“Wes Moore made an early and urgent appeal Friday to one of the nation’s most important Democratic constituencies,” Politico reports.
“The first-term governor of Maryland said Democrats must adapt and change to counter President Donald Trump and improve life for the middle class if they have any hope of returning to power.”
Said Moore: “Gone are the days when we are the party of bureaucracy, multi-year studies, panels, and college debate club rules. We must be the party of action.”
“JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon delivered a dire warning for the markets, predicting a crisis unless the U.S. takes steps to address its spiraling national debt,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Dimon: “You are going to see a crack in the bond market, OK? It is going to happen.”
“President Trump recently posed an evocative question to his advisers about billionaire Elon Musk’s promise to slash $1 trillion in government spending,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“‘Was it all bullshit?’ Trump asked, according to administration officials, wondering whether Musk could have ever come close to the cuts he promised to carry out through the Department of Government Efficiency.”
“The episode captured the flashes of skepticism and frustration from Trump and his senior aides over Musk’s rocky four-month tenure in government… And they reflected the broader exasperation over roadblocks that have slowed Musk’s efforts, from court challenges to bureaucratic delays.”
Washington Post: Trump and Musk try to smooth over a threatened rift.
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“President Trump said on Friday that he would double the tariffs he had levied on foreign steel and aluminum to 50 percent, a move that he claimed would further protect the industry,” the New York Times reports.
“The announcement came as Mr. Trump traveled to a U.S. Steel factory outside Pittsburgh to hail a ‘planned partnership’ that he helped broker between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel, a corporate merger that he opposed last year as a presidential candidate. Although the details of the U.S. Steel deal are still murky — and Mr. Trump later admitted he had not yet seen or signed off on it — the president used the moment to cast himself as a champion of the embattled industry.”
“Elon Musk is pushing lawmakers to help clear a path for driverless vehicles, part of a broader effort behind the scenes to lobby for a key priority of Tesla Inc,” Bloomberg reports.
“In recent weeks, Musk and people who work for him have been calling members of Congress directly to gather support… He has also been weighing in on revisions of a bill introduced on May 15 that would begin setting up a basic framework for autonomous vehicles.”
The nonprofit Public Broadcasting Service and one of its local affiliates on Friday said they sued the Trump administration over the executive order seeking to cease all federal funding to National Public Radio and PBS, Axios reports.
“The Trump administration’s clean up of the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Commission’s hallmark and error-riddled report is opening new questions about how the report’s authors drew some of its sweeping conclusions about the state of Americans’ health,” NOTUS reports.
“At least 18 of the original report’s citations have been edited or completely swapped out for new references… While some of the original report’s inconsistencies have been changed, a few of the new updated citations continue to misinterpret scientific studies.”
“DOGE has installed geniuses with an engineering mindset and unbelievably talented people on computers. I actually asked Elon one time, what’s their primary thing? And they have a lot of primary things all having to do with being smart.”
— President Trump, in an Oval Office press conference.
“A trade truce between the U.S. and China is at risk of falling apart, as China’s slow-walking on rare-earth exports fuels U.S. recriminations that China is reneging on the deal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Getting the pact together in Geneva earlier this month hinged on Beijing’s concession on the critical minerals.”
“The people say the U.S. trade negotiators presented their Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, with a demand that Beijing resume rare-earth exports. In return, the U.S. would agree to a 90-day tariff truce. He agreed to the demand in the final hours of marathon discussions with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.”
Elon Musk, when asked by reporters in the Oval Office about a bruise near his eye, said his son punched him in the face, the New York Times reports.
Said Musk: “I was horsing around with little X and I said, ‘go ahead, punch me in the face,’ and he did.”
“President Trump is bidding farewell to Elon Musk, who slashed his way through the federal government via his Department of Government Efficiency, in an Oval Office news conference that appeared intended to quell any suggestions of a rift between them,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “Elon is really not leaving. He’s going to be back and forth.”
“Coronavirus vaccines are still recommended for healthy children if their doctors approve, according to updated immunization schedules published late Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contradicting Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement earlier this week,” the Washington Post reports.
“The Trump administration is escalating its campaign against Harvard University — and looking for new ways to bring the storied institution to heel,” Politico reports.
“The White House convened officials from nearly a dozen agencies on Wednesday to brainstorm additional punitive measures… The administration official said that forthcoming actions are expected from the State, Treasury, Health and Human Services and Justice departments, among others, and could happen as early as next month.”
Former President Biden took questions from reporters on Friday at a public event in Delaware:
REPORTER: There’s also been a lot of discussion recently about your mental and physical capabilities while you were in office.
BIDEN: You can see that I’m mentally incompetent and I can’t walk, and I can beat the hell out of both of them.
REPORTER: Do you want to reply to any of those reports, and also to the fact that there are some Democrats who are now questioning whether you should have run for reelection in the first place?
BIDEN: Why didn’t they run against me then? Because I’d have beaten them.
REPORTER: Do you have any regrets?
BIDEN: No, I don’t have any regrets.
The State Department Friday instructed all U.S. embassies and consulates to “immediately” start more extensive vetting for those looking to travel to Harvard University “for any purpose,” Axios reports.
“For weeks, White House officials and Republican operatives weren’t quite sure when, or if, Elon Musk would actually be leaving the government,” Wired reports.
“Now, many Republicans are already looking to distance themselves from Musk’s team entirely.”
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) pushed back against constituents who shouted out at her recent town hall meeting that cuts to Medicaid would cause people to die, responding: “People are not ― well, we all are going to die. So, for heaven’s sakes, folks.”
Stat: “A new study tried to predict the consequences if the rest of the nation were to follow suit. In five years, the researchers estimated, 7.5% more U.S. children ages 0-19 would get cavities, affecting 25.4 million additional teeth and costing the country around $9.8 billion.”
“While these findings are worrisome, several experts said, they were unsure if the new data would move the needle on a debate that has become so heated and politicized.”
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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