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“President Donald Trump on Wednesday told reporters that he planned extensive travel to states with high stakes races in the final month before the midterm elections in November,” Reuters reports.
Said Trump: “I will be going to Alaska. I’m going to be going the last 30 days before the election. I’ll be making a lot of stops.”
CNN: A midterm about Trump.
A new Alaska Survey Research poll in Alaska finds Mary Peltola (D) leading Dan Sullivan (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 51% to 49%.
“President Trump praised the no-jail plea deal for Tiger Woods — saying it was a ‘very fair’ outcome after the golfer allegedly drove under the influence of prescription drugs,” the New York Post reports.
He added: “I think he’s going to have somebody drive him. I told him that a long time ago, ‘Why do you get somebody to drive you?’ So he’s going to have somebody drive him from now on.”
Mediaite: Trump claims he warned Tiger Woods to get a personal driver years before DUI arrest.
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“The U.S. Postal Service has been swiftly developing a complex screening system for mail-in ballots ahead of this year’s midterm elections, despite ongoing legal wranglings over President Trump’s executive order to restrict voting by mail,” the New York Times reports.
“The new system, which requires states to tell the Postal Service which voters will be sent ballots so they can be verified before delivery, shows how aggressively the Postal Service is moving to deliver on the president’s directive ahead of the upcoming elections, which could tip the scales of power in Congress.”
“The Pentagon has pulled decades of classified documents from a secret computer system commonly used by defense officials and U.S. troops, after The Washington Post published a story detailing senior military officers’ concerns about the Iran war,” the Washington Post reports.
“It was not immediately clear if the documents remain otherwise available to U.S. personnel or how the reduction in access could complicate military planning.”
The Wrap: Washington Post editorial board defends Iran war report amid “traitor” criticism.
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy facilities were one reason for rising global energy prices, citing those attacks before mentioning the war against Iran when asked about the elevated cost of living in the U.S,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Bessent: “We are going through an energy shock right now, due to both the war in Ukraine, because Ukraine has decided that they want to blow up Russian energy assets and refined products — so that is creating upward price pressure on a global basis — and then the conflict in Iran.”
“President Donald Trump celebrated Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle’s plans to leave the U.S. taking a dig at the royal couple as they return to live in the UK,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “I’m happy about it. I was not a fan. I thought they treated the royal family with great disrespect. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the way she acted. I thought she was terribly disrespectful to the Queen, to King Charles.”
He added: “I wouldn’t have taken them back, frankly. If I were the royal family.”
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio brushed off various reports about CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s furtive visit to Russia last week, stating in a Fox News Radio episode aired Wednesday that the spy agency’s leader was there solely to open a dialogue with Russian officials,” NOTUS reports.
“When President Trump announced that he would hold an unusual party convention just weeks ahead of the midterm elections, he wrote online that it would be ‘a truly Historic Event’ and ‘a RALLY like none other!,'” the New York Times reports.
“But as they stare down a bleak political environment, with the president’s approval rating at a record low, many House and Senate Republicans running in competitive races across the country are keeping their distance from Mr. Trump’s Dallas pep rally next week, choosing to stay home and campaign instead.”
“President Donald Trump said renewed attacks on Iran would likely be short-lived, reiterating his claim that the U.S. controls the crucial Strait of Hormuz after fresh fighting spiked energy prices and rekindled fears of an open-ended war,” Bloomberg reports.
“Hundreds of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security have been assigned to an intensive, weekslong hunt for noncitizens among the nation’s registered voters despite an absence of evidence of widespread fraud,” the New York Times reports.
“Agents are scouring voter rolls managed by the states, and are using personally identifiable information about individual voters, such as their dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers, to look them up on those rolls, according to the documents.”
“In some cases, investigators are effectively posing as individual voters by plugging their names and personal information into public-facing websites run by the top election official in each state. Some of these sites declare they are meant for individual use, potentially raising privacy concerns.”
Aaron Blake: “President Donald Trump’s extremely well-heeled political operation has begun an advertising campaign ahead of the 2026 midterm elections that Republicans have been eagerly awaiting.”
“But the first offerings focus on something decidedly unpopular: Trump himself.”
“Sen. Thom Tillis renewed his call for President Donald Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, following the resignation earlier this week of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll,” Politico reports.
Said Tillis: “I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country. He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force.”
CNN: Rep. Don Bacon on Hegseth: “We should all be concerned when the Secretary fires so many senior General, Officers and Admirals.”
“As part of a broader DHS surge to investigate alleged voter fraud, ICE has announced it plans to pay up to $5 million to create what amounts to a federal voter database,” Wired reports.
“President Donald Trump is hosting vulnerable Republican incumbents facing tough re-election contests for dinner in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday,” MS NOW reports.
“The invitees include GOP lawmakers who are locked in competitive races this November, according to the official, who declined to provide a full list of the Republican attendees. Politico was first to report news of the dinner.”
“Speaker Mike Johnson said he has no plans to campaign with embattled Rep. Max Miller — or visit his home state of Ohio at all — before the midterms,” Politico reports.
Said Johnson: “I have no plans to go to Ohio between now and the election. I’ve said everything I can say about the situation. It’s up to the people in his district.”
“Despite a stern message from party leaders, a panel of House Democrats did not settle on any particular consequences for the pair of lawmakers who crossed party lines Tuesday to advance an otherwise troubled slate of Republican-led bills,” Politico reports.
“Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and fellow leaders said the matter would be reviewed by the Democratic Committee on Caucus Rules, which convened Wednesday morning for a prescheduled listening session.”
Related for members: Hakeem Jeffries Is No Nancy Pelosi
“As the on-again, off-again war in Iran flares up again, President Trump seems bogged down in a conflict that he cannot control or move past, despite his declarations of total victory,” the New York Times reports.
“On Tuesday night, after the latest exchange of fire over control of the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. Trump called on the Iranian people to rise up — something he did at the outset of the war six months ago, before he backed off and acknowledged that his command was easier said than done.”
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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