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

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PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off next week for the holidays but back to our normal schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 2. We hope absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Casual readers may have been surprised to see the DailyMail publish a piece on Thursday that devoted 2,387 words and eight pictures to MICHAEL LAROSA, the former press secretary for first lady JILL BIDEN.

After all, East Wing officials typically aren’t the subject of lengthy profiles — or, in this case, quasi hit pieces — especially those who have been out of government for 18 months.

But for those who have been in and around President JOE BIDEN’s White House, the piece — which suggested LaRosa was pushed out of the Biden administration after he broke security protocols by inviting someone to his hotel room during an official overseas trip — was hardly a surprise.

Amid the high-intensity work atmosphere of the White House where staffers are dealing with some of the most consequential global issues, LaRosa has occupied an outsized space in staffers’ minds. Animosity between White House aides and LaRosa has long been brewing, as West Wing Playbook wrote about in June. But aides have increasingly felt like LaRosa goes out of his way to unnecessarily shiv the administration. They’ve gripped about how often reporters call him for comment. And they’ve grown frustrated with LaRosa’s public critiques of Biden staff.

“This whole idea that he was this very senior insider and was like very close to the president or First Lady, and focused on the campaign and political strategy, that could not be farther from the truth,” a person who worked with LaRosa at the White House told the DailyMail.

Other unnamed White House staffers told the conservative-leaning, gossip-heavy website that LaRosa would disappear from work for hours and complained that he leaked information to reporters about the Biden cat, ASHLEY BIDEN’s Covid diagnosis and a trip to Ukraine.

The Biden White House insisted in a statement that it did not authorize staffers to participate in the piece.

“We gave a comment defending our colleague Anthony Bernal in response to an inquiry that came from the DailyMail to the general press inbox. As West Wing Playbook knows, having White House officials quoted on background in an unauthorized way does not mean the White House spent time on something,” a White House official said.

We’ll let you be the judge.

The piece quoted multiple Biden staffers who characterized LaRosa as a short-tempered, unreliable colleague who has oversold his White House connections to boost his own profile (totally uncommon for ex-government officials in D.C.).

And as the White House press corps pored over the story, some members of it noted that it wasn’t hard to read between the lines about where the information was coming from. Only so many people would know the details around the first lady’s travel protocols or how the press first found out that the president’s daughter had Covid.

Some members of the press also said it was revealing that White House aides took issue with LaRosa for talking to the media given that his job as press secretary fundamentally was to share basic information with reporters. Multiple reporters remarked about how rare it was to see as many as six Biden aides quoted in a single piece.

“It’s interesting that this is the kind of story they spend their time on when they publicly complain that reporters don’t cover policy matters,” said a White House reporter.

Reporters who have covered the Biden administration said they had been approached by White House staffers with negative stories about LaRosa. Some reporters also felt like the DailyMail unfairly played up LaRosa’s sexuality. The headline of the piece says LaRosa was “‘forced out’ of White House after he ‘tried to take gay dates’ to his room on secure floor of hotel where president was staying during NATO summit in Madrid.”

“I felt that it dripped with homophobia,” said a reporter assigned to cover the White House.

Look, we get it. This is navel gazing at its finest. Guilty! But the entire episode does to a degree puncture the notion that Biden aides are head down, ignoring the dramas that captivate the Twitterati, whether or not they formally helped with the DailyMail item.

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Which president was the first to have a decorated Christmas tree in the White House?

(Answer at bottom.)

SEND IT IN JEROME! Time’s running out for Biden to convince gloomy 2024 voters that he’s built a booming economy, but his allies are increasingly confident that an unlikely source will give him an assist: the Federal Reserve and its chair JEROME POWELL, our ADAM CANCRYN writes. Dems who have been anxious that the Fed’s work to curb inflation would send the economy into a recession are now changing their tune, as the economy appears it will survive the rate-hike campaign after all.

The Fed may even start cutting interest rates. The report from the Commerce Department today reporting that inflation grew by just 1.9 percent over the last six months was another positive sign that Biden deemed a “significant milestone.”

“That shift, he and other Democrats hope, will serve as a definitive signal to voters that the economy has emerged from a sea of challenges far stronger than before — just as the presidential race hits full stride,” Adam notes.

POTUS IN HIS HOLIDAY FEELS: Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President KAMALA HARRIS and Second Gentleman DOUG EMHOFF held a dinner for senior staff at the White House on Tuesday, which included assistants to the president and deputy assistants to the president, according to a person familiar with the event. “We don’t get to choose the point of history that we enter. But we do get to choose the team,” Biden told the room.

He then recounted some stories about the people he’d met this year, including a woman who was diagnosed with cancer after flying Blackhawk missions over burn pits in Iraq. Staff were later treated to a surprise performance by original Hamilton cast member CHRIS JACKSON, who sang a set of holiday songs. He also sang two STEVIE WONDER covers — “If it’s Magic” and “Someday at Christmas.” (Couldn’t do “Living for the City”?)

We have just one very important follow-up for attendees: What was on the menu?

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This tweet thread from economist JUSTIN WOLFERS, sharing data from the core PCE, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, which shows the 6-month core PCE change well below the value from when Biden took office. The PCE fell 0.1 percent in November, the first drop in prices through this measure in three years. In a memo, deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES touted the news: “Now inflation is falling, wages are climbing, and Americans are getting a raise in time for the holidays thanks to Bidenomics.”

Biden campaign spokesperson KEVIN MUNOZ shared the news in a statement. Communications director BEN LABOLT and chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS reposted the thread.

WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO WATCH: On an episode of JOE ROGAN’s podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan mocked Biden after watching a clip of the president saying “We didn’t have enough airports” during the Revolutionary War.

The kicker? Biden was quoting then-President DONALD TRUMP in 2019. Soon after, Rogan was fact checked by someone on his show. He and his guest BO NICKEL did what anyone would do in that situation. They blamed the press. “That’s the thing about media these days,” said Rogan, “you gotta look into it.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by the Financial Times’ JAMES POLITI and FELICIA SCHWARTZ, who report that despite the president’s strategy of giving a “bearhug,” where he embraces Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU in public, privately the administration has criticized the Israeli government’s tactics.

This approach has faced backlash from across the board, most notably among those within Biden’s own party and even his administration. “His response has fractured the Democratic party, triggering fury from critics who believe the White House has been too tolerant of Israel’s conduct… Arguably the most serious cases of dissent have come from within his government,” they write.

HEY ARCH DIGEST: Biden welcomed in Architectural Digest to the Oval Office, showing off his memorabilia, family relics, and… his moon rock, which as the president puts it, “is pretty cool. It’s literally a rock from the moon.”

Biden, at the end of the video, claimed he was a subscriber to the magazine and a “frustrated architect” himself. Tell us more Ben LaBolt.

A MESSAGE FOR AUSTIN DEAN: Well, well, well. Sen. CORTEZ MASTO’s digital director, AUSTIN DEAN seems to find this section of your favorite newsletter a tad self-serving and indulgent. Dean posted on X this morning that people should stop sharing their new job news with us only to then screenshot our newsletter and post it on the platform once known as Twitter.

He needs better things to complain about. People can and should feel good about promotions or professional changes. It’s actually ok to want others to know what you’re doing in life. It’s even fine to brag… a bit. Go ahead. Try it. The world keeps spinning.

And frankly, you know what’s more “embarrassing” than telling POLITICO about your new job announcement and screenshotting it on Twitter? Tweeting your complaints about people who tell Politico about their new job announcements and screenshot it on Twitter. Welcome to “some personal news” Inception, Austin.

A BIG MOVE ON WEED: On Friday, President Biden signed a proclamation to pardon all U.S. residents and legal permanent residents serving jail time for marijuana possession and marijuana use charges on federal lands and in D.C., AP’s ZEKE MILLER reports. “Convictions for simple possession of marijuana have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” the president said in a statement.

The president is also granting clemency to 11 individuals serving “disproportionately long” sentences for nonviolent offenses.

NO CUTTING CORNERS: The president on Friday signed an executive order intended to “strengthen” sanctions on Russia, NYT’s ALAN RAPPEPORT reports. The administration aims to crack down on the financial institutions that assist Russia in building up their artillery in their war against Ukraine. A network of traders and smugglers have abetted Russia in obtaining banned products to stock up their arsenal.

TAX CREDIT STUFF… THIS TIME A BFD: The Biden administration on Friday announced highly anticipated tax credit guidance that would force companies into using low-carbon or zero emissions energy to power the production of hydrogen, CNN’s ELLA NILSEN reports. The rules say that although the government does not favor one power source over another, the companies that produce the cleanest hydrogen will receive the most hefty tax credits.

“The lower the emissions, the larger the credit,” Deputy Treasury Secretary WALLY ADEYEMO told reporters.

Biden’s antimonopoly warrior girds for 2024 (POLITICO’s Josh Sisco)

Assessing 6 Claims by the G.O.P. in the Biden Impeachment Inquiry (WaPo’s Luke Broadwater)

In South Carolina, Democrats See a Test of Biden’s Appeal to Black Voters (NYT’s Maya King)

In 1889, BENJAMIN HARRISON — mostly at the behest of his grandchildren — placed a tree decorated extensively with candles in the second floor oval room, which was then used as a family parlor and library, according to the White House Historical Association.

Although a widely forgotten president, Harrison gave it his all during the holiday season. “I am an ardent believer in the duty we owe ourselves at Christmas to make merry for children at Christmas time,” he told a reporter at the time.

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

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.