Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Eli And, like that, 2024 begins. Former president DONALD TRUMP is expected to announce his bid for a second White House term in a matter of hours. But don’t expect President JOE BIDEN to say much about it or the 2024 Republican primary in general — at least for the coming months. Most aides say they’d prefer Trump not to run because they see him as a danger to the republic. But they also recognize the political opportunity in his expected announcement and the prospect of a messy Republican primary. Biden himself dropped his own mask of indifference during last week’s post-election press conference, telling a reporter who asked about a possible RON DESANTIS-Trump battle: “It’d be fun watching them take on each other.” Over the next few months, the White House will be deferring to the Democratic National Committee when it comes to dealing with Trump and the rest of the Republican field. Whoever winds up as the GOP nominee, Democrats intend to make them pay for embracing Trump’s policies and excusing his worst behavior, aides said. Quietly, however, the White House and the DNC are taking some early steps to prepare for the Biden re-elect campaign. There are discussions about having multiple, allied super PACs with one or two dedicated to Black and Latino media, according to a senior Democrat. Two other Democrats confirmed that there are general discussions about an outside paid Latino media effort but said it was unclear if it would be through a super PAC or some other entity. The White House and the DNC have also worked together to solicit resumes for some senior roles in the re-elect, according to five Democrats familiar with the matter. Biden advisers have zeroed in on headquartering the re-elect in Philadelphia, although a final decision has not been made, according to four of those Democrats. And some White House officials have already expressed interest to senior aides about joining the campaign. White House spokesman ANDREW BATES said, “these claims are inaccurate,” without elaborating further. “We’re aware there is no deficit of people who speculate,” he said, “but very few individuals are actually knowledgeable about anything of that nature.” Many Democrats don’t expect a Biden decision to come imminently. Biden himself is known to be Hamlet-esque in settling on these types of matters. Plus, the White House is wary of the financial burdens that come after the president officially declares for re-election. Currently, the DNC pays for political events, but the White House can fudge what is technically a political event or just a policy event with political upside. That becomes more difficult once Biden declares, and the bills can quickly add up. Some former Trump White House officials believe they made a mistake by filing for re-election on day one because of the campaign money it ended up costing them the first two years. So until then, the White House will largely be relying on the DNC to do the electoral blocking and tackling. The committee is launching a coordinated 2024 response effort that will hound multiple GOP hopefuls, according to a person familiar with the operation. The DNC, which has also been monitoring former Vice President MIKE PENCE 's book tour blitz, just announced plans to embed press staffers in the four states at the front of the primary calendar as well in Florida, home turf for both Trump and DeSantis. It's the earliest the DNC has ever put communications staffers on the ground in a presidential cycle, according to a press release announcing the moves. As for early messaging against Trump, both the DNC-run @JoeBiden account and the White House-run @POTUS account published videos today that focused on the president signing the bipartisan infrastructure bill after Trump’s inconsistent efforts to focus on the issue. As Biden said in one of his videos: “My predecessor promised infrastructure week. It never came.” MESSAGE US — Are you interested in working on the Biden re-elect? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com .
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