President Trump on Sunday called this weekend’s “No Kings” demonstrations against him a “joke” and rejected suggestions that he is acting like a monarch, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “I’m not a king. I work my ass off to make our country great. That’s all it is. I’m not a king at all.”
He added: “The demonstrations were very small, very ineffective, and the people were whacked out. When you look at those people, those are not representative of the people of our country.”
Americans are growing increasingly concerned about their ability to find a good job under President Donald Trump, an Associated Press-NORC poll finds, in what is a potential warning sign for Republicans as a promised economic boom has given way to hiring freezes and elevated inflation.
President Trump will host Senate Republicans for lunch at the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, Punchbowl News reports.
The lunch is intended to be a “thank you” to GOP senators for staying unified amid the government shutdown and for taking action to clear the nominations backlog.
“President Gustavo Petro of Colombia accused the United States of murdering an innocent fisherman in an attack on a boat American authorities claimed was carrying illicit drugs, prompting President Trump to declare on Sunday that he would slash assistance to Colombia, one of Washington’s top aid recipients in Latin America,” the New York Times reports.
“The feuding between the two leaders reflected rising tensions in the region over the huge U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean targeting Colombia’s neighbor, Venezuela. U.S. forces have killed dozens of people in recent weeks aboard vessels that the Trump administration says were ferrying drugs from Venezuela.”
For members: Trump Has Ordered the Execution of 27 People
“The White House is confronting academia’s most forceful pushback to its quest to remake American higher education, as top universities reject its proposal to reward schools that embrace President Trump’s priorities,” the New York Times reports.
“On campuses and in Washington, professors and policymakers alike are weighing whether Mr. Trump, who has reveled in his campaign to upend higher education, has overreached.”
“President Donald Trump and his top officials have repeatedly promised to tap the billions of dollars collected from their historic tariff hikes for key priorities like troop pay, nutrition assistance and farmer bailouts. That’s not how it works,” Politico reports.
“The administration has brought in about $200 billion in tariff revenue so far this year, cash the president and members of his Cabinet have boasted is a sign their tariff hikes are succeeding — and have suggested they can now use at their discretion.”
“Two days after his release from federal prison, George Santos, the disgraced former Republican congressman from New York, appeared on TV to thank President Trump for commuting his 87-month sentence after just 84 days and claimed that he was devoting his future to prison reform,” the New York Times reports.
“He also used his media appearances on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ and on Fox News’s ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to slap back at those who have condemned his release and to attack the warden of Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in New Jersey, where he had been incarcerated.”
“And he chatted with Rachel Campos-Duffy of ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ about the benefits of being out of prison, including that he is free to get Botox injections.”
Federal officials found what they have described as a “suspicious stand” near an area of Palm Beach International Airport used by Air Force One when President Trump travels to Florida, CBS News reports.
The Israeli military launched a wave of strikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing about 44 people, according to local hospitals, after Israel accused Hamas of violating a nine-day-old truce by attacking its troops behind the ceasefire line, the Washington Post reports.
Ron Brownstein: “The pivotal question in November’s New Jersey and Virginia governor races may be whether the outcome is shaped more by President Donald Trump’s electoral strengths or by his weaknesses.”
“Four years ago, the GOP candidates in both races benefited from one of Trump’s most important political gains: improving the GOP vote among working-class racial minorities. But they were able to minimize the impact of his most conspicuous political vulnerability: a shift away from the Republican Party in white-collar suburbs.”
“This year, though, the equation seems reversed. Heading into the final weeks, that dynamic has provided a consistent mid-single-digit edge in polls for Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and a wider advantage for Abigail Spanberger in Virginia.”
Reuters: “People who take part in Saturday’s mass ‘No Kings’ protest against President Donald Trump’s administration may be targeted for federal government surveillance with a range of technology that could include facial recognition and phone hacking.”
“‘No Kings’ organizers expect 2,600 rallies across all 50 U.S. states. But the level of surveillance at protests and the type of technology in use is likely to be both location-specific and dependent on the police forces present.”
President Trump used an AI generated video clip to respond to the millions of Americans who showed up for the “No Kings” events.
“The window for extending billions of dollars in Americans’ healthcare subsidies is closing rapidly,” the Washington Post reports.
“Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies are set to end after this year unless Congress acts, and open enrollment for insurance next year starts next month. Democrats have demanded that Republicans negotiate on extending the subsidies as a condition for ending the government shutdown, now in its third full week. Republicans recognize that many of their voters will be hurt by a cutoff in tax credits, but say the program known as Obamacare needs major changes.”
“Any deal to end the shutdown is expected to involve a fix for the expiring ACA subsidies, which flow to more than 20 million people. But extending the enhanced subsidies would be difficult to swallow for Republicans in Congress, who have spent the past decade and a half railing against the 2010 law that passed—and was later expanded—with only Democratic votes.”
“In the days before the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador, the president of that country demanded something for himself: the return of nine MS-13 gang leaders in U.S. custody,” the Washington Post reports.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a March 13 phone call with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, promised the request would be fulfilled, according to officials familiar with the conversation. But there was one obstacle: Some of the MS-13 members Bukele wanted were ‘informants’ under the protection of the U.S. government, Rubio told him.”
“The federal shutdown that is nearing its fourth week with no end in sight carries plenty of political risk for Democrats, who Republicans have accused of refusing to fulfill their responsibility to fund the government,” the New York Times reports.
“But it has also thrust President Trump and the G.O.P. onto the defensive on health care, an issue that has long been a major weakness for the party.”
“Democrats in Congress are holding fast to their position that they will not agree to a spending deal unless Republicans include an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits that would stave off premium increases and the loss of coverage for millions of Americans.”
New York Times: “After a year of soul-searching and introspection by Democrats about what they should stand for after losing the White House and Senate in 2024, the party is largely coalescing behind the same message that has united it for the past decade: stopping Donald Trump.”
“From coast to coast, the tactical decision to continue centering Mr. Trump in advertising in the closing stretch of 2025 contests has left some party strategists concerned about a missed opportunity to forge a more forward-looking vision.”
“Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call this week with President Donald Trump demanded that Kyiv surrender full control of Donetsk, a strategically vital region in eastern Ukraine, as a condition for ending the war,” the Washington Post reports.
“Putin has tried and failed to conquer the territory for 11 years, repeatedly repulsed by Ukrainian forces who are deeply entrenched in an area they believe is a major bulwark against a speedy Russian advance westward toward their capital.”
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.
