“The world economy has proven surprisingly durable in the face of President Trump’s trade wars, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday, upgrading its outlook for global and U.S. economic growth this year,” the AP reports.
“The 38-country OECD now forecasts that the world economy will grow 3.2% this year, down a tick from 3.3% in 2024 but an improvement on the 2.9% it had predicted for 2025 back in June.”
“The Trump administration has agreed to inject up to $150 million into a startup trying to develop more advanced semiconductor manufacturing techniques in the U.S., its latest bid to support strategically important domestic industries with government incentives,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
We’ve been watching Ken Burns’ latest, The American Revolution, and it’s extraordinary — maybe his best documentary yet.
Highly recommended.
The New York Times reviews American Canto by Olivia Nuzzi, which is being published amid a scandal over the author’s alleged romantic entanglements with politicians she covered.
“To paraphrase Britney Spears, a pop-culture touchstone for the author and fellow blond millennial: It’s not a tell-all, not yet a memoir. Chapterless and scattershot, it’s an attempted letter from Trump’s America in the style of a would-be Joan Didion…”
“Wafting and unfocused in a manner that makes you long for the sweet relief of a detailed policy paper, American Canto offers many scenes — a flag factory staffed by immigrants, an open highway, the Oval Office — but little sense.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said today’s special election in Tennessee’ 7th congressional district — which was redistricted after the 2020 census — should serve as a cautionary tale on how redrawing political maps can backfire, the Washington Post reports.
“I don’t think anything will pass without the president’s approval. There’s lots of ideas out there. Let’s see if we can’t put something together and take it to him.”
— Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), quoted by Punchbowl News, on extending expiring health care subsidies.
“President Trump’s advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin to try to convince him to support the updated U.S. peace plan for Ukraine,” Axios reports.
“The meeting in Moscow comes after two weeks of intense diplomacy around Trump’s plan, including two rounds of negotiations between the U.S. and Ukraine. Putin has said Trump’s plan could be the basis for negotiations, but has suggested he’s unwilling to shift his hardline positions.”
President Trump formally pardoned former President Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras on Monday evening, fulfilling a vow he had made days before to free an ex-president who was at the center of what the authorities had characterized as “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world,” the New York Times reports.
“Tuesday night’s special election in Tennessee’s red 7th Congressional District could give Democrats clues as to where the 2026 midterms are heading, but they’re not waiting for results to get their hopes up about races in competitive areas,” NOTUS reports.
New York Times: How Democrats have performed in 2025 special elections.
“Republicans are showing signs of picking their battles against President Trump, with the administration’s handling of military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean serving as the latest catalyst,” NewsNation reports.
“Republicans in Congress have been exceedingly deferential to the White House for much of Trump’s first year back in office, but lawmakers have shown an increased willingness to speak out about their concerns with the administration, particularly when it comes to foreign policy.”
Time: “To be sure, Democrats are aware they’re still talking about Tennessee. Privately, they’re passing around internal polling that shows them between 7 and 10 points down—losing but maybe possibly within striking distance of a potential upset if lightning strikes.”
“Officials in Congress and the Pentagon said Monday they are increasingly concerned that the Trump administration intends to scapegoat the military officer who directed U.S. forces to kill two survivors of a targeted strike on suspected drug smugglers in Latin America, as lawmakers made initial moves to investigate whether the attack constituted a war crime,” the Washington Post reports.
“When two survivors were detected, the military commander overseeing the operation, Adm. Frank M. Bradley, directed another strike to comply with Hegseth’s order that no one be left alive.”
Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, said in a statement on social media on Monday that she recommended that President Trump enact “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” the New York Times reports.
“Advisers to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appear poised to make consequential changes to the childhood vaccination schedule, delaying a shot that is routinely administered to newborns and discussing big changes to when or how other childhood immunizations are given,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Decisions by the group are not legally binding, but they have profound implications for whether private insurance and government assistance programs are required to cover the vaccines.”
Costco joined a fast-growing list of businesses suing the Trump administration to ensure eligibility for refunds if the Supreme Court strikes down the president’s signature global tariffs policy, Bloomberg reports.
Wall Street Journal: “If the court does strike down the tariffs Trump initiated in April, it isn’t clear how or whether previously paid duties would be refunded. The onus would be on the justices to decide and they gave little indication how they might unwind the president’s signature economic policy. Though unlikely, it is theoretically possible that Congress could move to retroactively authorize the tariffs Trump imposed.”
“It’s a criminal offense—war crimes or murder are criminal offenses. Hegseth doesn’t have the immunity that the President of the United States does.”
— Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), quoted by Time, on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s role in the boat strikes.
A businessman who has President Trump’s backing for the presidency of Honduras was locked in a “technical tie” with a rightwing TV host after a preliminary vote count, CBS News reports.
Financial Times: Trump vows “hell to pay” if Honduras changes election results.
“Republicans are looking to hang on to a ruby-red congressional district Tuesday in a surprisingly competitive special election that has become a high-profile test of voters’ attitudes about President Donald Trump’s agenda and Democrats’ response less than a year before the midterm elections,” the Washington Post reports.
“The contest in Tennessee’s 7th District, which Trump won by more than 20 percentage points in 2024, has put the GOP on edge, while raising Democratic hopes about a massive upset or overperformance weeks after a strong showing in off-year elections across several states. Strategists in both parties say they see a competitive race that tilts toward the Republican candidate as each side has flooded the district with money, ads and prominent surrogates not typically seen in such a partisan stronghold.”
For members: An Early Test of a Midterm Wave
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.
