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The Epstein Week That Was

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Punchbowl News: “It’s hard to see how this week could’ve gone worse for President Donald Trump and House Republicans.”

“Paralyzed by infighting over the scandal surrounding the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, GOP lawmakers spent the week alternating between bickering among themselves or lamely trying to blame the Democrats for the Epstein debacle. They never came close to figuring out what to do next or how to do it. And at the end of the week, House Republicans left town in the middle of the night with the scandal only getting worse, not better…”

“Trump tried falsely blaming Democrats for the Epstein scandal, including former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, as well as former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former FBI Director James Comey. The Justice Department even fired Maurene Comey – James’ daughter and a longtime federal prosecutor who worked on the Epstein case – this week.”

“Yet this seemed to make things worse, not better. It was a hugely uncharacteristic moment for Trump since his return to the White House. Trump has had an iron grip over the GOP and his base. This week showed that even Trump has limits.”

New Mexico Launches Automatic Voter Registration

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“For the last 30-plus years, New Mexico residents have had the option to register to vote while getting a new driver’s license or updating their vehicle registration,” the Albuquerque Journal reports.

“But the state is now automatically registering eligible residents to vote while they’re interacting with Motor Vehicle Division field offices statewide, under the latest Democratic-backed plan to expand voting access.”


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How Sam Altman Outplayed Elon Musk for Trump’s Ear

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Wall Street Journal: “Altman was estranged from Musk, his OpenAI co-founder, and Musk’s new position as ‘first buddy’ had kept Altman out of meetings at Mar-a-Lago and in the overflow room at the inauguration rather than on the dais with his fellow tech CEOs.”

“So Altman bided his time, quietly maneuvering around Musk. He put together AI infrastructure deals that Trump supported and avoided his former friend, who had sued OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, for allegedly betraying its mission.”

“Altman forged his own relationship with the president, dining with him at Mar-a-Lago in March and speaking to him on the phone from time to time. A longtime Democrat who had once compared Trump to Hitler, Altman told associates he now regretted his harsh criticism during Trump’s first campaign and term.”

Republicans Keep Voting for Bills They Don’t Like

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NBC News: “The move represents a trend in Congress during President Donald Trump’s second term. Republican lawmakers across the ideological spectrum keep casting votes in favor of bills even while warning that they’re deeply flawed and may require fixing down the road. In some cases, lawmakers explicitly threaten to vote ‘no’ on bills before eventually folding and voting ‘yes.'”

“It isn’t unusual for lawmakers to back legislation they call imperfect. But this year, that contrast has become more stark. It comes as Trump has solidified his grasp over the GOP base, resulting in lawmakers growing increasingly leery of crossing him and risking their political futures.”

Trump Leverages His Power to Reap Profits

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“If one theme has emerged in President Donald Trump’s second term, it’s this: He’s leveraged the power of his office for personal gain unlike anyone before in history,” the AP reports.

“From crypto coins to bibles, overseas development deals to an upcoming line of cellphones, Trump family businesses have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars since his election, an unprecedented flood of often shadowy money from billionaires, foreign governments and cryptocurrency tycoons with interests before the federal government.”

Chaos Theory

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Dave Weigel: “Democrats love to describe the ‘chaos’ President Donald Trump is causing in Washington. Hakeem Jeffries, who likes to speak in alliterative triplets, calls this a time of ‘chaos, cruelty, and corruption.’ Midterm candidates say they were inspired to run to fight the ‘chaos.’ When I followed potential presidential candidates to South Carolina this month — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear were just there, Ro Khanna en route — heads nodded at any mention of chaos or exhausting DC news.”

“Imagine that you’re not watching that news…. The administration wanted a suite of tax cuts by July 4, and it got them. It wanted DOGE to hollow out ‘woke’ federal agencies; after some embarrassing court reversals, it got that. It wanted to defund public media and end foreign aid, and it pulled that off with something any prior Republican administration could have done: Impounding the money, then getting a GOP majority to claw it back.”

“The anti-Trump ‘resistance’ has done what it promised in December, and made all of this harder. But month by month the administration is dismantling government programs that would be hard for anyone to reconstruct, and setting new priorities that will be hard to reverse.”

“Specifically: Republicans have learned, three times this century, that if they cut income taxes, Democrats will keep most of the cuts in place.”

MAGA Rallies Behind Trump’s Attack on the Media

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Steve Bannon joined a growing chorus of MAGA influencers coalescing behind President Trump in the wake of the Wall Street Journal report about a ribald birthday letter bearing Trump’s name that was sent to Jeffrey Epstein, telling CNN that he believed the story had united a base that had been showing signs of fraying.

Said Bannon: “We are finally on offense. President Trump has had enough and is fighting back – against his real enemies.”

Bannon was one of several of Trump’s high-profile supporters who had been skeptical of the administration’s handling of the Epstein case.

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Trump Gets a Win in the Culture Wars

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The announcement that CBS will cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in May 2026 raised eyebrows — not just because the network is giving more than a year’s notice, but because of the timing.

Late night television has clearly lost its cultural dominance. Most political jokes now circulate through social media clips, not from live broadcasts. And for younger audiences, these shows barely register at all.

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Trump to Open Retirement Market to Crypto Investments

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“Donald Trump is preparing to open the $9 trillion U.S. retirement market to cryptocurrency investments, gold, and private equity in a move that would spur a radical shift in the way Americans’ savings are managed,” the Financial Times reports.

“Trump is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week that would open up 401k plans to alternative investments beyond traditional stocks and bonds.”

Weekly News Quiz

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It’s been another wild week in politics — filled with plenty of conspiracy theories and congressional chaos.

Test how well you were paying attention.

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Trump Celebrates CBS Cancellation of Stephen Colbert

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Donald Trump celebrated CBS’s decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and attacked the two remaining broadcast network late night hosts, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, Deadline reports.

Said Trump: “I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”

Dozens More Were on Deportation Flights to El Salvador

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404 Media: “The flight manifests for three legally contested deportation flights from Texas to El Salvador contain dozens of additional, unaccounted for passengers than a previously published Department of Homeland Security list of people deported from the United States on those flights.”

The additional people on the flight manifest have not been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government in any way, and immigration experts who have been closely monitoring Trump’s deportation campaign say they have no idea where these people are or what happened to them.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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