“President Trump is prioritizing taking control of the Strait of Hormuz as he grows frustrated by the lack of military help from allies to force open the economically crucial waterway,” the New York Post reports.
“And once Trump ends Iran’s reign of terror over the global shipping route, he’s considering rechristening it the ‘Strait of America’ or even after himself.”
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New York Times: “The SAVE America Act, which President Trump envisions as legislation that can both crack down on illegal immigrants voting and transgender surgeries, is not the type of bill that appears designed to pass into law. Democrats detest it, Republicans have few realistic options to maneuver around them to advance it, and the two sides have engaged in no serious negotiations.”
“Mr. Trump himself acknowledges the bill’s dismal prospects.”
“Yet Mr. Trump is insisting on a monthslong public fight over the bill, and the hodgepodge of provisions he is demanding be added to it, while threatening to hold up other business.”
TMZ is tracking down lawmakers who left Washington, D.C. without funding the Department of Homeland Security.
Wall Street Journal: “Wall Street is trading like the worst pain from the war with Iran is yet to come.”
“For weeks, while missiles and drones flew around one of the world’s key energy producing regions, investors’ hopes for a quick resolution buffered stocks from steep declines. A selloff in bonds stayed in line with past conflicts. A run-up in crude futures appeared to lag far behind the scope of a disruption that could be the most severe oil shock in history.”
“But an intensifying rout in recent days pulled the S&P 500 down for a fifth straight week to its lowest levels since August and dragged the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite into correction—off more than 10% from their recent highs.”
YouGov did a deep dive into the Cooperative Election Study and found:
“House Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement. This gambit that was done last night is a joke.”
— Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), quoted by the New York Times, rejecting the Senate bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
“Iran-linked hackers have broken into FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email inbox, publishing photographs of the director and other documents to the internet,” Reuters reports.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that the United States did not need ground troops to succeed in the war in Iran, which he said would end within weeks rather than months, even as Iran moved to assert its control over the critical Strait of Hormuz,” the New York Times reports.
The Wall Street Journal reports Rubio said the war would continue for two to four weeks.
New York Times: “The S&P 500 is on course for its fifth straight week of losses and its worst weekly losing streak in roughly four years.”
New York Times: “Elon Musk participated in a phone call on Tuesday with President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, an unusual appearance by a private citizen on a call between two heads of state during a wartime crisis.”
“The inclusion of Mr. Musk, confirmed by two U.S. officials, suggests that the world’s richest man is back on better terms with the president. The two men had a falling out last summer following the billionaire’s departure from the government, where he had been tasked with slashing the work force. They appear to have smoothed things over in recent months.”
“President Trump signed an executive order to pay Transportation Security Administration workers, a White House official said, bypassing a gridlocked Congress after the latest proposal to fund the broader Department of Homeland Security ran aground,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The Iran war is sending longer-term borrowing costs surging amid prospects for higher inflation, fewer Federal Reserve rate cuts and more federal borrowing,” Axios reports.
“Higher rates create new pressure for an already-faltering housing sector, make the U.S. government’s fiscal challenges worse and could weigh on business investment and consumers alike.”
“It contrasts with past geopolitical tumult, when money frequently flowed into Treasury securities as a safe haven.”
NOTUS: “House Republican leadership said Friday that they will not vote on the Senate’s funding deal for the Department of Homeland Security, and the Senate has already skipped town for a two week recess.”
Punchbowl News reports the House GOP will propose a 60-day continuing resolution for all of Homeland Security.
Politico: “Speaker Mike Johnson declined to say Friday whether he will keep the House in over the weekend to pass the Department of Homeland Security funding agreement the Senate approved hours earlier.”
CBS News: “The Iranian response to the U.S.’ 15-point framework for a peace deal is expected on Friday.”
“President Trump and top White House officials have been told that Iran’s counter-proposal would likely arrive Friday via interlocutors.”
CNN: “A US Secret Service special agent on former first lady Jill Biden’s security detail accidentally shot their own leg at the Philadelphia International Airport Friday morning, an agency official said.”
Robert Pape: “Since February, the United States has surged more than 150 aircraft, two carrier strike groups, over a dozen warships, and tens of thousands of personnel into the region. Airbases have expanded. Missile defense systems have been reinforced. Command integration under United States Central Command has tightened. Now, airborne infantry—forces designed for rapid insertion and early-stage ground operations—are being added to that structure.”
“This is not a signaling exercise. It is a structural shift in military posture.”
“Air campaigns can escalate quickly. Sustained presence cannot. It requires fuel, maintenance, logistics, and time. It creates commitment even before a formal decision is made. Each additional deployment narrows the gap between capability and action.”
“Trump’s rhetoric remains ambiguous. The deployments do not.”
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.