Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said President Trump was furious with her after she signed a House petition compelling the release of all government files related to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, The Hill reports.
Said Greene: “We did talk about the Epstein files and he was extremely angry at me that I signed the discharge petition to release the files.”
Charlie Cook: “It is pretty clear that Trump’s mid-decade gerrymandering play is not going to build the cushion Republicans wanted in red states to help them retain their House majority. While it’s conceivable that it could backfire and cost them seats, it’s more likely to make little difference at all. Each party will simply have the chance to elect its own rubber-stamp members, making an already dysfunctional House even more so, no matter who ends up in charge.”
“If Republicans can keep their net losses under 15 seats, they will be lucky, but that’s only because the battlefield is now so narrow. If the playing field of competitive districts were anything like it was 20 or 30 years ago, they would be staring at losses potentially three times that. The worst-case scenario for Republicans now would probably be losses in the 20-to-25-seat range.”
“Just remember, when a party is having a bad night in the House, it almost always gets bigger and goes deeper than expected, and the individual race count often underestimates what can happen when a party has a very unpopular president.”
“Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee are pressing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to release video of U.S. military strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat that have inflamed tensions on Capitol Hill,” Axios reports.
“The lawmakers are seizing on to President Trump’s own comments this week that he would have ‘no problem’ releasing the footage to the public.”
Washington Post: “Trump also vows that good times are coming. He has predicted that gas prices, which now hover around $3 a gallon, will plummet to $2. He has promised Americans $2,000 refund checks from the revenue raised by tariffs. He has suggested that ‘in the not-too-distant future,’ no one will have to pay income tax.”
“This flurry of sometimes extravagant claims comes amid a growing Republican fear, fueled by recent election results, that high prices could set the stage for a Democratic sweep in next year’s midterms. So far, there is little evidence that Trump’s urgent attempt to shift the economic storyline is working.”
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson are both considering votes on GOP health care priorities next week — if they can figure out what those priorities are,” Axios reports.
“Democrats are unified in their demand for a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies, which expire Dec. 31. Republicans are still divided and debating their counter offers.”
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“Only two decades ago, all nine Supreme Court justices agreed that extreme partisan gerrymandering could violate the Constitution, though they differed on what courts should do about it,” the New York Times reports.
“On Thursday, by contrast, the court’s conservative majority allowed Texas to use voting maps made to disadvantage Democrats in the 2026 election, without a hint of constitutional difficulty. To the contrary, the majority chastised a lower court for not taking the state at its word that politics, not race, motivated the maps. The court, it said, had ‘failed to honor the presumption of legislative good faith.’”
The Atlantic: “So far, Trump continues to profess support. But he, too, is starting to tire of the scandals surrounding Hegseth and does not push back when others suggest Hegseth is not up for the job, an outside adviser to the White House and a former senior administration official told us.”
“Trump has not been happy that a number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are using Hegseth’s record as a reason to stand up to the White House, a further sign of cracks in what had until recently been unwavering GOP fealty to Trump.”
New York Times: “President Trump has shown all year that his second term would make it a priority to squeeze less powerful countries to benefit American companies. But late Thursday, his administration made that profit-driven approach a core element of its official foreign policy, publishing its long-anticipated update to U.S. national security aims around the world.”
“The document, known as the National Security Strategy, describes a world in which American interests are far narrower than how prior administrations — even in Mr. Trump’s first term — had portrayed them. Gone is the long-familiar picture of the United States as a global force for freedom, replaced by a country that is focused on reducing migration while avoiding passing judgment on authoritarians, instead seeing them as sources of cash.”
“Donald Trump is going on the road next week as he tries to break through Americans’ gloom about the economy,” Bloomberg reports.
“The president is heading Tuesday to Pennsylvania — a key swing state he beat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election but lost to Joe Biden in 2020 — to talk up his economic record and what his administration is doing to tame inflation.”
“Since returning to office in January, Trump has made few of the campaign-style domestic trips that marked his first term, instead focusing more on his foreign policy agenda.”
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“The Trump administration has changed which holidays qualify for free entrance to national parks, removing two holidays celebrating Black people and adding the president’s birthday,” SFGate reports.
“Now, visitors to the 116 parks that charge entrance fees will no longer get in for free on MLK Day or on Juneteenth, a federal holiday on June 19 that celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. They will, however, on Trump’s June 14 birthday, which was added to the list this year.
Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi have agreed to part ways following new revelations and allegations about an affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and her behavior while reporting on him, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“A federal judge in Florida on Friday approved the release of grand jury documents from a nearly 20-year-old investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, beginning the process of making public another batch of long-sought material about the deceased financier,” the New York Times reports.
“The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would hear a landmark dispute over the constitutionality of President Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship,” the New York Times reports.
“The legal fight stems from an executive order signed by the president on his first day back in office declaring that children born to undocumented immigrants and to some temporary foreign residents would no longer be granted citizenship automatically.”
“The executive order, which was immediately paused by courts without going into effect, would upend the commonly accepted view of American citizenship guaranteed since 1898: that citizenship should be extended to anyone born in the United States.”
“Indiana’s mid-decade redistricting bill has cleared its first chamber, passing the House by a 57-41 vote,” the Indianapolis Star reports.
“It’s a significant milestone for the new congressional map proposal, drawn in direct response to a request from President Donald Trump after months of pressure, both direct and indirect. A dozen Republicans joined with Democrats in voting against the proposal.”
“The map proposal now goes to the Indiana Senate, where its fate is far less certain.”
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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