“President Donald Trump said Friday he may not stick to the deadline in early July when massive U.S. tariffs are set to snap back into effect on a slew of countries,” CNBC reports.
Said Trump: “No, we can do whatever we want. We could extend it. We could make it shorter.”
“The US military did not use bunker-buster bombs on one of Iran’s largest nuclear sites last weekend because the site is so deep that the bombs likely would not have been effective, the U.S. top general told senators during a briefing on Thursday,” CNN reports.
President Trump called New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani “a communist,” and said the Big Apple will become “a communistic city” if he is elected mayor in November, CNBC reports.
Said Trump: “I can’t believe that’s happening. That’s a terrible thing for our country, by the way.”
“If you look at the end of the Civil War — the 1800s, it was a very turbulent time. If you take the end day — was it 1869? Or whatever.”
— President Trump, speaking to reporters.
“As Congress inches toward final action on the sweeping domestic policy package that President Trump is calling the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ it has come down to this: Republicans are preparing to back a measure that they fear gives their constituents little to love and lots to hate,” the New York Times reports.
“The struggle Republicans are experiencing in securing votes for the legislation emanates from the fact that they are being asked to embrace steep cuts to the government safety net that could hit their states and districts hard — all in the service of extending existing tax cuts that don’t offer much in the way of new benefits for most Americans.”
For members: Republicans Push Forward With Deeply Unpopular Bill
“President Trump said Friday he halted plans to potentially ease sanctions on Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei downplayed the success of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program,” Axios reports.
“Trump and his advisers had hoped Iran would agree to a meeting with the U.S. next week, where the White House planned to offer incentives — including limited sanctions relief — to jumpstart negotiations.”
“But a defiant video message Thursday by Khamenei — who declared victory over Israel and claimed Iran had dealt the U.S. a “slap in the face” — derailed that effort.”
“President Donald Trump abruptly announced Friday he was ending trade talks with Canada, objecting to the country’s new digital services tax, which is set to take effect Monday,” the Washington Post reports.
Wrote Trump: “Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.”
New York Times: “The president’s threat to end talks with one of the country’s largest trading partners could unleash chaos on both sides of the border. Tariffs are taxes on imports, the burden for which could fall heaviest on U.S. companies and consumers.”
“Still, Mr. Trump has frequently brandished imminent plans to penalize other countries with high levies, only to later back down, especially once markets panic over the potential interruptions to commerce.”
“The University of Virginia’s president, James Ryan, has told the board overseeing the school that he will resign in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside in order to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts,” the New York Times reports.
“For the leader of a major public university to take such an extraordinary step demonstrates President Trump’s success in harnessing the investigative powers of the federal government to accomplish his administration’s policy goals.”
“Two major labor unions that backed Andrew Cuomo’s failed Democratic mayoral bid are set to endorse upstart democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani,” Politico reports.
“An organization representing immigrants fighting President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order wasted little time seeking to recalibrate its legal strategy to block the president’s policy despite the high court’s restrictions on nationwide injunctions,” Politico reports.
“CASA Inc. is asking a federal judge in Maryland for an emergency block on Trump’s policy — which would deny citizenship to children of some immigrants born on U.S. soil — and said it has refiled its broader lawsuit as a class action case.”
“Class action lawsuits are one of the ways that the Supreme Court explicitly indicated Friday were permissible to broadly block a federal government policy.”
The Atlantic: “The U.S. spy chief, who built her political identity opposing military intervention, is falling in line after the bombing of Iran.”
“House Republicans are looking on with a combination of horror and frustration as President Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ morphs into something closer to a hulking monstrosity in their eyes,” Axios reports.
“It seems every House Republican you ask — from the most right-wing to the most most moderate — has something they don’t like.”
“An ideologically divided Supreme Court on Friday affirmed a Texas law that requires users to verify their age to access porn sites, the first major legal test of statutes in two-dozen states aimed at protecting young people from lewd content that has become ever easier to view,” the Washington Post reports.
“In a 6-3 ruling, the justices rejected arguments from the porn industry that the law violates the First Amendment rights of adults to access explicit content online because it required users to share identifying information that could be sold, misused or hacked.”
“The Supreme Court on Friday sided with a group of parents seeking to withdraw their children from public school lessons featuring LGBTQ+-themed storybooks, a case that mixed parental rights and religious freedom,” the Washington Post reports.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking her to “denaturalize” and deport New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (D).
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.