Jake Sherman: “Sources tell me that House Republicans are not expected to pursue a new tax bracket for individuals earning $2.5 million and couples earning $5 million.”
“Trump had asked for this, but then said he didn’t want them to pursue it but he would be fine if they did. So I guess they took that as a cue to not do it.”
“Democratic members of Congress who were part of a scuffle with law enforcement officers at an ICE facility in New Jersey may face arrests,” Axios reports.
“It would be a major escalation in the Trump administration’s arrests of politicians and other public servants, including the mayor of Newark and a judge in Milwaukee.”
Rachel Bade: “Not even three months into his second term, the president is already hyper-engaged in the fight to keep the GOP’s majorities in Congress. Far from writing off the House or Senate, he’s bullish about defying history and keeping Democrats away from committee gavels and subpoena powers, according to five Republicans I’ve spoken to, including several close Trump confidants.”
“He’s rolling out early endorsements in hopes of forestalling messy primary fights that could divert precious resources from the general election campaigns. He’s making recruitment calls and buttonholing other Republicans about how he can best use his political muscle. And he’s continuing to raise boatloads of money to shell out in 2026.”
New York Times: “For years, the super PACs allied with House and Senate Republicans have been some of the most powerful and independent fiefs in American politics, raising and spending hundreds of millions of dollars in each election.”
“But even though Mr. Trump is in his second term and cannot run again, he is quickly bringing them inside his sphere of influence — a sign that his dominance over the party could endure well into the future.”
New York Times: “In April 2020, long before President Trump launched a trade war that would shake the global economy, China’s top leader held a meeting with senior Communist Party officials and laid out his vision for turning the tables on the United States in a confrontation…”
“Put simply: China should dominate supplies of things the world needs, to make its adversaries think twice about using tariffs or trying to cut China off.”
Wall Street Journal: What to watch during the U.S.-China talks this weekend.
President Trump announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to a ceasefire, after four days of the most widespread fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbors in decades.
New York Times: “As night set in, there were indications that the ceasefire was not holding entirely. Cross-border firing was reported in some areas of Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian part of the disputed region.”
Washington Post: India and Pakistan agree to an immediate ceasefire.
CNN: “On Friday morning, West Coast port officials told CNN about a startling sight: Not a single cargo vessel had left China with goods for the two major West Coast ports in the past 12 hours. That hasn’t happened since the pandemic.”
Bloomberg: “The House usually elects or reelects a chaplain to a two-year term at the beginning of each Congress, in a process that draws scant attention and little or no debate. With a current salary of more than $200,000 a year, the chaplain opens legislative floor business most days with prayers, and offers spiritual guidance and support to members. They also coordinate the ‘guest chaplains’ who are frequently invited by members to deliver the daily prayer.”
“But in a sign of the political times, this year even picking an official spiritual leader is proving divisive for the chamber where Republicans hold a slim 220-213 majority. In a series of private meetings, the 10-member panel has struggled to identify someone a majority of representatives can back.”
“Jeanine Pirro, whom President Trump selected this week to serve as the top prosecutor in the District of Columbia, is just the latest in a slew of Fox News hosts and personalities to join the president’s administration this year,” The Hill reports.
“Pirro on Thursday became one of more than a dozen former Fox employees or contributors who have spoken glowingly about the president on the network’s air and been rewarded with top jobs in his government.”
“When President Trump spoke to a room of top donors at his Florida club last week, he described ending Russia’s war in Ukraine as a growing frustration that keeps him up at night,“ the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin was particularly tough to negotiate with, and wanted ‘the whole thing,’ Trump said, referring to Ukraine… His comments came in response to a donor’s question about his biggest foreign-policy concerns.”
“The war in Gaza was also notably challenging, Trump told the crowd. Finding any solution was hard because ‘they’d been fighting for a thousand years,’ he said.”
“For the first time since his federal corruption case was dropped, Mayor Eric Adams of New York City met with President Trump in Washington on Friday, hours before documents related to his case were released,” the New York Times reports.
“The stated purpose of the visit, according to the mayor’s office, was for Mr. Adams to ‘discuss New York City priorities,’ including its infrastructure needs. But apparently there was another item on his agenda.”
“After Mr. Adams had left, Mr. Trump quickly summarized the meeting. ‘I think he came in to thank me, frankly,’ he said without elaborating.”
“Some of America’s wealthiest and most powerful private foundations are informally banding together to protect their tax-exempt status from any potential attempt to revoke it by the Trump administration,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Grantmakers across the political spectrum, including the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation and the Charles Koch Foundation, are discussing possible ways to respond should the administration make such an attempt.”
Politico: GOP considers slapping big taxes on Gates Foundation and others.
“Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost’s ascension to the papacy marks an extraordinary moment for American leadership on the world stage at a time when President Trump has transformed the country’s reputation abroad and fueled distrust among longtime allies,” the New York Times reports.
“But while two Americans now sit in positions of enormous global influence, Pope Leo XIV may offer the world a different view of U.S. values from Mr. Trump’s America First approach, which he has executed through stiff tariffs, imperialist musings and vast cuts to foreign aid.”
“When he was introduced to the world, the new pope — who speaks five languages and is a naturalized citizen of Peru — emphasized his pluralistic background, making a point of speaking in Italian (representing his new constituency) and Spanish (his old one). He spoke no English and made no reference to the United States, even as some Catholics in St. Peter’s Square excitedly waved U.S. flags.”
“A federal judge on Friday called for a two-week pause in the Trump administration’s mass layoff plans, barring two dozen agencies from moving forward with the largest phase of the president’s downsizing efforts, which the judge said was illegal without Congress’s authorization,” the New York Times reports.
“Pakistan’s armed forces said they are targeting military sites in India after India fired missiles at three air bases in Pakistan’s Punjab province early Saturday, bringing the nuclear-armed rivals closer to war,” the Washington Post reports.
Politico: Pakistan says India fired missiles at air bases inside the country and Pakistan responds.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) won’t challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) next year, forgoing a polarizing Senate bid that many senior Republicans feared could jeopardize the party’s shot at flipping the seat, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Said Greene: “Jon Ossoff, you can stop with the fundraising emails and campaign ads claiming I’m your opponent. I’m not running.”
Politico: “Greene’s decision loomed large over the race, with many Democrats salivating over the possibility she’d enter the contest in one of the swingiest of swing states in the nation.”
State Sen. Jason Pizzo, who recently proclaimed the Florida Democratic Party “dead” before leaving the party, said Friday he will run for governor as an independent in 2026, Politico 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.