A Republican consultant conceded to Puck “that he’s unnerved by how much the Epstein issue has seeped into the political conversation beyond the Beltway—not just on Reddit and X, but even in the heavily screened virtual town halls that Republican members tend to prefer these days.”
Said the consultant: “It’s an issue the fringes care about. The same fringes, by the way, who voted for Donald Trump last cycle and did not vote for the Republicans downballot, and whose votes we need.”
“A decade ago, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones became one of the first Georgia politicians to endorse Donald Trump,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“On Monday, Trump returned the favor and gave Jones’ campaign for governor a major boost.”
“President Donald Trump said on Monday that Kyiv and Moscow will both have to cede land to end the war in Ukraine and talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week will instantly show whether the Kremlin leader is willing to make a deal,” Reuters reports.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) warned that Texas could get rid of as many as 10 Democratic districts if California moves ahead with its plan to redraw its House map and neutralize the expected GOP gains in the Lone Star State, The Hill reports.
Said Abbott: “Listen, all those big blue states, they’ve already gerrymandered… They got nothing left with regard to what they can do.”
He added: “And know this: If California tries to gerrymander, find more districts, listen, Texas has the ability to eliminate 10 Democrats in our state.”
President Trump, last week:
“The CEO of Intel is highly conflicted and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”
Trump, earlier today:
“I met with Mr. Lip-Bu Tan, of Intel, along with Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent. The meeting was a very interesting one. His success and rise is an amazing story. Mr. Tan and my Cabinet members are going to spend time together, and bring suggestions to me during the next week. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
“President Trump said on Monday that he plans to nominate E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Antoni, a longtime critic of the agency’s handling of jobs data, had the support of conservatives like former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. The position requires Senate confirmation.”
Quinta Jurecic: “He’s sending in the troops because he can—because D.C., as a federal enclave with few protections from presidential overreach, makes for a uniquely soft target. This ostensible show of strength is more like an admission of weakness. It is the behavior of a bully: very bad for the people it touches, but not a likely prelude to full authoritarian takeover.”
“Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, on Monday called President Trump’s announced takeover of the city’s police force ‘unsettling and unprecedented’ but appeared resigned to cooperate with it, stressing at a news conference that there was little she could do to block the move,” the New York Times reports.
“Ms. Bowser’s tone was strikingly diplomatic, an approach in keeping with the more muted posture she has adopted toward Mr. Trump during his second term, as compared to more fiery statements during his first term opposing similar threats to the city’s limited autonomy.”
The Guardian: “Red meat to throw to his base.”
“Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’s prepared to redraw Florida’s congressional districts – with or without new census numbers,” the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
Said DeSantis: “I don’t know how quick they can do it but if they did do it and came up with something in the next six months and they gave us a seat that would require us to redraw the lines.”
He added: “Short of that, we’re in a situation where we believe there’s defects in the current map … even if they don’t revise the current census, I think it is appropriate to be doing it.”
“Harvard University and the Trump administration are nearing a potentially landmark legal settlement that would see Harvard agree to spend $500 million in exchange for the restoration of billions of dollars in federal research funding,“ the New York Times reports.
“Negotiators for the White House and the university have made significant progress in their closed-door discussions over the past week, developing a framework for a settlement to end their monthslong battle.”
“The talks could still collapse, as President Trump and senior Harvard officials need to sign off on the terms of the deal.”
Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump is famously reluctant to commit troops abroad but salivates at the prospect of using them against Americans at home. That is the context in which one must understand his takeover of the Washington, D.C., police force; his deployment of the National Guard; and his threats to occupy other cities.”
“Trump claims that he is acting to quell a spike in violent crime. And although he might very well feel sincere concern about crime, this does not explain his actions any more than concern about fentanyl smuggling (which he no doubt also genuinely opposes) motivates his trade restrictions against Canada.”
“The most obvious reason for skepticism about Trump’s desire to fight crime is that he is the most pro-criminal president in American history.”
“President Trump’s decision to send at least 800 National Guard troops into the streets of Washington to fight crime is the latest example of how the president has used the military to advance domestic policy priorities,” the New York Times reports.
“House Republicans moved quickly Monday to follow President Donald Trump’s lead as he took unprecedented action to target Washington’s locally elected government — further heightening the GOP’s scrutiny of the capital city and its Democratic elected leaders,” Politico reports.
Two Grumpy Old Men: “I basically suggested that Witkoff was underqualified. And possibly rather dim. That he simply does not grasp the goals and subterfuge of the former KGB agent residing in the Kremlin since 1999. That Trump’s golf and business buddy was being played. Just like his boss has been for the past seven months.”
“Some of my readers thought that was too harsh. It turned out that, if anything, I was being too nice.”
“Steve Witkoff and his boss have consistently displayed an impressive lack of knowledge of even the most basic tenets of international relations and the war in Ukraine.”
Garry Kasparov: “The far-right positions itself as trying to preserve or restore something, whether some racial-demographic balance or the nation’s bygone glory days. The far-left, by contrast, is seen as trying to disrupt, overthrow—a total departure from tradition.”
“Understood through this lens, we can see why people, against their better judgement, treat MAGA as a safe bet. The writing has been on the wall for years. In 2019, nearly half of all Americans said that the Democratic Party was moving too far to the left, while only 37% felt the Republicans had moved too far to the right (and Trump was two years into his first term at this point!).”
Chris Brennan: “They’re building the machine now to meddle in the 2026 midterm elections 15 months from now.”
“And those machinations are built on two lessons learned from 2020: Attack the election with everything you have before it happens, and stock the Trump administration only with officials who will do exactly what he says on elections, no matter what the law says.”
“Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, launched a tour Monday of the city’s five boroughs with a central message linking former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to President Donald Trump,” CNN 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.