Punchbowl News: “The Trump administration began layoffs across the federal government today in response to the ongoing government shutdown, with thousands of employees being fired at a half-dozen agencies.”
“The move – which came as Senate Majority Leader John Thune was literally praising the Trump administration for holding off on such actions – is the latest sign that both sides are digging in for what could be a long shutdown. A very long shutdown.”
“President Trump underwent his latest physical exam on Friday during a trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, with his doctor concluding he has maintained exceptional health and that he received a Covid-19 booster vaccine,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Democrats on a virtual caucus call Friday that they should plan to return to the Capitol by next Tuesday evening,” Punchbowl News reports.
Said Jeffries: “We’re asking everyone to return to Washington.”
“President Trump announced Friday he will raise tariffs on China in response to a move from Beijing to tighten its control over certain critical minerals and rare earth elements,” The Hill reports.
“Trump announced on Truth Social that he would impose a tariff of 100 percent on Chinese goods beginning Nov. 1 or sooner. Those tariffs will supersede existing duties already in place on Chinese goods.”
Said Trump: “It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History.”
Wall Street Journal: “The renewed conflict shows that despite months of a tariff truce and repeated meetings between Chinese officials and Trump’s team, relations between the world’s two largest economies remain volatile and can erupt into crisis with little warning.”
Anne Applebaum: “Machado is in hiding, deep inside a country that is failing. I spoke with her twice late last year, without knowing where she was. A few months before, the country had just held presidential elections. The opposition movement that she leads had won. Even though activists were being picked up off the streets, or simply shot and killed, they had held a primary, run a presidential campaign—Machado herself was barred, so Edmundo González was the candidate—and made sure that votes were counted accurately. Still, even after his definitive loss, Nicolás Maduro, the country’s illegitimate leader, refused to hand over power.”
“Lately, Americans have been hearing little about Venezuela other than drugs and gangs, but the country has long been the home of one of the world’s most impressive grassroots-democracy movements. At this moment, when citizens in many of the world’s most successful liberal democracies are giving up, even questioning whether popular participation in politics has any value, Venezuelans fight violence with nonviolence, and oppose corruption through bravery.”
“The acting U.S. Attorney in Maryland is moving forward quickly to seek criminal charges against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton,” MSNBC reports.
“Members of Congress pushed back Friday against the White House announcing layoffs of federal workers as part of the government shutdown,” Axios reports.
“The firings are happening at agencies across the federal government, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Treasury, Education, Health and Human Services and Energy.”
Wall Street Journal: “The move marks a major escalation in Trump’s efforts to force a resolution to the partisan standoff on Capitol Hill and tests the limits of his executive power to trim the federal work force. Congress has been at a standstill since the shutdown started Oct. 1, and many federal workers and military servicemembers are set to miss their first full paychecks next week.”
“Democrats railed against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Friday after he cancelled yet another week of House votes amid the ongoing government shutdown,” Axios reports.
Will Gottsegen: “After nearly five years in Congress, the hard-right North Georgia representative is calling for an extension of provisions in the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature health-care policy, breaking with her party over the central policy issue of the current government shutdown and creating ripples of anxiety throughout the broader MAGA movement. ‘I’m absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will DOUBLE if the tax credits expire this year,’ she wrote on X. Today, Greene put the blame for the government shutdown squarely on Republican leadership.”
“Greene is no Democrat: She believes that Obamacare created many of the problems with today’s health-insurance market, but she also believes that Republicans ‘have no new solution.’ Lately, her impulse to go after both sides has left her very much on her own.”
Fintan O’Toole: “They might be surprised that the republic exists at all.”
Marc Novicoff: “The National Guard’s mostly quiet walks through Washington, D.C., are expected to cost a little more than $200 million… and that’s the figure just for the D.C. National Guard, not for the eight states that have sent troops. Those likely more than double that cost, because out-of-state troops make up a majority of the D.C. deployment.”
“According to the California National Guard, the deployment to Los Angeles cost another $118 million as of early September, a number that continues to grow as 100 troops remain in the city, long after the precipitating unrest has died down. Tens of millions of dollars—perhaps hundreds of millions in total—will be spent on deployments to Chicago, Portland, and Memphis, if Trump’s plans for those cities proceed.”
“Based on the known spending so far, the deployments could wind up costing Americans roughly two-thirds of a billion dollars.”
“The Trump administration moved to begin laying off federal workers Friday while the government was shuttered, fulfilling threats from President Donald Trump to take advantage of the closure to shave off still more parts of the federal workforce he dislikes,” the Washington Post reports.
Daily Beast: “Images showed Bondi had an entire page dedicated to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, including prompts to accuse the Democrat of working with ‘dark money groups’ and being a ‘hypocrite.'”
“A handwritten note scrawled on Bondi’s folder also suggested she ask Whitehouse if he ever took money from tech billionaire and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a onetime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, if the topic of the late pedophile came up.”
“This is about one thing and one thing alone — to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in DC next week.”
— House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), speaking at a press conference, on the government shutdown.
“President Trump threatened to raise tariffs and impose export controls on China and said there was ‘no reason’ to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping after Beijing’s new restrictions on rare-earth materials marked an escalation in tensions between the countries,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“China this week announced new export restrictions on rare earth minerals, which are critical components of products from semiconductors to electric vehicles and jet fighters. China dominates processing capabilities for rare earth minerals, giving it leverage over the U.S. and other nations.”
Jonathan Lemire: “If the secret to understanding a strongman is to identify his greatest weakness, one place to start with Donald Trump is his obsession with his own eventual obituaries. Trump knows that they will mention his history-making presidencies, his ostentatious wealth, and his unusual charisma—but he also is aware that when he dies, people will remember his conviction on 34 felony counts, and that there is nothing he can do about it.”
“Even now, White House officials have told me, Trump rages about how his guilty verdict is sure to be mentioned way up high in his obituaries.”
“The Norwegian officials in charge of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize are investigating information that online bets on this year’s recipient surged overnight, suggesting a potential leak of information,” Bloomberg reports.
“Bets for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for democracy, spiked at the Polymarket gambling site shortly after midnight Norwegian time.”
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.
