“The White House is sending nine Cabinet secretaries across the country to try to sell President Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ to skeptical voters — a move underscoring the administration’s increasing urgency as it pivots toward the 2026 midterms,” Axios reports.
“The stakes are huge. Top Republicans believe the Trump team’s ability to make the massive tax-and-spending bill more palatable to voters will go a long way toward determining the GOP’s prospects in next year’s elections.”
Jonathan Martin: “Congressional Republicans have, with little resistance, accepted all manner of indignities since Donald Trump’s rise to power. They’ve been made to answer for his likening a porn star’s looks to a horse, his testimonial to the endowment of a deceased golfer and, more regularly, swallowed a tariff regime that is about as faithful to the foundations of their modern party as Das Kapital.”
“But the president now is testing whether party loyalty ever asks too much in the Trump era by all but signing the political death warrants of a handful of blue state Republicans.”
“That’s what the president is inviting with his demand that Texas Republicans redraw their House boundaries this year to hand him more seats, which he thinks will protect the GOP majority next year and protect him from what he dreads: being impeached a third time.”
For members: Trump’s Map Gambit Could Hand Seats to Democrats
“Intel shares fell over 3% premarket after President Trump called on the company’s chief executive to resign because of his past ties to China, the latest challenge to hit the troubled chip maker,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
“Less than five years after urging rioters to ‘kill’ police at the Capitol, a former Jan. 6 defendant is working as a senior adviser for the Department of Justice, which has been dramatically remade under the second Trump administration,” NPR reports.
“NPR has obtained police bodycam footage from multiple angles of the former defendant and current administration official, Jared Wise, berating officers and calling them ‘Nazi’ and ‘Gestapo.'”
“NPR also obtained the transcript of Wise’s testimony, in which he acknowledged that he repeatedly yelled ‘kill ’em’ as officers were being attacked and tried to explain his actions.”
“Crime is trending down in D.C.for the second straight year, even as the White House ramps up federal enforcement — and President Trump portrays the city as dangerously lawless,” Axios reports.
“Trump’s messaging — that D.C. crime is ‘totally out of control’ — is fueling threats of federal takeover, tougher enforcement on federal land, and a spike in arrests for nonviolent offenses.”
President Trump ordered the Commerce Department to begin working on a new census, emphasizing that those who are in the country illegally will not be counted in the total, The Hill reports.
Punchbowl News: “If you speak to Democratic voters, all they want to focus on is finding someone who can take on President Donald Trump. They complain that Democratic leaders and rank-and-file members are too old, too timid and too deferential, and they’re desperately seeking a new group of pols to take over.”
“Yet the truth is that Democrats are getting their generational change — through retirements, deaths and intraparty brawls.”
“The problem is that it’s not happening fast enough for the party base. And that could make for a particularly intense Democratic primary season come 2026.”
“One of House Republicans’ most vulnerable incumbents — already under scrutiny for his prolific trades after he campaigned against letting lawmakers buy or sell stocks — is about to face a six-figure ad campaign slamming him for doing just that,” Semafor reports.
“The Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund is starting to spend early against Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) with new broadcast and digital ads.
CNN: “The vice president has tended to get involved in key priorities right as they reach their thorniest points, relying on his close ties to Trump and relationships across the GOP to manage relations on Capitol Hill, play peacemaker within the administration and serve as an envoy to the president’s broader MAGA base.”
“The expansive role has thrust Vance into the center of a series of issues that could determine the trajectory of Trump’s presidency and the fate of his own future presidential ambitions.”
“Leading Democrats are sounding the alarm over Donald Trump’s reported plan to divert funds from the U.S. nuclear arsenal to convert a luxury jet gifted by Qatar into a new Air Force One,” The Guardian reports.
“One of Joe Biden’s former top communications advisers is set to appear for a scheduled interview Thursday in the House Oversight Committee’s probe of the former president’s cognitive decline and possible efforts to conceal it from the public,” CNN reports.
“Anita Dunn, the former senior adviser to the president for communications, had departed the administration in the wake of Biden’s decision to step down from the 2024 Democratic ticket.”
Paul Krugman: “On Tuesday Donald Trump went on CNBC to explain why the European Union is facing a tariff of ‘only’ 15 percent. But what he said was simply delusional — and the delusion should be even more concerning than the tariffs.”
“The Europeans, Trump asserted, had agreed to cough up $600 billion, which he described as a ‘gift,’ not a loan. And he emphasized that this is ‘$600 billion to invest in anything I want. Anything. I can do anything I want with it.’”
“So Trump apparently believes that the European Union has agreed to provide him with a personal $600 billion slush fund.”
“In fact, as I pointed out after the ‘deal’ was announced, the EU agreed to no such thing. In fact, it literally couldn’t have made such an agreement. European nations aren’t command economies in which government can tell the private sector where to invest, and in any case the European Commission, which negotiated with Trump, can’t tell the governments of member states what to do.”
“So think of it as the emperor’s new trade deal: Trump is strutting around, feeling very impressed with himself, but in substantive terms he’s stark naked.”
“The Trump administration has moved forward with a plan to end collective bargaining with federal unions across a swath of government agencies, even after arguing in federal court that it would not do so until a legal battle over an order President Trump signed was over,” the New York Times reports.
“President Trump’s punishing new tariffs on more than 90 countries snapped into place after the stroke of midnight Thursday, the latest escalation in a global trade war that has started to exact a toll on the U.S. economy,” the New York Times reports.
“Few of America’s major trading partners were spared under Mr. Trump’s updated slate of duties, which together have sent the average effective U.S. tariff rate to its highest level in nearly a century. In the hours before the import taxes took effect, the president signaled there would be more to come, as he doubled down on a strategy that has rattled markets, driven up prices and spooked consumers and businesses around the world.”
Washington Post: Trump’s tariffs take effect, potentially upending global trade and prices.
Politico: Trump’s trade onslaught escalates as global tariffs kick in.
An in-person meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin “has been agreed,” according to a Kremlin official and “and it could possibly take place next week at a venue that has been decided ‘in principle,’” the AP reports.
A top Putin aide said the potential venue will be announced “a little later.”
“Donald Trump’s global tariffs took effect at 12.01am in Washington on Thursday, pushing American import duties to their highest level in a century as the US president launched a new era of trade rivalry,” the Financial Times reports.
“The increases were implemented despite frantic lobbying by foreign capitals to escape the levies driving Trump’s economic agenda, as a seven-day grace period from the president’s announcement last week of the latest version of the regime elapsed.”
New York Times: “The double-digit tariffs that the president is rolling out on nearly 100 countries represent a momentous change from the trading order that the United States has helped to build since World War II.”
“U.S. trading partners are lobbying the White House for exemptions to sweeping new tariffs that went into force on Thursday, as countries seek ways to muffle the impact on their economies of President Trump’s push to reorder global trade,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The diplomatic effort shows months of trade talks are far from over despite the run of agreements trumpeted by the White House in the past month.”
“Key details of many of the pacts agreed so far are still not finalized, or in some cases are being interpreted differently by each side. … Trade talks are far from over despite the run of agreements trumpeted by the White House in the past month.”
Politico: Mexico was the only country to get a 90-day tariff reprieve from Trump. Here’s why.
Vice President JD Vance’s aides reportedly had the Army Corps of Engineers “take the unusual step of changing the outflow of a lake in Ohio to accommodate a recent boating excursion on a family holiday,” The Guardian 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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.