“President Donald Trump called for ‘reverse migration’ in the US as he outlined a further crackdown on immigration following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington,” Bloomberg reports.
“In a pair of Truth Social posts late Thursday that disparaged many US immigrants, Trump said he would halt admissions from unspecified developing nations and revoke citizenship from some naturalized migrants. He also said he would end all federal benefits for non-citizens.”
New York Times: “In court, each blamed the other. Both were convicted. He began serving an 11-year sentence in June; she is expected to report to prison this summer after undergoing breast cancer surgery.”
“But in the five months that Mr. Menendez, 71, has been in prison, the couple has been barred by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons from seeing each other, even though the federal judge who sentenced them and the prosecutors who tried the case have said they have no objection to such visits.”
President Trump suggested that the United States is preparing to take new action against alleged drug trafficking networks in Venezuela, telling service members during a Thanksgiving call that efforts for strikes on land will be starting “very soon,” CNN reports.
Said Trump: “In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore.”
He added: “You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon.”
“Republicans are dramatically ramping up their anti-immigration rhetoric after the shooting of two National Guard members in D.C. by a suspect who is an Afghan national, with some calling to end Muslim immigration entirely and ‘deport every single Islamist,’” Axios reports.
Wall Street Journal: “In Europe, Russia is seeking to exploit Trump’s desire to halt the war in Ukraine and strike business deals with Moscow by shaping a peace plan that meets many of its strategic objectives, including winning chunks of Ukrainian territory and closing off any hope Kyiv had of joining NATO.”
“In Asia, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is attempting to steer Trump toward abandoning Taiwan in exchange for an expansive U.S.-China trade accord, a key Trump goal. China claims the self-ruled island as its own and hasn’t ruled out taking it by force.”
“North Carolina’s new congressional map can be used for the 2026 elections, a panel of federal judges ruled Wednesday — a win for Republicans in a nationally watched case at the center of a nationwide redistricting battle, WRAL reports.
“Chinese leader Xi Jinping was angry, and President Trump was listening,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Days after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi outraged China by suggesting a Chinese attack on Taiwan could mobilize a Tokyo military response, Xi spent half of an hourlong phone call with Trump, people briefed on the matter said, hammering home China’s historic claim to the democratic self-governing island as well as Washington and Beijing’s joint responsibility to manage the world order.”
“Later the same day, Trump set up a call with Takaichi and advised her not to provoke Beijing on the question of Taiwan’s sovereignty, said Japanese officials and an American briefed on the call.”
Politico: “Charities that help people cover their medical bills say they’re seeing an alarming increase in requests for help. Worse yet, they say, it’s coming even before cuts to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act take effect and the potential expiration of Obamacare subsidies at year’s end. The charities are warning of exploding medical debt and lower survival rates for diseases like cancer if Congress doesn’t act.”
“France is creating a paid, voluntary military service for young people and aims to enroll up to 50,000 of them over the next decade,” the New York Times reports.
“The announcement came days after the French Army chief, Gen. Fabien Mandon, set off a national uproar for saying that France must accept the possible loss of its children in a potential future conflict. Those comments were made against the backdrop of a growing threat from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.”
“Russia said on that the leak of a recording of a call between top advisers to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was an unacceptable attempt to undermine Ukraine peace negotiations and amounted to hybrid warfare,” Reuters reports.
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“Dozens of Jeffrey Epstein victims’ names have been exposed in documents that were recently made public by Congress, setting off a legal dispute about the Justice Department’s plans to release more materials about the late sex offender,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Simon Shuster: “The most consistent thing about Trump’s 10-month search for an end to the war in Ukraine has been his inconsistency.”
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told European allies that the U.S. wants a peace deal before it agrees to any security guarantees for Ukraine,” Politico reports.
“Trump has said he won’t invite Ukraine’s leader to the White House until a deal is signed.”
“After several bruising weeks for Speaker Mike Johnson, a soft-focus podcast interview alongside his wife, conducted by Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, one of President Trump’s top advisers, had all the ingredients for a flattering reset,” the New York Times reports.
“What emerged from the interview instead was a portrait of a Republican leader barely keeping his head above water in a job to which he does not appear particularly well suited, a conversation full of tragically revealing details packaged as rueful humor but with the biting sting of truth.”
Two National Guardsmen were shot just before 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, right next to Farragut Square Park and two blocks north of the White House, NBC News reports.
“The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred a decision about whether President Trump could remove the government’s top copyright official until after the justices resolved a pair of related cases testing the president’s power to fire independent regulators,” the New York Times reports.
“The order represents a rare departure from recent cases in which the conservative majority has allowed Mr. Trump to immediately remove agency leaders while litigation over their status continues in the lower courts.”
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.