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The debt ceiling fight is coming to a head. And it could force President JOE BIDEN to adopt the type of aggressively public-facing posture that he has largely shunned to date.

With a June deadline for the government to hit its borrowing capacity, the White House has called for a meeting of the main four congressional leaders next week. But despite the gathering, there’s reason to be skeptical that a resolution is near. The White House insists the debt ceiling should be raised without concession and that any talk of deficit reduction remains the purview of budget negotiations. Republicans want direct engagement between Biden and House Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY on the GOP debt ceiling bill that passed the House. That’s not a policy difference. It’s a tactical one, requiring a full blink from one of the sides.

So how does Biden break the impasse? One way would be to rely on outside forces to help him through it. But as administration officials conveyed to us, and as reported by The Washington Post’s JEFF STEIN, there has been internal disappointment at how little pressure business leaders and nonprofit organizations have applied to congressional Republicans.

But there is another way. Biden could apply that pressure himself. The bully pulpit’s effectiveness can be overstated — often dramatically — but it is a tool at his disposal. And as financial doomsday approaches, some Democrats believe he would be wise to more aggressively use it.

“I would expect he will ramp it up,” said STEVE ISRAEL, the former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “As they get closer to the deadline and it becomes more clear what McCarthy’s intentions and plans are, the White House will be increasingly vocal.”

Few Democrats imagine Republicans buckling under the weight of Biden’s pressure, scurrying to cast a vote for a clean debt ceiling bill because of a rousing speech the president gave after walking over from the White House to their chamber. But there are ways to make it more painful for them.

Longtime Democratic operative LIS SMITH suggested visiting the districts of frontline House Republicans to make the case that a default would be devastating for their constituents, placing the stakes in easy-to-understand terms (mortgage rates and car payments), and dispatching surrogates across the country.

“It does not have to be done by the president though he has the biggest megaphone,” she said. “He has a talented VP and a bench full of stars he can use.”

Biden’s predecessor, BARACK OBAMA, resorted to this very tactic in 2011 and 2013, holding press conferences at various junctures when talks broke down. He also conducted interviews where the direct appeal was to Wall Street to, more or less, start freaking out.

The Biden approach has included some public facing chastisement of Republicans and warnings of the economic consequences of default. Speaking at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 77 the day after he launched his reelection campaign, he hammered McCarthy and declared: “No one should do anything to jeopardize the full faith and credit of the United States of America.” He took another whack at a small business event this week.

But the full toolkit has not been deployed. The last interview he’s given appears to be to JOE SCAROROUGH to talk about the Good Friday accords at the tail end of his trip to Ireland in mid-April. His most prominent interview prior to then was with actor (and former Obama administration staffer) KAL PENN, which aired on March 13.

The last time Biden stepped foot in a district with a GOP member of Congress came before then. On Feb. 28, he went to Virginia Beach, Va. — repped by Rep. JEN KIGGANS (R-Va.) — to discuss health care and the budget contrast. (Vice President KAMALA HARRIS has made more recent stops in GOP districts).

For a moment on Friday, that seemed poised to change in a big way, when Biden told the accompanying press corps that he would be holding a “major” press conference later that day. But that was just a verbal flub. He was referring to an interview he was taping with MSNBC’s STEPHANIE RUHLE, airing that night.

“President Biden will continue to make clear to the American people and to Congress the economic catastrophe that default will have on working people, middle class, and seniors,” said White House spokesperson MICHAEL KIKUKAWA. “Up to 8 million jobs destroyed. A recession. Retirements threatened. All of that is avoidable if Congress acts — as the President will make clear in his meeting with Congressional leaders on Tuesday… and on the road.”

The Ruhle sitdown is a step toward more engagement, and a strategic one at that given her fluency on matters of finance and Wall Street.

But it’s still just one show, airing late on a Friday. Israel imagined there would be more in the not-to-distant future.

“The crescendo,” he said, “occurs at the end.”

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This one is from Allie. Who was the first president to write a memoir?

(Answer at bottom.)

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CELEBRATING CINCO AFTER ALL: Without an actual press conference to prepare for, Biden had time for a quick, unscheduled lunch trip across town to Taqueria Habanero, part of the new Bryant Street food hall in the Edgewood neighborhood. Vice President Kamala Harris joined him and the two posed with the restaurant’s staff before taking their meal to go. Biden and Harris later tweeted their own photo from inside the Beast. Their order “included an assortment of tacos to bring back to White House staff, plus chicken quesadillas and churros,” according to Washingtonian’s JESSICA SIDMAN. This less formal observance of Cinco de Mayo takes the place of an official White House event like the one held in the Rose Garden last year that drew a number of Latino groups.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about April’s jobs report. “Employers created 253,000 jobs in April, keeping the U.S. economy afloat amid a banking crisis, rising interest rates, the prospect of devastating U.S. government default and a spike in layoffs. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent last month, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday, matching a low from May 1969,” WaPo’s LAUREN KAORI GURLEY reports. White House communications director BEN LABOLT and deputy communications director KATE BERNER tweeted the news out several times.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This WaPo opinion piece by FAREED ZAKARIA outlining his concerns about the administration’s international economic policy, detailed in a recent speech from national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN.

“The greatest challenge for Americans over the past few decades has been that middle-class wages have not kept up with rising costs of living. That problem will surely get exacerbated by raising costs of goods throughout the economy through tariffs and industrial policy. … A foreign policy that produces persistent, systemic inflation will fail to deliver for the middle class, who are, as Joe Biden often says, its intended beneficiaries,” Zakaria writes.

HUNTER READIES FOR BATTLE: Axios’ ALEX THOMPSON (a traitor and truly forgettable newsletter author, but we digress) scoops that the president’s son, HUNTER BIDEN, hired “prominent lawyer Abbe Lowell in December, as part of a plan to take a more combative approach than the White House and Hunter’s previous lawyer had taken. Hunter’s team also is moving toward creating a legal defense fund, and hiring ethics advisers for it. High-level Democrats and others are worried about the idea of the president’s son soliciting money to pay for his legal troubles.”

IT’S NOT THAT DEEP: Although some viewed the president skipping KING CHARLES’ coronation this weekend and having first lady JILL BIDEN attending in his place as an affront, a White House spokesperson told NBC News’ MIKE MEMOLI and KRISTEN WELKER that is “not at all” the case. “The president has a good relationship with the King, called the King last month to congratulate him on his coronation, and he looks forward to meeting him in the United Kingdom for a visit at a future date,” the spokesperson said.

62 REASONS WE’LL MISS BUZZFEED: There’s no disputing that BuzzFeed News changed journalism. Many of its originals now occupy some of the highest perches in our business. Those who worked there changed how we get our news and how we want our news (with some levity and, when possible, cat gifs). On the publication’s final day, we want to share this fun oral history of BuzzFeed’s 11-year run and raise a glass to everyone involved in making something fun and different.

END OF AN ERA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director ROCHELLE WALENSKY, who helped navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, is stepping down June 30, our KRISTA MAHR and ADAM CANCRYN report. Walensky also majorly restructured the agency, saying that “performance did not reliably meet expectations” during the pandemic.

LOOK WHO IT IS: Biden on Friday announced the appointment of NEERA TANDEN as the next Domestic Policy Council director, replacing SUSAN RICE, who is leaving the post later this month, ADAM CANCRYN and Eli report. Tanden is currently a senior adviser to the president and White House staff secretary. She moved into her current roles following her nomination to serve as Office of Management and Budget director was withdrawn in the face of Senate opposition.

— ZAYN SIDDIQUE is being promoted to be the principal deputy director of the DPC. And STEF FELDMAN, a longtime Biden adviser dating back to the Obama administration, will take Tanden’s place as staff secretary and is being promoted from deputy assistant to the president to assistant to the president.

NO RUSH ON THIS ONE, FOLKS: Although the Biden administration is ushering in a new phase of the pandemic, dissolving its current coronavirus response team, the president is still on the lookout for someone to lead the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Adam reports.

The office was intended to be a more permanent fixture of the government tasked with managing the federal efforts for the current pandemic and pandemics to come. But with the White House’s Covid response team set to dissolve next week, without a leader a seamless transition for the office is becoming less and less likely.

THE ONE TO REPLACE MILLEY: The president is set to nominate Gen. C.Q. BROWN to serve as the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, replacing Gen. MARK MILLEY, our LARA SELIGMAN, PAUL MCLEARY and ALEXANDER WARD scooped. Brown, who currently serves as the chief of staff to the Air Force, would be the first Black man in the post. The move isn’t official though, and the president’s timeline for making a formal announcement nominating Brown remains unclear.

— KELLY GARRITY and Lara also have a roundup of five things you need to know about Brown here.

GO BIG OR GO HOME: The Environmental Protection Agency will unveil an ambitious proposal next week targeting the power industry’s greenhouse gas output, aiming to decrease pollution as part of the administration larger climate goals, our JEAN CHEMNICK, PAMELA KING and ROBIN BRAVENDER report. But the effort could face major obstacles — like legal challenges in courts or being rolled back by the next administration should a Republican win in 2024.

TAI GETS PERSONAL: In a speech Friday at USC’s Marshall School of Business in recognition of AANHPI Heritage Month, U.S. Trade Representative KATHERINE TAI spoke about being the only Asian American in Biden’s Cabinet, her family’s immigration journey and the concerning uptick in anti-Asian bias and hate crimes. She also said the U.S. needs to be “disciplined” in responding to the economic competition and other challenges in its relationship with China. “Let’s be clear — our concerns are with the Chinese government’s policies and practices — and not with the Chinese people or with people of Chinese descent or heritage,” she said.

Democrats failed to inspire Black voters in 2022. Can they up their game in time for 2024? (LAT’s David Lauter)

As Biden takes control of the border with the end of Title 42, Congress is absent on immigration reform (NBC News’ Suzanne Gamboa)

How Rep. James Clyburn Protected His District at a Cost to Black Democrats (ProPublica’s Marilyn W. Thompson and Cheney Orr)

Can Trump exhaustion lead to Biden enthusiasm? One Michigan county will provide a test (CNN’s Jeff Zeleny)

This could be bad for Biden… depending on how you feel about the rock band Fall Out Boy, which has produced hits like “Thnks fr th Mmrs” and “Dance, Dance.”

The band’s lead singer, PETE WENTZ, apparently owes Biden a big one — his parents met while working for him in the 70s.

“I would not be standing here actually in reality at all because my parents met working for Biden,” Wentz told the AP. “He came to their wedding. If it weren’t for Joe Biden, I would not exist as a human being.”

And therefore, neither would Fall Out Boy.

JAMES BUCHANAN was the first president to write a memoir, publishing “Mr. Buchanan’s Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion” in 1866, years after his presidency. Apparently, it was a pretty bad one, too.

Historian CRAIG FEHRMAN told Smithsonian Magazine that it’s “definitely the worst presidential memoir I’ve read. It’s mostly just James Buchanan trying to blame everyone except James Buchanan for the war and its aftermath.”

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.