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“Ken Paxton, you might not like the way he dresses, and I say this, it’s so insulting to him, but I might as well say it. You might not like the way he looks. You might not love his television interviews. But he was the best attorney general and that speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great or than anything, frankly.”
— President Trump, speaking about Ken Paxton.
“When the U.S. launched its campaign against Iran six months ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised a quick, decisive blow that would avoid a long entanglement. Now, he is quietly extending troop deployments in a sign that the conflict could drag well into next year,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“It is part of an open-ended military strategy designed to give President Trump options in the war… But the deployment of 19 warships, air-defense units, fighter squadrons and paratroopers across the region is straining servicemembers and their families and creating a maintenance backlog that could take years to unwind.”
New York Times: “The drama began Tuesday afternoon, when two of the most conservative Democrats in the House broke with their party to pave the way for votes on a slate of Republican bills.”
“By Wednesday, it had mushroomed into a full-on furor featuring accusations of betrayal, demands for punishment for the defectors and a quiet but intense round of whispers about what the episode said about the leadership of Representative Hakeem Jeffries.”
For members: Hakeem Jeffries Is No Nancy Pelosi
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“When Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told President Donald Trump last week that he was resigning, Trump suggested he could stay at least through the midterm elections — a show of support for a top Pentagon leader who has clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” the Washington Post reports.
“At the White House meeting last week where Driscoll told Trump of his planned departure, he also voiced concerns to the president about the damage he said Hegseth was doing to the Army.”
“Former Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner is no longer set to speak at a Labor Day rally when he makes his first major public appearance since ending his campaign against Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine,” NBC News reports.
“Steve Bannon has made a career out of clashing with far-left politicians. But these days, President Trump’s former chief strategist has found a common cause with them: opposition to the AI boom,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The far-right podcast host has joined Democrats in warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence and the need to fight data centers that power AI deployment.”
“Bannon backs a proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VtT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who are aligned with the insurgent Democratic socialists, to ban the construction of new data centers.”
“Last week, the Trump administration unveiled what it billed as an ‘Economic D-Day’ aimed at forcing Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and return to the negotiating table,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“But the experience of Western sanctions and economic pressure on autocracies such as Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and Syria shows the challenges facing Washington in trying to bend Tehran to its will. Indeed, the strongmen ruling such countries have historically used a mix of violence, economic adaptation and political suppression that enables them to withstand economic pain for years, if not decades.”
“Autocratic countries adapt in various ways. Sanctions typically push activity underground, creating flourishing black markets for goods, services and even people. Dictators also use outside pressure to rally their populations, especially among elites.”
“Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, is emerging as a top contender for the Army secretary role,” Semafor reports.
“Parnell doesn’t have the nod locked down yet, and it’s unclear when President Donald Trump will nominate a successor to Dan Driscoll, who resigned earlier this week. But many inside the administration are pushing for Parnell, who is close to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and has held his current job since the start of the president’s second term.”
“A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from carrying out for now the president’s latest effort to impose new limits on automatic birthright citizenship after losing an earlier legal fight before the U.S. Supreme Court,” Bloomberg reports.
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) admitted in a recent interview that he’s worried about Republicans losing their Senate majority, acknowledging the strong political headwinds they face this fall because of high prices and President Trump’s slumping approval rating,” The Hill reports.
Said Thune: “I worry about that, for sure. I’m a realist, and I just think you — I don’t ever try and sugarcoat things. I think it’s a competitive environment right now.”
“President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that a new helipad on the White House grounds is complete, touting the project as both safer and more visually striking than the previous landing area,” NOTUS reports.
“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.
“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.”
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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