The Trump administration sent 300 federalized members of the California National Guard to Oregon early Sunday, after being blocked by a federal court from deploying the Oregon National Guard in that state, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Mr. Newsom denounced the move as a “breathtaking abuse of power” and said California would sue, the New York Times reports.
Washington Post: Tensions spike in Chicago, Portland as Trump faces legal challenges over troop use.
A new CBS News poll finds just 28 percent said Democrats’ positions are worth it to shut down the government, and 23 percent said Republicans’ positions were worth it.
As for the blame game, 39 percent said it was Trump and congressional Republicans’ fault, compared to 30 percent who primarily blame congressional Democrats. And 31 percent blame both sides equally.
“Top Democratic Party officials are increasingly frustrated with their leadership for not doing more to support Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for mayor of New York City,” Axios reports.
“The rise of Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has split top Democrats in D.C. and New York, some of whom fear his left-wing views and criticism of Israel will damage the party’s national brand.”
President Trump told CNN Hamas faces “complete obliteration” if the group refuses to cede power and control of Gaza, amid ongoing efforts to push forward his proposed ceasefire plan.
John Avlon interviewed Barbara Walter, author of How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them, about the dangerous warning signs in America today.
A new YouGov survey found that 41% of Americans think the federal closure will last for two weeks or less. Thirteen percent said they expect the shutdown to last three to four weeks and 9% said they predict at least a month-long closure.
More than a third — 37% — of Americans surveyed, however, said they are not sure how long it will last, resonating with the uncertainty voiced by most lawmakers in Washington.
“President Trump’s advisers are counseling him to refine his economic message with a pitch to voters aimed at easing their anxiety about weak jobs growth and stubborn inflation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Their new mantra: Just wait until next year.”
“In private conversations with the president, Trump’s advisers, rather than dwell on shaky economic data, have painted a rosy outlook, insisting that data will begin to improve in the first quarter of 2026.”
“The Supreme Court and President Donald Trump are headed for a reckoning,” the Washington Post reports.
“After months of terse emergency rulings that largely avoided major confrontations with the new administration, the justices will open their new term on Monday faced with the need to render full, final verdicts on policies at the core of Trump’s presidency.”
“President Trump confidante Laura Loomer has successfully campaigned for the ouster of more than a dozen national security officials and others she has accused of secretly working against the president’s ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Now she is training her considerable firepower inside the MAGA tent.”
“The 32-year-old, self-styled journalist with 1.8 million followers on X and a twice-weekly podcast ‘Loomer Unleashed,’ has emerged as a powerful figure in Trump’s second term, speaking to the president in the evening when she calls, and telling him who she thinks is disloyal to him.”
“As the government shutdown enters its first full week, travelers planning visits to national parks and other tourist sites run by the federal government face more than a little uncertainty,” the New York Times reports.
“National parks largely will remain open, but there are exceptions, and even those that are open may reduce services for visitors. Specifics likely vary from park to park.”
“A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from using Oregon National Guard soldiers to help quell nightly protests at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon,” the New York Times reports.
“Judge Karin Immergut, of the U.S. District Court in Oregon, sided with Democrats who run the state government when she issued a temporary restraining order blocking the mobilization. President Trump and the Defense Department had ordered 200 Oregon soldiers for a 60-day deployment.”
“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth considered sending an elite U.S. Army strike force to Portland, Ore., to quell protests that President Donald Trump has characterized as ‘lawless mayhem,’ according to images of messages,” the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.
“The messages, casually exchanged last weekend in a crowded, public space, show high-level officials in the Trump administration discussing the deployment of the Army’s 82nd Airborne, an infantry division that has been deployed to combat zones in both world wars, Vietnam and Afghanistan.”
“If the administration were to send in the Army division, it would almost certainly be challenged in court under federal laws limiting how the military can be used domestically.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) warned that President Trump plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard.
Pritzker said he would be defying the order: “I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people. Illinois, we will do everything within our power to look out for our neighbors, uphold the Constitution, and defend the rule of law.”
CNN: “The memo symbolized Vought’s methodical march to accumulate power within the executive branch — and the outsized role he has played in getting to this moment. Vought’s vision for how to deconstruct Washington’s sprawling federal bureaucracy, shaped by his years toiling in Republican circles, is now being enacted.”
“Vought has transformed a role typically focused on the weeds of congressional appropriations into the Trump administration’s primary instrument to dismantle, piece by piece, federal agencies and spending plans.”
New Yorker: “In the past few years, as many as two million people have escaped the island’s repressive regime and collapsing economy. Those who’ve made it to the U.S. face a new reckoning.”
“The House GOP leadership told rank-and-file Republican lawmakers Saturday morning that they will only come back to Washington when Senate Democrats reopen the government,” Punchbowl News reports.
“Speaker Mike Johnson told lawmakers on a conference call that he believes the GOP is winning the messaging fight on the shutdown. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said he will give members 48-hour notice before they have to return to Washington.”
“The House Republican Conference was largely supportive of the leadership’s strategy on the call.”
“Senate GOP Leader John Thune and his lieutenants have largely remained silent as President Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department to target his adversaries, enriched himself and his family through brazen self-dealing and repeatedly stepped on congressional prerogatives, among other transgressions they’d never tolerate from a Democratic president,” Politico reports.
“Yet at the same time — and with purposefully little fanfare — Thune and other lawmakers have quietly gone about trying to normie’ize their conference with mainstream Republicans. Of course, what’s normal in the Trump era is all relative — the price of admission for every GOP senator and would-be senator not named Murkowski or Collins is complete and total fealty to the president.”
“What Thune is doing, though, is shaping a Senate Republican conference that will outlast Trump (if not Trumpism) and offer some ballast against a House that’s sure to move with the momentary tides toward isolationism and populism.”
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.
