As Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky headed into a high-stakes meeting in the Oval Office this week, Vice President JD Vance warned him to “behave,” the New York Times reports.
Said Vance: “Mr. President, so long as you behave, I won’t say anything.”
FBI agents raided former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton’s DC-area home Friday morning in a high-profile national security probe, the New York Post reports.
Said FBI Director Kash Patel on X: “No one is above the law… FBI agents on a mission.”
Punchbowl News: “Senate Democrats have laid the groundwork throughout August to make this fall’s government-funding fight all about health care.”
“Yet Democrats still need to decide how far to take this clash — and whether they’re willing to force a government shutdown…”
“This funding deadline is Democrats’ first real leverage point since March. As you’ll recall, that March funding fight didn’t go well for Schumer and the Democratic Caucus.”
Nearly three-quarters of registered voters in the state — including roughly half of Republicans — said removing millions of undocumented immigrants from the workforce would hurt California’s economy, the latest Politico-Citrin Center poll found.
And roughly 80 percent of voters, including a majority of Republicans, said undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. illegally should remain in some fashion.
“President Donald Trump said Thursday he would expand the law enforcement and National Guard crackdown he ordered in Washington, DC, this month to other jurisdictions as he appeared at a US Park Police facility to promote the initiative,” CNN reports.
Said Trump: “We’re going to make it safe, and we’re going to then go on to other places, but we’re going to stay here for a while.”
Playbook: “In a new memo, the center-left think tank Third Way is circulating a list of 45 words and phrases they want Democrats to avoid using, alleging the terms put ‘a wall between us and everyday people of all races, religions, and ethnicities.’”
“It’s a set of words that Third Way suggests ‘people simply do not say, yet they hear them from Democrats.’”
“Third Way argues that to ‘please the few, we have alienated the many — especially on culture issues, where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant,’ according to the memo.”
Key takeaway: “The Democratic Party brand is toxic across the country at this point with way too many people — enough that there’s no way for us to win a governing majority without changing that. Part of the problem was that we were using words that literally no normal people used — that we were sticking to messages that were so overly scripted that they basically sounded like nothing.”
A new Emerson College survey of the Ohio Senate race finds Jon Husted (R) leading Sherrod Brown (D), 50% to 44%, with 7% of voters undecided
“For the first time in decades, more immigrants are leaving the United States than arriving, a new study finds, an early indication that President Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda is leading people to depart — whether through deportation or by choice,” the New York Times reports.
“President Donald Trump insinuated in a social media post that he is open to Ukraine launching more attacks on Russia, as the White House looks to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” the South China Morning Post reports.
“Since taking office, President Trump has railed against wind power and the turbines that are needed to generate that energy. He has called the turbines ugly and inefficient, and criticized them for ruining landscapes as well as endangering whales and birds,” the New York Times reports.
“So it was curious when, on Thursday, the administration announced a trade investigation that could result in tariffs on imported wind turbines. The Trump administration has typically imposed tariffs to protect American companies against foreign competition and spur domestic production of critical products.”
“This time, laying out a path to impose tariffs could be an attempt to stymie an industry.”
A federal judge in Miami ruled Thursday that “Alligator Alcatraz,” the contested migrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades, can remain operational for now but that it cannot be expanded and no additional detainees can be brought in, NBC News reports.
National Journal: The California legislature passed new Democratic-drawn congressional maps Thursday, sending the new district lines to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature. But unlike a similar redistricting push passed by the Texas legislature this week, lawmakers won’t have the final word on the new lines. The proposed map instead will appear before California voters in a November special election. Their approval is far from certain.”
“The uncertainty over the final map has put candidates in a bind as they contemplate where to campaign and invest resources more than a year away from the midterms.”
“Ratcheting up the pressure in the escalating national fight over control of Congress, the California Legislature on Thursday approved a November special election to ask voters in November to redraw the state’s electoral lines to favor Democrats and thwart President Trump’s far-right policy agenda,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The ballot measure, pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state and national Democratic leaders, is the latest volley in a national political brawl over electoral maps that could alter the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections and the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) announced he would not seek reelection in 2026 if Texas Republicans go ahead with mid-decade redistricting as planned, Punchbowl News reports.
Doggett’s decision avoids a potentially brutal primary with Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), who was drawn into an Austin district with Doggett under the proposed new map.
The Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration can slash hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of research funding in its push to cut federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the AP reports.
“The Minnesota DFL will revoke the local party’s endorsement of state Sen. Omar Fateh in the Minneapolis mayor’s race,” the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.
“Fateh, a democratic socialist challenging Mayor Jacob Frey, won the endorsement at the end of a raucous July convention that prompted dozens of challenges amid delays and miscounted votes.”
“The Michigan Democratic Party is cutting off access to its main voter data program for Democrats who endorse Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s independent campaign for governor,” the Detroit News reports.
“The development marked an escalation by the Michigan Democratic establishment in its effort to oppose Duggan, the mayor of Michigan’s largest city and a former Democrat who’s seeking the state’s top political office in 2026.”
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.