“President Trump said Friday that tariff-free imported beef will be coming from Brazil and Argentina, among other places, as his administration works to alleviate stubbornly high prices,” NewsNation reports.
Said Trump: “It’s coming from Argentina. It’s coming from Brazil. It’s coming from a couple of other places. We have our inspectors down. It’s very clean. It’s very good.”
“Donald Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc. spent $10 million this week to support Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his tight Senate race, a financial disclosure filed Saturday afternoon revealed,” NOTUS reports.
“The president faced criticism from Republicans for not spending enough money to support Paxton, whom he endorsed over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn this spring.”
“A federal judge ruled Friday that former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) can be sued under North Carolina’s homewrecker law for her romantic relationship with a married member of her security detail,” NewsNation reports.
“A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reveal who set up the structure of a controversial $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization fund’ to recompense victims of political lawfare that was reportedly dropped by the justice department last month,” The Guardian reports.
“Construction is notoriously slow-going work. But in Donald Trump’s Washington, cranes and bulldozers appear like DoorDash deliveries: fast, frictionless, and on demand,” The Atlantic reports.
“To build the president’s White House ballroom, roughly 250 workers have been pouring concrete and installing steel framework, keeping the site humming for 20 hours a day, seven days a week. The National Park Service has proposed a similarly intensive schedule for Trump’s planned triumphal arch… These are very different and ambitious projects, but they share the same presumed deadline: January 20, 2029.”
“They also share a risk: The compressed schedules could lead to shoddy work that will require more repairs later.”
“The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, directed police departments last week to stop spending state money on Flock Safety cameras, the license-plate readers that have drawn bipartisan backlash around the country,” the New York Times reports.
“Days later in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration ordered the systems removed from state roads. Mr. DeSantis has described the surveillance technology as ‘out of control.'”
“Both governors are tough-on-crime Republicans with deep backing from law enforcement agencies. Yet their moves underscore how the political winds are shifting against Flock and other plate-reading systems that have been embraced by police departments.”
Financial Times: Republicans revolt against Flock AI surveillance as tech backlash intensifies.
“A federal judge said the Trump administration must provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before engaging in any work on the Memorial Circle for the president’s proposed 250-foot arch — a day after the interior secretary announced that groundbreaking would soon begin,” NOTUS reports.
“U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan’s order, signed Friday evening, applies to activity like excavation and construction, but exempts on-site information gathering to ensure compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act.”
New York Times: Is work starting for Trump’s arch? It depends who’s asking.
“The United Nations voted Friday to endorse a world map that more accurately reflects the true size of continents, following an African-led campaign,” the Washington Post reports.
“The UN General Assembly voted 164 votes to 1 to adopt a resolution to encourage members to use the ‘Equal Earth’ projection rather than the commonly used Mercator map, which dates back to the 16th century.”
“The U.S. cast the sole vote against the initiative, while six countries abstained: Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.”
“Late last month, left-wing firebrand Hasan Piker showed his Twitch viewers a social media post quoting a supposed audio recording of a Jewish American politician saying that the primary objective of his campaign was to aid Israel,” the Washington Post reports.
“Piker displayed the post during a monologue on American Jews and Israel that has since roiled the Democratic Party and upended a U.S. Senate race in Michigan.”
“But even now, weeks later, it is still not publicly known whether the audio recording in question is even real.”
“As Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced public scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the Department of Justice has pursued a quieter and more expansive effort against a wider circle of researchers,” the New York Times reports.
CNN: “For all the handwringing in all corners of the nation over the direction of the Democratic Party, the decisions by party leaders to intentionally not run nominees in several states is a blunt acknowledgment of the party’s toxicity in a stretch of the country that once routinely elected Democrats to state and federal office.”
Earlier for members: The Democrats’ Red State Workaround
“The Trump administration says it will break ground on a 250-foot triumphal arch in Washington, D.C. without final federal approval and despite an ongoing lawsuit,” NPR reports.
The Guardian: Excavation work on Trump’s towering, gilded arch to begin over next two weeks.
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may still be mulling what she does in 2028. But her outreach to one particularly disaffected — and surprising — slice of the electorate could offer a clue to how she’s preparing for her future,” Politico reports.
“Ocasio-Cortez told Emma Vigeland in a July interview for ‘The Majority Report’ that she’s been meeting with people in the Make America Healthy Again movement — an unexpected courtship for one of Democrats’ most prominent progressives.”
“Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) repeatedly refused to say whether he wants President Donald Trump to visit his district and campaign with him ahead of November’s midterm elections,” Mediaite reports.
“Republicans appear to have a unity problem in Georgia,” NBC News reports.
“In both of the battleground state’s marquee contests this fall, Republican power brokers have yet to fully rally around either of their nominees, Rep. Mike Collins for Senate and billionaire Rick Jackson for governor, months after they emerged from bruising primaries. It stands in stark contrast to the Democrats, who have coalesced quickly behind Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms.”
“The dynamic has sparked concerns within the GOP, less than 60 days from Election Day, that its statewide candidates will struggle to build a winning coalition amid a broader political environment that is presenting headwinds for the party.”
“Two of the top Democratic fund-raisers this cycle are teaming up for a finance event with some big Hollywood names,” the New York Times reports.
“James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee from Texas, and Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia are headlining a fund-raiser on Thursday evening in Los Angeles.”
“A Kentucky judge ordered former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) to serve 60 days in jail without bond on a contempt charge out of Jefferson County,” WDRB reports.
“Republicans’ confidence in the economy has plummeted over the last six months at a pace unseen since Covid — reminiscent of the declines during the global financial crisis nearly two decades ago,” Axios reports.
“Usually, the president’s party is upbeat about the economy, while the party out of power is far more downcast. What’s striking now is that Republicans have grown increasingly sour this year, even with a Republican president in office.”
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.