President Trump took questions from reporters at the White House:
REPORTER: How much wealthier are you now than when you returned to the White House?
TRUMP: The deals I made for the most part, other than what my kids are doing — they’re running my business — most of the deals that I made were made before. Where are you from?
REPORTER: Australia.
TRUMP: In my opinion you are hurting Australia right now. Quiet.
Two House Republicans introduced separate resolutions to punish Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for her comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Axios reports.
Said Omar, in a Zeteo interview last week: “There is nothing more fucked up to completely pretend his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so.”
President Trump said the U.S. military had “knocked off” a third drug boat from Venezuela, despite the Pentagon so far only detailing two such strikes, Bloomberg reports.
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“FBI Director Kash Patel testified Tuesday that President Trump’s former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who served under his first administration, committed the ‘original sin’ in the Jeffrey Epstein case,” Mediaite reports.
“As U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida in 2008, Acosta oversaw a secret non-prosecution deal with Epstein that allowed the financier to plead guilty to state charges involving a single underage victim, shielding him from federal prosecution.”
President Trump signaled he was open to some concessions to the U.K. on trade to help ease implementation of their tariff deal ahead of a trip to the country, Bloomberg reports.
Financial Times: U.K. shelves hopes for 0% tariff on steel exports to U.S.
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to comment on a report about his disagreements with another member of the Trump administration, instead jokingly pointing to a famous duel involving a predecessor and what he cast as a long history of fights at his agency,” Bloomberg reports.
“Bessent was asked whether he is butting heads with Bill Pulte, the top housing finance official for President Donald Trump.”
Said Bessent: “Treasury secretaries dating back to Alexander Hamilton have a history of dueling.”
New York Times: “The most conspicuous retreat, of course, has been the United States under President Trump, who first announced his intention to withdraw from Paris way back in 2017 with a ceremony in the Rose Garden. Trump has celebrated his return to office by utterly dismantling his predecessor’s signature climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, and vowing to stop all approvals for new renewable projects (not to mention paving over that same garden). But this is not just a story about Trump. When Paris was forged, the United States was a trivial exporter of natural gas, and it was still illegal to ship American oil abroad. Even before Trump’s second inauguration, the country had become the world’s largest producer and exporter of refined oil and liquid natural gas.”
“And neither is it a story particular to America. The retreat from climate politics has been widespread, even in the midst of a global green-energy boom. From 2019 to 2021, governments around the world added more than 300 climate-adaptation and mitigation policies each year, according to the energy analyst Nat Bullard. In 2023, the number dropped under 200. In 2024, it was only 50 or so. In many places — like in South America and in Europe — existing laws have already been weakened or are under pressure from shifting political coalitions now pushing to undermine them.”
“The Air Force has started upgrading a 747 jetliner that the government of Qatar donated to the United States this summer,” the New York Times reports.
“President Trump has said he wants to modify the aircraft quickly so it can be put into use as a new Air Force One. But the plane, which industry executives estimated is worth about $200 million, will require extensive work before it can be considered secure enough to carry Mr. Trump.”
“The body of a Black student was found hanging from a tree at Delta State University early Monday, prompting horror on the Cleveland, Mississippi, campus,” The Grio reports.
A New York judge dismissed two terror-related charges against Luigi Mangione, including murder in the first degree in furtherance of an act of terrorism and murder in the second degree as a crime of terrorism, finding they are “legally insufficient,” CNN reports.
Mangione still faces a count of murder in the second degree.
“Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday he will seek a third term in the 2026 elections, hoping to beat the odds to become the longest-serving governor in a state where voters have usually said two terms were plenty,” the AP reports.
Said Walz: “I’ve seen how we help each other through the hard times. And boy, we’ve seen terrible times this year. I’m heartbroken and angry about the beautiful people we lost to gun violence. But it’s in these moments we have to come together. We can’t lose hope because I’ve seen what we can do when we work together.”
“California is fast becoming the front line in the Democrats’ generational, intraparty war,” Politico reports.
“Long a haven for aging politicians, the state has suddenly become the tip of the spear for national Democrat-on-Democrat hostilities: Fully half of the state’s older House Democrats are set to face same-party challengers next year.”
“It’s an eruption of the frustrations roiling national Democrats as a younger generation seeks to take over an aging party that it argues enabled the return of President Donald Trump. They are haunted by questions about former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity and memories of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sen. Dianne Feinstein dying in office.”
“President Trump and MAGA spent years lampooning censorship, discrimination against conservatives, and progressive ‘cancel culture,’” Axios reports.
“Now in power — and riding an outpouring of grief and fury over Charlie Kirk’s tragic killing — they’re enforcing speech codes to punish ideological opponents.”
Washington Post: JD Vance vows retribution on liberal institutions after Charlie Kirk killing.
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile writes in the Washington Post that D.C.’s longtime Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton should retire as she “is no longer the dynamo she once was.”
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said yesterday the Trump administration “had doomed five West African men it deported to the prospect of torture and death in their home countries — even though they had won protection from U.S. immigration courts,” Politico reports.
“Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can no longer oversee the prosecution of President Donald Trump in the 2020 election interference case, according to a decision issued Tuesday by the state’s highest court,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“The ruling casts doubt on the future of the last remaining criminal prosecution of Trump.”
“The unemployment rate for Black Americans is up sharply this year,” Axios reports.
“The Black unemployment rate has long been higher than the jobless rate overall — but the gap narrows when the labor market is strong, as it was in 2019 right before the pandemic and during the strong job market of 2022 and 2023.”
“The U.S. military is taking swift disciplinary action against U.S. troops over social media posts linked to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, carrying out a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy toward those it sees as cheering his death,” Reuters reports.
Dan Pfeiffer: “Think about that: the Secretary of Defense is asking the public to report U.S. troops for exercising the same freedom of speech we ask them to defend with their lives.”
“Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell responded to criticism of this policy with an unhinged post on X, suggesting that expressing an opinion is a ‘violation of the oath.’ What the hell is he talking about?”
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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