“Jim McLaughlin, one of President Donald Trump’s top pollsters, said Hill Republicans should nix Senate Republicans’ deeper Medicaid cuts in the megabill or risk deep backlash from voters,” Politico reports.
Justices’ Nerves Fray
“The Supreme Court’s nine justices often like to tout their camaraderie, hoping to dispel public perceptions that they are locked into warring ideological camps,” Politico reports.
“But the final rulings of the current term — issued from the bench during a tense 90-minute court session Friday — revealed some acrimonious, even acidic, exchanges.”
Republicans May Regret Allowing Trump So Much Power
“Through silence or vocal support, House and Senate Republicans are backing an extraordinary set of new precedents for presidential power they may come to regret if and when Democrats seize those same powers,” Axios reports.
“New precedents are exhilarating when you’re in power — and excruciating when you’re not.”
Mike Pompeo Was Nearly Assassinated
A forthcoming book reveals that Iran “nearly succeeded” in assassinating Mike Pompeo in 2022, the Washington Post reports.
2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Dawsey, Josh (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 07/08/2025 (Publication Date) - Penguin Press (Publisher)
Mike Johnson Floats Second Reconciliation Bill
Playbook: “Plenty on both sides of the Capitol have complained that the bill doesn’t do enough. Enter Mike Johnson, who yesterday told senators that he wants to do another reconciliation bill — giving them another pass at spending cuts and provisions that got axed from the megabill.”
Quote of the Day
“We’ve cussed it. We’ve discussed it. But we’re gradually going from thoughtful, rational deliberation into the foothills of jackassery. I mean, we’re talking about the same thing over and over and over.”
— Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), quoted by Politico, on the Republican megabill.
4th Trump Executive Order Against Law Firm Nullified
“A DC federal judge has struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting Houston-founded law firm Susman Godfrey, marking the fourth takedown of an executive order targeting a law firm,” Bloomberg reports.
How the Megabill Could Fall Apart
Politico: “For one, members continue to fight jealously to keep personal priorities in the bill — including parts of a $4 trillion package of tax cuts set to affect virtually the entire U.S. economy. Meanwhile, other lawmakers who have made the megabill into an ideological litmus test on federal spending and budget deficits are facing a put-up-or-shut-up moment after repeatedly drawing red lines and then moving forward with the legislation anyway.”
“Finally, a handful of key lawmakers are facing what could be existential political stakes as they brace for tough re-election contests in next year’s midterms. Many are balking at having to vote on cutbacks to safety-net programs, clean-energy projects and other federal assistance their states and constituents rely on.”
“Together, it’s turned the megabill’s endgame into a high-wire act — and Thune is keeping the pressure on, expecting his members will want to stay on the rope.”
NPR: Here’s what’s in the GOP megabill headed for a vote in the Senate.
Trump Runs Up Supreme Court Winning Streak
“The US Supreme Court’s just-completed term had a clear winner: President Donald Trump,” Bloomberg reports.
“With a 6-3 ruling Friday restricting the power of judges to issue nationwide blocks on presidential initiatives, the court put an exclamation mark on a term dominated by Trump victories. The court’s conservative supermajority sided with Trump on both broad legal questions and an unprecedented barrage of emergency requests to let his policies take effect right away.”
CNN: Initially wary of Trump, Roberts and Barrett offer the president his biggest win of the Supreme Court term.
Why Politics Is So Insanely Complicated in 2025
Ed Kilgore: “Every major news story in the past week had one thing in common: none of it was remotely simple or easy to explain. The basic facts surrounding the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities were obscured by walls of secrecy and spin. The New York mayoral primary was hard to predict thanks to the city’s complex ranked choice voting system and the byzantine alliances and rivalries it spawned. And above all, the domestic governance of the country continued to be snarled in arcane judicial, congressional, and executive branch procedures.”
“Systemic chaos and confusion have been the reigning leifmotif of the second Trump presidency. If your grasp of the way government is supposed to work is based on Schoolhouse Rock or social studies lessons on ‘how a bill becomes law,’ the last five months or so must have been baffling to you. It’s not an accident, either: Donald Trump’s ways of doing business make the normal business practices of the public sector all but impossible.”
For Your Weekend Listening
Join now to continue reading.
Members get exclusive analysis, bonus features and no advertising. Learn more.
Republican Medicaid Cuts Already Shaking Up Midterms
“Senate Republicans have yet to finalize their version of President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy proposal, but GOP lawmakers up for reelection in 2026 are bracing for the political impact of the bill’s Medicaid cuts,” CNN reports.
Eric Trump Says He Might Run for President
“Eric Trump has hinted that he or another of the Trump family could run for president when his father’s second term in the White House comes to an end,” The Guardian reports.
Said Trump: “The real question is: ‘Do you want to drag other members of your family into it?… Would I want my kids to live the same experience over the last decade that I’ve lived?”
He added: “You know, if the answer was yes, I think the political path would be an easy one, meaning, I think I could do it. And by the way, I think other members of our family could do it too.”
Morale Craters at the State Department
“The Trump administration’s plan for mass layoffs at the State Department has left much of the workforce exasperated and embittered, tanking morale as extra demands were made to assist U.S. citizens seeking to flee the Middle East amid Israel’s war with Iran,” the Washington Post reports.
Senate GOP Pushes to Hit Trump’s Megabill Deadline
Wall Street Journal: “Senators said they were aiming for an initial procedural vote as early as Saturday afternoon, which would let them pass the bill sometime Sunday. Before that, they are aiming to release the final text of the bill and ensure that it can work procedurally in the fast-track process they are using for the party-line legislation.”
“As of Friday evening, Senate Republicans didn’t appear to have enough votes to begin debate.”
Politico: Senate slated to take first vote on megabill Saturday.
Axios: Senate plunges into do-or-die moment on “big, beautiful bill.”
For members: Republicans Push Forward with Deeply Unpopular Bill
Trump’s Head-Spinning Foreign Policy
“President Trump hasn’t sounded much like Donald Trump in recent days,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“He said the U.S. needed to attack Iran over a growing nuclear threat, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization wasn’t ripping off America and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was an impediment to ending the war in Ukraine. It was a remarkable shift for a president who said he would extract the U.S. from foreign entanglements, once called NATO obsolete and often has avoided criticizing Moscow.”
“But Trump’s supporters and critics alike said they didn’t expect the new version of Trump to last for long. By Friday afternoon, Trump said he wouldn’t lift sanctions on Iran after suggesting earlier in the week that he would do so. Minutes later, he said he was canceling trade talks with Canada.”
U.S. Economy Shrugs Off Trade War and Soldiers On
Wall Street Journal: “President Trump is still issuing tariff threats, consumer spending is weakening, and the Mideast is in turmoil. So why did the S&P 500 hit a record high Friday?”
“Investors may not think the economy is taking off, but they are probably relieved that the worst-case scenarios feared in recent months haven’t come to pass. Trump’s tariffs, deportations, and cuts to the federal bureaucracy have bent the economy but haven’t broken it.”
CNN: Trump’s trade deals are stalling out at the worst possible time.
Senate Blocks War Powers Resolution
“The Senate on Friday blocked a Democratic resolution that would have forced President Trump to go to Congress for approval of further military action against Iran, dealing a blow to efforts to rein in his war powers,” the New York Times reports.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 7950
- Next Page »
