“With a $400 million luxury jet waiting in the wings and a $37 million check in hand − thanks to settlements from Meta and ABC− President Donald Trump’s future presidential library plan is ready for take off,” USA Today reports.
“All it needs is a nonprofit − or two − to get it off the ground.”
“To that end, Trump’s son Eric and son-in-law Michael Boulos have filed paperwork establishing a nonprofit to raise money for the library.”
Wall Street Journal: “Some major donors have been reluctant to give money to his presidential library, and some allies privately worry it will not open during his lifetime… Biden’s speaking fees, which can range from $300,000 to $500,000, are below what former President Barack Obama commands… So far, few organizations have been willing to pay for Biden.”
“Making matters more difficult, Biden faces pressure that other past presidents didn’t. He aims to quickly amass an inheritance for his grandchildren… His son Hunter, with five children, has struggled to find a professional footing and another son, Beau, died in 2015, leaving prongs of the family for whom the Bidens have taken on some financial responsibility.”
“The most significant hurdle is a hardening view that his presidency failed to deliver on its core promise of moving the country past Donald Trump.”
“As President Trump escalated his attacks against Harvard University, its board resolved to fight,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Trustees discussed whether to sue or pursue deal talks after Trump first targeted the university in March. But as the president lobbed bomb after bomb at the school—pulling billions in federal funds, threatening its tax-exempt status, and now trying to block it from enrolling international students—the group stood firm.”
“By Friday, the school had filed two lawsuits against the administration, the latest to regain its foreign students.”
“The European Union has been following tried-and-true rules of global commerce as it tries to negotiate with the Trump administration to avert painful tariffs on cars, pharmaceuticals and just about everything else,” the New York Times reports.
“The problem? President Trump is ripping up that rule book.”
Bloomberg: “Since he kicked off his campaign, Trump’s empire has landed billions of dollars of deals at home and abroad.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Trump heralded the deal that would keep U.S. Steel in America and its headquarters in Pittsburgh… The language of ‘partnership’ as opposed to ‘acquisition’ harkens back to Trump’s comments earlier this year when he sought to reframe the relationship between Nippon and U.S. Steel.”
“Nippon, for its part, has not wavered from the structure of the original deal.”
New Yorker: “It used to be progressives who distrusted the experts. What happened?”
New York Times: “In its proposed regulation, the agency argued that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants that burn fossil fuels ‘do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution’ or to climate change…”
“But in the United States, the power sector was the second biggest source of greenhouse gases … The proposed regulation is part of a broader attack by the Trump administration on the established science that greenhouse gases threaten human health and the environment.”
New York Magazine: “The inside story of an unconditional surrender.”
“When Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, showed up at a hearing on May 8 with Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, his colleagues were surprised to see him. Until then, his chair on the dais of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee had sat empty all year,” the New York Times reports.
“But under intense scrutiny about his mental health and his ability to function in his job, Mr. Fetterman has been in damage control mode, attending hearings and votes that he had been routinely skipping over the past year…”
“Mr. Fetterman does not enjoy participating in these hearings that he has sat through in recent weeks as he seeks to prove that he is capable of performing the job he was elected to do until 2028. In fact, at a critical moment for the country, he appears to have little interest in the day-to-day work of serving in the United States Senate.”
CNBC spoke to 25-year old Nicholas Pinto, who was one of the 220 guests invited to Donald Trump’s crypto dinner.
Said Pinto: “The food sucked. Wasn’t given any drinks other than water or Trump’s wine. I don’t drink, so I had water. My glass was only filled once… He didn’t talk to any of the 220 guests — maybe the top 25.”
“All in, the president was there for 23 minutes, Pinto said. Trump delivered a brief address rehashing old crypto talking points then left on a helicopter before taking any questions or pictures with his meme coin contest winners, he said.”
“One day after House Republicans approved an expensive package of tax cuts that rattled financial markets, President Trump pivoted back to his other signature policy priority, unveiling a battery of tariff threats that further spooked investors and raised the prospects of higher prices on American consumers,” the New York Times reports.
“For a president who has fashioned himself as a shrewd steward of the economy, the decision to escalate his global trade war on Friday appeared curious and costly. It capped off a week that saw Mr. Trump ignore repeated warnings that his agenda could worsen the nation’s debt, harm many of his own voters, hurt the finances of low-income families and contribute far less in growth than the White House contends.”
“When Joe Biden left office in January, he sought to follow the template set by his predecessors for a post-presidency: Raise funds for a library, deliver a memoir and hit the speaking circuit,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Instead, he has been derailed by a battle to salvage his tarnished legacy—and an urgent fight against stage-4 prostate cancer that kills most men within five years. A stream of new books detailing the extent of his decline while in office and the efforts to conceal it has spawned a fresh round of recriminations over the 82-year-old’s presidency.”
“Masked officers descended on courthouses across the country this week and arrested stunned immigrants showing up for scheduled immigration hearings as part of a new directive from federal officials aimed at dramatically accelerating deportations,” the Washington Post reports.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Arizona, Virginia and more than 20 other states have been instructed to arrest people immediately after a judge has ordered them to be deported or after prosecutors move to drop their cases.”
“President Trump used every lever of power available to muscle a massive tax bill through the House, showing his iron grip on the Republican Party four months into his second term,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Now, to get the legislation to his desk, he next will need to get it through the Senate, and then likely drive a changed bill back through the House.”
“Trump this week aggressively pushed lawmakers to come together—at times cursing, at times cajoling and ultimately demonstrating his control over the party he has transformed since entering politics in 2015.”
“The sprawling domestic policy bill Republicans pushed through the House on Thursday would limit the power of federal judges to hold people in contempt, potentially shielding President Trump and members of his administration from the consequences of violating court orders,” the New York Times reports.
“Republicans tucked the provision into the tax and spending cut bill at a time when they have moved aggressively to curb the power of federal courts to issue injunctions blocking Mr. Trump’s executive actions.”
“The latest confrontation between Harvard University and the Trump administration began last month with a far-reaching demand for data on international students,” the New York Times reports.
“Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, sent a letter to Harvard requesting, among other things, coursework for every international student and information on any student visa holder involved in misconduct or illegal activity.”
“Harvard rebuffed parts of the request, and the Trump administration retaliated on Thursday. In one of its most aggressive moves so far against the university, the government said Harvard could no longer enroll any international students, who account for about one-fourth of its total enrollment.”
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.