POLITICO Playbook: TRUMP BUILDS DELEGATE-TRACKING MACHINE – REPUBLICAN CONFIDENCE in election plunges

Good morning. It's Good Friday. Spring break is almost over. 

IN THE BUBBLE -- "Obama's tango doctrine: He won't let terrorism alter his plans, even in the face of Trump's taunts," by Isaac Dovere: "President Obama tangoed. Donald Trump tweeted. That about sums it up-not just the predictable pundit pile-on, but Obama's and Trump's radically different postures to the world, and the world's toward them, forced into focus by a week of reopening in Cuba and terrorism in Brussels. Trump is playing the part of angry isolationist. Obama's the guy doing the wave at the baseball game with Raúl Castro. ... People around the world don't seem to want Trump's approach, but a lot of people inside America-at least among Republican primary voters-do." https://politi.co/1oaP4ze

INSIDE THE CAMPAIGNS -- "Trump's Strategy to Protect His Delegates," by ABC's Katherine Faulders and Ryan Struyk: "Barry Bennett, a Senior Adviser to Donald Trump, told [ABC's Jon Karl on his "Powerhouse Politics" podcast that a five-member] team, headed up by Senior Adviser Ed Brookover, [is] confident they will get well past the 1,237 threshold to win. ... The group huddles every day, consulting closely with the campaign's legal advisers, ballot access team and state directors."  https://abcn.ws/1RknJ9K ... iTunes page https://apple.co/1LM7emu

By Mike Allen (@mikeallen; [email protected]) and Daniel Lippman (@dlippman; [email protected])

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REPUBLICAN CONFIDENCE IN ELECTION PROCESS PLUMMETS - Gallup's Frank Newport: "30% in U.S. say election process is working, down from 37% in January ... Republicans ... down from 46% to 30% ... The decline is driven mainly by Republicans' increasingly cynical views as the campaign season has progressed. Democrats' ... views haven't changed." https://bit.ly/1pLxvHN

AND SO WELL-SPENT ... USA Today cover, "Presidential race surges past $1 billion: Super PACs have almost doubled their contributions to race," by Fredreka Schouten: "[C]ndidates and ... super PACs ... had raised a little more than $1 billion through the end of February ... $402.7 million at this point in the 2012 election." https://usat.ly/1RAPKpf

--"GOP ads give Democrats anti-Trump playbook," by AP's Julie Bykowicz and Chad Day: "'Bimbo. Dog. Fat pig,' disgusted women say, looking straight into the camera. ... [D]ozens [of ads] that portray Trump as a selfish, deceptive buffoon - are sponsored by fellow Republicans trying to derail the political outsider from capturing their party's presidential nomination. But these ads are also providing Democrats with attacks that could be recycled verbatim ... Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group found 68 different anti-Trump commercials have been shown some 40,000 times ... on broadcast." https://apne.ws/1SapKBB

TOP TWEETS: @jess7bennett: "Journalism in an internet world: YEARS of video work gone in a flash when @newsweek @thedailybeast deletes entire company's youtube page" ... @blakehounshell: "Sniveling Coward would be a good name for a craft beer."

WEST WING DEPARTURE LOUNGE -- Tom Reynolds emails: Today "marks the end of my six-month assignment here at the White House ... Working for the President to help advance the issues of climate change and clean energy ... has been an honor. And the role has been the perfect capstone to my tenure in Obamaworld, which started back in Ohio, in June 2008. ... 

"Next week I plan to return briefly to EPA to close out a few issues before leaving the federal government by the end of April. I have no set plans about what I will do next ... Having helped see both the Clean Power Plan and the historic Paris climate change agreement across the finish line, this seemed like the right time to step off the train and start a new journey."

DRIVING THE WEEKEND: Washington State caucuses tomorrow -- "Bernie goes all out for West Coast must-win," by Gabe Debenedetti in Seattle: "According to [the Seattle Times], Seattle ranks No. 1 among the 50 biggest U.S. cities for per-capita contributions to his campaign. He's got seven campaign offices in the state ... has drawn huge crowds ... [and] has the endorsement of the state's largest newspaper, the Seattle Times ... The political environment is especially well-suited for Sanders. Seattle, which elected a socialist to the city council last year, is in the midst of ushering in a $15 minimum wage." https://politi.co/1ZzHFqW

HAPPENING TODAY - "Hillary for America will hold a press call [1 p.m.] featuring former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta, Major General Tony Taguba (ret.), and former senior U.S. government official Rand Beers."

** A message from Lifeline Facts Campaign: Since its establishment during the Reagan Administration, the Lifeline program has provided enormous value to low-income Americans through discounted phone service. Adding broadband services to Lifeline should not be done at the expense of affordable mobile voice services that over 12 million Lifeline customers currently depend upon. LifelineFacts.com **

MICHAEL HIRSH, "Inside the FBI's American Muslim Network: While candidates stoke fears of Islam, a little-known counterterror program has been going exactly the other way": "Dearborn, Michigan, may be the closest thing America has to a Mollenbeek, the seething, Islamicized neighborhood of Brussels ... An ordinary Detroit suburb sometimes called the 'Arab Capital of North America,' Dearborn has the nation's largest mosque; it's home to the Arab Museum, Middle Eastern cafes, and halal beef burgers at McDonald's." https://politi.co/1Saqsz1

FOR YOUR RADAR - WashPost banner, "ISIS making gains in Europe but faces setbacks in Mideast: EXTREMISTS LOSE GROUND IN IRAQ, SYRIA - U.S. officials say military campaign has hit its stride," by Liz Sly in Beirut: "Front-line commanders no longer speak of a scarily formidable foe but of Islamic State defenses that crumble within days and fighters who flee at the first sign they are under attack." https://wapo.st/1SaDcpa

U.S. LESS VULNERABLE THAN EUROPE -- USA TODAY lead story, "U.S. OPEN TO LONE WOLF ATTACKS: System is better prepared but still has weaknesses," by Oren Dorell: "Fewer than 300 Americans have fought or tried to go fight with the Islamic State ... The European Union counterterrorism coordinator recently reported that around 5,000 EU citizens have traveled to Syria or Iraq to join the Islamic State and other radical groups." https://usat.ly/1MGbUFe

--"Where's the love for Brussels? Paris overshadows the Belgian capital. Again," by Politico's Chris Spillane: "In the days after terrorist blasts shook Paris in November, Facebook filled with tricolors. Just four months later, Brussels didn't receive the same outpouring. Millions of Facebook users expressed their grief and support for the French capital by overlaying their profile picture with the French flag. ... No such official tool exists for Brussels. ... [J]ust 78,000 people have used Appowo's Flagify application to transform their Facebook profile pictures to show the black, yellow and red colors of Belgium's national flag." https://politi.co/1LM7rpR

--SCOOP -- "Belgium questioned Salah Abdeslam for only one hour before attacks," by Politico's Maia de la Baume and Giulia Paravicini: "Belgian law enforcement officials questioned terror suspect Salah Abdeslam for about one hour between the time of his arrest Friday and the Brussels attacks Tuesday ... The session Saturday at a prison in Bruges yielded no information about the imminent threat because the prosecutors started chronologically and focused first on Abdeslam's involvement in ... November's ... attacks." https://politi.co/1RpnfMc

COFFEE BREAK - "Evolving Coffee Tastes: Boutique coffee shops jolt chains to step up sophistication," by AP's Krysta Fauria: "You can now know the altitude at which the beans ... were grown. ... Starbucks ... is ... offering more coffee from a single origin, rather than the blends most Americans are familiar with. And it recently began using the 'Clover' brewing system that it says helps extract the optimal flavor for every cup. For iced coffee, it ... switched to 'cold brew' rather than merely brewing hot coffee and chilling it. ... 

"[S]maller chains have touted techniques like 'nitro brew,' which infuses nitrogen gas to create a creamier coffee, and 'pour over' brewing, which ... entails pouring hot water over grounds." https://apne.ws/1Rknlbb

SUNDAY SO FAR: 

--CNN's "State of the Union": Sanders ... Panel: Neera Tanden; Rep. Mia Love; Nina Turner, former Ohio state senator; Stephen Miller, Trump senior policy adviser

--"Fox News Sunday" - Shannon Bream anchors: Cruz ... House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes ... Panel: George Will, Kirsten Powers, WSJ's Jason Riley, Juan Williams

--"Face the Nation": House Homeland Security Chair Rep. Mike McCaul ... Terror Panel: Mike Morell, CFR's Farah Pandith, Jeffrey Goldberg ... Politics Panel: Jeffrey Goldberg, Susan Page, Slate's Jamelle Bouie, The Federalist's Ben Domenech.

--"Meet the Press": Michael Leiter, NBC News contributor and former director, U.S. National Counterterrorism Center ... Roundtable: Hallie Jackson, Andrea Mitchell, Katy Tur, Kristen Welker

--"This Week": Roundtable: Michael Eric Dyson, LZ Granderson, Wall Street Journal editorial board member Mary Kissel, Bill Kristol

--CNN's "Inside Politics," 8 to 9 a.m., anchored by John King: Julie Pace, Molly Ball, Margaret Talev, Manu Raju.

TOP TALKER - "NFL Responds to Report of Flawed Concussion Data in Past Research," by Bleacher Report's Mike Chiari: "In a memo to owners, ... NFL Executive Vice President of Communications Joe Lockhart and general counsel Jeff Pash addressed the allegations and explained, 'When the Times contacted us about the piece, we provided extraordinary amounts of information ... The piece offers very little that is new concerning this long-ago research and reflects little more than the predetermined views of its authors.'" https://ble.ac/1VMOe9G

--N.Y. TIMES QUOTATION of the Day -- DR. ROBERT CANTU, one of the peer reviewers of an N.F.L. study of head injuries, on how several teams reported no player concussions at all for years at a time: "It should be an unmistakable red flag that a team does not report any concussions over multiple years." 2-col. lead of the paper, "N.F.L. Concussion Studies Found to Have Deep Flaws: Over 100 Head Injuries Omitted From Data- Parallels to Tobacco Research," by Alan Schwarz, Walt Bogdanich and Jacqueline Williams  https://nyti.ms/22KcN97

2016 PLAYERS - "Clinton Campaign Names New Asian American and Pacific Islander Outreach Director [Jason Tengco]," by NBC News' Chris Fuchs: "Tengco, who served as deputy director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, replaces Lisa Changadveja, who left the role last week to take on a position with the Democratic Party in Colorado. ... Tengco, whose parents are from the Philippines, served ... in the White House Office of Public Engagement and managed the first-ever White House Summit on AAPIs. He has also worked for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and was an Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies fellow for U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA)." https://nbcnews.to/1UoXDoQ

CAMPAIGNS, INC. - "Targeted Victory has released a new product called Victory Engine, a full service and screen agnostic platform for campaigns to manage their advertising buys. Victory Engine incorporates media buying, data management and reporting into a singular platform, with Targeted Victory being the only company on the Right with the ability to do this. The product is being released just as Republican campaigns around the country are ramping up and planning their media buys. www.victoryengine.com

CLICKER -- Daniel Lippman does a "Famous Five" interview with FamousDC editor Kathryn Lyons on the tennis court - 3-min. video  https://bit.ly/22JrXeU

LATE-NIGHT BEST - "Watch Jimmy Kimmel Do Some Tongue-in-Cheek 'Mansplaining' With Hillary Clinton"- 3-min. video https://bit.ly/1oaC3Gb

MEDIAWATCH: Pattie Seller, Nina Easton -- "Two of the Most Powerful Women in Media Are Joining Forces On A New Venture," by Fortune's Valentina Zarya : "On Thursday, they announced that they will be ... launching a content creation company to produce stories for individuals, families, businesses, and other organizations. The new venture, called SellersEaston Media (SEM), will combine the writers' love of storytelling with their desire to apply all that they've learned during their years of writing about business leaders." https://for.tn/1MFY8mj

--"Bezos Prime," by Fortune's Adam Lashinsky: "Sometimes Bezos's creativity gets the better of him. [CIO Shailesh] Prakash says the owner suggested a gamelike feature that would allow a reader who didn't enjoy an article to pay to remove its vowels. He called it 'disemvoweling,' and the concept was to allow another reader to pay to restore the missing letters. The idea didn't go far, Prakash says, noting that 'Marty wasn't very keen.' Bezos, an unrepentant believer in the power of brainstorming, says, 'Working together with other smart people in front of a whiteboard, we can come up with a lot of very bad ideas.'" https://for.tn/1RpnlmW ... Bezos on the coverhttps://bit.ly/1Upjigv ... Alternate cover features Bono https://bit.ly/1RAU7k9

THE TALK OF WALL STREET -- "An Inside Look at Wall Street's Secret Client List," by Bloomberg's Laura J. Keller, Dakin Campbell, Alastair Marsh and Stephen Morris: "It represents a growing trend on Wall Street where the most-lucrative clients get the best service: the top trade ideas, hours-long calls with analysts, intimate soirees with executives, bespoke trading models, on and on. Across the global financial industry, a new class system is emerging. Banks are jettisoning the we-do-everything model to cater to prized clients that generate the most revenue while turning others away." https://bloom.bg/1VMo4Ut

OBAMA ALUMNI -- "RALLY Expands in San Francisco with Addition of Howli Ledbetter as Director" "As a six-year veteran of the Obama White House and the 2008 presidential campaign, Ledbetter won positive press and gained public support for President Obama's policies across traditional and new media platforms. Most recently, she served as the Director of Message Planning in the Office of Communications, where she helped develop and execute the President's media events, live press statements, media interviews and domestic travel." https://bit.ly/21K9j40

TRANSITIONS - Harvard IOP's Esten Perez on April 4 "will begin a new job at Harvard as the Director of Communications for the University's Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, responsible for communications around Harvard's innovations in teaching and learning. The Office has oversight of HarvardX (Harvard's online learning initiative, and part of edX), the Harvard Initiative in Learning and Teaching (HILT), and HarvardX research and research collaborations to advance the science of learning." 

OUT AND ABOUT: Women (and a few men) from both sides of the aisle gathered at the W Hotel last night for the launch of Glamour x Facebook Women's Initiative. Cocktails included: Trumptini, Booze Cruz, Hillarita, Equal Pay Punch and Gin and Taxes. Pic of the special Glamour/Facebook cookies https://bit.ly/1Ug37BL

--SPOTTED : Glamour Editor in Chief Cindi Leive, Washington Editor Giovanna Gray Lockhart, Facebook's Crystal Patterson and Jodi Seth, Neera Tanden, Caroline Adler, Glamour contributors Ashley Parker, Hillary Kelly and Jackie Kucinich, Kelley McCormick, Amy Dacey, Pia Carusone, Shelby Williams, Sarah Isgur Flores, Heather Podesta, Penny Lee, Taylor Lorenz, Audrey Scagnelli, Katie Glueck, Rachel Racusen, Pam Stevens (with her cadre of lovely conservative women!) 

--Capitol Strategies co-hosted a reception last night at their offices with Heritage Distilling Co. of Washington state, the most awarded craft distillery in North America for 2014 and 2015 by the American Distilling Institute. The reception featured custom cocktails using Heritage Distilling's naturally flavored vodkas (mango, ruby red grapefruit, blood orange, hibiscus and lavender), along with Seahakws themed Batch No. 12 vodka, Elk Rider Bourbon and their newest release - BSB Brown Sugar Bourbon. Heritage Distilling was founded by former Senate staffers Justin and Jennifer Stiefel.

ENGAGED -- Megan Adams, managing comms. at Grameen America, to Ken Sofer, at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. Both CAP alums, the couple met in CAP's 2 Large conference room (proof that interdepartmental meetings are good for something). Surrounded by both families in Hermosa Beach, Calif., the couple were engaged on the pier at sunset. Pic https://bit.ly/1WNzF3X

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Jonathan Lee, White House staff assistant and previously PPO intern, is celebrating 24 in NYC (h/t Sophia Kim) ... Dari Carnes

BIRTHDAYS: Michael Ortiz, senior adviser to National Security Adviser Susan Rice, celebrates by returning home to wife Megan and daughter Sofia from the trip to Cuba/Argentina with POTUS ... Gloria Steinem is 82 ... Tim Phillips ... Lauren Aronson, an Obama admin alum and principal at Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas (hubby tip: Rob Hendin) ... Daniella Gibbs Leger, Cavalier/NY Giants fan for life, CAP media maven, and ex-Obama White House (h/t DJW) ... Nick Kalman, ace political producer for Campaign Carl Cameron, freshly minted Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves (h/t James Rosen) ... former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) is 58 ... Riley Martin "Riles" Madden, son of Jaclyn and Kevin ... Yahoo's Meredith Shiner, a Roll Call and Politico alum ... Jessica Emond and Emily Lawrimore, who met working for Vice President Cheney; Emily is now comms. director for House Ways and Means and a Bush 43 WH alum ... retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor ... former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chaffee ... former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao ... former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, now at No Labels ... Kristin Lee ... Christopher Hale, a contributor for TIME who helped run Catholic outreach for President Obama and is now executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, is 27 on Good Friday--appropriate for his job (h/t J. Nicholas Stevens) ... 

... Politico's Arthur Allen ... Steven Sloan, managing editor for content at CNN Politics and a Politico alum ... Chad Bolduc, chief of staff for gov't relations at UC California and an Obama WH alum ... BBC alum Alissa Rooney, director of media and PR at Oxfam America ... Andrew Revkin ... NBC News alum Nancy Snyderman ... Patrick Bailey of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee ... Grant Dubler, an LA for Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), is 27 (h/t Helen Kalla) ... Anna Brower, comms. director for NYC Public Advocate Tish James, is 28 (h/t Jonathan Lesser) ... Russ Vought ... Pamela Pulkownik ... Dawn Ennis of The Advocate ... Kira Kleaveland of "CBS This Morning" and an Anderson Cooper alum ... Michael Waxman of Waxman Strategies and son of former Rep. Henry Waxman ... Chris Rovzar, luxury editor at Bloomberg Pursuits and Vanity Fair, NY Mag and Daily News alum ... Parker Brettell, brother to Jackson and firstborn of Erica and Joe ... Greece turns 195 on its Independence Day (h/t @BCIU) ... Edward Garnett III, economist/advisor in the Office of Financial Research at Treasury ... Lisa Quigley ... Kyla Peyton-Buzi ... Nelson Reyneri ... Danielle Engel ... Kristen Atwood ... Kate Mente ... James Gelfand ... 

... Laura Rusu, policy and campaigns media manager at Oxfam America ... Thom Loverro ... Marinka Markovich ... Gloria Pan of MomsRising.org ... Anthony Garrett ... Candice Hunter ... Boston Globe politics editor Felice Belman ... Lane Hudson, founder and president of Boykin Consulting and a Brunswick alum ... Pete Van Vleet, senior digital video content manager at PBS and an AP and CNN alum ... Lauryl Dodson Jackson ... Andrew Okuyiga, a professional staffer for the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee ... Stina Skewes-Cox ... Nick Kimball ... Kyle Watkins ... Chas Danner, consultant at CEB and weekend editor at New York Magazine and a Dish/Andrew Sullivan alum ... Marge Sutinen ... Traci Siegel ... Mike Monroe (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... movie reviewer Gene Shalit is 90 ... former astronaut James Lovell is 88 ... Anita Bryant is 76 ... Aretha Franklin is 74 ... Elton John is 69 ... Sarah Jessica Parker is 51 ... Danica Patrick is 34 ... actress Seychelle Gabriel is 25 (h/ts AP)

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