The Playbook Podcast
POLITICO’s Jack Blanchard and Dasha Burns bring their fresh insight, analysis and reporting to the biggest story driving the day in the nation’s capital.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 6 minutes
- Episodes
- 1941
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2025
March 21, 2025: The Musk Factor
Democrats want to talk about Elon Musk. Whether voters want to hear that is another question — and one we may get an answer to very soon. In Wisconsin, an April 1 state supreme court race offers a te…
00:08:06 |
Fri 21 Mar 2025
March 20, 2025: Ivory towers vs. Trump’s wrecking ball
President Donald Trump’s multi-front battle on education is in full swing. Today, he’s expected to sign an executive order effectively dismantling the Department of Education; Columbia University fac…
00:07:06 |
Thu 20 Mar 2025
March 19, 2025: The courtroom presidency
President Donald Trump is no stranger to pushing the limits. And since reentering the Oval Office, he’s put significant energy into pushing the limits of the law — testing the courts and the legal sy…
00:10:07 |
Wed 19 Mar 2025
March 18, 2025: Inching closer to a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire
Today, President Donald Trump will talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin about a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Trump, who told reporters over the weekend that significant progr…
00:10:31 |
Tue 18 Mar 2025
March 17, 2025: Democrats’ identity crisis intensifies
Democrats have been looking inward since November 5, but over the past few days that self-examination has escalated. On Friday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer led a small group of Senate Democrats to …
00:09:12 |
Mon 17 Mar 2025
March 14, 2025: Schumer giveth and Schumer taketh away
House Republicans are one step closer to passing their continuing resolution to fund the government, now that they have overcome the roadblock that is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Last night…
00:09:30 |
Fri 14 Mar 2025
March 13, 2025: A (way too early) look at 2028
President Donald Trump has only been in office for a month and a half, but 2028 is already on the minds of Democrats in Washington, and the road to the next presidential campaign is beginning to take…
00:09:03 |
Thu 13 Mar 2025
March 12, 2025: Johnson gets a win and market losses mount
Market volatility is the talk of Washington as the White House issues (and, in some cases, walks back) whiplash-inducing tariff threats. And as the economy dominates the discussion, all eyes are on C…
00:09:26 |
Wed 12 Mar 2025
March 11, 2025: What counts as free speech in Trump’s America?
What precisely are the limits of free speech in Donald Trump’s America? That question is at the heart of the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University grad student and green card holder whose pro…
00:10:19 |
Tue 11 Mar 2025
March 10, 2025: House GOP scrambles to avoid a shutdown
Two facts are behind the day’s biggest story on Capitol Hill. One, we’re just five days away from a government shutdown. Two, the House GOP’s so-called ‘clean’ continuing resolution is chock full of …
00:09:35 |
Mon 10 Mar 2025
March 7, 2025: Capitol Hill confidential
It’s the worst-kept secret in Washington: Being in Congress isn’t as glamorous as it seems from the outside. But what is life really like on Capitol Hill? What do members privately think about their …
00:09:49 |
Fri 07 Mar 2025
March 6, 2025: Is Trump’s trade war an own goal?
President Donald Trump’s tariff regime is blooming before our eyes. That may delight his MAGA base, but it’s causing agita in the broader electorate, as Americans face the near inevitability of highe…
00:10:16 |
Thu 06 Mar 2025
March 5, 2025: Trump doubles down
In his joint address to Congress last night, President Donald Trump gave a red-meat speech that lauded his culture war victories, denigrated his political opponents, and, oh yeah, ran until 11pm. But…
00:12:46 |
Wed 05 Mar 2025
March 4, 2025: What to expect from Trump’s joint address
This evening, President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress for the first time in his second term in the White House. After a whirlwind 24 hours that included pausing all military a…
00:08:52 |
Tue 04 Mar 2025
March 3, 2025: Is DOGE overshadowing Trump?
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency project has become the center of President Trump’s domestic agenda, with a lot of political capital being channeled into defending Musk’s actions from …
00:09:58 |
Mon 03 Mar 2025
February 28, 2025: Zelenskyy tries to make a deal
Today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Washington, where he will meet President Donald Trump in person for the first time since Trump’s return to the White House. The relationship betwe…
00:09:14 |
Fri 28 Feb 2025
February 27, 2025: The British Invasion, 2025 edition
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in Washington today to meet with President Donald Trump. On the surface, the two leaders couldn’t be more different. But as Playbook author Jack Blanchard tells ch…
00:07:50 |
Thu 27 Feb 2025
February 26, 2025: House passes the ‘big, beautiful bill’
In a dramatic scene last night, the House of Representatives passed its budget blueprint in a 217-215 vote. Earlier in the day, four Republicans stated they wouldn’t support the bill. But ultimately,…
00:05:20 |
Wed 26 Feb 2025
February 25, 2025: Can Mike Johnson pass the budget?
The House’s big, beautiful fiscal blueprint is up for a vote today, but Speaker Mike Johnson is already navigating inter-party fighting over possible budget cuts. POLITICO senior Congress editor Mike…
00:07:39 |
Tue 25 Feb 2025
February 24, 2025: What stock market trouble could mean for Trump
President Donald Trump’s election helped turbocharge an already surging bull market in the U.S., sending stocks and cryptocurrencies to even higher records. But, some on Wall Street are sounding the …
00:08:05 |
Mon 24 Feb 2025
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