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Who’s Running American Defense Policy?

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Tom Nichols: “It’s not the president, at least not on most issues. Trump’s interest in foreign policy, as with so many other topics, is capricious and episodic at best. He flits away from losing issues, leaving them to others. He promised to end the war in Ukraine in a day, but after conceding that making peace is ‘more difficult than people would have any idea,’ the president has since shrugged and given up.”

“It’s not Marco Rubio—you may remember that he is technically the secretary of state, but he seems to have little power in this White House. It’s not Hegseth, who can’t seem to stop talking about “lethality” and trans people long enough to deliver a real briefing that isn’t just a fawning performance for Trump…”

“It’s not the national security adviser. That’s also Rubio.”

“Apparently, American defense policy is being run by Bridge Colby, and perhaps a few other guys somewhere in the greater Washington metropolitan area.”

Why a Third-Party Bid Is Unlikely to Work

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New York Times: “The American electoral system tends to favor a two-party system, and one of the most important reasons is that it’s winner-take-all.”

“It doesn’t have proportional representation, which might allow a third party to gain a modest number of seats with a modest share of the vote. Most states don’t employ ranked choice voting, which could hypothetically allow a third party’s voters to eventually transfer their support to a major party. And unlike a parliamentary system, the presidency doesn’t lend itself to coalition government.”

“With third parties unlikely to obtain power, people often see a vote for a third party as a wasted vote that might be better spent ensuring their preferred major party prevails.”

Jonathan Bernstein: “This is one of those things, perhaps, that sounds clever until one thinks about it for, oh, thirty seconds.”

For members: Why Elon Musk’s Third Party Is Doomed


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How RFK Jr. Is Gutting the FDA

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New York Times: “Since RFK Jr. was confirmed as President Trump’s health secretary in February, the Food and Drug Administration has been buffeted by staff cuts that have crippled divisions and gutted the agency. Thousands of scientists and other experts have left or been let go, putting the storied agency’s mission at risk.”

“The FDA was created to protect consumers from contaminated food and unsafe or ineffective medical products. But in recent years, American confidence in the agency has plummeted, as mis- and disinformation further undermine the agency’s authority.”

Space Companies Got Special Tax Break

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“Private space companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, stand to benefit from a preferential tax treatment tucked into Donald Trump’s signature spending plan,” the Financial Times reports.

“The bill, which Trump signed last week, includes a provision that will allow spaceports to be financed in the municipal debt market through so-called private activity bonds, which fund non-governmental projects that have some public benefit.”

Trump Takes Credit for U.S. Investment Made Under Biden

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“Within hours of taking office in January, President Donald Trump boasted about attracting $3 trillion in new corporate investments to the United States,” Reuters reports.

“The White House calls it ‘The Trump Effect’ and features a rolling list on its website of more than 70 projects it says Trump’s economic policies spurred.”

“But a Reuters review found that just under half of the claimed spending on the website — totaling more than $1.3 trillion — originated under former President Joe Biden or represented routine spending repackaged to promote domestic investments.”

The GOP Strategy to Win Without Trump on the Ballot

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“A political organization tied to House Republican leadership is pouring millions of dollars into polling and advertising in a new effort to fix a nagging problem for the party: Many of President Trump’s voters don’t show up for midterm elections, when he isn’t on the ballot,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Central to the Republican strategy is finding ways to sell voters on the broad tax-and- spending legislative package the GOP-controlled Congress narrowly passed last week.”

There Were Never Going to Be Genuine Trade Deals

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Paul Krugman: “These tariffs are going to hurt South Korea and Japan, although they’ll hurt U.S. consumers even more. So why didn’t Korean and Japanese negotiators make big enough concessions to satisfy Trump?”

“Because there was nothing for them to concede. South Korea has had a free trade agreement with the United States since 2012, so most U.S. exports to Korea face zero tariffs. Japan, like other wealthy nations, has very low tariffs on most goods. Neither country, then, was in a position to offer big tariff reductions, because their tariffs were already minimal.”

Dan Osborne to Try Again for Senate

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“Independent populist Dan Osborn, whose insurgent Senate campaign seriously threatened one of Nebraska’s Republicans from securing a third term last year, is now taking on GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts — one of the wealthiest members of Congress,” Politico reports.

Where Kamala Harris Went Wrong

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Playbook: “The Kamala Harris campaign was presented with a series of memos in its final stages setting out a clear strategy for winning over independent and ‘soft’ Republican votes — but chose a strikingly different path, a new book out today on the 2024 campaign reveals.”

“The confidential documents, written in the final weeks of the campaign by Dem official Maria Comella, warned the current strategy was not working…”

“The memos urged Harris to get herself onto the Joe Rogan podcast, and warned her not to make Jan.6 the final focus of her campaign with a speech at the Ellipse.”

2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America
2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Dawsey, Josh (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 416 Pages - 07/08/2025 (Publication Date) - Penguin Press (Publisher)
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MAGA Erupts at Trump’s Decision to Re-Arm Ukraine

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Playbook: “Anger over last night’s U-turn is already starting to flow. Trump’s repeated pledges to end America’s involvement in overseas wars were a big part of his appeal to the MAGA base, and so his decision to start rearming Ukraine — even with purely defensive weapons — is not landing well. At all. Just check out the replies to posts like this — from a one-million-followers-plus X account — when the news first broke last night. You can expect MAGA anger to swell throughout the day.”

“This last point takes on a greater salience when you consider where Trump’s base is currently at. Because this decision follows 24 hours of absolute MAGA outrage at the Trump administration’s announcement on Monday evening that it will not be releasing any more information on the Jeffrey Epstein case; that there never in fact was a ‘client list’ or a bunch of famous people being blackmailed — and that the case is essentially now closed.”

“That announcement has devastated MAGA supporters who have long been convinced the U.S. government is protecting powerful pals of Epstein… It’s honestly hard to overstate the level of MAGA rage, given these avowed truth-seekers are literally the Deep State now.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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