“President Donald Trump’s tariffs are increasingly clogging up the wheels of a world economy which for decades were greased by predictable and relatively free trade,” Reuters reports.
“Big-name multinationals right down to niche e-commerce players last week cut sales targets, warned of job cuts and reviewed their business plans, while major economies revised down growth prospects amid bleak data read-outs.”
The Trump administration is “decommissioning” a Department of Justice unit that has long been at the center of dismantling transnational organized crime networks, drug cartels and human trafficking rings, Bloomberg reports.
Daily Beast: “60 Minutes examined Donald Trump’s revenge tour against Big Law in a scathing episode on Sunday, essentially thumbing its nose at the president’s many complaints about the show and its parent company.”
“The newsmagazine spoke with lawyers and firms who were targeted by Trump through sweeping executive orders aimed at cutting them off from the federal government—even though it was ‘nearly impossible to get anyone on camera’ for the story.”
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and President Donald Trump had a brief conversation at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, the New York Times reports.
“He is a horrible human being. I think he is someone who has gone all in, down the rabbit hole, on extremism. And I think in his mind, there would be no migrants, immigrants, or any mixed race in our country.”
— Former Mike Pence aide Olivia Troye, talking about Trump adviser Stephen Miller on the To The Contrary podcast.
“President Donald Trump said he is willing to lower tariffs on China at some point because the levies now are so high that the world’s two largest economies have essentially stopped doing business with each other,” Bloomberg reports.
“President Donald Trump is facing a firestorm of criticism from leaders of the Roman Catholic Church after posting on social media a computer-generated image of himself as pope in full papal regalia as Catholics worldwide continue to mourn Pope Francis,” the National Catholic Reporter reports.
Said Bishop Thomas Paprocki: “By publishing a picture of himself masquerading as the Pope, President Trump mocks God, the Catholic Church, and the Papacy.”
Washington Post: Catholic leaders recoil from Trump’s pope post.
“Rwanda is in the early stages of talks to receive immigrants deported from the United States,” CNN reports.
“Rwanda has in recent years positioned itself as a destination country for migrants that Western countries would like to remove, despite concerns by rights groups that Kigali does not respect some of the most fundamental human rights.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly invoked the Constitution and said it is what “binds us all together” after receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, the AP reports.
The award recognized Pence “for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021.”
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) has filed to run for Congress against Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), the Bangor Daily News reports.
Golden is weighing a gubernatorial run.
Asked last night about whether Stephen Miller could become national security adviser, President Trump told reporters it was very possible.
Said Trump: “Stephen Miller is at the top of the totem pole. I mean, I think he sort of indirectly already has that job. He has a lot to say about a lot of things.”
Veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove told Fox News that President Trump sounds like “Mr. Scrooge” when he talks about shortages of children’s toys.
Trump hit back on Truth Social: “I don’t need to have Karl Rove of Fox News to tell me what to do. The guy’s a total Loser who’s been wrong about almost everything!”
“The federal government on Monday will resume collecting defaulted student loan payments from millions of people for the first time since the start of the pandemic,” NBC News reports.
“The Trump administration said it would collect the debt through a Treasury Department program that withholds payments through tax refunds, wages and government benefits.”
“Under ‘intense enemy fire’ in Iraq in 2003, Rep. Cory Mills rushed to the aid of two soldiers who had been struck, applied emergency life-saving care at the ‘great risk to his own life,’ helped evacuate them and saved their lives, according to the document that recommended the Florida lawmaker for a Bronze Star,” NOTUS reports.
“Mills was awarded the star after January 2021. Four years later, five people who served with him — including two of the men the document says Mills saved in different incidents — say they have no recollection of Mills being at the incidents listed on the form.”
“A contest of sorts has played out across Europe, the United States and the Middle East in recent days as President Trump’s two older sons have pursued a blitz of family moneymaking ventures capitalizing on their father’s name and power, each seemingly trying to outdo the other,” the New York Times reports.
“It is a rush to cash in that involves billions of dollars with few precedents in American history.”
“In many cases these new deals promoted over the last week will personally benefit not only Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., but also President Trump himself.”
“As Republican lawmakers hammer out a ‘big, beautiful bill’ to enact President Donald Trump’s policy plans, they’re running into a problem: their colleagues’ growing list of red lines,” the Washington Post reports.
“Some House Republicans say they won’t vote for a bill that cuts Medicaid. Others have refused to support the legislation unless it lets their constituents deduct more of their state and local taxes. Last week, one Senate Republican ruled out voting for any bill unless it pares back spending to the level before the pandemic — which would require massive additional cuts.”
“The growing list of policy ‘no-gos’ will make it even harder for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to draft a bill that can pass their narrowly divided chambers.”
Semafor: Senate prepares to change the House’s “big, beautiful” Trump bill.
“Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, never styled himself as an anti-Trump figure in his pitch for re-election,” the New York Times reports.
“He said that he trusted President Trump, and that he respected the United States’ democratic process. He rarely invoked Mr. Trump by name, redirecting questions about him to discussions of budget surpluses or a comment that he was focused on Australia. He was measured and opaque in any criticisms of Mr. Trump, and vowed not to retaliate against his tariffs.”
“But the global tumult set off by Mr. Trump’s return to power made him a factor in Australia’s election. And in the end, Mr. Albanese and his center-left Labor Party appear to have been bolstered by a wave of anti-Trump sentiment, pulling off a stunning landslide victory on Saturday.”
The Guardian: Trump says he is ‘very friendly’ with Albanese but has “no idea” who ran against him.
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.