Wall Street RIFs, Musk vs. MacKenzie, the DeSantis Question

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to what’s new at Puck.

Today, we lead with Tara Palmeri’s provocative reporting on how Washington insiders and party operatives are privately responding to (and capitalizing on) the Supreme Court’s historic decision overturning Roe v. Wade—a political earthquake that could scramble D.C.’s midterm forecasts and force Ron DeSantis to make an enormous ’24 gamble.

Plus, below the fold, Teddy Schleifer chats with Puck executive editor Benjamin Landy about how the billionaire donor class is responding to the tech-stock meltdown. And Bill Cohan joins Peter Hamby to relay how reduced deal flow on Wall Street has bankers fretting over “reductions in force” and the dwindling size of their bonuses.

The professional political class, however, is still not quite sure what to make of the issue, or how to use it to their political advantage ahead of the midterm elections. The reversal itself has energized the voting base for both parties, but lawmakers, congressional aides and operatives are privately terrified that the extremes of their parties could hijack the conversation and turn off the low-propensity voters that they need to engage this November.

Since the ruling dropped on Friday, I’ve been working the phones to canvas political insiders about what they’re hearing and projecting. Here are the handful of themes that people are privately talking about right now regarding the reversal of Roe v. Wade and its political consequences.