POLITICO Playbook: Will Trump get the 4th he wanted? Presented by Amazon

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President Donald Trump walks off Marine One at the White House. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! The Washington Nationals -- winners of 25 of their last 35 games -- play the Miami Marlins at 11:05 a.m. The Nationals are now 44-41.

TRUMP’S BIG DAY -- “Inside the effort to build suspense — and crowds — for Trump’s Fourth of July,” by WaPo’s Juliet Eilperin, Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker and Dan Lamothe: “[T]he White House has also been scrambling in recent days to line up enough attendees, as Trump’s aides fret that either thunderstorms or the traditional free concert on the other end of the Mall could diminish the crowd for Trump’s 6:30 p.m. speech. ...

“The administration has provided 5,000 tickets to the military, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. Trump’s reelection campaign has handed passes out to allies, donors and trade associations — from the American Bankers Association to the British Embassy, according to people familiar with the matter, while several fundraisers and operatives also were tasked to hand out tickets. …

“[M]any top military officials were not aware that the president definitely wanted tanks involved until last week.” WaPo

-- QUOTE DU JOUR, VIA NANCY COOK: “‘They started this too late and everyone has plans already,’ said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor and CEO of the drilling services company Canary, LLC. ‘Everyone will be there in spirit, but in reality, people planned their July 4th activities weeks ago.’” POLITICO

TRUMP tweeted at 7:47 a.m.: “People are coming from far and wide to join us today and tonight for what is turning out to be one of the biggest celebrations in the history of our Country, SALUTE TO AMERICA, an all day event at the Lincoln Memorial, culminating with large scale flyovers of the most modern.........and advanced aircraft anywhere in the World. Perhaps even Aircraft One will do a low & loud sprint over the crowd. That will start at 6:00P.M., but be there early. Then, at 9:00 P.M., a great (to put it mildly) fireworks display. I will speak on behalf of our great Country!”

-- AIRCRAFT ONE? The president later reworded the tweet and wrote Air Force One.

-- CNN: “The DC National Guard says it has called up 800 members to help control traffic and secure the streets. A military official tells CNN the number is actually 900 members, nearly triple the typical 300-person activation for July 4th activities in D.C.”

ACTUAL WHITE HOUSE TWEET: “The fireworks over Washington, D.C., tomorrow night will be the most spectacular our Nation’s capital has ever seen, thanks to Phantom @Fireworks and Fireworks by Grucci!”

-- HMM ... ABC NEWS: “July 4th fireworks donor lobbied President Trump on tariffs and won a reprieve”

FLASHBACK … JOHN BRESNAHAN wrote a story in 2012 that involved one of the fireworks companies that the White House is touting. Fireworks by Grucci is run by the family of Felix Grucci, a former one-term Republican member of Congress who lost a Long Island seat to Tim Bishop, a Democrat.

-- BRES on Aug. 15, 2012: “Eric Semler wanted to throw his son a Bar Mitzvah bash that he would never forget — capped by a fireworks show near the hedge fund investor’s Southampton, N.Y., home — but he needed Rep. Tim Bishop’s help.

“[Grucci Fireworks] hadn’t received government permits needed to put on the display. So on May 21, with the party just five days away, Semler contacted the Democratic congressman and asked for his help.

“Bishop agreed to intercede. But before Bishop and his aides completed their work on his behalf, Semler received a request from the congressman’s campaign staff, according to documents obtained by POLITICO and multiple interviews: For a contribution of up to $10,000 to Bishop’s reelection campaign.” POLITICO

-- ACCUWEATHER FORECAST FOR D.C.: “Clouds and sun, humid; a heavy t-storm in the p.m.; storms will be slow moving and bring heavy rain … A couple of evening showers and a thunderstorm; otherwise, cloudy and humid … Thunderstorms: 60% … Hours of Rain: 2 hrs”.

TOP TALKER … IN HIS OWN WORDS -- WAPO: “Justin Amash: Our politics is in a partisan death spiral. That’s why I’m leaving the GOP”: “Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party. No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system — and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.”

-- WHO KNOWS whether Amash runs for president as a libertarian. He has told his friends and allies in Congress that he didn’t plan on it. But there are some real-world impacts for Amash here. If he’s no longer a Republican, he is likely to lose his spot on the Oversight and Reform committee, and we bet that he’ll be asked to leave the House Republican Conference. THAT’S A BIG DEAL.

-- SOME TRUMP-ALIGNED REPUBLICANS have toyed with supporting a primary challenger to Amash, and now, the NRCC will almost certainly support someone else since it only supports Republicans running for office.

THE CENSUS MESS … NYT’S MICHAEL WINES, MAGGIE HABERMAN and ALAN RAPPEPORT: “A day after pledging that the 2020 census would not ask respondents about their citizenship, Justice Department officials reversed course on Wednesday and said they were hunting for a way to restore the question on orders from President Trump.

“The contentious issue of whether next year’s all-important head count would include a citizenship question appeared to be settled — until the president began vowing on Twitter on Wednesday that the administration was “absolutely moving forward” with plans, despite logistical and legal barriers.

“Mr. Trump’s comments prompted a chaotic chain of events, with senior census planners closeted in emergency meetings and Justice Department representatives summoned to a phone conference with a federal judge in Maryland.” NYT

-- GOVERNMENT LAWYERING IN THE TRUMP ERA -- From a transcript of Wednesday’s telephone conference on the census case, between district court judge George Hazel and DOJ lawyers: “The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the president's position on this issue, just like the plaintiffs and your honor. I do not have a deeper understanding of what that means at this juncture other than what the president has tweeted. But, obviously, as you can imagine, I am doing my absolute best to figure out what’s going on.” The transcript

-- NYT’S @juliehdavis: “This is, almost verbatim, me talking to my editors on quite a few occasions”

COMING ATTRACTIONS? … SYDNEY, Australia: MORNING HERALD: “Trump airs concern at surge in Australian aluminium exports,” by David Crowe and David Wroe: “United States President Donald Trump has fired another warning shot over a surge in Australian aluminium exports to his country, reviving concerns that almost led him to impose tariffs on the products six weeks ago.

“Mr. Trump and his top officials raised the aluminium trade in their private dinner with Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka.” Sydney Morning Herald

THE ADMINISTRATION … “Can you guess who the highest-paid West Wing staffer is?” by Nancy Cook: “The highest paid staffer in the Trump White House isn’t the president’s lead attorney, national security adviser, top economic official or even the newest press secretary.

“Instead it’s one of acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s closest aides and his de facto spokesman inside the West Wing, whose official title is senior adviser to the chief of staff for strategy and stakeholder engagement.

“John Czwartacki, who goes by the nickname ‘CZ,’ earns $239,595 annually. That’s roughly $36,000 more than his boss, Mulvaney, and roughly $56,000 more than the top echelon of White House staff whose pay is capped at $183,000 per year, according to the latest release of White House staff salaries.

“Czwartacki earns so much more than other West Wing aides because he is on detail from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB’s most senior staffers can earn anywhere from $181,000 to $259,500. The pay scale at that agency and other federal regulators is higher because the federal government assumes it must pay more competitive salaries to attract talent with specific skills and not lose potential aides and regulators to Wall Street.” POLITICO

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THE PRESIDENT’S THURSDAY -- At 6:15 p.m., the president will leave the White House for the Lincoln Memorial for the “Salute to America” event. He is scheduled to speak at 6:30 p.m., and return to the White House at 7:40 p.m.

PLAYBOOK READS

PHOTO DU JOUR: Two Bradley Fighting Vehicles flank the stage being prepared in front of the Lincoln Memorial for Trump's "Salute to America" July 4th event. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

2020 WATCH … BIG PICTURE from NYT’S REID EPSTEIN: “Democrats Grapple With a Sprawling Primary Field, and No One to Shape It”: “The slate of 24 contenders is too unwieldy for a constructive debate, many activists and strategists say, and too large for most voters to follow. And with a leadership vacuum at the top of the party, there is no one to elevate candidates with an endorsement, or help steer third-tier candidates out of the race when they’ve reached their plausible expiration date.

“Former President Barack Obama, an influential voice among many Democrats, is sitting out the primary. The Clintons, a once-dominant party presence, are largely unwelcome this time around. In Washington, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is focused on keeping the House in order, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, has failed to recruit presidential candidates like Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas into potentially winnable Senate races.” NYT

-- “Bad news for Bernie has his backers getting antsy,” by Holly Otterbein: “[E]ven though the Sanders team would never call it a ‘reset,’ his aides are sharpening a new line of attack against his rivals and experimenting with different ways to connect with hard-to-reach voters as the race heats up. They’re also continuing to shift from big rallies to more intimate events in the nation’s early states, such as ice cream socials and selfie lines — an acknowledgment that Sanders needs to adopt a more personal approach and participate in additional retail politicking to win.

“And even Sanders’ allies admit that he faces unique difficulties in 2020: Unlike in 2016, many of Sanders’ opponents have adopted major planks of his platform, giving voters more than one progressive candidate to choose from in the race. In recent weeks, some Sanders supporters have questioned if he should take a different approach in the debates, after not participating in mock sessions while prepping for the first showdown and ultimately failing to take on Biden in a memorable way.”

A RARE BIDEN SWIPE LEFT: “I fundamentally disagree with anyone who says scrap Obamacare. Any Republican who says that, any Democrat who says that.” (via WaPo’s @mattviser in Iowa)

-- Bloomberg’s Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps): “Does Biden need to prepare more for the next debate? @mikememoli asks him on the ropeline. ‘No, I just have to, uh ...,’ Biden says, before walking backstage.”

-- NBC’s @mikememoli: “He added: ‘We’ll see next time.’”

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BIDEN-HARRIS BUSING BATTLE: The staffs of the two campaigns are duking it out over, of all things, school busing. Here’s one Twitter exchange that happened after AP posted a story headlined “Harris says busing should be considered, not mandated” :

-- Biden comms director Kate Bedingfield (@KBeds): “It’s disappointing that Senator Harris chose to distort Vice President Biden’s position on busing — particularly now that she is tying herself in knots trying not to answer the very question she posed to him!

-- The Harris campaign’s @IanSams replied: “VP Biden said: ‘Who the hell do we think we are that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?’ He called busing an ‘asinine concept.’ C’mon. Y’all are better than this.”

… AND NOW THE FLIP: AP’s ALEXANDRA JAFFE and THOMAS BEAUMONT in West Des Moines: “Sen. Kamala Harris said Wednesday that busing students should be considered by school districts trying to desegregate their locations — not the federal mandate she appeared to support in pointedly criticizing rival Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden last week. … On Wednesday, though, Harris characterized busing as a choice local school districts have, not the responsibility of the federal government. …

“Harris’ comments Wednesday were far from the indictment she delivered during the debate last week.” AP

MEANWHILE … “Warren takes on Harris and Biden in battle for black support,” by Alex Thompson

IMMIGRATION FILES -- “Appeals court: Trump can’t use Pentagon cash for border wall,” by AP’s Elliot Spagat in San Diego: “An appeals court on Wednesday upheld a freeze on Pentagon money to build a border wall with Mexico, casting doubt on President Donald Trump’s ability to make good on a signature campaign promise before the 2020 election.

“A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed with a lower court ruling that prevented the government from tapping Defense Department counterdrug money to build high-priority sections of wall in Arizona, California and New Mexico.” AP

-- “Border agency knew about secret Facebook group for years,” by Ted Hesson and Cristiano Lima: “Customs and Border Protection officials have been aware for up to three years that a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents was posting offensive messages — far longer than previously reported.

“Border Patrol leadership knew about photos posted to the group as far back as 2016, when agents reported them, according to a current Homeland Security official. The images — several of which were provided to POLITICO — show agents engaging in conduct that includes simulating sex acts and taking selfies while defecating. A former DHS official said he was aware of the Facebook group during the past year. Neither official knew of any serious punishment ever leveled at members of the Facebook group.” POLITICO

-- “Pediatricians share migrant children’s disturbing drawings of their time in US custody,” by CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen ... “What a Pediatrician Saw Inside a Border Patrol Warehouse,” by The Atlantic’s Jeremy Raff

WHOOPS … WAPO’S @NickMiroff: “Sen. Schumer is calling for Mark Morgan to be fired from CBP, but Morgan doesn’t work there yet. He starts next week.”

SHOTS FIRED … REBECCA TRAISTER for THE CUT: “Politics Is Changing; Why Aren’t the Pundits Who Cover It?”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY … ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: “Puerto Rico governor asks Kemp to end ‘disturbing’ license policy,” by David Wickert and Greg Bluestein: “The governor of Puerto Rico has asked Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to address ‘disturbing irregularities’ cited in a lawsuit that claims the state discriminates against Puerto Rico natives who apply for driver’s licenses.

“The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, claims the Georgia Department of Driver Services illegally treats U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico differently than others applying for driver’s licenses.

“Among other things, the lawsuit says the department fails to award licenses in a timely manner and requires Puerto Ricans to take extra driver tests and to answer ‘trick’ questions about Puerto Rico to prove they are from the U.S. territory.” AJC

MEDIAWATCH -- “Outcry after reports Brazil plans to investigate Glenn Greenwald,” by the Guardian’s Dom Phillips in Rio: “Brazil’s Bar Association, journalists and opposition lawmakers have reacted with outrage to reports that the country’s federal police plan to investigate the bank accounts of an American journalist who published leaked conversations between prosecutors and the graft-busting judge who is now Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister.

“The rightwing site the Antagonist (O Antagonista) reported on Tuesday that federal police had asked a money-laundering unit at Brazil’s finance ministry to investigate the ‘financial activities’ of Glenn Greenwald.

“Police declined to comment on the allegation but confirmed an investigation had been launched into the hacking of cellphones that led to the leaks.” The Guardian

-- HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’S JEREMY BARR: “Fox News Streaming Service Reeling After Misconduct Claim Goes Public”

-- CNN’S BRIAN STELTER and OLIVER DARCY: “Meghan McCain, ‘miserable’ at ABC, mulls leaving ‘The View’”: “Meghan McCain, feeling dejected and sabotaged by her colleagues at ABC, is seriously thinking about departing ‘The View,’ two people familiar with the matter told CNN.

“One of the people … told CNN Business that McCain ‘doesn’t think it’s worth it anymore.’ The friend added that McCain’s contract is coming up for renewal later this summer, though that timeline was disputed by a well-placed person at ABC. A senior ABC employee who also spoke to CNN Business said McCain is ‘miserable’ at the network.” CNN

PLAYBOOKERS

SPOTTED at the Rolling Stones concert at FedEx Field: Manu Raju, Adirenne Elrod, Erin McPike, Doug Thornell, Dana Bash and Spencer Garrett, Doug Heye, Matt Gorman, Amy Argetsinger and Bill McQuillen, Tara Palmeri, Abby Livingston, Tom Williams, Jane Adams and Scott Galupo, Betsy Fischer Martin, Betsy Ankey, Matt Mowers and Cassie Spodak, Walt Cronkite and Phil Bianchi.

BIRTHWEEK (was Tuesday): Marc Rylander, comms director for Texas AG Ken Paxton. He celebrated in Arkansas (hat tips: Amanda Priest and Johnny Koremenos) … POLITICO Europe’s Natasha Bernard

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Kevin McLaughlin, executive director of the NRSC. A trend he thinks deserves more attention: “How we deal with mental health issues. It’s infuriating that, in 2019, we as a society still refuse to acknowledge the role, or lack thereof, we all play in not destigmatizing mental health issues. They manifest themselves in so many destructive ways: violence, homelessness, drug and alcohol addition, and we collectively refuse to acknowledge and address the real cause of all these things. Instead people look to score quick political points to advance a particular policy position. It’s gutless and every day we do it is another day we lose the opportunity to effect real, positive change in people’s lives and make our communities better, safer, places to live.” Q&A

BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY: The United States of America is 243 ... Malia Obama is 21 ... Geraldo Rivera is 76 ... Ryan Williams, EVP at Targeted Victory and former Romney spokesman ... WNYC’s Matt Katz ... Lanhee Chen, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, is 41 (h/t Marlon Bateman) ... Frank Donatelli, a senior adviser at McGuireWoods Consulting ... Uber’s Travis Considine is 33 ... former Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) is 78 ... WSJ’s Natalie Andrews ... Sunshine Sachs’ Taylor Friedman is 31 ... Chris Ring ... Ed Matricardi ... Darren Stevenson ... Noah Reichblum of SAIS ... Rich Neimand ... Amazon’s Dustin Todd (h/t wife Andrea Riccio) ... Ann Conant ... Will Ritter, founder of Poolhouse digital ad agency ... BlackRock’s Evan Breslow is 42 … Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is 55 ...

… Martha Joynt Kumar ... Susan Hendrick ... Viveca Novak, justice and judiciary editor at WSJ ... Matthew Gravatt of the Sierra Club ... Kathleen Kennedy Townsend ... Bennett Packer ... Tyler Cheney ... Sasha Graffagna ... former Rep. Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.) is 51 … Lauren Ashburn, anchor and managing editor of EWTN News Nightly ... Brandon English … Jessica Unger … Gavan Gideon ... Elliott Singer … Catlin O’Neill … Andres Peña ... Luke Tomanelli ... Missy Farren ... Maria Thomas ... Nora Tejada ... WNYC’s Julianne Welby ... Novelda Sommers ... Jim Natoli ... Terry Wade ... Ryan Corsaro ... Dal LaMagna is 73 … William Fogarty is 33 ... Arthur Serota ... Jeffrey Fortson ... Brian Sikma ... Julia LeDoux ... Steve McPartlin ... Al Madrigal is 48 (h/t AP)

Follow us on Twitter Anna Palmer @apalmerdc



Jake Sherman @JakeSherman