‘Hitler Pig’

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As former President DONALD TRUMP’s trial opened Monday in New York City, NYT’s MAGGIE HABERMAN posted an update from the courtroom: “Trump appears to be sleeping. His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack.”

The post, which immediately went viral on X and was almost instantly the talk of cable news panels, shot around Biden world in emails and text messages between White House, campaign aides and other Democrats close to the administration.

“Hitler Pig sleepy,” one individual said on one thread as a caption to Haberman’s post.

You read that right: “Hitler Pig.”

That moniker, four people in Biden’s orbit told West Wing Playbook, is one that aides to and allies of the president — generally younger, more digitally native individuals, not senior staffers, one person clarified — frequently use to describe Trump.

A Google search of the term brings up various images (search at your own risk) depicting the former president as, well, a pig. With a swastika armband. That suggests the characterization started online and was adopted later by people in the president’s orbit.

As West Wing Playbook reported earlier this year, President JOE BIDEN is often far saltier about Trump behind closed doors than he is in public, even as his willingness to publicly attack his predecessor and likely 2024 challenger in speeches and offhand comments has grown.

After referring obliquely to “the former guy” in the months after taking office, Biden is increasingly willing, if not eager, to deliver sharp, frontal attacks on Trump as the fall campaign draws near — including at a Tuesday appearance in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he spun a tale about a man drowning in debt before delivering the punchline: “I said I’m sorry, Donald, I can’t help.”

Still, none of the White House and campaign aides who have referred to Trump as “Hitler Pig” expect Biden to go quite that far.

According to the four people who were granted anonymity to speak to West Wing Playbook about the term’s usage in Biden world, it started in late 2022 after Trump invited NICK FUENTES, an avowed white nationalist and Holocaust denier, to dinner at Mar-a-Lago along with the rapper KANYE WEST.

The Trump campaign did not initially respond to West Wing Playbook’s requests for comment, but did so shortly after this article was published.

“Joe Biden talks a lot about decency, but he and his staff don’t have a decent bone in their bodies,” said Brian Hughes, a senior campaign adviser. “These ridiculous and gross comments reflect the failure and dishonesty of the entire Biden operation.”

Calling Trump “Hitler Pig” is not so much an attempt to inject some levity into private conversations as it is a way to characterize what Biden aides see as one of Trump’s most outrageous behavior patterns, the four people all said.

Trump, who shot to the front of a crowded Republican primary field in 2016 by denigrating undocumented immigrants and proposing a ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries, has at times evoked the rhetoric of ADOLF HITLER, saying in December 2023 that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Trump later said in a radio interview that he “never knew that Hitler said it” and volunteered that he knew “nothing” about Hitler.

That contradicts reporting going back three decades detailing Trump’s fascination with Hitler. In 1990, Vanity Fair’s MARIE BRENNER reported that Trump’s first wife, IVANA TRUMP, told her divorce lawyer how Trump kept a book of Hitler’s speeches on his nightstand. And books released after Trump’s presidency ended have contained additional examples.

According to MICHAEL C. BENDER’s “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” Trump told former chief of staff JOHN KELLY that “Hitler did a lot of good things.” He also complained to Kelly amid pushback from military leaders that he wished they could “be like the German generals” during World War II, according to “The Divider” by PETER BAKER and SUSAN GLASSER. Kelly further recounted to JIM SCIUTTO for his book “The Return of Great Powers” that he had tried to convince Trump that his Hitler references needed to stop. “Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing,” Kelly recalled telling Trump.

Whenever such revelations hit X, formerly known as Twitter, or the news, Biden aides often send clips around or say to colleagues in the room, “Hey, did you see what Hitler Pig said?”

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POTUS PUZZLER

What was RUTHERFORD B. HAYES’ “Summer White House”?

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

GET IT DONE: After Speaker MIKE JOHNSON released the text to his multi-part foreign aid package on Wednesday, President Biden said in a statement this afternoon that he “strongly supports” the proposal that would get “critical support to Israel and Ukraine” and “provide desperately needed humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza,” our ADAM CANCRYN and JENNIFER HABERKORN report.

Biden urged the House and Senate to swiftly pass the package, adding that “I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.” Biden’s backing of the Johnson plan marks a departure from their insistence that the House take up the Senate’s White House-backed plan — an acknowledgment that it’s likely the closest Democrats will get to approving needed aid to Ukraine and Israel.

PROVING HIS METAL: President Biden visited the United Steelworkers Union in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, where he announced that the administration will be raising tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from China, our GAVIN BADE reports. Biden is requesting that U.S. Trade Representative KATHERINE TAI nearly triple the existing 7.5 percent tariff rate on Chinese steel and aluminum. Administration officials say the tariff levels are aimed at making American manufacturers more competitive with their Chinese rivals.

During his remarks, Biden also pledged to keep United States Steel American-owned in the face of a takeover bid from Japanese-owned Nippon Steel. “U.S. Steel has been an iconic American company for more than a century,” Biden said. “And it should remain a totally American company.”

On his way out of town, the Biden team had to make a pivotal call. According to a pool report, the president stopped at a Sheetz, solidifying his support among Central Pennsylvania voters while alienating his Wawa-loyal Philly base.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This WSJ op-ed from President Biden titled “Moment of Truth on Ukraine and Israel.” In the piece, Biden lays out the stakes of both conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, urging the House to pass the national security supplemental. The president presents the case for aid by arguing military equipment sent to the two nations would be from American stockpiles, coming from American suppliers. “We’d help our friends while helping ourselves,” he writes. Biden added that the bill is a “strong and sensible plan,” and that it shouldn’t be “held hostage any longer by a small group of extreme Republican House members.”

Communications director BEN LABOLT shared his boss’ piece on X.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by WaPo’s CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR. about how Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza could rock his support within the Black community. According to nearly two dozen Black voters, opinion leaders and activists, some Black Americans question whether the president deserves a second term after his unwavering support for Israel.

And in Philadelphia — where Biden will be tomorrow — some Black voters in the city are focused on how his administration’s responses to the conflict are playing out. “To think that this (conflict) is not going to have an impact on Black voters in particular, who connect with this story in a way that maybe other Americans cannot — it would be a mistake to think that it won’t be a problem going into November,” said the Rev. MARK TYLER, senior pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church.

CAMPAIGN HQ

YOU’VE GOT AN AD IN PENNSYLVANIA: The Biden campaign launched a new ad aimed at promoting his commitment to workers and contrasting it to the economic policies of Donald Trump. The six-figure ad, which will run across television and digital platforms throughout the Keystone State, highlights JOJO BURGESS, a steelworker and mayor of Washington, Pennsylvania, a city southwest of Pittsburgh.

“You tell me an investment that the previous administration has made that is even close to what Joe Biden has done,” Burgess says in the ad. “Donald Trump has shown through his history that workers mean nothing to him. Right now, we have the most pro-American worker president in office that we’ve ever had in this country’s history.”

THE BUREAUCRATS

THAT WAS QUICK: Senators on Wednesday took up the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, two months after the House adopted the two articles in February. Senate Democrats voted to dismiss both charges of impeachment as unconstitutional, arguing that it failed to meet the bar of a high crime or misdemeanor.

Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) looked to swiftly dismiss the charges while Senate Republicans raised several motions to delay — including one from Sen. ROGER MARSHALL of Kansas that would push it to Nov. 6, 2024, the day after the election.

QUESTION MARKS AT THE EPA: Turnover in high profile positions within the Environmental Protection Agency has sparked concerns about the future of funding for marginalized communities, E&E News’ KEVIN BOGARDUS and ROBIN BRAVENDER report. The office of environmental justice and external civil rights — which oversees a monumental $3 billion in grants — is currently without a leader, experiencing major shake-ups within its staff. “The constant churn at the top and seeming to focus on things other than the biggest task at hand is troubling,” said a former EPA official.

This has prompted anxiety that the grants could go unused if not distributed by the end of the year as getting money out is a “huge challenge” that “demands laser focus.”

FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: NORMAN ELLIS is leaving the White House where he is a legislative assistant, our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He has been hired as deputy research director for Senate Majority Leader Schumer.

Agenda Setting

WHILE SIPPING ON SOME LIMONCELLO … Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN arrived in Italy on Wednesday for the start of a three-day G7 gathering, where the group of foreign ministers will discuss the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, NYT’s MICHAEL CROWLEY reports. The meeting, which is being held in the Mediterranean island of Capri, preludes the summit of G7 leaders taking place mid-June.

Top of mind will likely be persuading Israel to not escalate its conflict with Iran, as well as ending the humanitarian crisis in Gaza through an “immediate and sustainable” cease-fire.

TWO-WAY STREET, BUD: The Biden administration is taking steps to reimpose oil sanctions on Venezuela, arguing that President NICOLÁS MADURO failed to live up to commitments on holding free and fair elections this year, our MICHAEL STRATFORD and ERIC BAZAIL-EIMIL report. The Treasury Department is allowing temporary sanction relief for Venezuela’s oil and gas sector to expire this week, with officials saying the Maduro government reneged on key aspects of a deal reached last year.

“Maduro and his representatives did not fully comply with the spirit or the letter of the agreement,” a senior administration official said.

CLOSE CALL: On Monday night, Israel considered conducting a retaliatory strike on Iran but eventually decided to hold off, Axios’ BARAK RAVID reports. The Israeli war cabinet considered giving the Israel Defense Forces the go-ahead for a strike but opted against an immediate attack for “operational reasons.”

What We're Reading

Biden’s Safe, Polite Campaign Stop in Scranton (The Atlantic’s John Hendrickson)

Janet Yellen’s Ukraine mission (POLITICO’s Zachary Warmbrodt)

The 100 Most Influential People of 2024: Yulia Navalnaya (Kamala Harris for Time Magazine)

How Biden’s abortion stance has shifted over the years (WaPo’s Amy B. Wang and Blair Guild)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

President Hayes and his descendants owned their own island in Lake Erie, nicknamed Mouse Island for its minuscule size (by island standards). Hayes and his family spent so much time there that it became known as the “Summer White House,” according to blogger BRIAN SHIFFLET.

Thanks to James L. McCrystal Jr. for this question!

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Sam Stein