“President Trump on Friday moved to lower tariffs on beef, coffee and dozens of agricultural and food goods, marking a significant rollback of his so-called reciprocal levies as he looks for ways to address Americans’ concerns about the cost of living,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The move continues a shift away from Trump’s maximalist tariff policy. When the president announced his reciprocal tariffs this spring, his economic team insisted there would be no exemptions to the levies.”
“Donald Trump is mentioned in Jeffrey Epstein’s emails over 1,000 times — the most cited person in the tranche released this week by the House Oversight Committee,” the Miami Herald reports.
“Indiana, one of the key pieces in Republicans’ national quest to redraw congressional lines, will not redistrict this year, the state senate’s top Republican said. If Indiana takes a pass, it would deny Republicans two new red seats in the Hoosier State,” Punchbowl News reports.
Politico: “In response, Trump’s team has begun summoning Indiana lawmakers to meet with the president in the Oval Office as early as next week.”
So far, just 19% of today’s quiz takers have gotten every question right.
Can you compete?
Adam Serwer: “As long as sex crimes might justify rumormongering about a political rival, or a smear campaign against a marginalized group, right-wing media incessantly promoted conspiracy theories about the issue.”
“But as soon as one of their own became implicated, they conveniently lost interest, or began minimizing Epstein’s crimes.”
New York Times: “Olivia Nuzzi loved him. She loved the politician, even though she was a political reporter and he was then a presidential candidate she had written about. She loved his eyes, ‘blue as the flame.’ She loved that ‘the sight of something as trivial as a rose’ could move him to tears. She loved his insatiable appetites and his ‘particular complications and particular darkness.’”
“But she said ‘I love you’ only after he said it first. He called her ‘Livvy’ and wrote her poems. He said he wanted her to have his baby. He promised to take a bullet for her.”
“This is what Nuzzi writes in her book, American Canto, never naming the politician who readers will deduce is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
Charlie Cook: “Without a doubt, Mamdani is a bright, talented, and charismatic young man. If I were a member of the American Association of Political Consultants, I would vote his operation as the ‘Campaign of the Year’ and his manager ‘Campaign Manager of the Year.’ Political operatives should use the Mamdani campaign as a case study in social media and creative marketing.”
“But as interesting as Mamdani is, his victory is hardly important in the grand sweep of national politics. No mayoral race has ever been a harbinger of the direction of American politics or an indication of what would happen in any other election anywhere else. Municipal races, even those in New York City, are fought over totally distinct and highly localized issues, often with idiosyncrasies that non-residents of that city do not appreciate.”
Playbook: “With the shutdown now firmly in the rear view, President Donald Trump is stuck between a rock and a hard place — battling the surprisingly sticky matter of the files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a growing concern from voters on cost of living. On both issues, Trump appears to be washing his hands by messaging it as the Democrats’ problem.”
“The push and pull between the discourse that’s taking over the beltway this week with the reemergence of the Epstein controversy, and the cross-country reality for many Americans raising red flags over the economy, hits at both ends of the core MAGA coalition. It’s a unique combination that only risks amplifying concerns over a stray from the populist, pocketbook rhetoric that propelled Trump’s 2024 victory.”
“President Trump announced on Friday that he wanted the Justice Department to investigate high-profile Democrats — including former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and the venture capitalist and megadonor Reid Hoffman — who he alleged had ties to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,” the New York Times reports.
“The Justice Department has been discussing settlements with two former officials from Donald Trump’s first term who — like the president — claim they’re owed major payouts from the US government as victims of politically motivated actions,” Bloomberg reports.
“The administration has been in talks since at least late summer to resolve lawsuits brought by Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and former senior White House lawyer Stefan Passantino, according to court filings. Flynn is seeking $50 million for what he alleges was a wrongful prosecution, while Passantino says a House committee probing the 2020 election harmed his reputation by leaking private information.”
“Republicans on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee are circulating a bill that would mimic President Donald Trump’s proposal to redirect health insurance subsidies directly to individuals,” Politico reports.
“The legislation, previously introduced by Florida Republican Reps. Kat Cammack and Greg Steube, would give enrollees in the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges the ability to elect to receive a portion of financial assistance from insurers directly in their tax-advantaged health savings accounts. Those HSA contributions would be in lieu of assistance that insurers would usually apply on the back end to the out-of-pocket health costs for low-income individuals.”
Ten months into Donald Trump’s second term, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has positioned herself as a surprising critic of the administration’s policies — and as a torchbearer for the “America First” agenda that she believes the president has drifted from, NBC News reports.
Wall Street Journal: “Germany will build a database of young people detailing their fitness, aptitude and outlook to help it pick whom to draft should the country be attacked.”
“The proposed move, a step toward reintroducing military conscription, comes as countries across Europe grapple with how to repopulate their armed forces under pressure from Washington and an expansionist Russia that European capitals accuse of waging a hybrid war on the continent.”
“The decision to test all 18-year-old males for their fighting abilities starting next year underlines how rapidly European countries, including those with a post-World War II tradition of pacifism, are getting war-ready in an effort to deter Russia.”
Stephen Roach: “Affordability is about the price level, not the rate of change of prices. Disinflation, or a decelerating rate of change in inflation is a good thing, especially for inflation-targeting central banks. But even in a disinflation, prices keep rising, providing no relief to the fundamental problem of pocket-book distress known as affordability.”
“Moreover, with the lagged impacts of tariffs now largely responsible for most of the reacceleration of headline CPI inflation from the April low of 2.3% to the latest reading of 3.0% in pre-shutdown September, the price-level affordability issue is once again going from bad to worse. And these pressures are likely to persist, with further tariff-related increases still in the pipeline.”
Torsten Slok: “In 2010, the median age of all US homebuyers was 39 years old. Today, it is 59.”
“The longest government shutdown in US history may be over — but its economic fallout is still coming into focus,” Semafor reports.
“At least $11 billion in real GDP will be gone for good, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And key economic data, including employment and inflation numbers for October, will likely never be released.”
“Georgia swing voters in our latest Engagious/Sago focus groups expressed frustration with Democrats for dragging out a federal government shutdown only to end it without a guarantee from Republicans to offset rising health insurance premiums,” Axios reports.
“Seven of the 13 Biden-to-Trump Georgia swing voters in this week’s panels said Democrats came out of the shutdown looking worse than Republicans.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) told McKay Coppins that ICE agents should refuse unlawful orders.
KELLY: Don’t have bad interactions with people. Do the job in a respectful way and follow the law. By the way, you don’t have to follow unlawful orders. That’s true for the military. I think it’s true for federal law enforcement, too. Nobody can tell you to break the law. You can’t be told to violate people’s constitutional rights. People have to stand up and say, no, I’m not going to do that.
COPPINS: Would you like to see more of that among ICE agents?
KELLY: Yeah, of course I would. I’d like to see them wearing an ID, not wearing masks and telling Stephen Miller or Kristi Noem that we will follow the law and there are limits to what we will do.
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.
