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“Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s national star is on the rise, but his relationships with fellow Democrats in his backyard are fraying,” Axios reports.
“Moore appears to have little control over his state’s Democrat-led legislature, as lawmakers repeatedly defy his wishes and override his vetoes even as he builds a national profile ahead of a potential 2028 campaign for president.”
“Nancy Pelosi is retiring from Congress, but she has more campaigns in mind. Among them: Boost Gavin Newsom as a potential contender for the White House in 2028,” Axios reports.
“Publicly and privately, the former speaker has been touting the California governor, a fellow San Franciscan she’s helped mentor for decades.”
“Pelosi has one of the strongest donor networks in Democratic politics. She’s been a key validator for Newsom as he’s emerged on the national stage and become one of President Trump’s most visible foes.”
Donald Trump lashed out at “jerk” Bill Maher in a lengthy Truth Social post, calling their White House dinner last April “a total waste of time,” the HuffPost reports.
He added: “Fortunately, his Television Ratings are so low that nobody will learn about his various Fake News statements about me. He is no different than Kimmel, Fallon, or Colbert but, I must admit, slightly more talented!”
“Former President Barack Obama is urging the Democratic Party to invest in younger candidates if it wants to come out victorious in the 2026 midterm elections and, eventually, the 2028 presidential election,” Politico reports.
Said Obama: “I’m a pretty healthy 64, feel great, but the truth is, half of the references that my daughters make about social media, TikTok and such, I don’t know who they’re talking about. There is an element of, at some point, you age out. You’re not connected directly to the immediate struggles that folks are going through.”
“Lots of candidates pitch themselves as political outsiders. Derek Dooley goes a step further. Not only is the former football coach running for the first time, he says he did not vote for nearly two decades,” the AP reports.
“He did not vote when Republican Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016. Nor did he vote in 2020, when Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.”
“But Dooley does not worry about that as he seeks the Republican nomination to face off against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia. He insists that Washington needs someone with a fresh outlook, someone who is not focused on ‘their own political career or their political ambitions.’”
The federal courts have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that the Trump administration has detained immigrants unlawfully, “a sweeping legal rebuke of Trump’s immigration crackdown” as the administration continues to hold some immigrants despite court orders, Reuters reports.
CBS News: “The correspondence places Barrack, a globe-trotting billionaire, among a circle of wealthy and influential figures who maintained social contact with Epstein even as his criminal history became widely known.”
“Their relationship continued even after Barrack became a prolific fundraiser for Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, and later, led his inaugural committee and became a frequent presence in the White House.
“At times, Epstein appeared to regard Barrack as a potential conduit for passing information to Mr. Trump, though available records show the communication going only in one direction.”
“Donald Trump told us that even though he had dinner with these people in New York City and West Palm Beach, that he would be transparent. But he’s not. He’s still in with the Epstein class. This is the Epstein administration.”
— Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), on ABC News.
“President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in December that the president would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program if a deal between Washington and Tehran could not be reached,” CBS News reports.
“Two months later, CBS News has learned that internal discussions between senior figures in the U.S. military and intelligence community have started to contemplate the possibility of supporting a fresh round of Israeli strikes on Iran. American deliberations have focused less on whether Israel could act than on how the United States might assist, including the provision of aerial refueling for Israeli aircraft and the delicate matter of securing overflight permission from countries along the potential route.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in a letter on Saturday night that “all” Epstein files have been released, Fox News reports.
“As Hakeem Jeffries sits in the minority of a GOP-controlled Washington, he is still haunted by a Republican gerrymandering gambit that he believes cost him the speaker’s gavel — and cost his party control of the House,” CNN reports.
“This time, he’s making sure Democrats fight back.”
“Jeffries is leading the Democratic party’s counterpunch to President Donald Trump’s aggressive mid-decade redistricting push. He’s going all in with money, legal firepower and his own political capital to make sure no seat is left on the table for Democrats — forcing the party to abandon the left’s longtime moral opposition to party-line map meddling.”
“The White House is declaring victory on turning around the economy, after months of aides’ urging the president to find a more empathetic tone on Americans’ financial struggles,” the Washington Post reports.
“But public attitudes about the economy have not risen to match the record-breaking stock market and expectations-beating inflation and jobs report, defining the challenge for the president’s party in November’s midterms. Most Americans say the economy is on the wrong track and disapprove of Trump’s handling of it, recent surveys show.”
“The gap between macroeconomic indicators and public sentiment echoes the dynamic that encumbered Trump’s predecessor, which the current president is similarly hoping to overcome through direct appeals to voters.”
Ankush Khardori: “The administration’s use of the Justice Department to intimidate President Donald Trump’s political opponents and stifle dissent reached a remarkable new low last week, when federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. tried and failed to prosecute six Democratic lawmakers who made a video urging military personnel to refuse to carry out illegal orders.”
“The disturbing stakes and implications of the effort were partially obscured by the clumsy execution of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and her prosecutors. A grand total of zero — zero — grand jurors agreed to return the proposed indictment. As a former federal prosecutor, I have never heard of this actually happening before.”
“The vital signs of the American economy are pointing in the same, favorable direction more convincingly than at any point since before the pandemic. Inflation is falling. The labor market is holding. Growth has been solid,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“It is a snapshot, not a verdict—but it is the closest the economy has come to achieving a soft landing, a moderation in inflation without recession. Just four years ago, many economists said that was impossible. This past April, as the economy closed in on a soft landing, steep tariffs had forecasters bracing for a new surge in inflation.”
“Now, it again looks plausible that inflation could return to the Federal Reserve’s 2% goal without a recession.”
Axios: The Goldilocks economy, if you don’t look too close.
New York Times: “Legislation in South Carolina and at least 16 other statehouses would shift power away from state agencies by subjecting to legislative scrutiny any regulation that would cost at least $1 million to implement. Regulations that do survive would automatically expire after a fixed term unless specifically reauthorized.”
“A federal deregulation bill that would do the same has failed repeatedly to clear the Senate. So the states are taking up the call.”
New York Times: “These are among several secretive nuclear-related sites in Sichuan Province that have expanded and undergone upgrades in recent years.”
“China’s buildup complicates efforts to revive global arms controls after the expiration of the final remaining nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia. Washington argues that any successor agreements must also bind China, but Beijing has shown no interest.”
Wall Street Journal: “Some sleuths have resorted to studying body language as they try to pierce the veil of secrecy. They pointed to footage showing Zhang facing away from Xi as the leader walked past after a legislative session last year, to speculate about souring ties between the men.”
“Xi’s motives for ejecting Zhang may never be definitively known. But that hasn’t stopped foreign academics, officials and business executives from trying to find out—and some are turning to arcane tea leaf-reading techniques dating back to the era of Mao Zedong.”
New York Times: “After a year back in the White House, Mr. Trump’s efforts to promote himself as the singularly dominant figure in the world have become so commonplace that they no longer seem surprising. He regularly depicts himself in a heroic, almost godly fashion, as a king, as a Superman, as a Jedi knight, as a military hero, even as a pope in a white cassock.”
“While Mr. Trump has spent a lifetime promoting his personal brand, slapping his name on hotels, casinos, airplanes, even steaks, neckties and bottled water, what he is doing in his second term as president comes closer to building a cult of personality the likes of which has never been seen in American history. Other presidents sought to cultivate their reputations, but none went as far as Mr. Trump has to create a mythologized, superhuman and omnipresent persona leading to idolatry.”
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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— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
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— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
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— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
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— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
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— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
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