“The Trump administration has fired at least seven Environmental Protection Agency employees for signing a letter nearly two months ago criticizing the agency’s leadership,” the Washington Post reports.
“The move to terminate several staffers marks an escalation in the administration’s effort to clamp down on dissent within the federal bureaucracy.”
“Florida could be on the hook for $218 million the state spent to convert a remote training airport in the Everglades into an immigration detention center dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’” CNN reports.
“The center may soon be completely empty as a judge upheld her decision late Wednesday ordering operations to wind down indefinitely.”
“After weeks of internal talks and a pressure campaign by President Donald Trump, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe on Friday called lawmakers into a special session beginning next week to redraw the state’s congressional maps,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
“Missouri has eight U.S. House seats, two of which are held by Democrats. The task for Republicans is to change the partisan make-up of the Kansas City-focused 5th district, resulting in one additional GOP vote in the House for Trump’s policies.”
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“A federal appeals court late Friday struck down the Trump administration’s signature tariffs, finding that the president had gone too far in his use of emergency powers to rewrite U.S. trade policy,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower-court decision that undercuts a core tenet of President Trump’s economic agenda. The majority found the president overstepped his authority under a 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or Ieepa.”
Reuters: “Trump has made tariffs a pillar of U.S. foreign policy in his second term, using them to exert political pressure and renegotiate trade deals with countries that export goods to the United States.”
New York Times: “At the heart of the fight is the extent to which Mr. Trump may invoke a decades-old economic emergency law to issue withering tariffs on the nation’s foremost trading partners. The law does not mention tariffs, but the president has seized on the statute to apply vast new duties anyway, aiming to remake U.S. trade relationships and raise billions of dollars in revenue.”
“I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation—you can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection. And I know that’s not how our children are supposed to look.”
— Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., quoted by Gizmodo.
Australian politician Bob Katter threatened to punch a journalist “in the mouth” after the reporter brought up Katter’s Lebanese lineage during a press conference where Katter announced his support for an upcoming neo-Nazi anti-immigration rally, The Wrap reports.
“U.S. companies have an unwelcome message for inflation-weary consumers: Prices are going up,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Companies including Hormel Foods, J.M. Smucker and Ace Hardware said this week they would raise prices for reasons ranging from higher meat costs to tariffs. Large retailers like Walmart, Target and Best Buy said some tariff-related price increases are already in place. More are on the way.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) accused President Trump of a “clear violation of the law” in a statement over his attempt to cancel $4.9 billion in congressionally-approved foreign aid funding.
“The Trump administration on Friday asserted vast powers to fire members of the Federal Reserve, as it urged a federal judge to reject a request by Lisa Cook, a Fed governor, to remain at the central bank while she contests the legality of her recent dismissal,” the New York Times reports.
“Lawyers for President Trump pressed their case over a roughly two-hour hearing that concluded with no immediate resolution. But the arguments framed the stakes in the emerging legal battle, which may determine the future of the Fed and its ability to set interest rates free from political meddling.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he thinks the House will “probably” vote on “one measure or another” related to releasing more information about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after a battle over the case sent the chamber into an early break last month, The Hill reports.
“The Trump administration is preparing an immigration enforcement blitz in Boston in the coming weeks,” Politico reports.
“The latest plans, which could still change, would involve a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and represent the latest Democratic-run city to be targeted by President Donald Trump.”
“The Trump administration has frequently clashed with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and criticized the city’s so-called sanctuary policy — which limits local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal agents looking to arrest and remove undocumented immigrants.”
Melania Trump — who is rarely seen in public — is apparently too busy to sit for a Vanity Fair cover photo shoot, Page Six reports.
Said a source: “She doesn’t have time to be sitting in a photo shoot. Her priorities as First Lady are far more important… These people don’t deserve her anyway.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t commit by Monday to meet Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, he would have duped President Trump, Reuters reports.
Said Macron: “If that doesn’t happen by Monday — the deadline set by President Trump — it means that once again President Putin played President Trump.”
“The Trump Administration announced Friday that it won’t issue visas to senior Palestinian officials who wish to travel to New York to attend the UN General Assembly in September, and will revoke visas that were previously granted,” Axios reports.
Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that President Trump is “objectively a Soviet or Russian agent,” Euronews reports.
“A conservative justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court said Friday that she will not seek reelection, creating an open race for a seat on the court that’s controlled 4-3 by liberals,” the AP reports.
“Justice Rebecca Bradley’s decision not to run for a second full term comes after conservative candidates for the highest court in the battleground state have lost each of the past two elections by double-digit margins.”
“President Trump’s plan to cancel $4.9 billion in congressional-approved foreign aid is aggravating members of both parties, complicating next month’s scramble to avoid a government shutdown,” Axios reports.
“The White House is looking for another fight over spending. Democratic leaders want to show their voters they aren’t afraid to join it.”
Said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): “It is clear neither President Trump nor Congressional Republicans have any plan to avoid a painful and entirely unnecessary shutdown… if Republicans are insistent on going it alone, Democrats won’t be party to their destruction.”
“Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday signed off on a new congressional map intended to flip five Democratic seats into Republican hands in next year’s midterm elections,” Axios reports.
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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