By Mike Allen (@mikeallen; mallen@politico.com) and Daniel Lippman (@dlippman; dlippman@politico.com)
Good Monday morning. Trump is a grandpa for the eighth time, per AP: His “daughter, Ivanka Trump, has given birth to her third child with husband Jared Kushner. Ivanka Trump announced the birth of her son, Theodore James, on Twitter ... Trump ... has frequently made mention of his daughter's pregnancy while campaigning ... Ivanka is the second of three children Donald Trump had with ex-wife Ivana Trump.” The tweet, with pic http://bit.ly/1ofEgQo
TOP TWEETS: @realDonaldTrump: “Just to show you how unfair Republican primary politics can be, I won the State of Louisiana and get less delegates than Cruz-Lawsuit coming” ... @danpfeiffer replies: “He should sue his own campaign for not knowing some of the basics of delegate rules” ... @alexburnsNYT: “‘Nothing seems to hurt Trump’ is the biggest myth of 2016. Nothing hurts him with ~2/5 of primary voters. Severely damaged w/everyone else” ... @GlennThrush: “Trump’s problem: it’s nearly April and he’s yet to consolidate party support. Not-Trump leads Trump 49-43 nationally. NT crushes T in WI, CA.”
SNEAK PEEK -- Hillary Clinton speaks on the Supreme Court this afternoon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A Clinton aide: “Hillary Clinton will join the battle over the Supreme Court and argue that the it underscores the stakes in this election. ... The importance of the Court and the breadth of progressive issues it is set to rule on this term is yet another reason why we’re not a single issue country and we can’t afford a single issue President. ... Given the range of cases currently before the Court—on everything from immigration to a women’s right to choose, affirmative action to voting rights—Clinton will say that the core pillars of the progressive movement are at risk of being upended by the Court in a single term. ...
“She will call on Senator Grassley, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to do his job and commit to giving Judge Garland a hearing. ... She will also rebuke Wisconsin’s Republican Senator, Ron Johnson, who has proudly campaigned on blocking the President by refusing to even consider the Garland nomination. ... [She] will also say that Americans should be greatly concerned about the kind of nominee that a President Trump might put forward.”
--WashPost, top of A1 (cols. 1-5), “How Clinton’s email scandal took root: Choices the candidate made as secretary of state raise concerns about security and transparency,” by Robert O’Harrow Jr.: “She hated having to put her BlackBerry into a lockbox before going into her own office. Her aides and senior officials pushed to find a way to enable her to use the device in the secure area. But their efforts unsettled the diplomatic security bureau, which was worried that foreign intelligence services could hack her BlackBerry and transform it into a listening device. ... Those officials took no steps to protect [her] server against intruders and spies, because they apparently were not told about it.” http://wapo.st/1REqzlz
EXCLUSIVE: Sam Nunberg, 34, fired Trump aide, frequent reporter-whisperer, and available pundit (lives on Upper East Side), endorses CRUZ: “Cruz is a Reagan Conservative. Donald Trump does not have a coherent political ideology -- if anything, I would describe him as a Chris Christie Republican. ... When did I decide that I could no longer support Trump? Last fall, when he did not have any idea of what the nuclear triad is in a debate. I was concerned but I figured that he would bulk up on policy ... He has not. I do not see a candidate who takes these issues seriously. ... The last straws were the KKK Tapper interview, telling Morning Joe ‘I am really good at this stuff’ on foreign policy when he is not ...
“If an open convention was good enough for Lincoln, Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford, it is good enough even for the great Donald Trump. If Trump’s opponent had 1,236 delegates and he had 1, he would be demanding a brokered convention.”
TO EASE your return from spring break, a gentle DELEGATE MATH duet:
--“Bernie’s math: Improbable, not impossible -- Even after five recent blowout victories, ... Sanders has a steep climb ahead,” by Steven Shepard: “[H]e currently trails Clinton in public polling in the four largest states left on the calendar: California, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. ... He has excelled in caucus states – winning 10 of 12 (including the last 10 consecutively). But most of the states left to come are holding primaries, including a number of contests only open to registered Democrats.” http://politi.co/1UWy2lC
--“Trump’s delegate danger: He’s beating Cruz at the ballot, but he’s months behind in the battle to make those wins count at the convention,” by Kyle Cheney: “While Trump cries foul, Cruz is racking up support from prospective delegates across the country, even in states where Trump dominated the primary. From Louisiana to Georgia to South Carolina — all Trump victories — delegates and delegate candidates are lining up to back Cruz ...
“‘I’ve been telling the Trump campaign for eight months now that they’re making a mistake by not reaching out to RNC members to establish relationships,’ said one South Carolina Republican participating in the state’s delegate selection process.” http://politi.co/1WSzkNs
“KING DAVID” ... “Tell-all book [“Collateral Damage: Petraeus/Power/Politics and the Abuse of Privacy”] exposes Petraeus emails,” by Josh Gerstein: “Jill Kelley ... reveals the playful banter that may have fueled suspicion that she was having an affair with Petraeus or other generals. ... Petraeus often called her ‘Safira’ (Arabic for a female ambassador) and referred to himself as ‘Malik D.’ (King David). ... Kelley insists nothing inappropriate transpired between her and Petraeus, but also says at one dinner she and the general ‘tested each other’s muscles to see who had the hardest quadriceps, while our spouses looked on in tolerant amusement, as they understood our athletic competitiveness.’” http://politi.co/22H22YD ... More from CNN’s Jake Tapper http://cnn.it/1URf2Gk ... $19.99 on Amazon http://amzn.to/25s2A3F
BREAKING – Third bald eagle hatches – WashPost’s Dana Hedgpeth: “The third baby bald eagle this spring in Washington hatched over the weekend at the D.C. police academy in Southwest. The eaglet was born to Liberty and Justice. They’ve had a nest at the property for 11 years that sits about 110 feet up in an oak tree.” http://wapo.st/1UwLVsk
“MEET THE PRESS” had an all-star female correspondent panel yesterday: Andrea Mitchell, Katy Tur, Kristen Welker and Hallie Jackson. Pics http://bit.ly/1MuFjaQ ... http://bit.ly/1ofEYf
TOP TALKER – L.A. Times A1, below fold, “Get set: A virtual reality race is on -- High-tech headgear arrives amid hope the devices can take users to new worlds,” by Todd Martens: “The brakes have officially been released on the virtual reality era. This week, Oculus’ $599 Rift headsets begin arriving on the doorsteps of consumers who pre-ordered the device in January. Two more high-end VR headsets are on the way, one from HTC and another from Sony, designed to work with the company’s PlayStation 4 home video game console.
“And it’s been hard to miss Samsung’s commercials for its midlevel, Oculus-powered Gear VR headset, endorsed by rapper Lil Wayne and compatible with some of its mobile devices. Then there’s the low-cost Google Cardboard, which works with most any smartphone. ... History will view the release of the Rift and other VR headsets as more important than the launch of the iPhone, according to Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games.” http://lat.ms/1UwBS6q
DAVID REMNICK, “Soul Survivor: The revival and hidden treasure of Aretha Franklin”: “Franklin has won eighteen Grammy awards, sold tens of millions of records, and is generally acknowledged to be the greatest singer in the history of postwar popular music. ... What distinguishes her is not merely the breadth of her catalogue or the cataract force of her vocal instrument; it’s her musical intelligence, her way of singing behind the beat, of spraying a wash of notes over a single word or syllable, of constructing, moment by moment, the emotional power of a three-minute song. ‘Respect’ is as precise an artifact as a Ming vase.” http://bit.ly/22GQ3uh
ON THE TRAIL – “Covering Bernie Sanders, as He Keeps His Spirited Campaign Alive,” by NYT’s Yamiche Alcindor: “Unlike our colleagues, especially those who cover Hillary Clinton, we in the Sanders press corps rarely lack access to the candidate. Mr. Sanders holds midair and plane-side news conferences regularly, taking questions from as many as a dozen journalists. I went hiking with his campaign aides through the Grand Canyon before the Arizona primary, and have chatted extensively with his wife, Jane, who sometimes serves bags of trail mix to reporters on late-night flights.” http://nyti.ms/1TdOKNs
--“Sanders, Clinton forget their manners: The two Democratic rivals have stopped congratulating each other on their victories,” by Annie Karni: “When Hillary Clinton won five states on March 15, giving her a strong lead for her party’s presidential nomination, accolades poured in from Democrats across the country. ... Bernie Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver didn’t phone Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin until 1:30 a.m. to connect the candidates, hours after Clinton had addressed her supporters at the West Palm Beach convention center and retired for the night. The call went straight to voicemail.” http://politi.co/1WSqzD4
JIM RUTENBERG banner on N.Y. Times Business section for second outing of his “Mediator” column, “Victory Lap and Wink, as 2 Presidents [Obama and Raúl Castro] Meet”: “[T]here are ... stringent terms the Trump campaign set back in November for how the five major television networks could cover his rallies, guidelines that still stand ... The TV personnel are to enter their designated pens 15 minutes before he speaks and stay there until he is done. Then, they can roam the crowd but they cannot freely approach the ‘rope line’ where Mr. Trump shakes hands and chitchats with his supporters ... The campaign cited safety and the candidate’s desire to connect with his voters without cameras intruding.
“Still, I was surprised that network executives agreed to go along with such constrictive terms, which do not apply to Clinton and Sanders rallies. ... [E]xecutives said it was the price of admission, ... but they would keep arguing for fewer restrictions. ‘This is an ongoing process,’ Chris Isham, the CBS News Washington bureau chief, told me. ‘We’re continuing to push on a number of different fronts.’” http://nyti.ms/1pTTCfe
--NYT 2-col. lead of the paper, “How G.O.P. Elites Lost The Party’s Base to Trump: Rupture Emerged as Working-Class Voters Felt Ignored by Republican Leaders,” by Nick Confessore (jumps to a full page inside): “While wages declined and workers grew anxious about retirement, Republicans offered an economic program still centered on tax cuts for the affluent and the curtailing of popular entitlements like Medicare and Social Security. And where working-class voters saw immigrants filling their schools and competing against them for jobs, Republican leaders saw an emerging pool of voters to court.” http://nyti.ms/1WSyAYQ
PUNDIT RACKET – BEN TERRIS, WashPost Style banner, “For the former campaign bigwig, there will always be a place – on cable news: Even if your candidate crashed, even if you got fired, punditry beckons”: “[F]or MSNBC, [Cruz spokesman] Rick Tyler’s firing ... provided the perfect opportunity to trot out its newest paid political contributor . . . Rick Tyler. ... Networks get credibility by seeking out these insiders, and they claim balance by hiring from both sides of the aisle. ... Flip from CNN to MSNBC to Fox and you’re likely to hear everyone talking about the same thing, as if they all came from the same cocktail party ...
“After his farewell party, Tyler texted his friend Peter Zorich to ask for leads on a TV gig. ... Zorich contacted a friend at MSNBC, and within 36 hours Tyler was under contract.” http://wapo.st/1qaS1Bu
GET SMART FAST – Upshot’s Neil Irwin on N.Y. Times p. A1, above fold, “What Candidates Are Saying by Harping on Trade Deficits” (online: “The Trade Deficit Isn’t a Scorecard, and Cutting It Won’t Make America Great Again”): “[T]rying to eliminate the trade deficit could mean giving up some of the key levers of power that allow the United States to get its way in international politics. Getting rid of the trade deficit could very well make America less great. ... There’s no doubt that maintaining the global reserve currency creates costs for the United States, namely a less competitive export industry.
“But it also creates a lot of advantages ... [l]ower interest rates and higher stock prices ... Even more important is what the dollar’s prominence in global finance does for America’s place in the world. It helps ensure that the United States can afford to finance wars, and it gives the government greater ability to fight recessions and panics.” http://nyti.ms/1VPLDfh
GLENN THRUSH PODCAST -- Ex-CIA Chief Hayden: “Incoherent” Trump presidency more of threat than Hillary. In a wide-ranging interview with Glenn Thrush for Politico’s latest “Off Message” podcast, Michael Hayden DOUBLES down on John Kasich -- but says his surprise second choice is Clinton -- the “best prepared from Day One.” Trump’s tough talk? “It’s not so much wrong or overly certain. It’s incoherent” -- and helping to recruit new terrorists, Hayden says. http://apple.co/1KRm0m0
--“Anthony Weiner Was The ‘Perfectly Evolved’ Politician — Until He Screwed Up,” by HuffPost’s Sam Stein and Jason Cherkis: His “ego remains intact. ‘I’m probably the best campaign politician you will ever interview. I’m like perfectly evolved. I’m like the Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator,’ Weiner said in this week’s episode of HuffPost’s Candidate Confessional podcast. ‘I love it. ... I’m just really good at it and take great joy in it.’” http://huff.to/1TdVwm8
TOP-ED -- “Could the urge to vote against Trump help bridge Clinton’s enthusiasm gap?” by former Amb. Howard Gutman in the WashPost: “This lack of enthusiasm for Clinton — known as the ‘enthusiasm gap’ — presents a serious threat to her candidacy, as the election necessarily will largely be about turnout and demographics. With no boots-on-the-ground war and unemployment at 4.9 percent, these factors will hold far more sway over the outcome than candidates’ stances on any of the existing nonissues. It requires enthusiasm to turn demographics into votes.” http://wapo.st/1MLOChp
WEST WING WATCH – “White House adds fun run to annual Easter Egg Roll” – AP: “Thousands of children will descend upon the White House [this morning] for the annual Easter Egg Roll ... [A]bout 250 of them will join first lady Michelle Obama for a ... ‘fun run’ [that] is the latest addition to an event that began in 1878 and now includes storytelling, musical performances and tips from professional athletes on how to play basketball, tennis and other sports. There are even cooking demonstrations [and] yoga ... More than 35,000 people received tickets that allow them to walk on the South Lawn of the White House, rain or shine.”
DON’T TELL YOUR KIDS – “Is algebra an unnecessary stumbling block in US schools?” by AP’s Karen Matthews, whose Twitter bio notes that she’s the mom of a high-school senior: “[P]olitical scientist Andrew Hacker, author of ‘The Math Myth and Other STEM Delusions’ [and] a professor emeritus at Queens College, argues that, at most, only 5 percent of jobs make use of algebra and other advanced math courses. He favors a curriculum that focuses more on statistics and basic numbers sense and less on (y - 3)2 = 4y - 12. ...
“Many U.S. educators, including the architects of the Common Core standards, disagree, saying math just needs to be taught more effectively. ... ‘Every study I’ve ever seen of workers in whole bunches of fields shows that you have to understand formulas ... relationships,’ said Philip Uri Treisman, a professor of mathematics and of public affairs at the University of Texas. ‘Algebra is the tool for consolidating your knowledge of arithmetic.’” http://apne.ws/22GWcqm
CAMPAIGN EMAIL DU JOUR – “Incoming voice message” <ted@tedcruz.org> with the subject line “9:16AM” (you can’t easily see it’s a campaign email when previewing it on your iPhone): “MESSAGE NOTIFIER -- Incoming voice message. From: Ted Cruz ... Details: Mar 23 9:16 AM / 4 mins 22 sec -- Note: Thank you for stopping to listen to this important message. Heidi and I are so appreciative of all you do.” Links to a 4-min. “voice mail” video with a donate page http://bit.ly/1Rn2DYg
CAMPAIGNS, INC. -- “Rubio’s secret (money) legacy: The senator’s allies found a way for donors to spend millions to support his presidential campaign while remaining anonymous — forever,” by Shane Goldmacher: “Nobody knows who funded the nonprofit group that spent more than $10 million on TV ads boosting Rubio, and untold more on mailers and research. .. No presidential candidate fighting for their party’s nomination has ever benefited from as much undisclosed cash ... The pro-Rubio nonprofit, known as the Conservative Solutions Project, was created in early 2014 and run by some of the same political operatives who would later lead for his super PAC, including South Carolina strategist Warren Tompkins.” http://politi.co/1URcPdW
SPOTTED: Bush alum (and birthday boy) Tevi Troy at yesterday’s matinee showing of “Hamilton,” on a birthday trip to NYC with wife Kami: “Doing cabinet meetings as a rap showdown was brilliant -- and quite different from the cabinet meetings I attended.”
VALLEY TALK -- “Searching for [Google CEO] Sundar Pichai,” by BuzzFeed’s Mat Honan: “Were Cook or Zuck to stride across a [Consumer Electronics Show] floor, they would be mobbed. Pichai is not at that point ... So all morning, he’s been running around with his name badge flipped over backward, having fun, anonymously checking out gadgets. ... It almost backfires when a Samsung representative demonstrating a smart refrigerator reaches out and flips his badge back over, asking, ‘What are you, press?’ But his name doesn’t mean anything to her, and Pichai just ... dives in with questions.” http://bzfd.it/21OjqF7
MEDIAWATCH – CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN profile ... “From York [Pa.] to Brussels: Covering a turbulent Europe,” by York Daily Record’s Gordon Rago: Carrie Budoff “Brown, 39, who grew up in York County, now manages Politico’s European newsroom from Belgium’s capitol city. ... Brown’s journalism days started at Central York High School [where she was] co-editor of the school’s newspaper, ‘The Prowler.’ ... From there, Brown came to the York Daily Record. She interned in the news department in 1994, 1995 and 1996. ... Brown wrote about crime and covered the 1996 Atlanta summer Olympics, turning a national story about the bombings ... into a local one by interviewing area athletes.” http://bit.ly/1RvxChj
ENGAGED – Hunter Walker, a politics reporter for Yahoo News and Business Insider alum, to Gloria Rejas Romero, associate director of finance for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. “I had a little help from my friend Brian Stelter with the proposal. He recorded a video that I snuck onto the TV where he announced his sources said I had a very important question to ask her. She briefly thought she was hallucinating when the TV started talking to her.” Pic http://bit.ly/1RF6Nq4
WORTH PICKING UP today’s print N.Y Times, which includes a “Snowfall”-style special section (seven strip pages and a house ad) by the great Dan Barry in Youngstown, Ohio, “FIGHT: Two men entered the ring in a church hall, convinced they were ready ... for their first professional fight. Then something went wrong.” http://nyti.ms/1URazmT
MARCH MADNESS ... FINAL FOUR: Sat., 6:09 p.m., TBS: Oklahoma v. Villanova ... 8:49 p.m., TBS: UNC v. Syracuse ... Mon., April 4, 9 p.m., TBS: Final. http://cbsprt.co/1LTAqbs
--ERIC SCHULTZ’s new wallpaper http://nyp.st/25scAK5
--LOOKAHEAD: “Yes, it’s Syracuse (and OU, ‘Nova and Heels),” by AP National Writer Eddie Pells: “The 10th-seeded Orange became only the fourth double-digit seed to make the Final Four. ... The Orange women’s team also shocked the basketball world by advancing to their first Final Four, though the ladies were a four seed. [The Syracuse men will] be joined by a blue blood (North Carolina), a scrappy squad with no stars (Villanova) and the team with the tournament's best player in Buddy Hield (Oklahoma).” http://apne.ws/1LTAMyK
BIRTHDAYS: Zbigniew Brzezinski, former White House national security adviser, is 88 (hat tip: Mika) ... WashPost’s Ed O’Keefe, the pride of Delmar, N.Y. ... Lauren Ehrsam, alum of Carly, Javelin and DCI Group … Robert L. “Rob” Nabors II ... Ben Porritt, partner at Outside Eyes (h/t Madden, who discovered Porritt on a bar stool) ... Aaron Davis, director of congressional affairs at FEMA (h/t Rafael Lemaitre) ... former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, now a fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and chairman of the Paulson Institute at U Chicago, is 7-0 ... Jackie Hassell, Team Romney alum now senior director for partnership development at TriBeCa Film Festival (h/t Ryan Williams) ... Peter Ambler, founder and strategy director of Americans for Responsible Solutions and a Gabby Giffords alum ...
... Keith Nahigian, McCain alum ... Hadassah Lieberman, wife of former Sen. Joe Lieberman, is 68 ... Tevi Troy, a Bush 43 WH alum now president of American Health Policy Institute (h/ts Jewish Insider) ... Reps. David McKinley (R-W.Va) and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) ... Ian Blue, member relations director at Wine Institute and a “Gaucho for Life,” per his Twitter ... Richard Dovere, managing partner at C2 Special Situations Group (h/t big brother Isaac) ... Cheryl Oldham, VP of education policy at the U.S. Chamber ... Frank Murkowski ... Kentucky gentleman Josh Cook, VP of digital engagement at Berlin Rosen and OFA PA alum ... Rob Garza, co-founder of D.C.’s own Thievery Corporation (h/t Ben Chang) ... Natalie Buchanan of Kevin McCarthy-world and an NRCC alum ... Dennis Sills of Rep. G.K. Butterfield’s office ... James Singer, research director for Chris Koster, running for governor of Missouri, celebrating by taking an extended trip to the beach (h/t Rob Flaherty) ... Janine Benner, deputy asst. secretary at DOE and a Earl Blumenauer alum ...
... Todd Piro, morning anchor at NBC Connecticut, who tweeted this a.m.: “Rain is on the way. It’s my gift to you all on my birthday. I am sorry.” ... Allegra Hewell Wilson, the DC event planner and owner of Hewell Events Group, is 32; this feisty, half-Argentinian, half-Pole, has made it her mission to spice up Washington’s traditional galas and award ceremonies. “Happy birthday to an incredible wife and future mom – and the happiest girl I know.” (h/t husband Dan Wilson) ... DoD’s John Geis, chief of research at the Air Force Research Institute ... Jennifer Cook, PR supervisor at UPS and a Stephen Fincher alum … Anne Marie Malecha ... Karin Socci (nee Gallet), a one-time leader of the Draft Bloomberg ’08 effort ...
... Kevin Sessums ... Katherine Berland, director of gov’t relations at ANCOR ... Scott Becher ... Cathleen Duffy Leuba ... Brianna D’Amico Alcorn (hubby tip: Josh) ... Roger Simon … Josie Gilbert ... Molly Scherrman (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... author Mario Vargas Llosa is 80 ... country singer Reba McEntire is 61 ... Olympic gold medal gymnast Bart Conner is 58 ... Salt (Salt-N-Pepa) is 5-0 ... Vince Vaughn is 46 ... Lady Gaga is 3-0 (h/ts AP)