“The Trump administration is planning to announce as early as Tuesday that it will relocate U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama,” Reuters reports.
“The decision would reverse a move made under President Joe Biden’s administration, which had selected Colorado Springs as the permanent home for the military’s newest combatant command in 2023.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said his country’s ties with China were at an “unprecedented” high as he met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in a display of unity that they presented as a counterweight to the West, the New York Times reports.
Bloomberg: Why Putin and Xi are “best friends.”
“Treasury yields jumped on Tuesday to begin September trading as a court decision knocking down most of the Trump administration’s tariffs raised the prospect of the government having to repay the money already brought in, stretching an already-stressed U.S. fiscal situation,” CNBC reports.
“A federal judge found on Tuesday that President Trump illegally sent troops to enforce his immigration policies in Los Angeles, siding with state officials who contend the operation violates a 19th-century law barring the U.S. military from undertaking domestic law enforcement,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco conducted a three-day bench trial in August on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s claim that the forces Trump deployed over the objection of state and local officials violated the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 statute that restricts use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement except when authorized by Congress.”
CBS News: Judge rules Trump’s deployment of troops to Los Angeles violated federal law.
Michael Scherer: “The first seven months of Trump’s Oval Office do-over have been, with occasional exception, a tale of ruthless domination. The Democratic opposition is feeble and fumbling, the federal bureaucracy traumatized and neutered. Corporate leaders come bearing gifts, the Republican Party has been scrubbed of dissent, and the street protests are diminished in size. Even the news media, a major check on Trump’s power in his first term, have faded from their 2017 ferocity, hobbled by budget cuts, diminished ratings, and owners wary of crossing the president.”
“One exception has stood out: A legal resistance led by a patchwork coalition of lawyers, public-interest groups, Democratic state attorneys general, and unions has frustrated Trump’s ambitions. Hundreds of attorneys and plaintiffs have stood up to him, feeding a steady assembly line of setbacks and judicial reprimands for a president who has systematically sought to break down limits on his own power.”
“Of the 384 cases filed through August 28 against the Trump administration, 130 have led to orders blocking at least part of the president’s efforts, and 148 cases await a ruling, according to a review by Just Security. Dozens of those rulings are the final word, with no appeal by the government, and others have been stayed on appeal, including by the Supreme Court.”
Graeme Wood: “Israel and the United States delivered a blow to Iran. But it could come back stronger.”
The Downballot: “Yes, Republicans may well fall short of their goal of flipping the five Democratic seats they’ve set their sights on, for a whole host of reasons.”
“In a couple of cases, they pulled their punches, making relatively modest adjustments to districts where moderate Democrats have long managed to outperform the national party. There are also signs that Latino voters, who moved sharply in the GOP’s direction last year, are now shifting back…”
“But they haven’t done anything to jeopardize the seats they already hold. Their new map isn’t a dummymander. It’s just a classic gerrymander, taken to the extreme.”
“Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio has warned Donald Trump’s America is drifting into 1930s-style autocratic politics — and said other investors are too scared of the president to speak up,” the Financial Times reports.
Said Dalio: “I think that what is happening now politically and socially is analogous to what happened around the world in the 1930-40 period.”
He added: “I am just describing the cause and effect relationships that are driving what is happening,” he said. “And by the way, during such times most people are silent because they are afraid of retaliation if they criticize.”
“Ukraine is pursuing a multibillion-dollar arms buildup that would be funded by Europe, seeing it as the best chance of ensuring the country’s long-term survival as American assistance dries up and Western security guarantees remain uncertain,” the New York Times reports.
“Kyiv wants not only to sustain its army through the current war but also to make it the backbone of any postwar settlement, with the goal of deterring Russia from invading again.”
As Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, recently put it: “Ukraine must become a steel porcupine, undigestible for potential invaders.”
Jonathan Martin: “The most consequential bipartisan accomplishment of this decade was hatched in NYU faculty housing and is being fulfilled in conservative and liberal state capitals alike. The legislative victory at hand? Banning phones in classrooms.”
“Y’all, they just don’t get it. They just don’t get it! They will never truly comprehend, even after seven decades, that we aren’t going anywhere. We are just getting started. I want to say to all of them, every genocide enabler: look at this room, motherfuckers. We ain’t going anywhere.”
— Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), speaking at the People’s Conference for Palestine.
Paul Krugman: “America has spent decades trying to cultivate good relations with India, which could be a useful counterweight to China. Now we have a nearly complete rupture, with India actually cozying up to China.”
“And what was that about? Apparently Trump, in his bizarre pursuit of a Nobel peace prize, tried to bully Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, into giving him undeserved credit for a cease-fire between India and Pakistan. The two men haven’t talked since.”
Axios: Modi joins hands with Xi and Putin in message to Trump.
Derek Thompson: “The math is straightforward. Population growth has two sources: natural increase (births minus deaths) and net immigration (arrivals minus departures). Last year, births outnumbered deaths by 519,000 people. That means any decline in net immigration in excess of half a million could push the U.S. into population decline. A recent analysis of Census data by the Pew Research Center found that between January and June, the US foreign-born population fell for the first time in decades by more than one million.”
“While some economists have questioned the report, a separate analysis by the American Enterprise Institute predicted that net migration in 2025 could be as low as negative 525,000. In either case, annual population growth this year could easily turn negative.”
“This would be a historic first. For nearly 250 years, America has only known growth.”
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a new memoir defends her vote reversing a half century of national abortion rights, declaring that Roe v. Wade usurped the will of the American people and “came at a cost,” CNN reports.
Barrett writes that the “complicated moral debate” about abortion distinguishes it from other rights more traditionally recognized as fundamental that enjoy broad public support, including “the rights to marry, have sex, procreate, use contraception.”
“Republican operatives and lawmakers are increasingly anxious about how inflation could affect the GOP in the 2026 midterms, and want President Trump to take more aggressive steps to address rising prices,” Axios reports.
“GOP insiders and lawmakers believe the cost of drugs and consumer items — and how the White House deals with Trump’s tariffs potentially turbocharging prices and creating shortages — will be key to whether the GOP keeps control of Congress next year.”
Punchbowl News: “In 28 days, funding for federal agencies expires. Both chambers are out the week of Sept. 22 for Rosh Hashanah. That leaves just 14 legislative days for Congress and the White House to avert a shutdown.”
“Right now, a potential government shutdown seems more likely than not. And if there isn’t a shutdown, federal agencies could limp along on a series of short-term funding bills — continuing resolutions — throughout this year and next, giving Trump and White House officials even more sway over federal spending.”
Semafor: Why the government shutdown threat is real this time.
“President Donald Trump’s bid to kill wind power is straining the clean energy industry — and imperiling GOP lawmakers whose communities have seen wind as an economic boon,” Politico reports.
“Few of those lawmakers are more endangered than Iowa’s Mariannette Miller-Meeks.”
“Hailing from a state that gets nearly two-thirds of its electricity from wind turbines while paying some of the lowest power bills in the nation, Miller-Meeks has been a leading GOP champion in the House for an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy supporting the growth of renewables alongside fossil fuels. But she also cast a crucial vote for Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which wiped out billions of dollars in wind’s economic incentives — throwing Iowa’s 50-plus wind-related companies into uncertainty.”
Playbook: “House Republicans bet big that their newly-minted megabill would help them hold their majority in next year’s midterms. But what they learned during August recess is that they’re facing major challenges in selling their sweeping revamp of the tax code and safety-net programs.”
“The White House is gearing up to press Republicans to do better in messaging around the president’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’“
“The handful of GOP lawmakers who held town halls last month were often met with fierce voter pushback. Efforts from Reps. Bryan Steil and Mike Flood to explain what the law would deliver were interrupted by jeers and blistering questions, including over provisions that would result in people losing Medicaid. The party’s attempts at branding it as a gift to working families fell short when Rep. Josh Brecheen couldn’t answer a constituent’s question about how Congress was working to lower grocery prices.”
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.