“Voice of America employees have spent a full year on paid administrative leave while President Donald Trump’s administration has tried to shrink the international broadcaster to its ‘statutory minimum.’ That extended absence is coming to an end,” the Washington Post reports.
“A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the wind-down of operations at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent, is unlawful and ordered the agency to bring more than 1,000 employees back to work.”
“Suddenly, CBS Evening News is back where executives at the news division behind the show hoped never to return,” Variety reports.
“Viewership for the program has once again dropped below 4 million, a critical demarcation point that previously spurred alarm at the Paramount Skydance news division. CBS News recently scrapped a version CBS Evening News anchored by Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson after the program shed audience and fell below 4 million viewers on many weeknights.”
Donald Trump has always treated power as something to be tested first and explained later.
So it’s not surprising that he’d launch a war on instinct — and say he would decide whether to end it when he “feels it in his bones.”
In a normal presidency, that kind of thinking would carry consequences.
But Trump’s political career has been defined by the absence of them.
He bulldozed through the 2016 Republican primaries by ignoring every rule about party consensus — and won. He bragged that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing support — and was never really proven wrong.
He lost the popular vote, trailed in most polls, and still captured the White House.
He mishandled a once-in-a-century pandemic and lost reelection in 2020 — only to escalate things further by trying to overturn the results. A violent attack on the Capitol followed, yet Senate Republicans ultimately declined to convict him, ensuring his political viability remained intact.
Then came the comeback.
Despite leaving office as one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history, Trump returned to power in 2024 — something that once seemed implausible even to his allies.
Along the way, he survived an assassination attempt by an inch, reinforcing the aura of political invincibility that now surrounds him.
And when he pushes the boundaries of executive power, the Supreme Court has often stepped in to shield him.
Democrats, meanwhile, have struggled to mount a sustained or effective counterweight.
The throughline is hard to miss: Trump keeps testing limits because, time and again, the limits don’t hold.
Or as he infamously put it: when you’re a star, they let you do it.
“Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Tehran’s targeting of U.S. forces in the region,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Russia is trying to keep its closest Middle Eastern partner in the fight against U.S. and Israeli military might and prolong a war that is benefiting Russia militarily and economically.”
“The technology provided includes components of modified Shahed drones, which are meant to improve communication, navigation and targeting… Russia has also been drawing on its experience using drones in Ukraine, offering tactical guidance on how many drones should be used in operations and what altitudes they should strike from.”
“A federal judge threw a top prosecutor from the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office out of his courtroom during a sentencing hearing this week and demanded that the office’s leadership testify about who had authority over their actions,” the New York Times reports.
“I’m pretty good at this stuff. If you can go through years of these press conferences and you’re a popular president of the United States that won in a landslide, that won all 7 swing states, that got record numbers of votes — I mean, I guess I’m okay at this stuff.”
— President Trump, speaking to reporters.
Rachel Bade: “On the one hand, some Trump World allies argue that nothing will change. Wiles entire mantra as chief, after all, has been to, ‘let Trump be Trump’ — unlike other top officials during Trump’s first term, who tried to talk him out of his ideas and control his thinking.”
“What’s more, her White House deputies are fiercely loyal to her — meaning that she won’t have to worry about such-and-such-a secretary or staffer trying to steer the president in another direction during her absence.”
“But on the other hand, some do wonder if change is upon us. Treatments for cancer — even in the early stages — are no joke. It could require her to leave the West Wing and make the trip up to Walter Reed — not to mention rest afterward…”
“And you know what they say about proximity to this president in particular: It matters — particularly when he tends to listen to the last person he speaks with.”
President Trump took credit for Venezuela having made the finals of the World Baseball Classic and raised the prospect of making it the 51st state.
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) issued a subpoena to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday, demanding she testify before lawmakers over her handling of the Epstein files, Politico reports.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s law department on Tuesday sought a judge’s approval to stop representing the former mayor, Eric Adams, in a sexual assault lawsuit brought against him in 2024, the New York Times reports.
President Trump said presidents should not have a “learning disability,” specifically taking aim at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a possible 2028 presidential candidate who has spoken openly about his dyslexia, USA Today reports.
Said Trump: “We have a low-IQ person. Honestly, I am all for people with learning disabilities, but not for my president. I don’t think a president should have a learning disability.”
“Is that boots on the ground? No, not like inside Iran where they’re in the cities. Where we go through circumstances that we’ve had in the past of large areas of population combatants against us. And it is a mess. I am against the what I call the mass moving people, Marines, snipers into population areas.”
— Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), quoted by the Daily Beast, arguing that sending U.S. troops to secure Kharg Island wouldn’t really constitute “boots on the ground.”
National Journal: “The Chicago River isn’t the only thing seeing green today as voters head to the polls in Illinois after millions of dollars in outside money flooded the airwaves. Between the open Senate race and four open House races, a state record-shattering $92.3 million has been spent on campaign ads.”
“When the cycle is all said and done, the price tag for the Illinois primary will be an important footnote in what’s projected to be the most expensive midterm election ever.”
“China is helping Cuba race to capture renewable solar energy as the United States imposes an effective oil blockade on the Caribbean island, creating its worst energy crisis in decades,” the Washington Post reports.
“As the Trump administration steps back from U.S. climate commitments and reinvests in fossil fuels, China is flexing its dominance in renewable energy, using offers of equipment, expertise and financing as geopolitical levers.”
Associated Press: Cuba’s latest blackout underscores its deepening economic crisis as Marco Rubio calls for new leadership.
Elliot Cohen: “The war’s advocates may acknowledge that the Trump administration has done a clumsy job of arguing its case and that it has entered the conflict with only one visible ally, but they view those as venial strategic sins. What they admire is the ferocity of the onslaught against the Islamic Republic and Donald Trump’s apparent willingness to stick it out despite rising oil prices and discontent even among his base.”
“They are wrong. In any war, even the most just, maintaining domestic support is essential to victory, because the outcome is inherently uncertain…”
“But if the war’s advocates underestimate the extent of the administration’s strategic malpractice, its opponents miss one big thing as well: the Iran problem. The threat posed by the regime is severe, and all previous attempts to deal with it have failed egregiously.”
Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNBC if the Iran war “were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt the U.S. economy very much at all.”
He added: “It would hurt consumers and we’d have to think about if that continued… But that’s like really the last of our concerns right now.”
After pleading for help from U.S. allies and getting turned down by all of them, President Trump took to Truth Social to say he doesn’t need or want any help with the Strait of Hormuz.
Said Trump: “We don’t need the help of anyone!”
Senior Israeli officials have told U.S. diplomats that Iranian protesters will “get slaughtered” if they take to the streets against their government even as Israel publicly calls for a popular uprising, the Washington Post reports.
The cable relayed an Israeli assessment that Iran’s regime is “not cracking” and is willing to “fight to the end.”
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.