“President Trump on Monday declared his support for federal tax credits to support film and television production in the U.S. which entertainment industry veterans say could boost a struggling industry that has lost huge amounts of business to foreign countries,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Deadline: Trump backs federal film & TV tax incentive: “Hollywood is a complete & total disaster!”
“President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters it was too soon to discuss his potential successor, sidestepping talk of a 2028 campaign by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” Reuters reports.
Said Trump: “We have to get through the midterms first.”
“Less than a month ago, a huge bipartisan Senate majority voted to honor the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and pass legislation he pushed aimed at sanctioning Russia’s trading partners,” Politico reports.
“Now the bill is at serious risk of languishing in the House, where it is suffering from significant Democratic opposition, lack of Republican enthusiasm and fading impetus to honor the late South Carolina senator.”
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is excluding two deaths reported by Pennsylvania from its weekly updates of a national measles death tally, a decision that came from new CDC director Erica Schwartz,” the Washington Post reports.
“The highly unusual decision departs from the agency’s practice of including such data from state health departments, which historically make the determinations.”
Punchbowl News: “House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-MD) told us today he’d vote against a key procedural motion on the floor this week over a provision in the funding bill to delay a ban on hemp products by a month.”
“Harris has been public about his opposition to delaying the ban, which is part of the CR.”
“The CR isn’t coming to the floor under the rule, and the Dec. 11 funding bill is expected to pass by a big margin. But Harris and the HFC could torch the GOP leadership’s agenda for the rest of the week if they defeat the rule.”
“President Donald Trump’s White House is planning more than $250,000 in work on its private bowling alley, reviving a renovation target that previously sparked Republican outrage over taxpayer spending during the Obama administration,” Mediaite reports.
“President Trump and his senior aides have been considering waging limited strikes in the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iran from reconstituting its radar and missile capabilities to attack ships,” Axios reports.
“As the leaders of China, Russia, India, Iran and other nations converged on Central Asia for a two-day summit beginning on Monday, one thing was clear from the outset. Even as President Trump tries to bend the world to revolve around Washington, Xi Jinping of China has his own powerful orbit,” the New York Times reports.
“The Chinese leader’s arrival in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, for a meeting of the 10-nation political and security grouping known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization underscored Mr. Xi’s broad ability to sustain Washington’s foes, both in peacetime and in war.”
“Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Monday called Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) a ‘great member of Congress’ and endorsed Miller’s bid for a third term, despite allegations of domestic violence by his ex-wife,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Johnson: “Yes. He has been a great member of Congress. He has some issues in his personal life he’s working through. The House Ethics Committee is looking into that and any applications it may have.”
“House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted Republicans Monday for being ‘pro-data center without any restraints,’ making his strongest rebuke yet of the tech industry’s massive infrastructure buildout as it becomes a key issue in midterm campaigns,” Politico reports.
Said Jeffries: “Donald Trump and Republicans are divorced from reality. They think that the affordability crisis is a hoax. Donald Trump and Republicans have made clear they love inflation. Donald Trump and Republicans have told the American people directly, ‘We don’t think about your personal financial situation.'”
CNN: I feel your pain vs. “let data reign.”
“Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation to President Trump following months of tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the direction of the service and the ouster of numerous senior Army officers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. economy could grow at rates as high as 20%, while arguing that even such rapid growth should not prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates,” CNBC reports.
Said Trump: “We could have a GDP of 14, 15, 16 and 20. Success in growth does not cause inflation.”
“Calling it a matter of ‘exceptional importance,’ the Trump administration has filed an urgent appeal with the Supreme Court seeking the immediate removal of 29 active-duty service members who are transgender even before their case challenging the Pentagon ban goes to trial in January,” ABC News reports.
“The U.S. military is not planning to send troops or personnel to polling places during the 2026 midterm elections, according to Gen. Dan Caine, the country’s highest-ranking military officer,” NBC News reports.
“The amount of money the Internal Revenue Service collected from audits dropped dramatically last year after the Trump administration pushed out many of the agency’s employees, according to a watchdog report released on Monday,” the New York Times reports.
“The report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, called TIGTA, showed that IRS audits brought in $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, a 35 percent decrease from the $10 billion that audits elicited the previous year. That plunge came after President Trump, at the start of his second term, moved to reduce the size of the federal work force, a push that resulted in the IRS losing roughly 30 percent of its staff dedicated to audits.”
A new University of Massachusetts Amherst poll finds President Trump’s approval at a dismal 32%, while 64% disapprove.
“A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the White House to continue construction on a $400 million ballroom project as lawsuits play out,” the Associated Press reports.
“The decision replaces a temporary order from Chief Justice John Roberts previously issued hours before a lower-court decision halting the work would have gone into effect.”
“Vice President JD Vance described Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic nominee for Senate, as ‘evil’ during a campaign rally here Monday,” NBC News reports.
Said Vance: “I realize that there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today.”
He added: “And it’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation fighting for every single person — whether they’re Jewish or Christian, whether they’re white or Black or brown — but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others, and that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America.”
Wall Street Journal: Vice President JD Vance attacked Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, at a Republican rally Monday.
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.