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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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Over six days within the past month, first lady JILL BIDEN visited four countries on three continents. She attended a royal wedding in Amman, Jordan, toured the pyramids outside Cairo and met with groups of students and young entrepreneurs in Egypt and Morocco.

The visit drew coverage abroad, but almost none back home in the U.S. — largely because only one Washington-based journalist covered it.

Just days before the scheduled May 30 departure, with no reporters planning to go, the first lady’s team called Al-Arabiya correspondent NADIA BILBASSY about pooling the trip.

“I didn’t really question it because it’s the Middle East,” she told West Wing Playbook. “Given my background and knowledge of the region, I was happy to go.”

But it quickly became clear Bilbassy would be the only reporter following the first lady — and the lone pooler emailing frequent dispatches back to the White House press corps.

“It was exhausting,” Bilbassy said. “When you have additional reporters, you have more sets of eyes, not just two. You can ask the other poolers, ‘Did I get that quote right?’ It was a big responsibility, but also a great exercise for a reporter.”

The decision by other newspapers and networks to skip the first lady’s trip abroad was not necessarily about a lack of interest in her travels. It was largely driven by timing and cost considerations.

As the 2024 presidential primary season heats up, news organizations are shifting resources to early states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. That’s making it more challenging for the first lady, and to some extent the vice president — neither of whom have a protective press pool accompanying them at all times like the president does — to convince journalists to spend the money to cover their travels.

When Vice President KAMALA HARRIS traveled to the Bahamas last week, a majority of the five network chiefs voted for the first time against sending a TV pooler. That meant there was no video footage of the trip for the networks to use. Similarly, the East Wing has struggled to recruit poolers for some recent domestic and foreign trips, trying to compensate by offering interviews or readouts afterward. That was the case after the first lady attended ceremonies on the anniversary of 9/11 and the coronation of KING CHARLES in London. In the car following the coronation ceremony, she called two reporters, the AP’s DARLENE SUPERVILLE and CNN’s BETSY KLEIN, to talk about the experience.

The first lady’s trip to Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Portugal came only a week after President JOE BIDEN returned from the G-7 summit in Japan. The cancelation of the second leg of that trip — a scheduled visit to Papua New Guinea and Australia — left news organizations on the hook for more than half of the cost of an expensive charter flight that had been booked to shuttle journalists straight from Hiroshima to Sydney.

But for some outlets, the waning interest in following FLOTUS abroad also has to do with lingering frustrations from their last trip. When Jill Biden traveled to Africa in February, several reporters went along, two of them agreeing to travel after the East Wing promised opportunities to sit down with her one-on-one. But there was drama when the White House prevented the broader pool from observing the first lady walking through a public slum because CNN, promised an exclusive, was filming its b-roll. More drama came later, when CNN, having planned an hour-long primetime special around its exclusive, fumed about the AP correspondent having a video crew for her interview, which they assumed would be off-camera.

Several journalists involved in deciding whether to cover the first lady’s most recent trip said lingering frustrations from past travels were part of the calculation. Beyond the issues over who got exclusives, some have grown frustrated with how few opportunities they’ve had to engage directly with the first lady making it harder to justify costly overseas coverage.

“She doesn’t answer questions anymore, and it’s because of Anthony,” one person said, referring to the first lady’s chief of staff, ANTHONY BERNAL. “And they’re missing opportunities to make news and reach audiences because of it.”

The first lady’s office took issue with that assessment. It noted that she did three interviews on the Africa trip and read two on-the-record statements to the pool, which was told not to ask questions afterward, according to two people with knowledge of the trip. She took questions from the pool at the start of the trip but aides insisted that another gaggle she did before returning to Washington would be off the record.

“Whether we have press traveling with us or the outlets decide to cover the First Lady with their local resources, we are always attentive to the needs of the media,” said VANESSA VALDIVIA, Jill Biden’s press secretary. “We also understand the scheduling and budget constraints newsrooms are facing and will continue to coordinate with press to ensure their investments in traveling are worthwhile.”

Over her six days overseas earlier this month, the first lady did not do an interview with Bilbassy as she followed her from stop to stop. But the East Wing, appreciating the job she did as their lone pooler, is working to arrange a sit-down interview with her soon, possibly as early as this week.

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This one is from Allie. When was electricity first installed at the White House?

(Answer at bottom.)

THE TOOTH SHALL SET YOU FREE: As if Mondays weren’t hard enough, try starting your week with an emergency root canal. President Biden underwent one in the White House after feeling some discomfort Sunday in one of his premolars (tooth 29, according to his physician), our MYAH WARD reports. The president was not put under general anesthesia so the 25th Amendment was not invoked. Vice President Kamala Harris, while not officially taking over, did step in for Biden at College Athletes Day. The rest of the president’s Monday schedule was postponed.

EUROPE STILL WAITING ON BIDEN: Thanks to questionable dental hygiene, Biden’s meeting with NATO Secretary General JENS STOLTENBERG, planned for Monday afternoon, will now take place Tuesday. As our colleague LILI BAYER reports from Brussels, the Europeans are waiting for the president to clarify his position on a candidate to replace Stoltenberg. While all 31 nations must agree in the end, Biden’s endorsement carries heavy weight and his “foot-dragging has left NATO in limbo.”

THAT CHEERING YOU HEARD EARLIER?: That was from certain corners of the Washington Post newsroom after CEO FRED RYAN announced he’d be leaving his role as the newspaper’s publisher after nine years in the job. A former chief of staff to President RONALD REAGAN, Ryan oversaw the paper’s explosive growth after Amazon CEO JEFF BEZOS bought it a decade ago. But he was not beloved by the newsroom, which he alienated deeply in December during a town hall when he announced layoffs and then walked out without taking questions, prompting several of the paper’s star reporters to abruptly join its guild. As Vanity Fair’s CHARLOTTE KLEIN reports, Ryan’s exit also coincides with Bezos getting more involved.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about how Republicans’ tax proposals would benefit the wealthiest Americans while also adding to the federal deficit. JESSE LEE, senior communications adviser for the National Economic Council, shared on Twitter an analysis from The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy arguing that under the GOP plan, “the poorest fifth of Americans would receive an average tax cut of just $40 next year while the richest one percent would receive an average $16,550 tax cut next year.”

Communications director BEN LABOLT also shared a piece by Bloomberg’s JUSTIN SINK about how the White House dismissed “the tax-cut proposal offered by House Republicans as disproportionately benefiting corporations and the wealthy and likely to add billions to the deficit.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This analysis by AP’s RICHARD LARDNER, JENNIFER McDERMOTT and AARON KESSLER about how “billions in Covid-19 relief aid was stolen or wasted.” The reporters found “that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents 10 percent of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID relief aid.”

BRACING FOR IMPACT: Although there hasn’t been a migration surge at the southern border in the month since Title 42 was lifted, Biden officials are still bracing for an increase, Myah also reports. “There was absolutely a feeling of, we can exhale now,” said a former Biden administration official. “But there’s also enough experience that nobody is going to roll out a band, or say it’s mission accomplished. It’s too fluid.”

FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: BRENT WOOLFORK has joined the West Wing as chief of staff for NEERA TANDEN, the new head of the Domestic Policy Council, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He most recently was deputy assistant secretary for House affairs at DOD.

IT’S OFFICIAL: Former Labor Secretary and chair of the Democratic National Committee TOM PEREZ is taking over for JULIE CHÁVEZ RODRÍGUEZ as director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, the White House announced Monday. In a statement, Biden said Perez’s “perspective and relationships as a former county councilman, a top civil rights attorney, and Secretary of Labor will be invaluable as we implement our Invest in America agenda and continue to make our government work for the people and for communities across the country.”

MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: JOANNA DARCUS has been detailed to be senior counsel in the Office for Access to Justice at the Department of Justice. She most recently was senior counsel in the office of the general counsel at the Education Department.

STUCK IN SENATE COMMERCE: Three Biden nominees have withdrawn from consideration because they lacked support from the Senate Commerce Committee. And with Texas Sen. TED CRUZ as the top Republican on the panel, and four Democratic members up for reelection in swing states next fall — Sens. KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-Ariz.), JACKY ROSEN (D-Nev.), JON TESTER (D-Mont.) and TAMMY BALDWIN (D-Wis.) — this may continue to be a sticking point for presidential picks. Our BURGESS EVERETT, JENNIFER HABERKORN and DANIELLA DIAZ have more.

MORE TROUBLE AHEAD: In an interview with WaPo’s DAN DIAMOND, Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate health panel, vowed to block Biden’s health nominees — including MONICA BERTAGNOLLI, the president’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health — until the White House delivers a “comprehensive” plan to lower drug prices.

“I will oppose all nominations until we have a very clear strategy on the part of the government … as to how we’re going to lower the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders said.

Blocking ALL nominees for posts is quickly becoming a thing. Also, Bernie, does the IRA not count?

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL: After pausing federal student loan payments for over three years, the Education Department confirmed that federal “student loan interest will resume starting on Sept. 1, 2023, and payments will be due starting in October,” our MICHAEL STRATFORD reports.

Looming over the restart of the payments is whether the Supreme Court will allow the Biden administration to move forward with its plan to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for some borrowers. There are only three more days in which the court is scheduled to release opinions: Thursday, Friday and next Thursday. But more days could be added to the calendar.

She survived a White House lightning strike. Could she survive what came next? (WaPo’s William Wan)

Xi Prepares China for ‘Extreme’ Scenarios, Including Conflict with the West (WSJ’s Lingling Wei)

Putin’s Pals Dream Up Fresh Plot to Help Trump Beat Biden (The Daily Beast’s Julia Davis)

Before Tom Perez began his career in public service, Biden’s new director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs took on a handful of odd jobs — including one as a trash collector.

“I used to work on the back of a trash truck to help pay my way through college,” he told POLITICO back in 2019, when he was DNC chairman. “Cleaning up garbage definitely prepared me to take on Donald Trump.”

Get it? Trash? Trump?

“Electricity was first installed at the White House in 1891 during President Benjamin Harrison’s administration as part of a project for wiring the State, War, and Navy Building next door, today’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building,” according to the White House Historical Association.

“The Edison Company installed a generator for both buildings, with wires strung across the lawn and into the White House. Wires were buried in plaster, with round switches installed in each room for turning the current on and off.”

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.