“I don’t suppose that this is the number-one issue for voters in America by any stretch, but it may be the number-one issue for the loudest voters. It’s very clear that there are going to be a lot of people asking a lot of questions over recess when they get back home.”
— GOP operative Brendan Buck, quoted by Politico, on lawmakers facing questions about Jeffrey Epstein over the August recess.
Politico: “Congressional Democrats appear to have finally found their mojo in sticking it to the White House by seizing on the Jeffrey Epstein saga to humiliate the president and split the GOP. Unlike in the past, senior Democrats have shown a surprisingly nimble ability in recent days to pivot to the GOP’s vulnerability du jour, threatening to force votes exposing a divided Republican Party.”
“The strategy has effectively hijacked the House, derailed Hill Republicans’ agenda and forced Speaker Mike Johnson to send lawmakers packing for an early August recess. That’s not to mention embarrassing Trump in the process and exposing the surprising limits of his sway on a party he’s held in his clutches for the better part of a decade.”
Playbook: “We’re about to find out what kind of legs the Epstein issue truly has.”
“In his long career as a senior Danish politician, including as minister of defense during President Trump’s first administration, Claus Hjort Frederiksen said he always valued the Scandinavian nation’s tight bond with the U.S.,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“And, like many from Denmark, until recently politically one of the more pro-American countries in Europe, he said he is heartbroken today by how the U.S. has turned from best friend to rapacious foe. Trump’s claim on the Arctic island of Greenland, which accounts for 98% of the Danish kingdom’s landmass, has become the most important feature of the bilateral relationship.”
“Majority Leader John Thune warned senators in a closed-door lunch Tuesday to be ready for possible votes on nominations next weekend — potentially taking them into August,” Axios reports.
“Thune is caught between President Trump’s demand to cancel the August recess and a conference desperate to campaign, fundraise and talk to voters in their states.”
Playbook: “It’s looking more possible that votes on Trump nominees will bleed into August, though for how long is unclear.”
New York Times: “Horse-trading behind the scenes has always powered much of what goes on in Congress, particularly when it comes to major legislative pushes. But the past several weeks have been dominated by an extraordinary flurry of handshake deals and written carve-outs meant to assuage the most anxious Republicans, often with scant details about how the exceptions will be implemented or enforced.”
“For more than two weeks, mysterious explosions and fires have erupted across Iran, setting ablaze apartment complexes and oil refineries, a road outside a major airport and even a shoe factory,” the New York Times reports.
“In public, Iranian officials have shrugged off the events as mere coincidence or blamed aging infrastructure, trying to soothe the frayed nerves of a population still traumatized by the country’s war with Israel and the United States in June.”
“But in private, three Iranian officials, including a member of the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said they believed that many of them were acts of sabotage.”
“The Trump administration has drafted a plan to repeal a fundamental scientific finding that gives the United States government its authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions and fight climate change,” the New York Times reports.
“The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule rescinds a 2009 declaration known as the ‘endangerment finding,’ which scientifically established that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endanger human lives.”
Punchbowl News: “Epstein has been dead for six years. But the disgraced financier has become more politically significant in death than he ever was while alive. And he’s playing an unusually large role in the day-to-day operations of Congress. The furor over the Epstein scandal shut down the House again this week…”
“As for the House’s Epstein debacle, there’s enough blame to go around — between the White House and GOP leadership. Johnson allowed Rules to pass a non-binding resolution last week, which seemed insufficient at the time and has proven so since. Johnson and House GOP leaders should’ve known this wasn’t going to be enough to calm the Epstein angst.”
“Trump is giving Hill Republicans absolutely no cover here. The White House’s posture seems to be that the House Republicans should suck it up and back Trump over Epstein.”
“By giving the White House the month until September to release documents, Johnson has all but guaranteed that the story continues.”
“Former President Barack Obama’s office issued a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump on Tuesday after the president accused his predecessor of having committed ‘treason’ and rigging the 2016 and 2020 elections,” NBC News reports.
Said an Obama spokesperson: “Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
“President Trump said that he anticipates receiving advertising and public service ad commitments worth $20 million from Skydance Media, the company in the process of merging with CBS parent Paramount Global,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“He said the additional compensation would come on top of the $16 million the current owner agreed to pay earlier this month to settle Trump’s lawsuit alleging election interference by the network’s news magazine, 60 Minutes.”
President Donald Trump announced a long-awaited trade agreement with Japan on Tuesday night, in which Japan will pay 15% “reciprocal tariffs” on goods exported to the United States, CNN reports.
Said Trump: “We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made.”
“It’s the fixation of Washington. Now Democrats from coast to coast are plotting how to capitalize on the Jeffrey Epstein saga,” Politico reports.
“An ongoing furor around the government’s investigation of the disgraced financier has done more than fracture President Donald Trump’s base. It has also injected a volatile new element into midterm elections and created an opening for Democrats scrambling to exploit any perceived Republican weakness as they work to retake the House.”
“Once largely confined to the Beltway and to the more conspiratorial corners of the internet, the Epstein affair has already shown surprising staying power by tapping into pervasive distrust of those in power. Democrats are hoping it will help them portray the Republicans controlling Washington as corrupt and insulated from consequences.”
“Newly uncovered archived video footage and photos reveal fresh details about Donald Trump’s past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” CNN reports.
“Photos from 1993 confirm for the first time that Epstein attended Trump’s 1993 wedding to Marla Maples. Epstein’s attendance at the ceremony at the Plaza Hotel was not widely known until now.”
“In addition, footage from a 1999 Victoria’s Secret fashion event in New York shows Trump and Epstein laughing and chatting together ahead of the runway event.”
“New Jersey’s federal judges declined Tuesday to appoint Alina Habba, President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney in the state, to continue serving in that role, delivering a resounding rebuke to one of his administration’s most polarizing Justice Department appointees,” the Washington Post reports.
Tom Nichols: “Presidents are, like the rest of us, flawed human beings. Many of them had volcanic tempers: Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Joe Biden, among others, reportedly could sling Anglo-Saxonisms with gusto. In public, most of them managed to convey an image of geniality. (Nixon might be the exception there, but he embraced being an uptight square and his admirers found it endearing.) But all of them, regardless of their personality, had at least some notion about government, some sense of what they wanted to accomplish in the most powerful office in the world.”
“Donald Trump exhibits no such guiding belief. From his first day as a candidate, Trump has appeared animated by anger, fear, and, most of all, pettiness, a small-minded vengefulness that takes the place of actual policy making. It taints the air in the executive branch like a forgotten bag of trash in a warm house on a summer day—even when you can’t see it, you know it’s there.”
“The White House’s attempts to mollify President Donald Trump’s supporters’ growing outrage over the investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein appears to be falling on deaf ears,” Politico reports.
“Since Trump last week announced that he directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin the process of trying to unseal grand jury testimony in Epstein’s criminal case, Republicans and MAGA stalwarts have publicly pushed the administration to release more documents related to Epstein.”
“President Donald Trump promised Americans they would get tired of winning — for now, it appears they are getting tired of reading about him,” Politico reports.
“Trump’s first term saw books authored by prominent journalists sell hundreds of thousands of copies each as the public rushed to learn the inside details of Trump’s norm-shattering presidency.”
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.