Members get an ad-free site, exclusive analysis, the private Trial Balloon podcast, real-time trending news and the full Political Wire experience.
Become a member. Already a member? Log in.
President Trump reveled in George Conway’s election loss on Tuesday,” Mediaite reports.
Said Trump: “Wow, Mr. Kellyanne Conway, a Trump Deranged Loser at the highest level, is getting absolutely CRUSHED in the Primaries tonight. He’ll end up at about 5% of the vote in a rather weak field of young and aggressive Communists. No wonder his ‘husband’ dumped him like a dog! This is a truly unattractive person, both inside and out. Have a nice life, George!”
“A flu outbreak at the Air Force’s basic training hub in San Antonio is worsening, according to two sources familiar with the situation,” ABC News reports.
“The outbreak is unfolding just two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the annual flu shot optional for troops, scrapping the military’s requirement for it, which dates to 1945, a move breaking with longstanding public health directives.”
“President Trump abruptly canceled his plans to sign a bipartisan bill aimed at improving housing affordability, one that Democrats and Republicans alike had been eager to promote on the campaign trail as evidence they were working to try to bring down costs,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump said in a social media post that he would not sign the bill until Congress passed a law that would impose new restrictions on voter identification and mail-in voting, known as the Save America Act. But Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, has said that Republicans did not have the votes required.”
“Though the president said he would not sign the housing bill, it can still become law without his signature. If Congress is in session, legislation can generally become law 10 days after a bill is enrolled and presented to the president.”
ABC News: Trump cancels signing of bipartisan housing bill until his SAVE America Act is passed.
“Artificial intelligence billionaires including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and OpenAI President Greg Brockman scored a key victory in a New York City congressional primary that became a $29 million proxy battle over who will control the future of AI,” Bloomberg reports.
“A super political action committee backed by Brockman, Andreessen and others spent more than $8 million opposing Alex Bores, a state assemblyman who attracted the industry’s ire last year when he sponsored legislation that sought to hold AI companies accountable for harms caused by their products.”
“Ultimately, another New York assemblyman, Micah Lasher, won the crowded Democratic contest on Tuesday.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson is optimistic about a third reconciliation bill succeeding, telling Punchbowl News: “I’m very bullish about it… We got some things that we really need to do, must do, everybody wants to do. So we put together the magic combination, I think we get it done.”
“President Trump says he ordered the Justice Department to probe whether oil companies are gouging consumers,” Axios reports.
“It shows a new level of Trump’s frustration with prices at the pump — and introduces a new wild card for oil companies, depending on what the Justice Department decides to do with the president’s overnight Truth Social post.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Semafor that he’s leaning toward running for another two years as GOP leader — welcome news for Republicans this morning as they prepare for a crucial meeting with President Donald Trump at the Capitol.
“Following his recent hospitalization, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell will continue to sit out from his legislative duties this week,” People reports.
“Republican voters like the preliminary peace deal with Iran less the more they know about it,” the New York Post reports.
“Initially, registered Republican voters backed the deal by a margin of more than three-to-one (62% to 20%), according to the survey by J.L. Partners.”
“But after hearing details of the memorandum of understanding signed by President Trump last week, just 32% deem it a ‘good deal’ while 44% pan it as a ‘bad deal,’ with another 15% saying it’s ‘neither.'”
New York Times: “The measure was a concurrent resolution, a vehicle that does not need a presidential signature to take effect but also does not become law. In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that to have legal effect outside of Congress, legislative actions generally must pass both chambers and be presented to the president for signature or veto.”
“But supporters of the resolution say war powers measures are different because the Constitution gives the power to declare war to Congress alone. The issue has never been definitively tested before the Supreme Court.”
“People who do not support the DSA wring their hands at cocktail parties, while the DSA is organizing.”
— Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), quoted by Axios.
Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign for Ohio governor “has racked up more than half a million dollars in credit card bills without disclosing what it’s purchasing,” Ohio Capital Journal reports.
“Ohio campaign finance reports require campaigns to disclose each individual transaction — not just how much they spent but who they paid and what they purchased with the money. Ramaswamy’s campaign is only reporting its monthly credit card bill.”
“President Trump predicted that New York will ‘only get worse’ after two socialist candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani won Democratic congressional primaries in the Big Apple Tuesday night,” the New York Post reports.
Said Trump: “Many Communists running in badly failing Blue States. The votes seem to have them doing quite well against each other. The bad news is that history has conclusively shown that the downtrodden States that they will soon be running will ONLY GET WORSE.”
“President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran had informed him there would be no tolls, insurance costs, or charges of any kind for ships looking to pass through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz,” CNBC reports.
New York Times: Trump is making big claims about the Iran talks. Iran keeps contradicting him.
“Newly minted socialist congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier abruptly walked out of a radio interview Tuesday after being pressed about controversial social media posts that, at times, overshadowed her campaign against New York Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat,” Fox News reports.
Mediaite: NYC socialist candidate angrily bolts radio interview after being pressed on deleted social media posts.
“Israeli troops stationed in Lebanon are increasingly caught between U.S. limits on Israel’s military operations and domestic pressure to fight on against Iran-backed Hezbollah, leaving them in a no man’s land that risks a resumption of the fighting that could derail the truce between Washington and Tehran,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said he still plans on forcing Elon Musk to “answer” for his “unconstitutional DOGE cuts” once Democrats are back in control of Congress — days after he claimed the SpaceX boss “possibly sentenced to death” 4.5 million kids with those cuts,” Mediaite reports.
Said Khanna: “I’m less concerned about Musk threatening to put me in jail — which he doesn’t have the power to do — or sue me. I’m more concerned that the world’s richest person presided over cuts that hurt the world’s poorest.”
“Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have charged Frank Carone, the former chief of staff to Mayor Eric Adams, his brother and two others in connection with an alleged bribery scheme,” Bloomberg reports.
“The investigation is focused on Carone’s business dealings and his time inside City Hall.”
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.