 | By Ankush Khardori
TRUMP KNOWS HE'S LOSING!! TRUMP DISTRACTION FROM HIS ECONOMIC FAILURES! PRICES RISING, RECESSION PREDICTED! TAX CUTS FOR WEALTHY WITH ENDLESS DEFICITS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE POOR! NO KINGS PROTESTS JUNE 14TH EXPENSIVE MILITARY PARADE THAT WILL DAMAGE INFRASTRUCTURE TO STROKE DEMENTIA DON'S FRAGILE EGO!
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Former President Joe Biden gestures while arriving at Joint Base Andrews following inauguration ceremonies on January 20, 2025 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. | Samuel Corum/Getty Images | THE COVER-UP, NOT THE CRIME — Donald Trump’s decision this week to investigate Joe Biden’s White House in an attempt to reverse his pardons may have been easy for many Democrats to dismiss out of hand. After all, despite recent revelations concerning Biden’s mental acuity , there is little evidence at the moment to believe that he was so impaired that he did not know what he was doing — as the Trump White House has suggested — and there is no discernible legal path to invalidating the pardons that he issued prior to leaving office. Still, it would be a mistake to assume that this investigation will go nowhere. And it would be a mistake to assume that there will be no serious political — or legal — repercussions, depending on how it unfolds. To understand why, look no further than special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation during Trump’s first term. That investigation began by looking at the Trump campaign’s connections to the Russian government, but it ended up focused on Trump’s alleged obstruction of the investigation itself. High-profile political investigations have a way of drifting, and in the case of the Mueller investigation, Trump’s political opponents largely ate it all up. In the case of the Biden investigation, Trump’s announcement zeroed in on Biden’s use of an autopen to issue pardons, but the scope of the investigation is supposed to be broader than that and potentially covers several other topics. They include:
- whether “certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state”;
- whether there was an effort “to purposefully shield the public from information regarding Biden’s mental and physical health;” and
- whether there were “any agreements between Biden’s aides to cooperatively and falsely deem recorded videos of the President’s cognitive inability as fake.”
At the moment, the investigation is supposed to be run by the White House counsel’s office “in consultation with the Attorney General,” but if the investigation escalates, it is not inconceivable for it to transition into a criminal investigation run by prosecutors with grand jury authority. At that point, Biden world — the constellation of White House aides and campaign operatives that adamantly supported Biden’s reelection bid until and through his disastrous debate with Trump — could come under the sort of legal pressure that dogged Trump and his allies after the 2020 election. This is presumably not lost on Trump or his White House aides, and do not be surprised if Trump at some point decides to waive executive privilege on behalf of the Biden White House, as Biden did to Trump after the 2020 election. This is not to say that the results of the investigation would warrant actual criminal charges when all is said and done. But there is at least one criminal statute that could draw the attention of investigators — in particular, the federal law that makes it a crime to conspire to defraud the United States. The statute is broad, and it would come with a semi-serious, but also politically troll-ish benefit: It was one of the statutes that special counsel Jack Smith used in the criminal case against Trump concerning his effort to overturn the 2020 election. Even an investigation that goes nowhere can be incredibly burdensome — and costly — for its subjects. In this case, a lengthy investigation could also create some risks for the Democratic Party’s most prominent figures headed into the 2028 Democratic primary season — which is not as far away as we all might like to believe. For example, it is not hard to envision prosecutors at the Trump Justice Department — if it comes to that — subpoenaing prominent former Biden officials, including potential 2028 contenders like former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. In broad strokes, the questions would be politically familiar ones: What did you know, and when did you know it? The investigation also potentially implicates the broader Democratic Party apparatus and partisan media outlets that supported Biden throughout 2024. That is not so much a legal problem as it is a potential political or professional one for those involved — particularly as the party struggles to find its way out of the political wilderness, and as operatives within the party jockey for position headed into 2028. A years-long investigation into an alleged Biden White House cover-up that was aided and abetted by prominent members of the Democratic Party and media allies has the potential to be very inconvenient for the party — and also to attract sustained attention from Trump’s allies in the Republican Party and conservative media. It is not hard to see why this would be appealing for the Trump White House, even setting aside the potential legal merits (or lack thereof). Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at akhardori@politico.com .
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| | A fresh chapter for Playbook — same mission, new momentum. Jack Blanchard sets the scene. Dasha Burns brings the inside scoops. Adam Wren takes Washington into the weekend. Playbook delivers must-know reporting with style, clarity, and serious scoops. Subscribe now —and don’t miss a beat. | | | | | | | ***MUSK/TRUMP TANTRUMS! DEMENTIA DON COULDN'T FOCUS ON MEETING! EASILY DISTRACTED! INCAPABLE OF GOVERNING!*****
— Musk, Trump blow up over GOP megabill: President Donald Trump publicly chastised Elon Musk — his onetime adviser and a major political benefactor — today, amid the Tesla CEO’s continued attempts to take down the cornerstone of Republicans’ legislative agenda. Responding to a question about Musk’s posts during a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House, Trump said he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by Musk’s attacks. “He hasn’t said [anything] bad about me personally, but I’m sure that will be next,” the president said on Thursday. Sure enough, minutes later, Musk said on X: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.” “Such ingratitude,” Musk added. ***SCOTUS!*** — Supreme Court rejected higher standard for ‘reverse discrimination’ lawsuits: The Supreme Court today revived a lawsuit by an Ohio woman who said her bosses discriminated against her for being straight. The court unanimously ruled that members of majority groups do not face a higher legal standard than minorities to prevail in so-called reverse discrimination lawsuits under Title VII, the federal civil rights law that bars employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex and other protected characteristics.
***SLASHING AMERICORPS BLOCKED!*** ENDLESS DOGSH*T! — Federal judge blocks Trump administration’s efforts to gut AmeriCorps: A federal judge today blocked the Trump administration from dismantling AmeriCorps in two dozen Democratic-led states, another blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink vast swaths of the federal government. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, a Joe Biden appointee, came after a coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia sued the administration in April, accusing the Department of Government Efficiency of illegally gutting the volunteer agency.
***NATO WHIPLASH! DOES THE ORANGE TURD EVEN REMEMBER WHAT HE SAYS?*** — Trump, in show of NATO support, nominates official to key role with alliance: President Donald Trump has nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich to lead U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, sending a strong signal the administration will continue to play a leadership role in the alliance. Some allies, amid reports the Trump administration was reconsidering the position, worried the president would choose not to prioritize Europe and decline to place an American at the helm of NATO forces. A U.S. officer has filled the role since Gen. Dwight Eisenhower took the job in 1951 and is a symbol of American commitment to the region.
***TACO BACKS DOWN AFTER DAMAGING THE ECONOMY! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SURROUND YOURSELF WITH STUPID, INCOMPETENTS!**** — Trump speaks to Xi for first time since taking office: President Donald Trump said he spoke today with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, breaking the monthslong silence between the two men . It represents a significant, positive step for China-U.S. relations as the two countries work to deescalate a trade war Trump started this spring by levying 145 percent tariffs on China. The Chinese retaliated, halting trade between the two countries. It’s the first call between the two world leaders since Trump’s second term began, yet it was not immediately clear to what extent Trump and Xi had sorted out any of the sticking points between the two countries.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands in Moscow on May 9, 2025. | Alexei Nikolsky/Photo host agency RIA Novosti via AP | ***TRUMP BETRAYED UKRAINE & SUPPORTS PUTIN! FAILS TO IMPOSE SANCTIONS OR ARM UKRAINE!****
WORKING TOGETHER — Russia is catching up to Ukraine in drone production thanks to greater financial resources, production lines far from the front lines and especially help from China, a senior Ukrainian official told POLITICO. “Chinese manufacturers provide them with hardware, electronics, navigation, optical and telemetry systems, engines, microcircuits, processor modules, antenna field systems, control boards, navigation. They use so-called shell companies, change names, do everything to avoid being subject to export control and avoid sanctions for their activities,” said Oleh Aleksandrov, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service. “Yet officially, China sticks to all the rules. Yet only officially.” Beijing has repeatedly denied supplying any drones or weapons components to Russia, calling Ukrainian protests “baseless accusations and political manipulation.” But Aleksandrov said Russia has a critical dependency on the supply of Chinese spare parts for both tactical and long-range drones. That is allowing Russia to erode Ukraine's lead in drone technology and production — something that helped keep Ukraine in the fight at times when it was suffering from ammunition shortages and slow weapons deliveries from its allies.
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$2.5 million The amount that a super PAC representing landlords plans to spend to boost mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo as he tries to hold off Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who’s pledged to freeze the rent on rent-regulated apartments every year as mayor. |
| | | CAN’T BEAT THE CLASSICS — After a $2 billion dollar worldwide concert tour, four original studio albums and four re-recordings of her 2010s classics, Taylor Swift officially bought back her masters (or original recordings) from Shamrock Capital last week. While Swift's re-recording projects revolutionized the music industry with exclusive songs and a Swiftie Renaissance, Rolling Stone’s Larisha Paul argues that the raw emotion, youthful feel and early country twang of her reacquired classics are irreplaceable — they are the ones that truly shape her musical legacy.
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On this date in 1968: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy talks to campaign workers in Los Angeles minutes before he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel. He was pronounced dead a day later. | Dick Strobel/AP | Marisa Guerra Echeverria contributed to this newsletter. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here . | |
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