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Edward Luce: “The truth inside Donald Trump’s tornado of piffle is that he wants to get out of the mess he created. All the other reasons he gives — from regime overthrow to regime alteration — are noise.”
“At this point, were Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for being allowed to develop nuclear weapons, nobody could be sure Trump would turn it down. If Iran made him the inaugural winner of the Cyrus the Great peace prize, those odds would improve.”
“The Pentagon is developing military options for a ‘final blow’ in Iran that could include the use of ground forces and a massive bombing campaign,” Axios reports.
“A dramatic military escalation will grow more likely if no progress is made in diplomatic talks and, in particular, if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.”
President Trump on Thursday called on the Iranian regime “to get serious soon” in negotiations with the U.S. “before it is too late,” Axios reports.
Said Trump: “The Iranian negotiators are very different and strange. They are begging us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have been militarily obliterated, with zero chance of a comeback, and yet they publicly state that they are only looking at our proposal. WRONG!!!”
He added: “They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!”
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Bloomberg: “Trump administration officials are examining what a potential spike in oil prices as high as $200 a barrel would mean for the economy, a sign senior officials are studying the possible fallout from extreme scenarios for the Iran war. ”
Washington Post: “As the Trump administration makes what is says are initial peace overtures to Iran, U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, initially skittish about the war, have become fearful of a hasty settlement that leaves the region less stable than it was a month ago, officials and analysts say. Get concise answers to your questions.”
“While Iran has been battered by nearly a month of U.S.-Israeli attacks, the war has not succeeded in toppling its government. Instead, it appears to have made the leadership in Tehran even more defiant and hard-line.”
The Middle East crisis will fuel a surge in U.S. inflation to 4.2% this year, the highest in the G7, according to an OECD forecast that highlights the cost of the US-Israeli war with Iran, the Financial Times reports.
Washington Post: “The Pentagon is considering whether to divert weapons intended for Ukraine to the Middle East as the war in Iran depletes some of the U.S. military’s most critical munitions.”
Wall Street Journal: “The prospects of a diplomatic deal ending the war between the U.S. and Iran look dim right now. But Middle East veterans say there is a pathway for an agreement if the two sides want to engage.”
“Mediators from Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan are pushing for a meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials as soon as this week. President Trump and his political allies have expressed enthusiasm for talks.”
New York Times: “The White House plans to delay naming a candidate to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency that has been roiled by a string of high-level departures and has had three different leaders since President Trump returned to the White House, according to people familiar with the situation.”
“Federal law imposes a 210-day limit on those filling Senate-confirmed positions in an acting capacity. If Mr. Trump does not nominate a permanent director by midnight on Wednesday, the agency will be officially leaderless.”
“The administration faces a formidable challenge in finding a nominee who aligns with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda while avoiding his unpopular stance on vaccines.”
New York Times: “Iran’s de facto closure of the strategic waterway has set off a full-blown energy crisis across the Continent. With skyrocketing oil and gas prices angering voters throughout Europe, the pressure is mounting on its leaders to take more forceful actions to reopen the shipping lanes.”
“Yet at the same time, Europe’s political winds are blowing ever more fiercely against the war, raising the stakes for leaders to take part. The military campaign is faulted by many Europeans, especially on the left, who say it is gratuitous, illegal and now is threatening Europe’s fragile growth. The leaders also remain haunted by the Iraq War, which Britain supported, to its lasting regret.”
Bloomberg: “Democrats are barreling toward the midterm elections with advantages in messaging, polling and voter enthusiasm. But they’re falling short of their Republican rivals on one of the most important metrics of all: money.”
“Since the resounding Democratic losses in 2024, some top donors have been loathe to open their wallets again, with many frustrated after investing heavily in the failed effort to elect Kamala Harris president. While some individual candidates have successfully raised money, the party and many outside groups are having mixed success.”
“The Israeli military killed the naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in an overnight attack, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said on Thursday, taking out the leader of a force that has played a pivotal role in shutting down the Strait of Hormuz,” the New York Times reports.
“The commander, Alireza Tangsiri, was in an apartment hide-out in the area of Bandar Abbas, a port city in southern Iran, with other Revolutionary Guards officers at the time of the attack.”
Dan Pfeiffer: “Donald Trump’s stranglehold on American politics is coming to an end. The evidence of his political crisis is all around us. It started long before his ham-handed war with Iran and the resultant spike in gas prices, but recent events have catalyzed his downfall.”
“Republicans are so far inside the right-wing news bubble that they don’t see the gravity of their own situation, and Democrats are so scarred by the 2024 election that we are struggling to process the changed political battlefield.”
Playbook: “We’ll hear from Trump at 10 a.m. today, at his first wartime Cabinet meeting, where he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will likely throw out more triumphant language about what a success it’s all been.”
“But beyond America’s undoubted military dominance, real strategic wins have yet to be grasped. Anti-American hard-liners remain in power in Tehran; Iran’s nuclear material remains buried underground; and Iran still has its boot on the global chokepoint that is the Strait of Hormuz.”
A new Emerson College survey in Maine finds Graham Platner leading Janet Mills in the Democratic Senate primary, 55% to 28%. Thirteen percent are undecided.
In hypothetical general election match-ups, both Platner and Mills have an edge over incumbent Sen. Susan Collins.
Between Platner and Collins, 48% support Platner and 41% Collins; 6% support someone else and are undecided, respectively. In a matchup between Mills and Collins, 46% support Mills, 43% Collins, 8% someone else, and 3% are undecided.
President Trump insisted Republicans have momentum in the upcoming midterm elections, even as the party faces a harsh electoral landscape and pressure from the White House over legislative priorities, Bloomberg reports.
Wall Street Journal: “Nearly one month into the war, the president has privately informed advisers he thinks the conflict is in its final stages, urging them to stick to the four-to-six-week timeline he has outlined publicly, according to people familiar with the matter. White House officials planned a mid-May summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing with the expectation that the war would be concluded before the meeting begins, some of the people said.”
“The problem is Trump has no easy options for ending the war, and peace negotiations are at a nascent stage.”
A new Fox News poll shows President Trump’s disapproval rating is the highest it has been in either of his two terms.
Key takeaway: 59% of respondents said they disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, with 47% saying they strongly disapprove.
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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