“A perturbed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told President Trump late Sunday that the federal investigation into the Federal Reserve chair ‘made a mess’ and could be bad for financial markets,” Axios reports.
“Sunday night, Trump appeared to distance himself from the investigation of Fed chair Jerome Powell for allegedly misrepresenting the costs of renovations to the Federal Reserve’s headquarters in D.C.“
“Harvard University enrolled a record number of international students in the current academic year, even as the Trump administration sought repeatedly to curb student visas and funding for the Ivy League school,” Bloomberg reports.
“President Trump has complained to aides repeatedly in recent weeks about Attorney General Pam Bondi, describing her as weak and an ineffective enforcer of his agenda,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The criticisms appear to be part of an intense campaign by Trump to pressure the Justice Department to more aggressively pursue his priorities… Trump has previously criticized Bondi at times but his vocal concerns about his attorney general have grown more frequent in recent months.”
“This month, Trump has talked with allies about how he could appoint special counsels at the Justice Department because he is so frustrated with what he sees as the slow progress of its work.”
“The Trump administration’s decision to open a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell is backfiring,” Punchbowl News reports.
“GOP lawmakers and former Federal Reserve officials are rallying to show support for Powell and the Fed’s role as an independent regulator of the U.S. economy. And it’s not just rank-and-file Republicans coming to Powell’s defense.”
“House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-AR), whose panel oversees the Federal Reserve and Wall Street, said he believes that the criminal charges are ‘an unnecessary distraction’ when policy makers should be focused on ‘the nation’s economy.'”
“The White House is weighing a last-ditch Iranian offer to engage in diplomacy over curbing its nuclear program even as President Trump currently leans toward authorizing fresh military strikes on Iran,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Some senior administration aides, led by Vice President JD Vance, are urging Trump to try diplomacy before retaliating against Iran for killing protesters during a two-week uprising over a flailing economy and regime repression.”
“Democrats sent Republicans a proposal over the weekend to renew enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years, paired with extensions of other expiring health programs,” Axios reports.
“Sunday’s offer shows there’s increasing bipartisan sentiment to address long-stalled priorities like overhauling pharmacy benefit manager business practices — even if prospects for the ACA subsidies are much murkier.”
“A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation is headed to Copenhagen later this week in an attempt to show unity between the United States and Denmark as President Donald Trump continues to threaten to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of the NATO ally,” the AP reports.
“The Justice Department has fired the No. 2 official in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia after he declined to lead the controversial prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey,” MS NOW reports.
Politico: “The fresh-out-of-a-job former New York City mayor blew back into his hometown Monday in between jaunts to Dubai, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Dallas to promote his new crypto coin with a cause.”
“Proceeds from the $NYC Token will go toward combating antisemitism and anti-Americanism, he said.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) has filed a lawsuit against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying attempt to demote his retirement rank and pay was “unlawful and unconstitutional,” Politico reports.
New York Times: “Under President Trump, the EPA plans to stop tallying gains from the health benefits caused by curbing two of the most widespread deadly air pollutants, fine particulate matter and ozone, when regulating industry.”
“It’s a seismic shift that runs counter to the EPA’s mission statement, which says the agency’s core responsibility is to protect human health and the environment.”
“Jerome Powell wanted to avoid a fight. That had long been his approach to handling President Trump and his relentless attacks on the Federal Reserve, which in his second term had taken on heightened intensity,” the New York Times reports.
“Between an executive order wresting more control over the Fed’s oversight of Wall Street to Mr. Trump’s attempt to oust a sitting member of the policy-setting board of governors, the Fed had stuck to a time-tested strategy: Avoid provoking the president. At times, that meant bending to meet his demands in areas like climate change and bank regulation. But Mr. Powell, the Fed chair, drew the line when it came to protecting the central bank’s autonomy to set interest rates.”
“A criminal investigation into whether Mr. Powell lied to Congress… has prompted the central bank to cast aside that approach and instead fight, the outcome of which could determine whether the Fed remains an independent entity.”
Washington Post: Former Fed chiefs rebuke Justice Department probe into Fed chair.
“President Trump wants to spend. He also wants, where possible, to avoid congressional interference and bigger deficits. Enter the balance sheet,” Axios reports.
“The president is going through the couch cushions of government — $200 billion from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for mortgage bonds, $20 billion from a Treasury fund for Argentina — to advance his policy priorities.”
“Critics say it’s nontraditional at best, and autocrat-adjacent at worst.”
“Child care providers, already under financial strain, face their greatest test yet as the Trump administration imposes new rules and restrictions on funding,” Axios reports.
“Federal money underpins the entire industry — vital to millions of parents trying to manage work and family, across all income levels.”
“Donald Trump said he regrets not getting the U.S. national guard to seize voting machines after his 2020 election defeat ended his first presidency, as he continues to falsely claim that he won the race,” The Guardian reports.
“But he has also questioned whether national guard troops would be ‘sophisticated enough’ to pull something like that off.”
“Democratic Party insiders are beginning to puzzle over one of the more consequential decisions for the party’s future: which states should vote first in the 2028 presidential primary elections,” the New York Times reports.
“Should Democrats begin the primary race with a battleground state? Is a racially diverse state like Nevada — with its big Latino population — the way to go? Or is a smaller state like New Hampshire, with its long tradition of town hall events and passionate voters, best?”
“Perhaps the party should return to South Carolina, whose base of Black voters is the heart of the party in a region where Democrats desperately need to improve? Or maybe Democrats should go back to Iowa, full of the types of rural voters whom the party has so thoroughly lost touch with?”
“A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are expressing unease with the Justice Department’s move to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a sign that the probe could become a major inflection point over GOP lawmakers’ concerns about central bank independence,” Politico reports.
The Guardian: Republican senator vows to block all Fed nominations after DOJ investigates Powell.
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.
