“The Senate’s top rules arbiter has some Republicans fuming, casting a harsh spotlight on the obscure but powerful official,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“On Thursday, some Republicans called for the firing of Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough after she effectively blocked a number of GOP proposals central to their fast-track budget legislation, hampering party leaders’ ability to quickly pass President Trump’s sprawling domestic-policy bill.”
“Federal judges are retiring at a historically slow pace at the onset of President Donald Trump’s second term, most strikingly among those appointed by his Republican predecessors,” Bloomberg Law reports.
“Few of the roughly 70 Republican-appointed judges eligible to take a form of partial retirement or completely step down from the bench as of June 1 have done so, denying Trump the chance to pick their replacement.”
“The lack of new vacancies is thwarting Trump’s plans to continue replacing an older and more moderate generation of Republican-appointees with younger and even more conservative jurists.”
“The White House is forging ahead with its demand that Congress pass its sweeping megabill by July 4, insisting that the legislative effort remain on track despite mounting doubts about its viability on Capitol Hill,” Politico reports.
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“Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy warned Thursday that acrimonious political discourse and threats to judges are eroding the ability of the United States to serve as an example of democracy worldwide,” Politico reports.
Said Kennedy: “Many in the rest of the world look to the United States to see what democracy is, to see what democracy ought to be. If they see a hostile, fractious discourse, if they see a discourse that uses identity politics rather than to talk about issues, democracy is at risk. Freedom is at risk.”
“In a conference room in Manhattan on Wednesday night, Mayor Eric Adams and Daniel Loeb, the hedge fund manager, met with other business leaders and political brokers to discuss how to stop the rise of Zohran Mamdani and possibly bolster Mr. Adams’s re-election campaign,” the New York Times reports.
“The business leaders were impressed that Mr. Adams was already staging a public fight against Mr. Mamdani.”
“The Supreme Court will hand down its final decisions of the term on Friday, including an expected high-profile ruling on whether President Donald Trump may enforce his divisive executive order curtailing birthright citizenship,” CNN reports.
“As is tradition, Chief Justice John Roberts announced the final day from the bench.”
“The schedule sets up a blockbuster last day at the Supreme Court in which the justices will hand down six opinions in some of the biggest cases of the year, including those dealing with Trump’s birthright citizenship order, a challenge from religious parents who want to opt their children out of reading LGBTQ books in school and a First Amendment suit over a Texas law that requires people to verify their age before accessing porn online.”
Associated Press: Supreme Court’s final opinions of the term are coming Friday.
Punchbowl News: “Senate Republicans’ reconciliation plans took a huge hit this morning when the parliamentarian knocked out a crucial Medicaid cut.”
“The ruling by Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough threw the GOP timetable into flux and created yet another problem for Republican leaders as they rush to get the reconciliation bill done by next Friday.”
“Senate GOP leaders are insistent that the bill containing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda can still hit the floor in short order. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged the timeline will slip “a little bit,” and many GOP senators and aides believe the timing will shift to later in the weekend.”
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to meet with President Trump at the White House in the coming weeks to celebrate the joint U.S-Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear program,” Axios reports.
Zohran Mamdani told ABC News in a wide-ranging interview “that he plans to win over moderate voters — even as a self-identified Democratic socialist — as he runs in the general election.”
Said Mamdani: “I think that the Democratic Party must always remember what made so many proud to be Democrats, which is a focus on the struggles of working class Americans across this country. And I think that there is a need for a new generation of leadership.”
Paul Krugman: “I was enormously cheered by Mamdani’s victory, not because I think he’ll be a great mayor — honestly I have no idea — but because a Cuomo victory would have been deeply depressing. Why? Because it would have been an affirmation of elite impunity and lack of accountability. Cuomo is by all accounts a terrible person, and his bungled response to Covid killed people. For him to make a comeback simply because he’s part of the old boys’ club and had the big money behind him would have said that the rules only apply to the little people.”
“There’s a huge argument among Democrats about whether they need to run more centrist candidates. I am not ready to weigh in on that debate. But if you’re going to take that side, find better centrists. I mean, are Cuomo and Eric Adams the best you can do?”
Jonathan Last: “All of that said, Mamdani has a lot of upside potential… He ran a baller campaign. The guy went from 2 percent to utter dominance over the Democratic establishment. He weathered millions of dollars in spending against him. He did it with a campaign that was positive and future-focused.”
“Dems want a candidate who can meet people where they are? Mamdani did it. Want a candidate who can do longform podcasts? Ditto. Who masters new media and transitions away from the old paradigms? Yup. A candidate who generates authentic excitement and creates something that looks less like a campaign and more like a movement?”
“That’s what Mamdani did.”
Cook Political Report: “For most of modern American political history, one thing about presidential elections was gospel: When more people vote, the Democratic Party benefits.”
“But in 2024, President Donald Trump’s dramatic gains among typically lower-propensity and Democratic-leaning voters — notably voters of color and young people — turned that truism upside-down.”
“A comprehensive new analysis of voter data from the Pew Research Center estimates that if every eligible voter in America had shown up to the polls in November, Trump still would have won the popular vote.”
“In fact, his overall margin of victory may even have been slightly higher.”
CNN: New research shows Trump’s 2024 support became more ethnically and racially diverse.
A new University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll finds approval of President Trump’s job performance falling into net-negative territory for the first time in his second term, with 44% approving and 51% disapproving — tied for the highest negative job approval rating ever recorded for him.
Tom Nichols: “Why does the power to launch nuclear weapons rest with a single American?”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Thursday said he will not overrule the parliamentarian after she rejected key Medicaid provisions in the GOP’s tax and spending megabill, dealing a blow to Republicans’ plan to pay for tax cuts in the package, The Hill reports.
Said Thune: “No. That would not be a good outcome for getting a bill done.”
Wall Street Journal: “The ruling affects several of the largest and most controversial cuts in President Trump’s ‘one, big, beautiful bill,’ and Republicans will likely be forced to drop or rewrite them. The changes could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars, making it harder for Republicans to hit their budget targets. A person familiar with Senate Republicans’ plans said they would aim to revise the proposal, working to find a solution that meets their goals.”
“California has already reported more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, a worrisome development that comes as the nation is suffering its largest outbreak of the super-infectious disease in decades,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The extent of the national outbreak has rocketed measles from a back-of-mind issue — one rarely, if ever, encountered by a whole generation of Americans — to a pressing public health concern.”
“States can remove Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, saying that individuals on Medicaid cannot sue if a state denies them access to their chosen health care provider,” NOTUS reports.
“The 6-3 opinion paves the way for other Republican states to ban Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs without repercussion.”
Politico: Supreme Court clears way for states to kick Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid.
“The Trump administration has moved from outright denying the science of global warming to simply dismissing it,” Bloomberg 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.
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