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“In a three-day period this week, President Donald Trump sued JPMorgan and its chief executive, snubbed the head of Bank of America and doubled down on capping credit card interest rates, an industry cash cow,” the Financial Times reports.
“The chaotic week encapsulated the experience of U.S. lenders in Trump’s second term: executives are caught in a jarring contrast, balancing the constant risk of his ire against the benefits of the most bank-friendly policy agenda since the financial crisis.”
New York Times: “It was a formula familiar to anyone who has tracked the approach to power that Mr. Trump honed in the New York real estate world and brought with him to the White House, one that leans heavily on bullying and an ability to keep opponents off-balance.”
“But this week Mr. Trump also discovered the limits of his coercive powers. After he threatened a wave of new tariffs, markets fell abruptly, which always seizes his attention. Allies objected, this time openly. And by the time the president returned to Washington on Thursday night, it was clear that he had left considerable damage to the Western alliance in his wake.”
“When the climb-down came, it was with only the vaguest explanation from the president.”
“The ongoing protests and images coming out of Minnesota have prompted concerns from some Trump administration officials over the optics of the immigration crackdown as Americans grow alarmed by the chaotic scenes unfolding in the state,” CNN reports.
“President Donald Trump has expressed frustration behind closed doors that the immigration messaging is getting lost… Trump has sought to take control of the narrative, starting with an impromptu press conference on the anniversary of his first year in office.”
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Playbook: “This Davos felt like an electric shock treatment was being delivered to the international system… It’s been over a year of Trump throwing cold water on U.S. relations with some of our biggest allies. Until this week, European leaders were nearly bending over backward to please him…”
“But that world order is now endangered, if not already over… Look no further than leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron leaving Davos without even meeting Trump — a sign that officials who once rushed to try to get in front of Trump to shape his views are now questioning the utility of that approach.”
“European populist champions are turning away from a U.S. president they once openly admired,” Politico reports.
“As Donald Trump escalates his attacks on the continent, his scorched-earth approach to transatlantic relations is becoming a political liability — even for leaders who previously benefited from their association with him.”
“The Republican National Committee voted Friday to hold a midterm political convention, launching an unusual GOP festival that President Donald Trump will headline in hopes of rallying supporters to focus on the critical fall fight for control of Congress,” CNN reports.
“To fulfill Trump’s wish of staging a political convention later this year, Republican leaders had to change party rules that previously only called for a convention during presidential election years.”
Politico: “Democrats, who held a series of midterm-year national conventions in the 1970s, are also flirting with the possibility.”
It was an embarrassing moment for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) as a resolution to block President Trump from launching military action in Venezuela without congressional approval nearly passed, the New York Times reports.
Clinging to a razor-thin majority, Johnson needed just one more Republican vote to defeat the measure. He kept the vote open for 22 awkward minutes while Democrats jeered and Capitol Police rushed Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) from the airport to the Capitol to cast the deciding vote.
Hunt, who recently launched a primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), has missed 95 percent of roll-call votes since mid-December, showing up for just three of 58 votes.
Still, on Friday, Hunt issued a triumphant statement defending his absenteeism — and suggesting he deserved praise simply for showing up.
Iran’s top prosecutor on Friday called President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he halted the hangings of 800 detained protesters there “completely false,” the AP reports.
Said Mohammad Movahedi: “This claim is completely false; no such number exists, nor has the judiciary made any such decision.”
“Offering a startlingly candid view into the philosophy guiding vaccine recommendations under the Trump administration, the leader of the federal panel that recommends vaccines for Americans said shots against polio and measles — and perhaps all diseases — should be optional, offered only in consultation with a clinician,” the New York Times reports.
Anne Applebaum: “Maybe there’s a broader goal, too: to build distrust, and, ultimately, to reshape all Americans’ perceptions of reality. I know that sounds dramatic, but I spent many years writing about authoritarian regimes, and almost all of them try to undermine admired institutions, in order to radically alter the way people think.”
European military veterans, families of the fallen, and politicians have voiced outrage after President Trump claimed the U.S. had “never needed” its NATO allies, and that allied troops had stayed “a little off the front lines” during the 20-year war in Afghanistan, CBS News reports.
“More than 2,200 American troops were killed in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. The Reuters news agency says 457 British military personnel, 150 Canadians and 90 French troops died alongside them. Denmark lost 44 troops in Afghanistan — in per capita terms, about the same death rate as that of the United States.”
“President Trump said late Thursday that a large naval force was heading to Iran, continuing his threats of U.S. military action against the government nearly a month after protests erupted across the country,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “We’re watching Iran. We have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens.”
President Trump cautioned Gov. Josh Shapiro about running for president, telling him the job is “very, very dangerous,” the Pennsylvania governor said in a CBS News interview.
Said Shapiro: “And he said, ‘You know, being president’s a really dangerous job.’ And he rattled off other jobs that have a lower fatality rate than presidents. And he said, ‘It’s very, very dangerous. Just be careful.'”
He added: “I said, ‘Mr. President, I’m not looking to run for president.’ And he said, ‘Well, I just wanted to share that with you.’ And so it was a strange conversation that bounced through a lot of different topics. But look, I appreciate the fact that he called.”
The Trump administration is cancelling $30 billion in green loans and revising another $53 billion, NewsNation reports.
NBC News: “Back then, Ramaswamy positioned himself at the far-right flank of a Republican Party that was about to once again nominate Donald Trump. The son of legal immigrants, he proposed ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and condemned ‘woke’ culture. He invoked the “great replacement theory” — the idea that white people are being marginalized by migrants and people of color. He was very online.”
“This time, Ramaswamy has Trump’s endorsement for a job that a Democrat hasn’t won in 20 years. He is also calling out bigotry and racism, while adopting a congenial tone more reminiscent of the Republican he hopes to succeed, term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine. Once a brash showman, Ramaswamy now presents himself to Ohioans as an open-minded statesman.”
“The 2024 election was a dark chapter for Democrats nearly across the board, as they lost not only the presidential race but also both the House and the Senate,” The Hill reports.
“Sen. Ruben Gallego’s win in Arizona, against that backdrop, was one of the few bright spots of the cycle for the party.”
“In winning his Senate seat in a competitive red state, Gallego figured out a way to appeal not only to Hispanic voters — who ended up largely supporting President Trump — but also cutting through to the working class, a vital demographic seeping away from the Democratic Party.”
“Now, some of the senator’s allies argue Gallego could apply the same strategy in a 2028 presidential election.”
“The White House on Thursday posted an altered photo of an attorney arrested after a Minnesota church protest, edited to make it look like she was crying, sparking concern among some forensic-image experts about the administration’s distortion of real-world imagery,” the Washington Post reports.
“In a photo posted to X on Thursday morning by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the attorney, Nekima Levy Armstrong, appears in handcuffs with a blank expression on her face.”
“Vice President JD Vance is the Trump administration’s unofficial envoy to Gen Z. But young Trump supporters may not be all that enamored with him as they weigh their 2028 options,” Politico reports.
“In a focus group of nine young men who supported Trump in 2024, conducted Monday by Longwell Partners… they showed tepid enthusiasm about the vice president and suggested he is too bridled by the baggage of Trump’s second term.”
Related for members: Young Voters Turn Hard Against Trump
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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