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How to Win at Foreign Policy

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The Economist: “When Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin in Alaska it will be the seventh time the two have talked in person. This time is different, though. Since their last sit-down, Mr Putin has launched an unprovoked war, lost perhaps a million Russian soldiers (dead and wounded) and inflicted ceaseless misery on Ukrainians in pursuit of an imperial dream.”

“Undaunted, Mr Trump hopes to get in a room with a wily dictator, feel him out and forge a deal. It is the biggest test yet of his uniquely personal style of diplomacy. It is also a reminder of how unpredictable American foreign policy has become.”

D.C. Attorney General Sues Trump

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“D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has sued President Donald Trump over his executive actions asserting control over the D.C. police department and attempting to install an emergency police commissioner, one of the most extraordinary exertions of federal power in the city’s half-century of home rule,” the Washington Post reports.

Trump Called Norway Official to Ask for Nobel Prize

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“President Donald Trump called Norway’s finance minister last month to discuss tariffs, he also told him he wanted the Nobel Peace Prize,” Reuters reports.

From a local newspaper report: “Out of the blue, while Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg was walking down the street in Oslo, Donald Trump called. He wanted the Nobel Prize — and to discuss tariffs.”


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Trump Has a ‘Loyalty Rating’ for Companies

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“The West Wing has created a scorecard that rates 553 companies and trade associations on how hard they worked to support and promote President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,'” Axios reports.

“Trump works transactionally, and companies have rushed to pay demonstrative homage. Now, senior aides will have data to consult when considering corporate requests.”

“The unusual spreadsheet fits this administration’s proclivity for micromanaging companies and administering loyalty tests.”

Now We Know Who’s Paying the Tariffs

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From the Wall Street Journal editorial board:

“Inflation is a broad-based, persistent increase in the general price level. Tariffs in that sense aren’t inflationary unless the Fed accommodates them with over-easy monetary policy. But tariffs do raise prices on tariffed goods, which can mean a one-time surge with some potential downstream effects. What matters for voters, and for their confidence in the economy, is what they see in their own paychecks and cost of living.”

“Republicans are in the political danger zone if tariffs cause price increases—one-off or persistent—that aren’t offset by bigger wage gains. Republicans will make the same mistake as the Biden Administration if they keep telling voters everything is fabulous but the evidence at the grocery store or Applebee’s tells them something different.”

Texas GOP Senate Primary Is a Dead Heat

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A new Emerson College poll of Texas’ Senate GOP primary shows Sen. John Cornyn leading Attorney General Ken Paxton by 1 percentage point, 30% to 29%, breaking a spell of public polling that had found the incumbent trailing by wide margins.

However, much of the Republican electorate is still up for grabs, with 37% saying they were undecided.

Trump’s Revenge Campaign Has a Weakness

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Quinta Jurecic: “During the interregnum between his terms, MAGA’s would-be philosophers built out the intellectual architecture for a presidential takeover of the Justice Department. Once Trump was back in office, the new administration set about filling DOJ leadership with loyalists and firing anyone who might object to abuses of power. The president, insistent that he was the victim of persecution by federal law enforcement, now seeks to turn the same apparatus against his enemies. In a representative Truth Social post last month, he shared an AI-generated video of Barack Obama being handcuffed by FBI agents and dragged out of the Oval Office.”

“But Trump’s plan to leverage the DOJ for his campaign of revenge is not generating the results he might have hoped for, and not just because Obama remains a free man. The Justice Department has been slow to move forward with the investigations Trump demanded, hemmed in by the constraints of the legal system. Federal prosecutors targeting protesters and Democratic politicians have been dealt embarrassing defeats. American criminal law appears to be a less flexible tool in the hands of an authoritarian than Trump hoped—at least for now.”

Trump Wants to Set Up Nationwide Traffic Stops

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“President Trump said on Thursday that a next step for nationwide immigration enforcement would be identifying undocumented immigrants during traffic stops,” Axios reports.

“The suggestion comes after Trump temporarily took control of Washington, D.C.’s police department and ordered the National Guard and FBI to aid law enforcement despite crime in the city being at a 30-year low.”

Said Trump: “That’s a great step, if they’re doing that. Yeah, I think that’s going to happen all over the country. We want to stop crime.”

D.C.’s Highest Crime Areas Have Yet to See Troops

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“President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops has produced Humvees on the National Mall and roving bands of agents in tourist areas as part of his stated effort to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital,” USA Today reports.

“But many residents of the city’s highest-crime neighborhoods say they haven’t yet seen the results of Trump’s surge in the places it is needed the most.”

Details Leak on California’s Redistricting Plan

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“More details on California Democrats’ proposed overhaul to the state congressional map are coming to light in advance of the official release of the new boundaries,” Politico reports.

“State lawmakers were briefed Wednesday evening on the expected partisan tilt of all 52 congressional districts, providing the clearest view yet of which Republican districts they are targeting. The changes, which are not yet final, were detailed in a chart obtained by Politico and confirmed by multiple legislators and staffers.”

Quote of the Day

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“Honestly, if he could bring about the end to this terrible war… if he could end it without putting Ukraine in a position where it had to concede its territory to the aggressor… could really stand up to Putin, something we haven’t seen, but maybe this is the opportunity… If President Trump were the architect of that, I’d nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize. Because my goal here is to not allow capitulation to Putin.”

— Hillary Clinton, on the Raging Moderates podcast.

Democrats See a Path Back to Senate Majority

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“Democrats are starting to finally see their path back to power in the Senate — if they squint really, really hard,” Politico reports.

“Party leaders have landed top recruits in Ohio and North Carolina, both pickup opportunities. They hope a snowball effect will push their favorite candidate in Maine, another offensive target, into that race in a state former Vice President Kamala Harris won.”

“There are other, rockier potential targets: Perhaps they could finally win Texas, where Republicans are locked in a messy, expensive primary. Or Alaska, where senior Democrats are courting a dynamic former congresswoman. Or maybe, they hope, Iowa could become a purple state again.”

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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