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President Donald Trump expressed confusion during an interview after he was informed that one of his administration officials had boasted about teleporting to a Waffle House 50 miles away, Mediaite reports.
Said Trump: “What does teleport mean? Was he kidding?”
“Kevin Warsh’s wealth eclipses that of all recent Federal Reserve chairs, newly released financial disclosure forms show,” CNBC reports.
“Warsh is President Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. His financial filings show that Warsh has holdings of approximately $131 million to $209 million, plus hundreds of millions in additional assets held by his wife, Jane Lauder.”
Bloomberg: “Across the U.S., soaring electricity costs are burdening consumers and stirring voter anger. The rapid build-out of artificial intelligence data centers, along with tariffs and upgrades to an aging grid, has raised power prices at rates unseen in decades. The war in Iran is throwing global energy markets into upheaval, adding a surge in gasoline prices to affordability concerns.”
“The energy strains have propelled the once-mundane utility bill to the center of US politics, a place it hasn’t occupied since electricity became a staple of American life. After a 2024 election in which voter concerns over inflation and the economy helped send Donald Trump back to the White House, the outcome of this year’s midterms stands to be as much about the price of power as the price of groceries.”
Bloomberg: “Tehran must surely have assumed its oil exports would be halted during a war with the US, especially if it closed the Strait of Hormuz. But seven weeks into the war, and despite having closed the waterway, Iran has enjoyed a windfall instead of economic pain.”
“During more than 40 days of fighting, Washington has let Tehran load as many oil tankers as it wished, profiting from rising prices. An even bigger gift was the White House temporarily lifting sanctions on Iranian barrels; rather than having to sell crude at a discount, the Islamic Republic was able to charge a premium.”
“Donald Trump is torching the coalition that made him president, seemingly unaware of — or simply unconcerned by — the depth of discontent permeating his movement,” Axios reports.
“Trump won back the White House with the most eclectic alliance in modern politics — a blend of MAGA diehards, crypto evangelists, nonwhite men, podcast bros, anti-war populists and culture-war Christians.”
“What Republicans celebrated as a once-in-a-generation coalition may turn out to be exactly that, never to be reassembled.”
Wall Street Journal: “President Trump is a prolific user of social media, wielding his Truth Social account to champion supporters and saber-rattle against enemies… But twice recently, the backlash to his posts from supporters has been so extreme, and so swift, that he has deleted the posts within hours.
“Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has secured a majority government, cementing his hold on power after electoral victories Monday night and defections to his Liberal Party caucus over the past six months,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The political developments give Carney a freer hand to aggressively pursue a policy agenda aimed at rebuilding the struggling Canadian economy through increasing exports to non-U.S. markets, accelerating infrastructure and resource projects, and stabilizing public finances.”
Wall Street Journal: “Sanders, who is 84, has said he doesn’t think he will run for president again. But as Democrats trip over themselves to come up with a cohesive strategy to win back congressional majorities and effectively take on President Trump, Sanders has built a formidable political machine to spread progressive policies and support like-minded candidates, many of whom are young and new to politics.”
New York Times: “Public-opinion surveys show that roughly six in 10 Americans oppose the U.S.-led war against Iran, a striking shift from the solid public support that accompanied the United States’ invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s, or the Persian Gulf war in the 1990s.”
“Some say they are simply baffled by a war that they feel the president did not prepare them for and that still has not been clearly explained.”
Vice President JD Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in the federal government, said in an interview on Fox News on Monday that the pope should stay out of American affairs, the New York Times reports.
Said Vance: “Stick to matters of, you know, what’s going on in the Catholic Church. And let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.”
He added: “When they are in conflict, they are in conflict. I don’t worry about it too much.”
New York Times: “Pope Leo XIV, who was elected less than a year ago, is not Francis. For Mr. Trump, who is now in his second term, he presents a new foil at the Vatican with a markedly different standing among Catholics.”
“As the first American in the seat of St. Peter, he has a native fluency in American politics and culture, and his leadership is supported across broad swaths of the American church.”
“President Trump knew that Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary was in trouble when he sent Vice President JD Vance to Budapest last week to campaign on his behalf,” the New York Times reports.
“Just days later Hungarians roundly rejected a fifth term for Mr. Orban. Now the scale of his defeat is setting off alarm bells for the American right, because many of Mr. Trump’s supporters have seen Mr. Orban as a kindred spirit and as an incubator of ideas that they embraced.”
“The fear is that Republicans in the U.S., facing flagging poll numbers and an unhappy electorate, could suffer the same fate in 2026 and 2028 by failing to keep right-wing populism popular.”
“Early voting data from Virginia suggests Democrats have an advantage in their push to enact a gerrymander that could net them as many as four U.S. House seats in this fall’s midterms,” CNN reports.
“Olivia Troye, a national security official in President Donald Trump’s first administration who became an outspoken critic, plans to run for Congress in Virginia as a Democrat, joining other former Republicans alienated by Trump now seeking office,” the Washington Post reports.
Stephen Collinson: “The iron laws of the world that govern Donald Trump’s presidency — strength, force and power — are increasingly being challenged at home and abroad.”
“Trump and his subordinates have made no secret of his belief in his own dominance and his willingness to wield untamed American might in pursuit of economic, geopolitical and domestic wins. His policies are an extension of a personal brand built on confrontation and the escalation of disputes.”
“But an increasingly chaotic international situation and growing domestic tumult suggest that the president’s methodology of escalation and coercion has limits — and that it may be leading him into damaging political corners.”
Nahal Toosi: Trump is facing an increasingly defiant world.
“Saudi Arabia is pressing the U.S. to drop its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and return to the negotiating table, fearing President Trump’s move to close it off could lead Iran to escalate and disrupt other important shipping routes,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“What they have done is engage in this act of economic terrorism against the entire world. As the President showed, two can play at that game.”
— Vice President JD Vance, on Fox News.
“President Trump’s naval blockade of Iran risks further upending a global economy already battered by weeks of war, escalating a regional clash into a worldwide financial shock that could prove more devastating than the fighting itself,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The U.S. blockade on ships entering or exiting Iranian ports is set to drain more oil from a tight market, prolong the squeeze on other key commodities flowing through the Strait of Hormuz and inject significant uncertainty into the global economy.”
“Some conservatives say President Trump is flirting with betraying his biggest campaign promise on mass deportations — and the voters who put him there,” Axios reports.
“The White House is backing away from mass deportation rhetoric ahead of the midterms, infuriating the once-fringe immigration hardliners who considered Trump their last shot at reversing decades of mass migration.”
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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