At least he won’t tweet his taco bowl

Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.

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With hundreds of Latino dignitaries and supporters munching on tacos at cocktail tables scattered around the Rose Garden, President JOE BIDEN described Cinco de Mayo as “a day to celebrate freedom and resilience.” He spoke of the shared history and heritage between Mexico and the United States.

“It’s also a day to celebrate friendship,” Biden said last year.

So much for that. There is no Cinco de Mayo event planned at the White House this week, a White House official confirmed Monday. And some Hispanic members of the administration are dismayed, questioning why the event has been nixed, and by whom.

The staffers who spoke to West Wing Playbook said they couldn’t tell if the decision was made in the Office of Public Engagement or the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. The White House offered only a statement from LUISANA PÉREZ FERNÁNDEZ, the administration’s director of Hispanic media.

“Throughout the year, the Biden-Harris Administration celebrates the Latino community through culturally sensitive events and engagements to highlight the community’s accomplishments,” Pérez Fernández said. “These engagements include Hispanic Heritage Month receptions, displaying a Día de Los Muertos ofrenda at the White House, broadcasting Latino radio shows from the White House and hosting briefings for Latino community leaders, celebrities, reporters on the administration’s priorities for the Latino community.”

White House celebrations of Cinco De Mayo began in 2001 and continued for 16 years until President DONALD TRUMP opted not to hold the events during his four years in office. (Trump infamously tweeted out a picture of himself eating a taco salad bowl to celebrate Cinco de Mayo while a candidate for office).

In 2021, Biden marked the day with a visit to a Mexican restaurant near Union Market — he ordered enchiladas and touted the American Rescue Plan funding that enabled small businesses to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, Biden held a more traditional gathering in the Rose Garden. There are plans in the works for another Latino-focused event later this month with Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, according to a person familiar with the plans, which aren’t yet finalized.

In the larger scheme of things, Biden skipping this year’s Cinco de Mayo celebration isn’t a big deal, said CHUCK ROCHA, a strategist who advised BERNIE SANDERS’ 2020 presidential campaign on Latino outreach.

“Cinco de Mayo is kind of an Americanized event. Not very many of us truly celebrate that day,” Rocha admitted. At the same time, he noted that past events have been well attended and offer presidents the opportunity to highlight their work on issues that matter to Latinos. “I did not miss any under Obama and they were great events where all of the Latino hierarchy in issue advocacy work got an audience with the White House,” he said.

THOMAS SAENZ, the president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, agreed. Drinking margaritas to mark the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla isn’t hugely significant for most Latinos, he argued. Policy and personnel matter far more. “But it’s a lost opportunity and will be interpreted by some as a snub,” he said. “Politically, it’s tone deaf.”

Biden, noting his political career has been built on the East Coast, privately acknowledged his relative unfamiliarity about Latino issues during a 2021 meeting with leaders of top advocacy groups. But as president, he’s appointed a record four Latinos to his Cabinet and other key roles. Last week, he made JULIE CHAVEZ RODRIGUEZ, the highest ranking Latino at the White House, his campaign manager for 2024. And he has argued that his policies, from pandemic relief to student loan debt relief, have lifted the Latino community economically.

White House engagements with the Latino community also include weekly calls with Latino leaders, and the administration has hosted more than two dozen in-person and virtual meetings with constituencies ranging from DACA recipients to farmworkers to state and local organizers.

Yet Biden has struggled to get a handle on immigration issues at the southern border. And the small missteps that may be largely immaterial have piled up. The Spanish-language campaign website that went live last week following Biden’s official announcement was riddled with mistakes, our MARISSA MARTINEZ reports in a new piece. The mistakes underlined the work Biden still has to do even if recent polls show him with a still solid standing among Latino voters, including a Voto Latino survey of four battleground states that showed 60 percent of Latinos supporting Biden.

“The Biden/Harris ticket starts the 2024 election in a very strong position with Latino voters in the battleground states we surveyed,” said Voto Latino founder and CEO MARIA TERESA KUMAR in a statement to West Wing Playbook. “That’s not to say the Biden campaign can take the Latino vote, which is the fastest-growing demographic in America, for granted.”

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POTUS PUZZLER

This one is from Allie. Which president named their pet dog KING TUT, inspired by the discovery of KING TUTANKHAMUN’s tomb?

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

COULD BE A BUSY FEW WEEKS: President Biden placed at least four phone calls today, one to the leader and minority leader of each congressional chamber. His request: that they convene for a meeting on May 9 to discuss the impending breach of the nation’s debt ceiling. The calls come on the same day that Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN warned the U.S. could default as soon as June 1 if Congress does not raise the debt limit. The updated timeline injected a fresh sense of urgency on negotiations between Hill leadership and the White House. The issue: there haven’t really been negotiations happening — hence the need for the May 9 gathering. Although the House passed the GOP-led budget proposal last week, the White House appears to be firm in its opposition to the plan. Our JENNIFER SCHOLTES and CAITLIN EMMA have more details.

NO, YOU CAN’T TAKE MONDAY OFF: Across the administration and much of Washington — and our newsroom was no exception — a lot of bleary eyes logged onto Zoom calls and staff meetings Monday morning following a packed four days of festivities around Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Among the most ubiquitous administration officials on the party circuit were second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF (did he miss a single event?) and Education Secretary MIGUEL CARDONA (ditto). SUSAN RICE, we’re glad you made it into that Crooked Media party. Sounds like Joint Chiefs Chair MARK MILLEY made everyone (including senior Biden adviser MIKE DONILON) switch seats at one of the WSJ tables Saturday night (this was before his selfie with former Attorney General BILL BARR). And if you cut the security line for the Hilton ballroom in front of Eli and Lauren, you know who you are.

[Sam…. cut the security line]

GOAL FOR THE WEEK: Biden met Monday with Philippines President FERDINAND “BONGBONG” MARCOS JR., “as part of continued efforts to strengthen security and economic relations between the U.S. and the Philippines amid regional concerns over an increasingly assertive China,” CNN’s SAM FOSSUM and KATHLEEN MAGRAMO report. Among the initiatives set to be unveiled are “a new set of bilateral defense guidelines to strengthen the alliance and the transfer of U.S. hardware — including three C-130 aircraft and additional patrol vessels — to support efforts to modernize Manila’s armed forces.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about the Department of Veterans Affairs’ response to proposed cuts in the House GOP spending bill. The VA recently issued a press release about the bill’s potential effects, prompting Republican lawmakers to accuse the department of lying about their bill. White House assistant press secretary ROBYN PATTERSON came to the VA’s defense in a tweet Monday, writing: “Nothing says ‘we’re protecting the VA’ like publicly attacking the VA for asking you not to cut their budget.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This article by Mother Jones’ DAN FRIEDMAN about how the “Dark Brandon” meme is officially uncool now that the president has capitalized on it. Sure, Biden’s 2024 campaign is selling Dark Brandon merch, but Friedman writes that the last nail on the coffin was when the president referred to the meme at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner: “Roy, the podium is yours. I’m going to be fine with your jokes, but I’m not sure about Dark Brandon,” he said while slipping on his aviator sunglasses. “This is all super lame, grandpa-stealing-the-kids’-jokes stuff,” Friedman writes.

BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL MAN… First lady JILL BIDEN encouraged her husband to run for reelection, despite having reservations four years ago, our EUGENE DANIELS reports. The first lady “has grown more willing to endure the rigors and demands of being in the political spotlight herself — and more convinced of her husband’s fit for the job,” Daniels reports.

BACK IN A BIG WAY: Fox News correspondent BENJAMIN HALL, who wrote a memoir about nearly being killed last March while covering the war in Ukraine, will conduct his first interview since returning to the network. Hall will sit down with Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN for tonight’s “Special Report” with BRET BAIER at 6 p.m. ET.

WHCD: BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER: WNBA basketball star BRITNEY GRINER met Biden face-to-face for the first time this weekend at that dinner, People’s NATASHA DYE reports.

THE BUREAUCRATS

PERSONNEL MOVES: SAM MICHEL has been named acting assistant U.S. Trade Representative for public affairs, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He most recently was deputy assistant USTR for public affairs.

— WILL RASKY, most recently an adviser for governmental affairs at the Department of Transportation, has been hired by Massachusetts Gov. MAURA HEALY as her federal affairs director, LISA KASHINSKY scooped in Monday’s Massachusetts Playbook.

Filling the Ranks

FULLY STAFFED FED COMING: The president is considering nominating U.S. executive director of the World Bank, ADRIANA KUGLER, to the Fed’s last open governor position, and moving economist and current governor PHILIP JEFFERSON to serve as the board’s vice chair, NYT’s JEANNA SMIALEK and JIM TANKERSLEY report. If the pair are confirmed, the Fed would have its first Latina board member with Kugler and its second ever Black vice chair with Jefferson.

Agenda Setting

HERE WE GO AGAIN: The U.S. military is tracking another mysterious balloon that flew across portions of Hawaii and is slowly moving toward Mexico, NBC’s COURTNEY KUBE and CAROL E. LEE report. “The U.S. military has been tracking it since late last week and has determined that it poses no threat to aerial traffic or national security,” they report. “U.S. officials do not believe the balloon belongs to the Chinese, but they are still working to identify the owner.”

IT’S NO PATHWAY BUT…: The Department of Homeland Security is set to give Afghans who fled their nation amid the Taliban takeover “an opportunity to renew their temporary work permits and protections from deportation under a humanitarian immigration policy known as parole, which was used on a massive scale in 2021 and 2022 to resettle them,” CBS News’ CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ reports.

GRIM: The White House estimates that since December, “Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties, including more than 20,000 killed, as Ukraine has rebuffed a heavy assault by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine,” AP’s AAMER MADHANI reports.

The Oppo Book

When former Clinton aide GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS offered GENE SPERLING a job on the National Economic Council back in the 1990’s, Sperling didn’t need a ton of time to think it over.

“There’s this long pause and George says, ‘Gene, I just asked you if you want to be the national economic policy director for the Democratic nominee for president of the United States,’” Sperling, a senior adviser to Biden, told Reuters back in 2014. “‘You and I both know you would come take this job for free.’”

“And so that was the end of the negotiation,” he added.

What We're Reading

Manchin’s ‘playing with fire’ — and some Democrats are tired of the drama (POLITICO’s Josh Siegel)

Biden can beat Trump. But Democrats should worry that no one else can. (Ramesh Ponnuru for The Washington Post)

White House banking headache won’t end with First Republic deal (CNN’s Stephen Collinson)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

HERBERT HOOVER named his Belgian Malinois dog King Tut following the discovery of Egyptian King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the 1920s, according to the Library of Congress.

The Hoover family got the dog before taking office in 1922, and “brought the dog with them to the White House when Hoover was inaugurated in 1929, but Tut was so unhappy the Hoovers sent him back to the former S Street home, which had been rented by Connecticut Congressman Frederic Walcott and his family,” the library’s HEATHER THOMAS writes.

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

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.