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“President Trump posted an AI-generated video Sunday evening of what he said was Iran’s oil export hub of Kharg Island being ‘blown to smithereens’ hours after the first American airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic since July,” the New York Post reports.
“Trump, 80, did not clarify that the 10-second clip on his Truth Social account was AI-generated and there was no evidence Monday morning that the island off Iran’s coast had been hit.”
“Afghanistan is offering the U.S. access to mineral resources, in an overture to the Trump administration as the de facto Taliban government pitches for relief from sanctions and the release of frozen assets to support one of the world’s poorest countries,” the Financial Times reports.
“The bid for investment comes as the Taliban has stepped up diplomatic efforts five years after its return to power and the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces, which President Donald Trump called ‘the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.'”
“Election officials in nearly half the states are warning the courts that implementing the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail ballot rule would cause significant turmoil in their plans for the midterm elections, with plenty of signs voters would lose their chance to vote,” NOTUS reports.
“In declarations filed in a lawsuit seeking to halt the ballot rule, the officials detail how the rule comes late in the process, squeezes deadlines for sending out ballots and clashes with long-standing state election laws and carefully timed procedures.”
“America’s grocery squeeze has thus far been most painfully felt in a few expensive categories, like beef, coffee and chocolate,” Axios reports.
“Now, the forces pushing up food prices are starting to pile up: expensive grain, soaring fertilizer and fuel, plus unpredictable weather and raging wars.”
”The next grocery price shock could hit much harder — and much wider.”
“When Vanity Fair published close-up photos of President Donald Trump’s core advisers at the end of 2025, the group included five staffers alongside the vice president and secretary of state. Now two of those five aides are gone from the West Wing, turnover that’s reshaping the management of a deeply personal presidency,” Semafor reports.
“Two more advisers, each of whom holds the president’s trust, are also leaving the White House within weeks. The trend is familiar to many presidents heading into their final two years in office, but the stakes of a shrinking inner circle may be higher for Trump because of the ecosystem that’s defined his second term: Only a handful of advisers have direct, frequent access to him.”
Washington Post: “It is a risky strategy two months before Election Day. Vulnerable Republicans cannot afford to antagonize Trump because they need his help to turn out his base and tap into the $400 million war chest he controls. And he is not extending the leeway past presidents have for candidates to run their own races, even if that means keeping their distance.”
”Trump has told aides he wants ads paid for by his super PAC, MAGA Inc. to tout his second-term record, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Advisers already prepared some ads for the Texas Senate race and showed them to Trump, who provided detailed feedback, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal strategy.”
”Some donors, skeptical of the strategy, have become resistant to giving more money to Trump’s super PAC while it sits on hundreds of millions of dollars without sharing any plans about how it will use the money.”
Financial Times: Trump has put himself on the midterm ballot — should Republicans be worried?
New York Times: “All across America, the midterm elections are drowning in dark money.”
“A New York Times review of advertising data, campaign-finance filings and tax records revealed that about $1 billion in anonymous money is sloshing through the political landscape in 2026, a staggering sum and yet almost certainly a low-end estimate, given how difficult this money is to trace.”
“A plan in one of Texas’ largest counties to use dozens fewer polling locations than in previous years is drawing protests from Democrats who say the reductions could create confusion in the November midterm elections,” the Associated Press reports.
“The proposal, set for a vote Tuesday, would reduce the number of polling locations across booming Tarrant County, which borders Dallas and includes Fort Worth.”
Punchbowl News: “It’s striking that Republicans have settled on a message that Trump is on the ballot in 2026. The election will be all about him anyway, so this is an attempt to turn necessity into a political virtue.”
”Yet Trump’s approval ratings are well under 40%, especially on his handling of the economy. He’s conducting an endless campaign against Iran that even top military leaders warn is unsustainable. Trump also launched a costly new trade fight with Canada, including focusing on renaming Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America.’ Inflation remains stubbornly high, and gas is more than $4 per gallon nationally.”
”Dallas will be a fascinating interlude. The Trump White House seems to think it’s wise to put the president at the center of the fall campaign and spend lots of super PAC money touting his accomplishments.”
“The House is back in session, but it might be a short one,” Politico reports.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is looking to tick off the lone essential item on the chamber’s to-do list in lawmakers’ first days back: a Senate-passed, shutdown-averting spending bill.”
“A handful of other priorities are caught up in partisan battles and Senate limbo. Rebel factions in a thin House GOP majority continue to threaten Republicans’ plans of opening the floor for debate. And many Republicans are simply eager to get back home to campaign ahead of the November midterms rather than endure more headaches in Washington.”
“Together, those dynamics have fueled open speculation among members and aides that House leaders will call it quits until mid-November much sooner than the currently scheduled Oct. 1 exit date.”
“The rate at which mail votes have been rejected for arriving late has ticked up in primaries this year and general elections last year in roughly a dozen states, prompting election officials to worry that the U.S. Postal Service is ill-equipped to deliver ballots in the fall midterms,” the New York Times reports.
“Russia’s Defense Ministry said it is planning ‘massive strikes’ on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, days after launching a devastating attack on a warehouse near Kyiv, amplifying fears of another winter assault,” CNBC reports.
Nate Cohn: “The New York Times/Siena Poll has traditionally been a telephone survey, but over the last few years we’ve experimented with most of the major methods for contacting voters. These include sending them text messages (and sometimes offering financial incentives to participate), sending them mail with financial incentives, and getting data from panels of people recruited online to take polls. At the end of it all, the Times/Siena poll is still a telephone survey.”
“The phone, while expensive, is still much faster and cheaper than high-incentive mail surveys. And the phone still seems to reach a more representative population — based on measures like educational attainment and record of voting in recent elections — than supplementing the phone with text-message links to surveys or online panels.”
“Lawmakers can spend years trying to land seats on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Several could finally get their chance in the next Congress,” Politico reports.
”The panel with vast jurisdiction over health care, artificial intelligence, energy and telecommunications will have at least eight empty slots in the next Congress — four on each side of the aisle — thanks to a combination of planned retirements, attempts to climb to higher office and primary election defeats.”
“President Donald Trump’s plan to seize direct control of Venezuela’s oil reserves is prompting warnings that the Latin American nation will become a modern-day resource colony akin to the so-called banana republics of a century ago — something that could create long-term risks for oil companies operating there,” Bloomberg reports.
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s potential run for president has exposed long-simmering divisions within the Democratic Socialists of America,” Axios reports.
“The socialism movement’s leaders are increasingly at odds over who should speak for them, what policies they stand for — and whether to support AOC, whom some dismiss as more establishment than insurgent.”
Just two months from Election Day, Republicans are trailing in eight of the major battleground Senate races.
“The Pentagon has secretly installed several conservative military veterans with large online followings in government roles, declining to disclose their assignments as they amplify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s viewpoints and attack those who scrutinize the Trump administration,” the Washington Post reports.
“At least some of the influencers have been assigned to civilian roles that could lead to changes in policy.”
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.
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