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Obama Calls Out Trump’s ‘Weak Attempt at Distraction’

July 22, 2025 at 7:42 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Former President Barack Obama’s office issued a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump on Tuesday after the president accused his predecessor of having committed ‘treason’ and rigging the 2016 and 2020 elections,” NBC News reports.

Said an Obama spokesperson: “Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”

Trump Expects $20 Million in Ads From CBS Settlement

July 22, 2025 at 7:39 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump said that he anticipates receiving advertising and public service ad commitments worth $20 million from Skydance Media, the company in the process of merging with CBS parent Paramount Global,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“He said the additional compensation would come on top of the $16 million the current owner agreed to pay earlier this month to settle Trump’s lawsuit alleging election interference by the network’s news magazine, 60 Minutes.”

Trump Announces ‘Massive’ Trade Deal with Japan

July 22, 2025 at 7:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Donald Trump announced a long-awaited trade agreement with Japan on Tuesday night, in which Japan will pay 15% “reciprocal tariffs” on goods exported to the United States, CNN reports.

Said Trump: “We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made.”


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Democrats Fan Epstein Flames

July 22, 2025 at 7:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“It’s the fixation of Washington. Now Democrats from coast to coast are plotting how to capitalize on the Jeffrey Epstein saga,” Politico reports.

“An ongoing furor around the government’s investigation of the disgraced financier has done more than fracture President Donald Trump’s base. It has also injected a volatile new element into midterm elections and created an opening for Democrats scrambling to exploit any perceived Republican weakness as they work to retake the House.”

“Once largely confined to the Beltway and to the more conspiratorial corners of the internet, the Epstein affair has already shown surprising staying power by tapping into pervasive distrust of those in power. Democrats are hoping it will help them portray the Republicans controlling Washington as corrupt and insulated from consequences.”

Jeffrey Epstein Was a Guest at Trump’s Wedding

July 22, 2025 at 7:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Newly uncovered archived video footage and photos reveal fresh details about Donald Trump’s past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” CNN reports.

“Photos from 1993 confirm for the first time that Epstein attended Trump’s 1993 wedding to Marla Maples. Epstein’s attendance at the ceremony at the Plaza Hotel was not widely known until now.”

“In addition, footage from a 1999 Victoria’s Secret fashion event in New York shows Trump and Epstein laughing and chatting together ahead of the runway event.”

Alina Habba Ousted as U.S. Attorney

July 22, 2025 at 4:14 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“New Jersey’s federal judges declined Tuesday to appoint Alina Habba, President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney in the state, to continue serving in that role, delivering a resounding rebuke to one of his administration’s most polarizing Justice Department appointees,” the Washington Post reports.

Some Thoughts on Trump’s Relationship with Epstein

July 22, 2025 at 4:03 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

I’ve long assumed Donald Trump’s fascination with Jeffrey Epstein had little to do with sex and everything to do with power.

My theory was that Trump admired Epstein’s ability to collect secrets and use them as leverage over powerful men — much like Roy Cohn taught Trump in the 1970s.

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Presidential Pettiness

July 22, 2025 at 3:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Tom Nichols: “Presidents are, like the rest of us, flawed human beings. Many of them had volcanic tempers: Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Joe Biden, among others, reportedly could sling Anglo-Saxonisms with gusto. In public, most of them managed to convey an image of geniality. (Nixon might be the exception there, but he embraced being an uptight square and his admirers found it endearing.) But all of them, regardless of their personality, had at least some notion about government, some sense of what they wanted to accomplish in the most powerful office in the world.”

“Donald Trump exhibits no such guiding belief. From his first day as a candidate, Trump has appeared animated by anger, fear, and, most of all, pettiness, a small-minded vengefulness that takes the place of actual policy making. It taints the air in the executive branch like a forgotten bag of trash in a warm house on a summer day—even when you can’t see it, you know it’s there.”

Trump Can’t Quiet Supporters Over Jeffrey Epstein

July 22, 2025 at 2:55 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The White House’s attempts to mollify President Donald Trump’s supporters’ growing outrage over the investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein appears to be falling on deaf ears,” Politico reports.

“Since Trump last week announced that he directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin the process of trying to unseal grand jury testimony in Epstein’s criminal case, Republicans and MAGA stalwarts have publicly pushed the administration to release more documents related to Epstein.”

Trump Books Draw Lackluster Sales

July 22, 2025 at 2:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Donald Trump promised Americans they would get tired of winning — for now, it appears they are getting tired of reading about him,” Politico reports.

“Trump’s first term saw books authored by prominent journalists sell hundreds of thousands of copies each as the public rushed to learn the inside details of Trump’s norm-shattering presidency.”

Republicans Propose Naming Theater After Melania Trump

July 22, 2025 at 2:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “A Republican proposal would rename the second-largest theater in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after first lady Melania Trump, if legislation considered Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee were to become law.”

The Presidency John Roberts Has Built

July 22, 2025 at 2:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Peter Shane: “No one on the Supreme Court has gone further to enable Donald Trump’s extreme exercise of presidential power than the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts. Associate justices have also written some important opinions shaping executive power, and the Court has issued ever more important unsigned orders, but the most transformative opinions—the opinions that directly legitimize Trump’s unprecedented uses of power—are Roberts’s handiwork.”

“This is not happenstance. Under Supreme Court practice, the most senior justice in the majority—which is always the chief justice when he so votes—determines who will write the main opinion. Roberts reserved these milestones for himself.”

What Trump’s Feud With Powell Is Really About

July 22, 2025 at 1:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump has been bullying Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell—calling him ‘too late,’ insulting his intelligence, and trying to gin up a case that Powell spent too much on renovations of the agency’s headquarters as a pretext for firing him. The New York Times recently observed that the two men have a ‘toxic relationship,’ which is true, as far as it goes.”

“But the actual reason for the president’s hostility is neither alleged cost overruns nor Powell’s ability to manage the business cycle. Trump doesn’t think Powell is bad at his job. He objects to the job itself.”

House Members Get More Funding for Security

July 22, 2025 at 12:58 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“House lawmakers are getting a boost to funds they can use for their own security, including at their homes,” Politico reports.

“The updated framework will double funding for residential security to $20,000 per member to ‘allow for a more comprehensive suite of security equipment to be installed at their residences,’ according to a memo distributed to lawmakers. Members will be able to put $10,000 toward physical upgrades to their residence for security purposes under an existing program.”

New York Already Has City-Owned Grocery Stores

July 22, 2025 at 12:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Of the dozens of policy proposals in Zohran Mamdani’s platform, few have generated as much debate as the Democratic mayoral nominee’s call for city-owned grocery stores,” The Gothamist reports.

“Both sides have largely missed a crucial point: New York already has a version of city-owned grocery stores. Namely, the six markets overseen by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit that manages city-owned property to boost economic development. These grocers include Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side, Moore Street Market in East Williamsburg, and others in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.”

Trump Calls on Justice Department to Charge Obama

July 22, 2025 at 12:18 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump called on the Justice Department Tuesday to prosecute former President Barack Obama for allegedly ordering an assessment that Russia meddled to help him with the 2016 election,” the New York Post reports.

Said Trump: “Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people… It’s criminal at the highest level.”

He added: “It would be President Obama, he started it. And Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and Clapper — the whole group was there, and Brennan.”

Johnson Shutting Down House to Block Epstein Vote

July 22, 2025 at 11:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he would shut the House down early for its summer recess to head off Democratic demands for votes on calling for the release of files from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the New York Times reports.

In order to avoid what he called “political games,” Johnson said the House would adjourn until September after votes scheduled for Wednesday night.

Washington Post: “The House has largely come to a halt as Republican leaders struggle to assuage an irate group of lawmakers who are demanding that the Justice Department release files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”

The only thing to conclude is that there’s something really bad in the Epstein files that President Trump doesn’t want made public.

Trump’s Latest Lawsuit Is a ‘Sure Loser’

July 22, 2025 at 11:06 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Harry Litman writes that President Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal is “a sure loser” and argues that the newspaper “surely never would have published the story without rock-solid sourcing” and that “if they printed it, they probably have the receipts.”

That means “it’s Trump’s burden to show that the reporting is false and they knew it.”

Politico notes Trump’s “decision to file the case in southern Florida led to suspicions he was hoping to draw U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon.” Instead, it has been assigned to Judge Darrin Gayles, an Obama appointee.

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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