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Trump Sets His Sights on Peace in Ukraine

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“President Trump scored a major foreign-policy win in Gaza by brokering the release of hostages from captivity and securing an end to the fighting between Israel and Hamas,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Now Europeans are hoping Trump can repeat the success with another knotty foreign-policy problem.”

“Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, according to officials familiar with the plans, on the heels of his diplomatic victory tour in the Middle East. At his stops in Israel and Egypt, Trump referenced the continuing war between Russia and Ukraine, underscoring how, as he touted his achievements on one major conflict, he has still set his sights on resolving another.”

Trump to Launch Drone Program Ahead of World Cup

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“The Trump administration is moving to fortify U.S. skies against potential drone threats ahead of next summer’s World Cup and other marquee mega-events, casting the technology as necessary both to bolster security and to help outpace foreign competition for aviation technology,” Politico reports.

“The administration plans to launch a $500 million effort to support state and local governments as they develop anti-drone security strategies ahead of the soccer tournament being played across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, along with the United States’ 250th anniversary and 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.”

North Carolina GOP to Vote on New House Map

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“North Carolina Republican legislative leaders announced plans Monday to vote next week on redrawing the state’s U.S. House district map, with a likely aim to secure another GOP seat within already right-leaning boundaries,” the AP reports.

“The move comes amid an emerging mid-decade battle nationally between Republicans and Democrats seeking advantage in the way U.S. House districts are drawn in several states for the 2026 session.”


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Trump Allies Sold Sponsorships to ‘Treasury Event’

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“An investment fund run by prominent Trump supporters tried to sell sponsorships for a conference it pitched to companies as the ‘Inaugural U.S. Treasury A.I. Summit,’ during which it said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would unveil the Treasury Department’s artificial-intelligence strategy,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The fact that a private conference was marketed as a government-hosted event designed to unveil U.S. government policy startled ethics experts.”

News Organizations Reject New Pentagon Policies

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“The Washington Post joined the New York Times, the Atlantic and the Guardian in spurring the Pentagon’s new press restrictions ahead of its Monday deadline,” The Wrap reports.

“The Pentagon’s latest guidelines for reporters assigned to the building, unveiled last week, require reporters to agree not to engage in ‘solicitation’ with military officials or risk their access to the building. It was an escalation of its increasingly tight-strung policies that came a week after it unveiled — and news organizations rebuked — a policy that demanded reporters not publish information not authorized for public release.”

Man Wrongly Imprisoned for 43 Years Taken by ICE

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Miami Herald: “On the morning of Oct. 3, 2025, Subramanyam ‘Subu’ Vedam walked out of Huntingdon State Correctional Institution, the Pennsylvania prison that had confined him for more than four decades. The 64-year-old had spent nearly his entire adult life behind bars for a murder he did not commit. His conviction had been vacated weeks earlier after a court found that prosecutors had concealed evidence that would have dismantled the state’s case.”

“The Centre County district attorney formally withdrew all charges a day before his expected release. But Vedam never made it home.”

“As he stood on the threshold of freedom, officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were waiting. Acting on a decades-old deportation order, they detained him and transferred him to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, an ICE detention facility in central Pennsylvania.”

Obama Swipes at Democrats for Scolding Voters

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Former President Barack Obama ripped fellow Democrats over their messaging, the Washington Examiner reports.

Said Obama: “You can’t constantly lecture people without acknowledging that you’ve got some blind spots, too, and that life’s messy.”

He added: “I think this was a fault of some progressive language, was almost asserting a holier-than-thou superiority that’s not that different from what we used to joke about coming from the Right Moral Majority and a certain fundamentalism about how to think about stuff that I think was dangerous. You can’t just be a scold all the time.”

Senior Prosecutor Removed from U.S. Attorney’s Office

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“Maggie Cleary — the senior Justice Department prosecutor who briefly led the powerful US attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia last month before Trump ally Lindsey Halligan took over — has been removed from the office,” CNN reports.

“Cleary is the latest person exiting the office, as the Justice Department political leadership has become bolder in removing people that oppose their decisions.”

Mike Johnson Sees ‘Longest Shutdown in History’ Ahead

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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the government shutdown is on its way to being one of the longest in history unless Democrats accept the House-passed, GOP-crafted stopgap bill to reopen the government, The Hill reports.

Said Johnson: “We’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history, unless Democrats dropped their partisan demands and passed a clean, no-strings-attached budget to reopen the government and pay our federal workers.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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