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What BANNON’S DEPARTURE means for D.C. – BANNON returns to Breitbart: 'I've got my hands back on my weapons' — BOSTON BRACES for protests — B’DAY: BILL CLINTON is 71

BREAKING — PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP and MELANIA TRUMP are skipping the Kennedy Center honors this year. Statement from the White House: “The President and First Lady have decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.” The Kennedy Center honors take place in December.

— THREE OF THE FIVE honorees said they would not attend the White House reception that goes along with the honors. http://wapo.st/2vMreBg

Story Continued Below

TEXT MESSAGE from a House Republican lawmaker Friday night, reacting to Steve Bannon’s departure: “Now the real circus begins. … This is the tea party coming full circle.”

Good Saturday morning. WHAT BANNON’S DEPARTURE MEANS FOR TRUMP AND WASHINGTON …

— HOUSE CONSERVATIVES NEED A NEW WHITE HOUSE ALLY … It was an open secret that Steve Bannon was close with House Freedom Caucus leaders like Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina. They shared some of the same off-brand conservative ideals and all saw Trump as a vessel to move those ideals into law. They chatted in the White House, and swapped text messages and phone calls. Part of the Freedom Caucus’s strength in the Trump era was that no matter what happened between Reince Priebus, Donald Trump and Paul Ryan, Meadows always had a sounding board in the White House who could relay a message to the president. That’s gone — for now. They still have Trump’s ear, but no backchannel to get their message into the White House.

— THE WHITE HOUSE NEEDS SOMEONE WHO CAN LIAISE WITH THE RIGHT … The Freedom Caucus has just enough juice to be a pain to Republican leaders and Trump. It was Bannon who could keep them from going too far. There is no other principal in Trump’s administration who speaks their language. Mick Mulvaney and Mike Pence are loyal Trump soldiers who are looking to bend the Hill to Trump’s will, not the other way around. They don’t know John Kelly. So the White House needs to tap someone with power and clout who can deal with conservatives.

— REPUBLICAN LEADERS ARE NOT BREATHING EASIER. The secret about Steve Bannon is he’s actually pretty pleasant in personal interactions. He’s solicitous and gracious in one-on-one interactions. Republican leaders were surprised when they learned that. GOP leaders never had a real blow up with Bannon. In fact, on many occasions, they found themselves talking the same language. The fear that is now rippling through Republican leadership is that Steve Bannon’s departure actually meant very little for Trump’s day-to-day style of governing. He’s still going to be impulsive. He’s still going to want to pick fights. Plus, Bannon’s outside role now means that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are squarely in the crosshairs. That means that conservative Republicans in red districts are now incentivized to oppose GOP leadership.

— NEW CONCERNS ABOUT DEBT CEILING, GOVERNMENT FUNDING. The debt ceiling needs to be lifted this fall, and government funding runs dry at the end of September. In his interview with the Weekly Standard, Bannon was more publicly clear-eyed about White House-Capitol Hill dynamics than anyone who works in the Trump administration. He said Trump will “sign a clean debt ceiling” and will do a “very standard Republican version of taxes” — the “standard marginal tax cut.” Bannon is voicing what many Republicans tell us behind the scenes. Needless to say, Bannon thinks this is a cop out. And it seems painfully obvious Breitbart will rally against this, causing serious headaches for Republican leaders with a lot on the line.

**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/2lQswbh

JUST TO BE CLEAR … — Breitbart truly is a powerful voice on Capitol Hill. Not because lawmakers pay attention — most say they don’t — but many of their constituents do. We hear it all the time. The primary political hurdle for most Hill Republicans is a primary, and Breitbart drags the conversation and rank-and-file thinking to the right.

— DON’T EXPECT Bannon’s departure to create a radical shift in how the White House operates. The chaos that has enveloped Trump’s administration comes from the top. John Kelly and others are trying to limit that, but unless Trump makes a strategic decision to change his modus operandi, nothing is going to change. Bannon being on the outside could have more influence than ever. We’ve seen Trump time and again react to conservative news coverage, something Bannon will have a lot more direct influence over at Breitbart.

TRUMP ON BANNON: @realDonaldTrump at 7:33 a.m.: “I want to thank Steve Bannon for his service. He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton – it was great! Thanks S”.

THE BEST OF BANNON …

THE PIECE EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT — “Bannon: ‘The Trump Presidency That We Fought For, and Won, Is Over,’” by The Weekly Standard’s Peter J. Boyer: “With the departure from the White House of strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who helped shape the so-called nationalist-populist program embraced by Donald Trump in his unlikely path to election, a new phase of the Trump presidency begins. Given Trump’s nature, what comes next will hardly be conventional, but it may well be less willfully disruptive—which, to Bannon, had been the point of winning the White House. ‘The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,’ Bannon said Friday, shortly after confirming his departure. ‘We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. It’ll be something else. And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over.’ …

“‘I feel jacked up,’ he says. ‘Now I’m free. I’ve got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, ‘it’s Bannon the Barbarian.’ I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There’s no doubt. I built a f***ing machine at Breitbart. And now I’m about to go back, knowing what I know, and we’re about to rev that machine up. And rev it up we will do.’ Bannon tells The Weekly Standard that he can be more effective without the constraints of the White House. ‘I can fight better on the outside. I can’t fight too many Democrats on the inside like I can on the outside.’ And, he says, Trump encouraged him to take on the Republican establishment. ‘I said, “look, I’ll focus on going after the establishment.” He said, “good, I need that.” I said, “look, I’ll always be here covering for you.’” http://tws.io/2vaCmo0 … 22 pix of Bannon’s White House tenure http://politi.co/2wq88Sg

— NYT A1: “Steve Bannon, Back on the Outside, Prepares His Enemies List,” by Jeremy Peters and Mike Grynbaum: “‘In many ways, I think I can be more effective fighting from the outside for the agenda President Trump ran on,’ he said Friday. ‘And anyone who stands in our way, we will go to war with.’ Among those already in Mr. Bannon’s sights: Speaker Paul D. Ryan; Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader; the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and Gary D. Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs who now directs the White House’s National Economic Council. …

“Most immediately, he has told associates that he wants to ensure that any spending resolution approved next month by Congress includes money to begin construction on the wall that Mr. Trump has promised to build on the southern border. If Congress balks, Mr. Bannon has advised the president to issue a veto, which would trigger a government shutdown.” http://nyti.ms/2xdC4OS

— BLOOMBERG: “Bannon Says He’s ‘Going to War for Trump’ After White House Exit,” by Josh Green, Justin Sink, and Margaret Talev: “‘If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents — on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America,’ Bannon told Bloomberg News Friday in his first public comments after his departure was announced.” https://bloom.bg/2uRNURR

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TICK TOCK — “Inside the rise and fall of Steve Bannon: Trump’s chief strategist had become increasingly isolated in the West Wing,” by Josh Dawsey, Annie Karni, and Matt Nussbaum: “Kelly didn’t understand what Bannon did, why he had a PR portfolio, why he seemed to cause so much trouble with colleagues and why he was so widely disliked. He asked many questions about Bannon in his early days at the White House and found widespread disdain. … He has told colleagues he is looking forward to not having to wear a blazer and long pants.” http://politi.co/2vMXtk0

FROM BREITBART — “‘Populist Hero’ Stephen K. Bannon Returns Home to Breitbart”: “Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon returned as Executive Chairman of Breitbart News Friday afternoon and chaired the company’s evening editorial meeting. … ‘The populist-nationalist movement got a lot stronger today,’ said Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow. ‘Breitbart gained an executive chairman with his finger on the pulse of the Trump agenda.’ Breitbart News CEO and President Larry Solov agreed. ‘Breitbart’s pace of global expansion will only accelerate with Steve back,’ said Solov. ‘The sky’s the limit.’” http://bit.ly/2uQQxn3

— MATTHEW CONTINETTI in the NYT: “Steve Bannon Is Overrated”: “Mr. Bannon is the latest in a long line of political advisers whose reputations are inflated after an election victory. Mr. Bannon may have given much thought to traditionalism and populism, may have publicized its themes as chairman of Breitbart.com, may be able to name drop René Guénon, Julius Evola, Jean Raspail, Neil Howe and William Strauss. But President Trump’s inflammatory response to the clashes and killing last week in Charlottesville, Va., made it clear that it is he, and not Mr. Bannon, who maintains a gut connection with his most die-hard supporters. The most important culture warrior in this administration sits at the Resolute Desk. Mr. Bannon’s reputation is overrated. Yes, he transformed Breitbart from an irreverent blog into the iconoclastic tribune of nation-state populism, the anti-elitist ideology of border walls, travel bans and political incorrectness.” http://nyti.ms/2uRHzpG

JOSH GREEN, who wrote the book on Steve Bannon, emails us: “I thought Bannon might last a little longer because he’s been the rare White House official willing to publicly defend a president engulfed in crisis in the wake of his Charlottesville response (#1 and #3, more than #2). But getting rubbed out suddenly like he did is an occupational hazard for senior Trump advisers: It’s a job with a high mortality rate. Bannon will do the same outside the White House that he was trying to do from the inside, and that’s to lead a nationalist movement.”

MEANWHILE — “Sources: Pence, McMaster team up to push more troops in Afghanistan,” by Nahal Toosi and Eliana Johnson: “Top administration officials in favor of sending more troops to Afghanistan teamed up ahead of a high-level meeting on Friday to persuade President Donald Trump to step up American military involvement in the 16-year-old war, two sources told POLITICO. Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser H.R. McMaster rehearsed their pitch heading into the Camp David strategy session in an effort to persuade Trump to accept commanders’ proposals to beef up the 8,400 American troops in the country, the sources said.

“But as of Friday evening, the president had not announced a decision on his plans for Afghanistan, where the Taliban have grown in strength and Al Qaeda and the Islamic State terrorist groups have a foothold. And no announcement appeared imminent. The two sources — an administration official and a senior White House aide — also confirmed that Erik Prince, founder of the former Blackwater private security firm, had been scheduled to attend the session but that he was blocked at the last minute. The administration official said McMaster was the one who blocked Prince.” http://politi.co/2wqaVLl

MICHAEL CROWLEY — “Hawks soaring after Bannon’s departure”: http://politi.co/2uRoaVX

CHOOSE YOUR NEWS — @realDonaldTrump at 7:47 a.m.: “Important day spent at Camp David with our very talented Generals and military leaders. Many decisions made, including on Afghanistan.”

–“Trump makes no decision on Afghanistan strategy,” by Reuters’ Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay: http://reut.rs/2igMLh1

THE LATEST IN SPAIN — “Spain, France press manhunt for ringleader in dual attacks,” by AP’s Alex Oller, Joseph Wilson and Lori Hinnant in Barcelona: “Authorities in Spain and France pressed the search Saturday for the supposed ringleader of an Islamic extremist cell that carried out vehicle attacks in Barcelona and a seaside resort, as the investigation focused on links among the Moroccan members and the house where they plotted the carnage. Early Saturday, police searched two buses in northwest Catalonia in the hunt for any remaining members of the cell. Nothing was found in the searches in Girona and Garrigas, police tweeted.

“Across the Pyrenees, French police carried out extra border checks on people coming from Spain — a routine beefing-up of patrols anytime a neighboring country flags a potential risk, a French security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. No arrests were made. Police also announced a series of controlled explosions Saturday in the town of Alcanar, south of Barcelona, where the attacks were planned in a rental house destroyed Wednesday by an apparently accidental blast. Authorities had initially written off the incident as a household gas accident, but took another look on Friday and returned on Saturday.” http://bit.ly/2wqW5UJ

NOT TAKING ANY CHANCES — “After Charlottesville, Boston aims to avert violence at ‘Free Speech’ rally,” by Reuters’ Scott Malone and Nate Raymond: “Hundreds of police officers will hit the streets of Boston on Saturday to deter violence at a ‘Free Speech’ rally with right-wing speakers a week after a woman was killed at a Virginia white-supremacist protest. At least 500 police officers, many on bicycles, aim to keep the expected crowd of a few hundred people at the ‘Free Speech’ rally separate from thousands attending a counter-protest by people who believe the event could become a platform for racist propaganda.

“Authorities will close streets to avert car attacks like the deadly one carried out in Charlottesville, Virginia, by a man said to have neo-Nazi sympathies against counter-protesters and a similar spate of attacks by Islamist extremists in Europe, most recently Barcelona. After Charlottesville’s bloody street battles, Boston outlawed weapons of any kind — including sticks used to hold signs — in the protest area and ordered food vendors out of Boston Common, the nation’s oldest park.” http://reut.rs/2x01aBr

— “Lawmakers urge removal of Robert E. Lee statue at Antietam,” by Austin Wright: “Amid the national firestorm over Civil War monuments, Maryland lawmakers are pressing the National Park Service to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee that some view as an egregious attempt to sanitize Confederate history. And key House Democrats are threatening legislation if the Park Service won’t act on its own to take down the statue at Antietam National Battlefield, site of the bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history.” http://politi.co/2vaSfe8

MOOCH UPDATE — “Scaramucci hires ‘Fifteen Minutes,’ Hollywood PR firm,” by Isaac Dovere: “Anthony Scaramucci … has signed with Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman … [whose] company is … called Fifteen Minutes. One of his specialties is crisis communications for celebrities. His client list includes Barry Manilow and the JetBlue flight attendant who took two beers and jumped down an exit chute slide. He also handled Monica Lewinsky. Scaramucci … is said to be looking for more media appearances.” http://politi.co/2wpWcjj

PHOTO DU JOUR: President Donald Trump walks across the tarmac before boarding Air Force One at Hagerstown Regional Airport in Maryland on Aug. 18. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

WILLIAM COHAN in Vanity Fair, “Please, God, Save Gary Cohn from Himself”: “He should resign for his own dignity and so that the reputation he worked so hard to build on Wall Street during the last 30 years doesn’t get further destroyed by the monster that is Donald Trump. … I am told Cohn ‘is dying’ inside the Trump lunatic asylum, and that ‘this is a real inflection point for him.’ … The right thing for Cohn to do is resign. He has no business any longer in a Trump administration. By staying, he is allowing Trump ‘to borrow his credibility,’ in the words of Thomas Ricks, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, and ruin it.

“Can he put aside his personal ambition to be Fed chair in order to save his dignity and do what is clearly the right thing? No doubt this is what Cohn and his family are discussing during his respite in the Hamptons. ‘Do you want to have a boss like Donald Trump?’ [Larry] Summers said on Bloomberg, after being asked whether Cohn should resign. ‘How do you face your children?’ It’s the right question, Gary.” http://bit.ly/2uZZSol

THE ROADSHOW — “Vice President Mike Pence is heading to California to raise money with Kevin McCarthy,” by the L.A. Times’ Seema Mehta: “Pence and McCarthy will headline a reception and dinner in Beverly Hills on Sept. 14. The following day, the pair will raise money at a breakfast in Bakersfield, a luncheon in Newport Beach and a reception and dinner in Sacramento. … The fundraisers benefit California Victory 2018, a joint fundraising committee that benefits Pence’s and McCarthy’s political action committees, the [NRCC] and the congressional campaign accounts of McCarthy, Darrell Issa of Vista, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Mimi Walters of Irvine, Ed Royce of Fullerton, Steve Knight of Palmdale, David Valadao of Hanford, [and] Jeff Denham of Turlock.” http://lat.ms/2xdEPQd

DEEP DIVE — PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE in The New Yorker, “Carl Icahn’s Failed Raid on Washington: Was President Trump’s richest adviser focused on helping the country—or his own bottom line?”: Keefe “profiles the financier Carl Icahn, and investigates his controversial (and potentially illegal) role as special adviser to President Trump—up until Icahn publicly stepped down from his position, on August 18th, as this piece was going to press. Icahn and Trump have known each other for decades. Keefe writes, ‘Among Trump’s panoply of wealthy boosters, Icahn is distinctive, if not unique, because of the President’s willingness to play the beta role and genuﬂect before him.’ During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Icahn repeatedly raised the issue of renewable-fuel credits, speaking of the ‘insane’ perﬁdy of the E.P.A., which administers the credits system, and the plight of his reﬁner, CVR Energy.

“He believed that Trump would slash regulation and would make the change that Icahn wanted on biofuel credits—shifting the so-called ‘point of obligation’ so that other parties would be compelled to purchase the credits, instead of merchant reﬁners like CVR. Several weeks after Trump’s victory, Icahn tweeted, ‘I’ve agreed to serve as a special advisor to the president on issues relating to regulatory reform.’ Keefe writes, ‘Icahn’s role was novel. He would be an adviser with a formal title, but he would not receive a salary, and he would not be required to divest himself of any of his holdings, or to make any disclosures about potential conﬂicts of interest.’ In the months after the election, the stock price of CVR, Icahn’s reﬁner, nearly doubled. The rally meant a personal beneﬁt for Icahn, at least on paper, of half a billion dollars.” http://bit.ly/2wZt6p6

TRUMP INC. — “5 more charities drop Mar-a-Lago fundraisers,” by Cristiano Lima: “Five more charities announced Friday they were dropping plans for fundraising events at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, as the administration continues to feel the backlash from business groups after the president’s handling of the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend. Susan G. Komen, a multimillion-dollar nonprofit that raises money for breast cancer research; the International Red Cross; The Salvation Army; the Autism Association of Palm Beach County; and Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Loxahatchee Groves, Florida, all said they were pulling events from Mar-a-Lago’s upcoming winter fundraising schedule, according to local reports.” http://politi.co/2uZUlyk

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CLIMATE WATCH — “More GOP lawmakers bucking their party on climate change,” by David Siders in Los Angeles: “While President Donald Trump continues to dismantle Obama-era climate policies, an unlikely surge of Republican lawmakers has begun taking steps to distance themselves from the GOP’s hard line on climate change. The House Climate Solutions Caucus, a bipartisan backwater when it formed early last year, has more than tripled in size since January, driven in part by Trump’s decision in June to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord.

“And last month, 46 Republicans joined Democrats to defeat an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill that would have deleted a requirement that the Defense Department prepare for the effects of climate change. The willingness of some Republicans to buck their party on climate change could help burnish their moderate credentials ahead of the 2018 elections. Of the 26 Republican caucus members, all but five represent districts targeted by the [DCC] next year.” http://politi.co/2uS6SYt

SCOOP — “Trans Surgical Care in Military Is on Hold, Leaked Emails Say,” by Vice’s Diana Tourjee and Lindsay Schrupp: “A transgender member of the U.S. military … was scheduled to undergo a surgical procedure next week. However, according to the service member, the transition-related surgery—which they had been planning for several months—was abruptly canceled on Tuesday. A recent email sent to medical officials in the US military, a photograph of which was obtained by Broadly, explains why: ‘Surgery related to gender transition is to be held at this time, effective now, pending further guidance.’ In addition to the hold on new surgeries, the email mandates that ‘any planned surgeries for gender transition must be cancelled at this time.’” http://bit.ly/2waUNxr

— STEWART MCLAURIN interviews former White House Social Secretaries Ann Stock and Amy Zantzinger for “The 1600 Sessions” podcast about what it’s like to plan events in the Executive Mansion. http://bit.ly/2va8k3T

FLAGGING FOR THE PRESIDENT — There is a horse in the 5th race at Saratoga today named “Tweeter in Chief” owned by Marylou Whitney, with 15-1 odds of winning. (h/t Michael Longo).

CLICKER – “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 16 keepers http://politi.co/2wavxr8

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Nantucket:

–“Our Minds Have Been Hijacked by Our Phones. Tristan Harris Wants to Rescue Them,” by Wired’s Nicholas Thompson: “Sometimes our smart phones are our friends, sometimes they seem like our lovers, and sometimes they’re our dope dealers. And no one, in the past 12 months at least, has done more than Tristan Harris to explain the complexity of this relationship. Harris is a former product manager at Google who has gone viral repeatedly by critiquing the way that the big platforms—Apple, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram—suck us into their products and take time that, in retrospect, we may wish we did not give.” http://bit.ly/2w5uFUC

–“‘We Just Feel Like We Don’t Belong Here Anymore,’” by Becca Andrews in Mother Jones: “Think it’s hard for the white working class in rural America? Try being a person of color.” http://bit.ly/2i7ZLFt (h/t Longreads.com)

–“The Body Language of Power,” by Andreas Kluth in Handelsblatt: “In a world of bullies and machos, Angela Merkel keeps ending up on top. Andreas Kluth, our editor-in-chief, deconstructs how.” http://bit.ly/2vFPTr8

–“What Science Tells Us About Good and Evil,” by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee in NatGeo: “After a killing and a violent neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, the nation wrestles with why we commit such unspeakable acts.” http://on.natgeo.com/2waz6xF

–“Kennedy’s Forgotten Coalition: Working Class Catholics,” by Charles F. McElwee III in the American Conservative: “After decades of Democratic fealty, JFK’s ‘tribal benediction’ went Trump.” http://bit.ly/2wZlra0

–“How a Journalist Uncovered the True Identity of Jihadi John,” by Souad Mekhennet on Longreads in an excerpt of “I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad”: “Mekhennet’s thrilling tale of late-night rendezvous, burner phones, and secret codes — and her quest to reveal the man in black.” http://bit.ly/2w5lC6i … $17.81 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2wdi5mP

–“Children of Catholic priests live with secrets and sorrow,” by Boston Globe’s Michael Rezendes: “If a life can have a crystallizing moment, for Jim Graham that 1993 meeting was it, discovering that his father might have been a Catholic priest, rather than John Graham, the distant man who raised him with scarcely a kind or comforting word.” http://bit.ly/2w5bLNU (h/t Longform.org)

–“How SB Nation Profits Off An Army Of Exploited Workers,” by Deadspin’s Laura Wagner: “Deadspin spoke to more than a dozen current and former site managers … and found that SB Nation appears to be a system that, despite claims to being driven by passion, is driven by business imperatives; that offers little daily editorial guidance beyond deleting and apologizing for the racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or otherwise unacceptable posts that occasionally appear; that potentially exists in a legal gray area; and that is run by executives willing to go to great lengths to justify a business model that exploits thousands of poorly paid men and women.” http://bit.ly/2uT8qxC (h/t Longform.org)

–“The World Is Running Out of Sand,” by The New Yorker’s David Owen: “It’s one of our most widely used natural resources, but it’s scarcer than you think.” http://bit.ly/2uT65CR

–“Hostile Terrain: Tank Traps, Fake Towns & Secret Tunnels of the Korean Borderlands,” by Kurt Kohlstedt on 99 Percent Invisible: “Strange structures start to appear all around as one drives toward the Korean Demilitarized Zone from either side of the border. There are overhead signs and what appear to be bridges connecting nothing at either end, roadside concrete blocks stacked like Brutalist totem poles, beach ball-sized steel orbs rusting on stumpy pedestals and other odd varieties. While the forms vary, these odd assemblies share a common purpose: in case of war, explosives can quickly turn them into defensive rubble.” http://bit.ly/2fOhf8W

–“Letter From Abuja: The Fading Sheen of Nigeria’s Capital City,” by Mathias Agbo, Jr. in Common Edge – per The Browser’s description: “Portrait of Nigeria’s capital city, purpose-built in the 1980s and now home to five million people, who have flocked there because Abuja is safer and better-run than other big cities, and in the hope of government jobs. But outside the core, Abuja has grown without planning or infrastructure. There is no city-wide public transport system. Most residential neighborhoods lack roads and streetlights. Only the older districts have mains water. Residents of newer neighborhoods must drill boreholes.” http://bit.ly/2fNRg1w

SPOTTED: Mike Allen hustling to make his Southwest Airlines flight to Nashville out of DCA this morning, as gate agents paged him overhead. “Mike made it, with just seconds to spare; they shut the doors after him,” per our tipster.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD – Kristen Hinman, articles editor at Washingtonian, and Tim Embree, a congressional relations officer for the VA, post on Facebook: “Overjoyed to welcome Dorothy Louise Hinman Embree to our family! She was born late Wednesday afternoon, 7 lbs 10 oz and a monster 20.5 inches, and is named for two of her late great grandmothers. We bet she’ll turn out to be as spunky, fierce, and independent as they both were!” Pic http://bit.ly/2vRwiTr

POOL REPORT from Hoover’s “Outside the Beltway” media roundtable on Friday in Palo Alto: We heard from five speakers on issues like taxes and the economy, pensions, and entitlements. Economic historian Niall Ferguson started off his talk by positing that “social networks are highly in-egalitarian. Most social networks are characterized by extreme inequality.” He said that social networks “amplify existing inequality and not reduce it.” He also disputed the notion held by some that President Donald Trump is a tyrant. “The president looks like the weakest in recent memory, not like a tyrant.” Attendees included The Economist’s Ryan Avent, Sinclair’s David Bernknopf, CNNMoney’s Matt Egan, Fox Business’ Francesca Conti, WaPo’s James Hohmann and Catherine Rampell, RealClearMarkets’ John Tamny, NYT’s Nelson Schwartz and Vox’s Jim Tankersley. Pic of Lanhee Chen and James Hohmann (making a funny face) at the opening dinner at Il Fornaio on Thursday night — photo credit: Marlon Bateman http://politi.co/2wiMksF

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Vanity Fair’s Maya Kosoff turned 25 (hat tip: Jeremy Barr) … (was Thursday): Bloomberg’s Ben Brody turned 3-0 and celebrated at DC9 on Friday night with friends (h/t Daniel Strauss)

BIRTHDAYS: President Bill Clinton is 71 … Mary Matalin … Tipper Gore (h/t Hilary Rosen) … former FCC chair Julius Genachowski, now managing director in the U.S. buyout team of the global telecom, media and technology at the Carlyle Group, is 55 … Sara Durkin, celebrating with her boys and dear family friends on Kiawah Island (hubby tip: James Rosen) … WSJ’s Brody Mullins … Tom Rogers, former president and CEO of TiVo and founder of CNBC … Scott Milburn … Tabitha Soren is 5-0 … Politico’s Michelle Bloom and Rebecca McAlexander … Haley Leonard … Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, and an avid Playbooker … Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) is 4-0 … Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) is 45 … Neil Grace, senior comms adviser at the FCC, and his twin bro Danny (h/ts Nikki Schwab and Olivia Petersen) … NYT tech columnist Farhad Manjoo … Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is 54 (h/t Blake Waggoner) … Emily Goodin, managing editor at Real Clear Politics … Daily Caller publisher and CEO Neil Patel, also co-founder and managing director of Bluebird Asset Management, is 48 … Adam Conner, senior account executive at Slack and a Facebook alum (h/t Jon Haber) … WSJ video journalist Madeline Marshall … Jamie Glick is 31 … Adam Tomlinson … Daniel Nassar, research analyst at Glenview Capital …

… Mark Seibel, BuzzFeed national security editor … Targeted Victory managing director Ryan Meerstein (h/t Zac Moffatt, who’s a birthday boy tomorrow) … Shannon Campagna, senior policy adviser at Alston & Bird LLP and a Mars alum (h/t Paul Braithwaite) … Tish Wells … Steve Owen is 61 … Elizabeth Bibi, deputy director of media relations for Gov. Cuomo … Rebecca Ayer … Kari Smith Gibson … Andrew Vlasaty … Missy Kurek … Facebook’s Eva Guidarini is 25 … Kate Pomeroy … former Rhode Island attorney general Arlene Violet … Alan Pyke … Chris Choi … Reid Rosenberg … Leon Saffelle … Colin Kavanaugh … Trevor Foughty, director of gov’t relations and comms at Indiana University … Maggie Cleary … Jack Livingston, senior manager of gov’t relations at Raytheon … Carol Waller … Jenna Matthis … Will Craft … Will McPherson … Trevor Daley … Shelby Knox … Matthew Beck … photojournalist Ralph Alswang … Scott Hogenson … Jillian Bandes … Chandreyee Chakraborty … Shomik Dutta … Linda Chappetto … John Sasso … Lisa Guide, spending her day exercising to prepare to win the Empire Cross Country Ski race in 2018 (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:

— CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) … Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund president and director-counsel Sherrilyn Ifill, Life After Hate co-founder Christian Picciolini and VICE News’ Elle Reeve. Panel: Jamelle Bouie, Jeffrey Goldberg, Julie Pace and Reihan Salam

— CNN’s “State of the Union”: Ohio Gov. John Kasich … Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Panel: Bakari Sellers, Rick Santorum, Nina Turner and Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.)

— “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Panel: Charles Hurt, Bob Woodward, Gillian Turner and Juan Williams (substitute host: Fox News’ Bill Hemmer)

— NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Former Mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young, Jr. … new NBC News/Marist poll results from Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin … author Mark Bray and Southern Poverty Law Center president Richard Cohen. Panel: Donna Edwards, Stephen Hayes, Peggy Noonan and Eugene Robinson

— ABC’s “This Week”: Guests to be announced

— CNN’s “Inside Politics”: Julie Pace, Michael Bender, Michael Warren and Jackie Calmes (substitute host: CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson)

— CNN’s “Reliable Sources”: Josh Green and Jonathan Lemire … Carl Bernstein, Douglas Brinkley and Alice Stewart … Tanzina Vega and Nikole Hannah-Jones

— Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”: Mike Huckabee … American Center for Law and Justice president Jordan Sekulow … AHA Foundation founder and human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali … Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.). Panel: Ed Rollins and Mary Kissel

— Fox News’ “MediaBuzz”: Erin McPike … Gayle Trotter … Simon Rosenberg … Larry Sabato … The Washington Times’ Cheryl Chumley … Leslie Marshall … Shelby Holliday

— Univision’s “Al Punto”: Pablo Monsalvo … Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) … Al Cardenas … Chelsea Alvarado … Ilia Calderón … white supremacy movement follower Jared Taylor … Sheriff Joe Arpaio … Griselda Triana

— C-SPAN: “The Communicators”: FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, questioned by Event Driven News’ Lydia Beyoud … “Newsmakers”: Senate Majority PAC president J.B. Poersch, questioned by The Washington Post’s Sean Sullivan and McClatchy’s Alex Roarty … “Q&A”: Author and Real Clear Politics Washington Bureau Chief Carl Cannon

— Washington Times’ “Mack on Politics” weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher or listen at http://bit.ly/2r37J6h): Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist.

****** A message from the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs (CAPD): The high prices that drug makers set for prescription drugs can put financial strain on patients, employers, unions and others who provide health care coverage to more than 50 percent of Americans. Pharmacy benefit managers negotiate the lowest net price for prescriptions on behalf of employers, unions and government programs. But, as list prices – the starting point for those negotiations — continue their nearly double-digit increases, the effects ripple throughout the system. The key to ensuring greater access and affordability lies in fostering greater competition. Facilitating faster reviews of generics and biosimilars, identifying off-patent drugs with little or no generic competition, and ending anti-competitive practices that keep safe, effective alternatives out of the market are also key to abating rising drug costs for patients. Learn more at affordableprescriptiondrugs.org ******

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