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Global Economy Faces Prospect of Another Shock

March 3, 2026 at 8:46 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In the most hopeful scenario for the global economy, the latest war in the Middle East ends within a few weeks. The region continues to produce oil and gas. Shipping resumes in the Strait of Hormuz, preventing a shock to the world’s energy supplies. Fear of inflation subsides,” the New York Times reports.

“But experts cautioned against any hasty sense of reassurance. The American and Israeli bombing of Iran, and Iranian reprisals throughout the region, set dangers in motion that pose a substantial threat to global economic fortunes.”

Trump Opens the Pandora’s Box of Assassination

March 3, 2026 at 8:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Tim Naftali: “On Saturday, the United States, in a joint operation with Israel, killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For the first time in the postwar era, Washington has succeeded in killing a foreign leader—shattering a precedent that had been sustained for decades by a mix of moral, political, and logistical concerns.”

“Fifty years ago, in February 1976, President Gerald Ford signed Executive Order 11905, which directed that ‘no employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.’ There should be no tears in the democratic world for Khamenei, who for four decades oversaw a repressive state with terroristic tentacles that extended throughout the world. But it is worth looking at why presidents of both political parties have long been wary of the state-sponsored killing of foreign leaders.”

Trump Has Given America a Constitutional Dilemma

March 3, 2026 at 7:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Tom Nichols: “Donald Trump has taken America into war with a country whose population is approximately the size of Iraq’s and Afghanistan’s combined. He has done this without making a case to the American people, and without approval of any kind from their elected representatives.”

“His launching of hostilities (with the embarrassingly bro-themed name ‘Operation Epic Fury’) is the culmination of decades of expanding presidential powers over national-security issues, and Trump has now taken that expansion to its extreme conclusion, launching wars and using military power as he sees fit.”

White House Offers Shifting Rationales for War

March 3, 2026 at 7:32 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“As an expanding Middle East war entered its fourth day, the Trump administration gave shifting rationales for its decision to attack Iran, even as U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports said they saw no sign the country had posed an imminent threat to the United States,” the Washington Post reports.

“President Donald Trump and his top national security aides, defending a conflict that has tepid public backing and is incurring escalating risks, emphasized Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles rather than its nuclear program as the principal threat. But they provided different descriptions of the danger.”

Trump Gambles His Presidency

March 3, 2026 at 7:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “With his decision Friday to authorize war against Iran, Mr. Trump is taking the biggest gamble of his presidency, risking the lives of American troops, more deaths and instability in the world’s most volatile region, and his own political standing.”

An Unplanned War

March 3, 2026 at 7:24 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Bernstein: “The main thing I’d want to get across to people about Donald Trump and his administration right now is that however unprepared you might think they are for war, the chances are very good that it’s much worse. Much, much worse.”

“To be sure: We won’t get full confirmation of this until much later. But what I see, and what reporters and experts have told us is happening, is what I’ve been saying since early in Trump’s second presidency: The entire administration has been set up to prevent the president from having to encounter information that makes him uncomfortable or challenges his impulses.”

“And the national security process as it has existed since Harry Truman was president has been at best hollowed out (with subject-matter experts removed from the loop) and at worst isn’t operating at all. What’s replaced it is the president’s impulses, based on whoever he happens to talk to, whatever he happens to see on his favorite cable news shows, or whoever is best at manipulating him.”

There Is No U.S. Plan on Iran

March 3, 2026 at 7:20 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Dan Drezner: “The more we learn about Trump’s decision-making process to bomb Iran, the clearer it becomes that there is no real strategy or end goal.”

An Emboldened Israel Is Seizing Opportunities

March 3, 2026 at 7:12 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “Emboldened by its partnership with the United States, feeling its own military strength, and sensing the weaknesses of its two fiercest adversaries, Israel is seizing the new war as an opportunity to pursue its own geopolitical agenda.”

Rubio’s War Remarks Blow Open MAGA Divide

March 3, 2026 at 6:40 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“MAGA’s ascendant ‘America First’ wing erupted after Secretary of State Marco Rubio effectively blamed Israel for drawing the U.S. into war with Iran,” Axios reports.

“Rubio’s remarks were the first time a Trump official had so explicitly acknowledged Israel as a driving force behind the war — landing at a moment when Americans’ public support for Israel has hit historic lows.”

Gulf States in Race Against Time to Repel Iran’s Onslaught

March 3, 2026 at 6:37 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Persian Gulf nations targeted by Iran have, so far, managed to limit the damage by deploying sophisticated U.S.-made air defenses against the hundreds of drones and missiles that have rained on their cities,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“With costly interceptors and radar, all integrated with the U.S. military, the oil-rich Gulf Arab states have fielded some of the most advanced air defenses in the world, despite their small populations and militaries.”

“A crucial variable in this war, however, is whether these monarchies start running out of interceptors before the Iranian regime runs out of projectiles.”

U.S. Closes 2 Gulf Embassies as Iran Steps Up Retaliation

March 3, 2026 at 6:32 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The State Department closed its embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on Tuesday after drone attacks and urged Americans to depart immediately from 14 Middle East countries, as Iran expanded its retaliatory strikes on American targets in the widening regional conflict,” the New York Times reports.

“Israel’s military said it had seized new areas of Lebanon in its conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah.”

Democrats Will Not Hold a Midterm Convention

March 3, 2026 at 6:28 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Democrats will not hold a midterm convention to match Republicans’ unconventional 2026 gambit, CBS News reports.

Republicans Back Trump’s War with Iran

March 3, 2026 at 6:19 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Punchbowl News: “Republicans on Capitol Hill are about to give President Donald Trump a major boost — a green light to conduct a war against Iran without worrying about Congress, at least for now.”

“The House and Senate are on track this week to vote down a pair of bipartisan war power resolutions aimed at limiting Trump’s ability to conduct the Iran campaign. Rank-and-file Republicans are prepared to back Trump, giving them co-ownership of a conflict that’s already unpopular with Americans.”

Trump to Attend White House Press Dinner

March 2, 2026 at 8:06 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump said he would attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April, the first time he will be at the annual gala celebrating the First Amendment as a sitting president,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“He said he wants to honor America’s 250th birthday, adding in a social-media post that he accepted the invitation because ‘these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many,’ using the acronym for ‘greatest of all time.’

How Can Trump Win a War He Can’t Explain?

March 2, 2026 at 8:04 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Susan Glasser: “In the two and a half days since Donald Trump unleashed a new war in the Middle East, the President and his Administration have come up with an astonishing array of different, even contradictory, rationales for the American military attack on Iran.”

“By my count, and I’m sure I’ve missed a few, these include outright regime change, assistance to the oppressed peoples of the Islamic Republic, stripping Iran of ‘the ability to project power outside its borders,’ stopping future Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks while exacting revenge for past ones, preëmptive action against an imminent Iranian threat to attack U.S. forces, preëmptive action to block Iran from building ballistic missiles that could hit the U.S. mainland, and preëmptive action to stop the Iranian nuclear program that Trump had, as recently as last week, claimed was ‘obliterated.’”

“Many of these explanations are based on false premises; some already seem to have been abandoned.”

Associated Press: Trump takes unconventional approach to communicating to the public about its war in Iran.

Trump’s Case for War With Iran Faces Growing Scrutiny

March 2, 2026 at 8:01 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Trump administration, in pressing its case for war with Iran, has made a number of accusations about the regime’s threats to its neighbors, U.S. troops, and even the American homeland itself,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“However, U.S. officials and lawmakers with access to classified information, along with experts who have spent their careers poring over public data and government reports, say the administration’s assertions are incomplete, unsubstantiated, or flat-out wrong.”

“And questions will only intensify as top administration officials brief Congress early this week.”

Justices Restore New York Republican’s District

March 2, 2026 at 7:07 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Supreme Court blocked a state judge from redrawing Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ (R-NY) congressional district, agreeing to her emergency request Monday to restore the lines that connect Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn,” The Hill reports.

“The high court’s intervention marks a new twist in the legal battle that has rippled through New York’s state judiciary and thrown the future of New York’s 11th Congressional District into question.”

New York Times: “The emergency decision, which was unsigned and did not include a vote count or reasoning, as is typical in such cases, was a victory for Republicans, and may help them keep a seat in Congress.”

Nancy Mace Under Ethics Investigation

March 2, 2026 at 7:05 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The House Ethics Committee announced Monday that it is looking into allegations Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) over-billed her congressional office for funds to maintain her home in D.C.,” Axios reports.

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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