AP-NORC poll: “The share of Republicans who see the country headed in the right direction has fallen sharply in recent months…Today, only about half in the GOP see the nation on the right course, down from 70% in June. The shift is even more glaring among Republican women and the party’s under-45 crowd.”
“Overall, about one-quarter of Americans say things in the country are headed in the right direction, down from about 4 in 10 in June. Democrats and independents didn’t shift meaningfully.”
A new Emerson College poll in California voters finds 51% plan to vote in favor of Proposition 50 in the November special election, which would authorize temporary changes to congressional district maps.
Thirty-four percent plan to vote no, and 15% are undecided.
Support for the measure is higher among those “very likely” to vote in the November special election, 55% of whom plan to vote yes and 35% no.
“Gov. Gavin Newsom has raised roughly $70 million in less than two months for the California ballot measure to redraw the state’s congressional lines, with the family of the prominent Democratic financier George Soros recently kicking in $10 million,” the New York Times reports.
“The $10 million donation makes the Soros family the single largest funder in favor of the redistricting ballot measure. And it comes at a moment when President Trump has explicitly called for Mr. Soros and his son Alex to be investigated as part of an escalation of his efforts to clamp down on political opposition.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 74, declined to confirm whether he would run for reelection in 2028, telling Punchbowl News: “My first focus is winning in 2026, getting back the Senate in 2026, and that is my focus… it’s sort of my North Star.”
President Trump suggested that he is working to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from the country left the base in the Taliban’s hands, the AP reports.
Times of London: Taliban tell Trump: We’ll never hand Bagram airbase back to U.S.
Jon Stewart responded to the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert by delivering a “government-approved” monologue, which consisted of nothing but praise for President Trump.
Said Stewart: “If you’ve felt a little off these past couple of days, it’s probably because our great father has not been home. For father has been gracing England with his legendary warmth and radiance.”
He added: “Gaze upon him with a gait even more majestic than that of the royal horses that prance before him! He wowed the English with charm and intelligence and an undeniable sexual charisma that filled their air like a pheromone-packed London fog!”
Axios: Late-night hosts react to Kimmel suspension.
The Economist: “The war in Gaza has undermined one of the world’s closest alliances.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has been given her own Secret Service detail, CBS News reports.
Ankush Khardori: “When it comes to Trump’s handling of the TikTok ban, it has, at best, scrambled the constitutional order, and, at worst, seen the administration openly flout a law passed by the American public’s elected representatives in order to advance the political, personal and financial interests of Trump and his allies.”
For members: Another Trump Power Grab
“President Donald Trump is expected to fire the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after his office was unable to find incriminating evidence of mortgage fraud against New York Attorney General Letitia James,“ ABC News reports.
“Federal prosecutors in Virginia had uncovered no clear evidence to prove that James had knowingly committed mortgage fraud when she purchased a home in the state in 2023.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris writes in her new book that she thought she was going to win the presidential election last year, the Washington Post reports.
When Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’s campaign manager, broke the news, Harris recalls being in shock, barely able to breathe.
She repeated over and over: “My God, what will happen to our country?”
“The stakes will be high on Friday when President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have only their second conversation since Trump returned to the White House and quickly set about inciting another trade war,” the Washington Post reports.
“Xi is continuing to bet he can find painful leverage points to counter Washington’s trade and technology pressure campaign. And Trump, who places great stock in his ability to broker international deals through direct talks with fellow leaders, wants a face-to-face meeting with Xi, even as his administration has sought to isolate Beijing and pull manufacturing back inside U.S. borders.”
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her team are positioning her to run for president or the U.S. Senate in 2028,“ Axios reports.
“Ocasio-Cortez’s 2028 decision could shake up the presidential race or the Senate’s leadership. A fellow New Yorker, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 74, is up for re-election in 2028.”
“For decades, right-wing extremists and jihadists have been responsible for the bulk of America’s deadly political violence and domestic terrorism, from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, according to researchers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“But those tracking such violence say more acts are being committed by those holding either explicitly leftist views, no dominant political views or a mix of fringe ideologies, including the alleged gunman in the fatal shooting of a UnitedHealthcare executive in December and the suspect in the killing of two Israeli diplomats in Washington in May.”
“Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and David Letterman all warned on Thursday that the country was sliding toward an autocracy after ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show following pressure from the Trump administration,” the New York Times reports.
Washington Post: Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension raises fears of a new censorship era.
Sen. Chuck Schumer “is convinced that Trump and Republicans will own the shutdown, which flies in the face of decades of political history about the fallout from these types of showdowns,” Punchbowl News reports.
Said Schumer: “Look, Donald Trump is heading the show here. And he has said, ‘Don’t negotiate with the Democrats. We don’t need them.’ There’s one of two things. Either he doesn’t understand the Senate — even in its most rudimentary way — or he doesn’t know how to count. The only good way to get this done is a bipartisan negotiation.”
“According to Schumer, Johnson and Thune are simply Trump’s puppets and exhibit ‘weakness’ for not wanting to sit down with Democrats.”
“President Trump’s team is weighing a plan to spur the construction of factories and other infrastructure in a bid to jump-start the American manufacturing sector,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Under the plan, the administration would use money from a $550 billion investment fund established as part of trade negotiations with Japan to invest in the development of semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, energy, ships and quantum computing.”
“Some of the projects would be granted preferential treatment from the government, including expedited regulatory review.”
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.