to “play the long game” and wait for a job he really wants. The round of appointments that has played out over the past several weeks showcased how some people have been more successful than others at maneuvering Trump world and finding a landing place. Trump made loyalty a key criteria when picking his cabinet, and was turned off by any whiff of inconstancy, like rumors of presidential ambitions, or past criticisms of his behavior. And he was irritated to learn if anyone felt entitled to a role, presumed it was theirs, or tried to buy his favor, according to multiple advisers. Still, Trump has rewarded strategic persistence from contenders for top-level positions who got passed over for their first choice of position. Matt Whitaker, Trump’s former acting attorney general who was vying for the top Department of Justice job, ultimately wasn’t tapped for attorney general. But after Trump chose Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general — who later withdrew from consideration and was replaced by Pam Bondi — Whitaker worked to remain in contention for other high-level jobs, and was named U.S. ambassador to NATO. And Patel, a top Trump ally who was tapped in recent days for FBI director, fought for the job even after it appeared his chances were dim, and after some Trump advisers expressed concern about his likelihood of being confirmed by the Senate. “I think there is a need and a desire to keep these people close,” said a person with knowledge of Grenell’s situation, referencing others like Trump’s former trade representative Robert Lighthizer, who also hasn’t landed an administration job. “They are loyalists who have been really successful at getting Trump elected. Where does Trump park these people?”