Jonathan Czin: “President Trump will host Xi Jinping for a state visit on September 24, once again putting his claimed bonhomie with the Chinese leader at the center of the relations between the two superpowers.”
“But Trump’s insistence on the importance of this personal rapport shows just how little he understands his adversary.”
Anne Applebaum: “Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction.”
Dexter Filkins: “Throughout the Trump era, Kushner has made a career of combining business and politics. He argues that being a businessman aids his diplomatic efforts, by allowing him to find inventive solutions to problems ordinarily handled by unimaginative bureaucrats.”
“But, as he has traversed the globe for Trump, he has grown more entangled in the commercial affairs of countries where he works. He represents a new kind of Washington figure, for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth.”
“We’re not going to let a billionaire class tell us what’s inevitable and fuck over the American people again.”
— Democratic strategist Morris Katz, quoted by Politico, on the need for Democrats to take the lead on AI regulation.
Bloomberg: “The debate reflects bigger questions about where the country sees itself in a world of increasingly fractured international relations. For many on the right, it’s lost much of what made it special, and can’t afford to let neutrality be weakened.”
“It’s a head-to-head between two competing visions. One points to sovereignty, neutrality and distance from larger powers — particularly the EU — as the foundations of Switzerland’s success. The second sees international cooperation as essential for a small economy which can steer its own fate only so far.”
“Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has not appeared in the Senate since June as he recovers from a fall that his office said he suffered at his Washington home,” the Washington Post reports.
“It’s unclear if he’ll be back in the chamber Monday as the Senate reconvenes after a five-week recess.”
“President Trump told reporters he personally uses artificial intelligence ‘for a lot of things,’ but declined to reveal exactly how,” CNN reports.
“Sweden’s high-stakes general election is heading for a tight finish in a contest to decide whether a new center-left prime minister takes over or the far right enters government for the first time,” Politico reports.
“With 95% of results now declared, the left-wing bloc of Social Democrat opposition leader Magdalena Andersson has a three-seat lead in the 349-member parliament — ahead of conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s four-party right-wing alliance.”
“The outcome of Sunday’s vote may not be known until Wednesday. The two candidates for prime minister will now seek talks with other party leaders as they attempt to solidify their blocs into governing majorities.”
The Atlantic: “The White House held a summer contest to see who could appear in the most congressional districts and states with competitive midterm elections.”
Doug Sosnik writes in his latest memo that the midterm elections will “mark the end of the Trump era as the bailing wire that held this political structure together will begin to unravel.”
“Immediately following the elections, attention will shift to selecting the next president of the United States.”
“There’s no fighting. We have essentially taken over Iran.”
— President Trump, quoted by the Washington Post.
“Fresh off basking in the praise of adoring supporters at the GOP midterm convention, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance kick off their first swing of midterm campaigning in earnest this week, with trips that betray how much trouble their party could be in,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump, returning from a weekend retreat to his Ireland golf course, is scheduled on Wednesday to visit North Carolina, where his handpicked Senate candidate, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley, trails former governor Roy Cooper (D) by seven points in a recent high-quality poll.”
“Vance, meanwhile, plans to travel to Kansas on Monday to campaign for GOP Sen. Roger Marshall, whose reelection race appears too close for comfort for Republicans.”
Wall Street Journal: “There will be a lot of noise in the next 50 days, as candidates scratch and claw and try to out-AI each other ahead of the polls. There will be plenty of debate about Abdul El-Sayed and Hasan Piker. There will be a lot of second-guessing about whether Ken Paxton was the strongest GOP candidate to take on James Talarico. There will be hand-wringing about Maine, and New Hampshire, and Iowa, and Alaska, and Ohio. But the price of gasoline stares Americans in the face each day as they go about their lives.”
“This, and, by proxy, the Iran War, could end up being the defining issue of this midterm.”
“Voters in a rare House district that went red for president and blue for Congress are on the verge of replacing one of the most centrist House Democrats with a hard-line conservative who called himself ‘Donald Trump before Donald Trump,'” the Washington Post reports.
“Election forecasters see Maine’s former Republican governor Paul LePage as the likely winner in this rural district despite his history of incendiary comments such as ‘Black people come up the highway and they kill Mainers.'”
“The Justice Department’s push to pursue a sweeping conspiracy probe into former officials behind investigations targeting President Donald Trump has descended into turmoil and possibly new delays following the abrupt resignation of the top prosecutor overseeing the probe,” CNN reports.
“Joe diGenova, the Washington lawyer and former top prosecutor leading the South Florida-based investigation, resigned a day after a tense phone call Wednesday with Attorney General Todd Blanche.”
“The final clash centered on diGenova’s effort to block lawyers dispatched by Justice Department headquarters from assisting the probe, following broader disagreements with top Justice officials over its pace.”
“The midterm elections are getting closer, and the Trump administration’s explanations for rising inflation are getting further from what many voters and independent economists are describing,” the Washington Sun reports.
“Trump’s economic policy advisers have zeroed in on indicators like wages, GDP and stock market growth to sell Americans on a humming economy. Americans are reporting a different experience. In a July Pew Research Center poll, 60% of U.S. adults said that President Donald Trump’s second-term policies have made the economy worse.”
“The dissonance has reminded former Biden officials of a dynamic they caution can be a losing battle: trying to explain the economy to American voters.”
“President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva edged ahead of Flávio Bolsonaro in a new poll ahead of October’s vote, as the latest twist in Brazil’s Supreme Court crisis renewed scrutiny of the right-wing challenger’s ties to a disgraced executive at the center of a multibillion-dollar banking fraud,” Bloomberg reports.
“Lula would lead a runoff 47%-46%, according to a BTG/Nexus survey published Monday, after gaining 2 points from the previous poll. The movement was within the survey’s 2-point margin of error, leaving the race in a statistical dead heat.”
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.
