By Lawrence Ukenye, Lauren Egan and Eli Stokols

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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To those casually scrolling on X (formerly known as Twitter), it may be easy to assume that VICTOR SHI is the most energetic Gen Zer on the platform, though one plainly out of step with his generation.

For starters, Shi is really excited about JOE BIDEN’s reelection campaign. He blasts out dozens of tweets a day to his 238,000 followers about the president’s policy record. He constantly appears on cable news — he was on Fox News on Thursday to defend Biden’s efforts to ease student debt. And he goes after Republicans nonstop for, as he puts it, trying to undermine American democracy.

“Oh damn. Dark Brandon has just risen again & doesn’t hold back any punches for Sen. Ron Johnson during a speech in Wisconsin right now, directly calling Ron Johnson's disastrous economic vision,” Shi live tweeted on Tuesday during the president’s visit to a Milwaukee manufacturing facility. “This is Joe Biden at his best. This is how it’s done. Call all of them out.”

At 21, Shi, a senior at the University of California, Los Angeles, has become one of Biden’s most prolific defenders on air and online.

He is an outlier: a young person actually, deeply excited about Biden. And a proselytizer, too. Shi argues that young people are actually fired up about the president, despite what the polls might indicate. His verve and bravado are held up as proof that Biden’s age does not mean there is a lack of voter enthusiasm for him.

“If you look at what he's been able to do, during a presidency in which he barely had the House and barely had the Senate 50-50 in the first two years, I think it's pretty remarkable what he's been able to get done,” Shi told West Wing Playbook.

But if Shi is on a crusade to get young people hyped up to vote for Biden, he has his work cut out for him.

Young voters are an increasingly disaffected segment of the country’s electorate. A June Gallup poll found that only 18 percent of people ages 18-34 were extremely proud to be American. Gen Z voters routinely rank climate change and LGBTQ rights among the issues they value most, and have criticized Biden for approving the Willow Project, a controversial oil drilling plan in northern Alaska. Biden’s age has also been a factor for some wary young voters.

Despite all that, Shi believes Biden is the best person for the job in 2024 — and that young voters will show up next year to reelect him. He seems, at times, determined to will this idea into existence.

Shi touts the president on his Politicon’s podcast, “On the Move With Victor Shi,” where he recently interviewed press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE. He also hails Biden on “iGen Politics,” another podcast he co-hosts with JILL WINE-BANKS. He tries to reach older and more independent voters with his frequent appearances on Fox News — including one Thursday that earned a retweet from former chief of staff RON KLAIN. His activism has caught the eye of Biden staffers who have reached out to support his work (Shi declined to share who in the West Wing he’s heard from directly without their permission first).

Since Biden took office, the White House has engaged with TikTok stars and other social media influencers to spread their message to young voters. But those close to Shi say he stands out for his earnestness.

Shi got his start in politics interning for Rep. BRAD SCHNEIDER (D-Ill.) at 15 and later joined his high school’s political action club, moderating debates for the town’s local village board. He took advice from his government teacher to become a delegate for Illinois’ 10th Congressional District, and at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Shi was Biden’s youngest delegate at age 17.

He went on to intern at the White House last summer, working in the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and also worked as a communications intern for the DNC in January 2022.

For his contemporaries, this may seem all basically unrelatable. The age of 21 is meant for legally drinking, spending time doing dumb things with friends and only vaguely taking stock of the political world that surrounds you. But those who know Shi aren’t surprised that he’s become an informal Biden ambassador to the nation’s youth.

“At a very young age, you can see Victor was very skilled at creating networks,” ANDREW CONNEEN, Shi’s high school government teacher, told West Wing Playbook. “So probably even before he could drive, he was connecting with local candidates and party organizations to start building this network.”

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President THEODORE ROOSEVELT was famous for displaying heads of animals in the White House that he had personally shot. Which White House staffer is believed to be the first to kill and mount an animal head to a White House wall since Roosevelt?

(Answer at bottom.)

X MARKS THE SPOT: West Wing Playbook recently wrote about how Twitter’s shifting algorithm was becoming a nuisance not just for the reporters who have relied on the platform for years, but also for communications staffers who have similarly come to depend on it.

It seems like West Wing officials have just about had it with ELON MUSK. Staffers have started referring to Twitter verification in recent days as an “incel badge,” according to two White House staffers.

Sure, everyone agrees that paying for verification is lame. But to be fair, if that’s what it takes to keep access to TweetDeck …

FRIENDS FOREVER: Biden is looking to use Friday’s summit at Camp David to solidify ties between Japan and South Korea to help serve as a bulwark against China and North Korea, our ELI STOKOLS, PHELIM KINE and JENNIFER HABERKORN report. While things are far from perfect between the U.S. allies, the White House hopes to usher in a new era of relations amid their region’s changing geopolitical dynamic, the trio writes. Despite Seoul and Tokyo’s shared interests, “long-term progress sought from Friday’s meeting may hinge a great deal on how long the three leaders at Camp David are able to maintain their grip on power.”

EH, IT'S NOT LIKE THERE'S BEEN AN UPTICK IN COVID CASES RECENTLY: The Biden administration will not provide free updated Covid-19 vaccines to pharmacies until mid-October, which could create challenges for uninsured Americans. Nearly 30 million people could pay out-of-pocket for vaccines for the first time since the expiration of the government’s Covid public health emergency in May. The upcoming vaccination push is part of the administration’s effort to urge Americans to get a Covid shot annually as part of their routine. Our ADAM CANCRYN and DAVID LIM have the details.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about the Biden campaign’s plan to highlight the Republican primary debate next week as an example of — what they describe as — an increasingly extreme party. Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain and Biden campaign spokesperson KEVIN MUNOZ tweeted The Hill’s ALEX GANGITANO writeup of a DNC media blitz next week that will include billboards across Milwaukee, the site of the debate, and the set up of a war room to respond to Republican candidates’ comments.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: A new poll that found only 36 percent of Americans approve of how Biden has handled the economy. “Biden, 80, has yet to fully bring Democrats to his side as the lingering aftershocks of inflation still weigh on people’s minds,” AP’s JOSH BOAK and EMILY SWANSON write. The data reflects a continuing battle in the administration’s effort to sell voters on the president’s policies, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which turned one Wednesday.

A DAY-ONER STEPS AWAY: White House counsel STUART DELERY plans to leave his role next month, the president announced Thursday. “Delery has been a trusted adviser and a constant source of innovative legal thinking since Day One of my Administration,” Biden said in a statement.

Delery’s departure comes as White House staffers are deciding whether to leave the administration or stick around through the president’s reelection, as West Wing Playbook wrote Wednesday. But Delery leaves the White House counsel’s office as it confronts a special counsel investigation into HUNTER BIDEN and an ongoing classified documents case involving the president. House Republicans have also floated the possibility of launching an impeachment inquiry into the president.

MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: MORGAN MACNAUGHTON is now deputy director of partnerships at the White House. She most recently was marketing campaign manager at Palette MGMT.

— JORGE ZURITA-CORONADO is now adviser for strategic planning in the Office of Public Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. He most recently was special assistant and briefing book coordinator to the secretary at HHS.

— ELLA LIPIN is now deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of International Organization Affairs at the State Department. She most recently was senior adviser to the principal deputy national security adviser.

LET’S COMPROMISE, PLEASE: Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-Ariz.) is urging both the Biden administration and Sen. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-Ala.) to find a middle ground and end the monthslong hold on military promotions over the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy, NBC News’ ALLAN SMITH and SAHIL KAPUR report.

Sinema told an audience at the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce that she reached out to both sides to find a compromise, which is a departure from the Democrats’ position that Tuberville’s actions are for Republicans to solve.

The Pentagon’s spokesperson SABRINA SINGH told reporters that the DOD has no plans to compromise or change its policy and Democrats have no plans to accommodate the coach-turned-senator’s request.

NO NEED TO WORRY: U.S. imports of European electric vehicles have grown since the IRA was signed last year, thwarting fears of a trade battle with the EU over the climate law, our DOUG PALMER writes for Pro subscribers. The data is a boon to White House goals of ensuring half of all new vehicle sales by 2030 are EVs, even as some lawmakers continue to raise concerns about how the legislation isn’t benefiting domestic industries.

As Rosalynn turns 96, the Carters continue to defy the odds (WaPo’s Mary Jordan)

Why Child-Care Prices Are Rising at Nearly Twice the Overall Inflation Rate (WSJ’s Christian Robles)

Democratic Group Plans $10 Million Push to Protect Election Officials (NYT’s Nick Corasaniti)

Before becoming the DNC’s national press secretary, AMMAR MOUSSA had a very successful collegiate running career at the University of Colorado. A two-time All-American, his fastest 1500 was 3:42 (which converts to a 4:00 mile) and his 5K time was 13:41. In 2015, he won a Pac-12 title, coming in first in the 10K.

But college sports are hard and there are lots of ups and downs, a dynamic that Moussa captured in a 2017 essay he wrote for the track and field site, Citius Mag, “Breaking up with running: A reflection.”

Over the course of 1,700 words, Moussa concludes that “instead of breaking up with running, I think it’s time for a little break. … The strongest relationships are the ones that are worth fighting for, and why wouldn’t I fight for my first love?”

Nowadays, we’re told Moussa has largely retired from the sport, aside from the occasional treadmill sprint at Orangetheory.

PAUL BEGALA, former counselor to President BILL CLINTON. According to his sister KATHLEEN, Begala shot a deer, had the head mounted and put it on display in his West Wing office. We leave you with this photo evidence:

Courtesy of Kathleen Begala

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.

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