“A federal appeals court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a jury verdict ordering him to pay $83.3 million for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll,” CNBC reports.
New York Times: “The court also rejected Mr. Trump’s argument that the Supreme Court’s decision last year affording presidential immunity for official acts barred a finding of liability in Ms. Carroll’s lawsuit.”
“The war in Ukraine has become a contest between two hourglasses: one measuring how long Ukraine’s thinly stretched army can keep up the fight, and the other how long Russia’s economy can sustain the invasion without hurting the stability of Vladimir Putin’s regime,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The problem for President Trump’s push for peace is that Putin is betting Ukraine’s hourglass will run out first, allowing him to impose a victor’s terms and win a place in Russian history alongside conquering czars.”
“That is why the Russian president has for months sidestepped Trump’s proposals to freeze the fighting with a territorial compromise that the U.S. thought would be attractive for Moscow. Instead, the Kremlin is sticking to its maximalist demands, which would effectively make Ukraine its vassal and change the balance of power in Europe.”
Gallup: “Americans are more positive toward capitalism than socialism, but the 54% viewing capitalism favorably is down from 60% in 2021 and near that level in most prior years.”
“Norway goes to the polls on Monday after an unusually close-fought and polarized election dominated by the cost of living, wealth taxes, oil fund investment in Israel and relations with Donald Trump,” The Guardian reports.
“There has been a surge in support for the populist rightwing Progress party led by Sylvi Listhaug, in what has been described by some as ‘the Maga-fication’ of Norwegian politics.”
“Republicans detest the idea of spending billions of dollars to shore up the Affordable Care Act. They are also realizing that the alternative could be a political disaster,” Semafor reports.
“With health insurance premiums projected to skyrocket at the end of the year thanks to the expiration of tax credits Democrats enacted during the pandemic, Republicans are likely to focus on paring back those federal subsidies. But allowing them to go away entirely at the end of this year heading into the midterms?”
“Russia struck Ukraine with the largest aerial bombardment of the 3½-year war, hitting a government building in the heart of the capital for the first time,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Russia fired 13 missiles and launched more than 800 attack drones, according to Ukraine’s air force, a record for the number of drones it has directed at Ukraine in a single night. Air defenses intercepted four of the missiles and nearly 500 drones.”
“Japan’s prime minister said he would resign, leaving his successor an inbox bulging with challenges including a relationship with the U.S. strained by tariffs and voter anger over sliding living standards,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The downfall of Shigeru Ishiba, who led Japan for less than a year before his party turned on him over a run of election defeats, is the latest installment in a global drama that has seen mainstream parties hemorrhage support to populist upstarts as voters seek new answers to problems including inflation, immigration and lackluster economic growth.”
“The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow it to freeze billions of dollars in foreign aid, potentially setting up the biggest test yet of the president’s bid to assert sweeping authority over federal spending,” the Washington Post reports.
“The emergency filing in the rapidly moving case comes after a federal appeals court upheld a preliminary injunction requiring Trump officials to spend the money for food, medicine and development assistance before it begins to expire at the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30.”
Jill Lawrence: “‘Authenticity’ is an overused word in politics, and ‘diversity’ is under assault, but they are both underappreciated assets in the Democratic party.”
“Four Democrats in the news right now prove the worth of these concepts in the nonconceptual, hardball realm of aiming to win elections. They are as different from each other as the states and cities they call home.”
Scott Linciome: “When the populist strongman Juan Perón ran Argentina’s economy from his presidential palace in the mid-20th century—personally deciding which companies received favors, which industries got nationalized or protected, and which businessmen profited from state largesse—economists warned that the experiment would end badly. They were right. Over decades of rule by Perón and his successors, a country that had once been among the world’s wealthiest nations devolved into a global laughingstock, with uncontrollable inflation, routine fiscal crises, rampant corruption, and crippling poverty. Peronism became a cautionary tale of how not to manage an economy.”
“President Donald Trump seems to have misunderstood the lesson. His second term has begun to follow the Peronist playbook of import substitution, emergency declarations, personal dealmaking, fiscal and monetary recklessness, and unprecedented government control over private enterprise. And, as with Argentina’s Peronism, much of U.S. economic policy making runs directly through the president himself.”
“In the months following Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a little-known venture fund with ties to the Trump family quietly crossed a milestone: $1 billion in assets,” Reuters reports.
“The firm, 1789 Capital, was once a niche experiment that aimed to align equity investing with conservative political values.”
“This year, it has grown into a financial powerhouse following two strokes of fortune: Trump’s election in November and the addition of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., as a 1789 partner that same month.”
“U.S. health insurers, reeling from slumping share prices, are raising insurance premiums by the most in 15 years, adding to fears that American consumers are struggling under the weight of high costs,” the Financial Times reports.
“One of the insurance companies, UnitedHealth, has cited tariffs from President Trump’s trade wars as a reason for the increases.”
“As President Donald Trump continues to stockpile cash to exert his influence in next year’s midterm elections and beyond, he’s sharing a modest — but notable — sum with his No. 2,” NBC News reports.
“Many of Trump’s recent fundraising emails, as well as the donation button on his official website, direct contributors to make donations that kick 5% of the total to Vice President JD Vance’s PAC, Working for Ohio.”
“When Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his vision of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a recent op-ed, he cited one of the agency’s biosurveillance programs as a prime example of the agency’s capabilities: the Biothreat Radar Detection System,” NOTUS reports.
“But the ‘Biothreat Radar Detection System’ doesn’t appear to exist — at least, not yet.”
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A New York Times investigation found that America’s leading bank spent years supporting — and profiting from — the notorious sex offender, ignoring red flags, suspicious activity and concerned executives.
“A tone-deaf Superior Court Judge, John Deitch, has scheduled a hearing for October 3 to first consider a lawsuit filed by a Hillside municipal candidate running in the November 4 general election, even though vote-by-mail ballots are scheduled to go out on September 20,” the New Jersey Globe reports.
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.
