President Trump again lambasted the six Democratic lawmakers who urged military and intelligence members to “refuse illegal orders,” saying in a late night Truth Social post the lawmakers“SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW,” Mediaite reports.
He added: “MANY GREAT LEGAL SCHOLARS AGREE.”
“For years, Jewish Republicans often denied that the right had a serious problem with antisemitism, pointing instead to anti-Jewish bigotry on the left and celebrating President Trump’s support for Israel,” the New York Times reports.
“But now that problem is staring them directly in the face.”
“Tensions over antisemitism in the party, free speech and Israel have burst to the forefront of G.O.P. politics, and show signs of becoming a fierce point of contention in 2026 primary races and beyond.”
Ron Brownstein: “The latest ideas from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to reconfigure the Affordable Care Act face the same dilemma that every GOP alternative has confronted since Trump’s first term: The plan would impose its greatest costs on key groups within the Trump-era Republican electoral coalition.”
“With the approaching expiration of enhanced subsidies that help Americans buy insurance through the ACA, Republicans are staring down the political threat of large premium hikes for up to 20 million people and the loss of coverage for millions more. In response, Trump and key congressional Republicans have proposed to convert all or part of the ACA subsidies into direct payments to individuals to pay for health care.”
“That approach could initially benefit younger and healthier consumers. But most experts agree it would increase costs and diminish access for older, lower-income and non-college-educated people with greater health needs. And those older, working-class families are now more essential to the Republican than Democratic electoral coalition.”
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“Some House lawmakers want their colleagues punished, and it’s driving everyone else a little mad,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Members demanded a series of votes to censure or otherwise denounce colleagues this week, and one threatened an expulsion, all taking advantage of a House rule that allows any single lawmaker to get a vote on a privileged resolution. With the House back in town this month after 54 days out of session, interpersonal dramas and long-running feuds burst into the open, sometimes turning members against their own parties, and leadership was largely powerless to stop it.”
New York Times: “Mr. Patel’s heavy use of taxpayer-funded resources during his first nine months on the job has contributed to growing questions inside the administration about whether it exceeds the bounds of standard practice. This includes an intense use of security to protect himself and his girlfriend.”
“He has also used a government jet for some of his recreational travel, such as a golf trip with buddies to a private resort in Scotland over the summer.”
“President Donald Trump faces an unexpected rift in the MAGA movement as Republican officials from statehouses to Capitol Hill warn his full-throated embrace of the tech industry’s artificial intelligence boom risks undermining Americans’ economic security and exposing their children to new harms,” the Washington Post reports.
“In April, Alina Habba, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, extolled her office’s role in the sentencing of a former nursing home magnate to three years in prison for defrauding the government of $38 million. The man, Joseph Schwartz, was alleged to have overseen a ‘collapsed nursing home empire’ and ‘willfully’ failed to pay employment taxes, Habba’s announcement said,” the Washington Post reports.
“Around that time, Schwartz paid $960,000 to two lobbyists ‘seeking a federal pardon,’ according to their lobbying filing.”
“While many people have sought pardons from President Donald Trump, few could afford to spend such a sum to seek their freedom. The disclosure provides a rare look at how federal convicts are maneuvering to gain clemency during Trump’s second term and at some of the people offering to help them.”
“Just when it appeared that President Trump’s hold over his party might be slipping, his most vocal Republican antagonist seemed to back away from the fight,” the New York Times reports.
“The shock resignation of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who transformed from the ultimate MAGA loyalist to a confounding critic of the president, showed that Mr. Trump remains both formidable and feared in Republican politics. Even as a lame-duck president, he is still able to exact retribution against conservative apostates and bring down onetime followers who dare to cross him.”
“At the same time, her departure represents far more than just another political notch in Mr. Trump’s belt: The defiant nature of her nearly 11-minute video announcement on Friday evening, which quickly went viral, hinted at the fissures now dividing the president’s movement.”
“U.S. lawmakers attempted Saturday to reverse days of confusion around a leaked peace plan for Ukraine, saying Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured them the document does not represent the Trump administration’s position,” Politico reports.
“He described the plan as a Russian proposal, they said, and not a U.S. initiative.”
Wall Street Journal: “President Trump said Saturday he could be open to changes in the administration’s 28-point plan for ending the war in Ukraine after Kyiv, European governments and even some Republican lawmakers denounced it as far too heavily weighted in Moscow’s favor.”
“The federal prosecution of former FBI director James Comey is teetering after a series of missteps, a sign of broader challenges ahead for the Justice Department in its pursuit of cases favored by President Trump,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“After a rough stretch in court, there are at least three different ways the department’s case against Comey could be upended, if not dismissed outright, in the coming weeks.”
“Even by the standards of the raucous House of Representatives, the past week was an exceptionally caustic one, with lawmakers from both parties lobbing or threatening no fewer than a half-dozen censures and official scoldings at one another,” the New York Times reports.
“The purported offenses ran the gamut. One Democrat plotted to handpick his successor, while another texted with the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. A Republican was accused by his colleagues of contracting abuses, faking his military honors and assaulting a woman at his apartment. A third Democrat was indicted on charges that she stole Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.”
“It was a vivid illustration of how official House rebukes, once exceedingly rare and mostly a matter of consensus for the most egregious conduct or illegal acts by a sitting member of Congress, have become commonplace in recent years.”
The Economist: “It is hard to know whether to laugh or panic. The 28-point peace plan that America is hawking around as a basis for ending the war in Ukraine is so poorly put together, so vague, unbalanced and impractical that, in a more normal world, it would never have seen the light of day—and once leaked it would have been quietly dumped.”
President Trump said Saturday he would like to see Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resume her political career at some point, despite their recent falling out, NBC News reports.
In the meantime, Trump said, “she’s got to take a little rest.”
“It’s no secret that Elon Musk shapes the X social platform and X’s ‘maximally truth-seeking’ Grok AI chatbot to his preferences. But it’s possible Musk may have needed a bit of an extra ego boost this week, because Grok’s worship of its creator seems, shall we say, more noticeable than usual,” The Verge reports.
“As a number of people have pointed out on social media over the past day, Grok’s public-facing chatbot is currently prone to insisting on Musk’s prowess at absolutely anything, no matter how unlikely — or conversely, embarrassing — a given feat is.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said the White House has made it “explicitly clear” President Trump won’t endorse any of his GOP opponents, despite his challengers attacking Cassidy’s MAGA credentials, the Shreveport Times reports.
Playbook: “Cassidy notably voted to convict Trump during the former president’s second impeachment trial in 2021. With that history, the assurance that Trump will not oppose his reelection bid lands as an early holiday gift.”
New Yorker: “The FBI director isn’t just enforcing the President’s agenda at the Bureau—he’s seeking retribution for its past investigations of Donald Trump.”
Tom Nichols: “Presidents often lose control over their agenda, or the policy process, or pieces of legislation. Sometimes, they even lose control of their party. But Donald Trump seems to have lost control over the one thing every person, and especially those with immense power, should always maintain control over: himself. Yesterday the president called for the arrest and execution of elected American officials for the crime—as he sees it—of fidelity to the Constitution.”
“It would be easy merely to note, yet again, that the president is a depraved man and a menace to the American system of government. As remarkable as it is to say it, however, the outbursts of this past week are different, and were likely triggered by Trump’s panic over the release of files about his former friend, the dead sex offender Jeffery Epstein. No one should treat this new phase in the president’s aggression against democracy as just another episode in the Trump reality show.”
“The Trump administration has told Ukrainian and European officials there is little room to negotiate on its plan to end Russia’s war, as the US heaps pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sign a deal drawn up with Moscow’s help by Thursday,” the Financial Times reports.
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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