“We have full support from the president. He wants this done. He wants — he promised to make American health again, and he’s gonna do that. He called me last night. He calls me three or four times a week and says, ‘Where are you? Why aren’t people healthier yet?’”
— Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at a press conference.
Karl Rove told Fox News that President Trump that he’s “making the same mistake” Joe Biden did and is likely to pay a political price for it.
Said Rove: “To me, what’s ironic is, is that the Trump administration is making the same mistake that the Biden administration made, which was to basically, remember we had Bidenomics is working, well, now we have the golden age of American prosperity is returned, and Americans are not feeling that. Better to say we’re working hard to put America on the right road, rather than declaring premature victory.”
He added: “I think that’s a big mistake for the White House and is likely to come back and bite them in the midterm election.”
“President Trump spoke on Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and discussed the ceasefire ultimatum Trump set for Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Axios reports.
“Trump’s deadline to Putin will expire on Friday. If the Russian president doesn’t agree to a ceasefire by then, the U.S. will impose new sanctions on Russia for the first time since Trump returned to office.”
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David Graham: “Awarding superlatives in the Donald Trump era is risky. Knowing when one of his moves is the biggest or worst or most aggressive is challenging—not only because Trump himself always opts for the most over-the-top description, but because each new peak or trough prepares the way for the next. So I’ll eschew a specific modifier and simply say this: The past five days have been deeply distressing for the truth as a force in restraining authoritarian governance.”
“In a different era, each of these stories would have defined months, if not more, of a presidency. Coming in such quick succession, they risk being subsumed by one another and sinking into the continuous din of the Trump presidency. Collectively, they represent an assault on several kinds of truth: in reporting and news, in statistics, and in the historical record.”
“The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed the Department of Justice for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein,” the AP reports.
“It’s part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to President Donald Trump and other former top officials.”
“The Republican-controlled committee also issued subpoenas for depositions with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials. The committee’s actions showed how even with lawmakers away from Washington on a monthlong break, interest in the Epstein files is still running high.”
“The U.S. National Park Service will restore and reinstall the statue of a Confederate military officer in Washington, DC, after protesters toppled the monument five years ago,” CNN reports.
“President Donald Trump says he’d like to run for a third term but is unlikely to pursue one,” USA Today reports.
“This is his firmest indication yet that he is not looking to change or bypass the Constitutional limit set out in the 22nd Amendment to compete for president in 2028.”
CBS News: What has Trump said about seeking a third term?
“The Justice Department has an audio recording of the interview it conducted with Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell last month, and the administration is considering releasing a transcript of the interview publicly,” CNN reports.
“The existence of the recording has not been previously reported and comes at a time when the Trump administration is facing pressure to be more transparent with the information it has related to Epstein.”
“Rwanda has agreed to accept 250 deportees from the United States, making the African nation the latest country to work with the Trump administration as it seeks to expel tens of thousands of migrants held in government custody,” the New York Times reports.
“The U.S. Army is consolidating 75 contracts into a single arrangement with Palantir Technologies worth as much as $10 billion — a move the service said will accelerate deliveries and eliminate middleman fees,” Axios reports.
“We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats… I got the highest vote in the history of Texas as you probably know. And we are entitled to five more seats.”
— President Trump, in an interview on CNBC.
Rachel Maddow delivered a scathing monologue last night, noting: “We do now live in a country that has an authoritarian leader in charge. We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.”
She cited “secret police,” “black site prison camps,” and other “shows of force.”
She added: “The question is no longer how to prepare for this risk or how to try to avert it, but rather how to fight it now that it is here and in effect.”
National Review: “Trump is shooting the messenger of bad economic news, not unlike when China discontinues inconvenient data series that make the Communist Party look bad.”
“As Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem jetted across South America last week, there was one familiar face from President Donald Trump’s orbit frequently at her side: Corey Lewandowski,” CNN reports.
“Lewandowski has become a fixture at the Department of Homeland Security, serving as Noem’s chief adviser. But on paper, he was originally tapped to serve as a special government employee, a unique role meant to span a limited number of days. He’s not included on the department’s leadership list, but in other DHS materials he’s been described as chief adviser to the secretary.”
“Donald Trump has ruled out appointing Treasury secretary Scott Bessent to the Federal Reserve, as he narrows the list of candidates to lead the US central bank,” the Financial Times reports.
Said Trump: “I love Scott, but he wants to stay where he is. He does not want it. He likes being Treasury secretary. He’s doing a really good job.”
Public approval of Donald Trump’s presidency has dropped by 6 percentage points since April and his approval rating is now 20 points underwater, 38% to 58%, according to a new national University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll.
“Texas Democrats knew that if they fled the state to block a Republican plan to redraw the congressional map, they would need blue-state allies. So when Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker — a potential 2028 presidential candidate — came to neighboring Oklahoma in late June for a dinner, the state party chair worked to set up a meeting,” the Washington Post reports.
“Pritzker had been traveling the country urging his party to fight President Donald Trump harder, denouncing ‘incrementalism’ and ‘do-nothing’ Democrats. Texas Democrats wanted to know if he would help them ratchet up their resistance, if necessary, to prevent their Republican colleagues from overhauling the map in the GOP’s favor.”
“They were welcome in Illinois, Pritzker told them.”
“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently found himself roughly 4,500 miles from home as he sought one thing that could give him an edge in his bitter primary fight against GOP Sen. John Cornyn: an endorsement from President Donald Trump,” CNN reports.
“On the last Saturday in July, Paxton was in the Scottish village of Turnberry at the president’s luxury golf resort, where the Texas attorney general encountered his occasional golf partner out on the links of Trump Turnberry.”
“Trump and Paxton did not play a round together on the course in western Scotland that overlooks the Irish Sea, and it’s not clear if the president was expecting to see him there. But the two crossed paths and spoke privately for several minutes about the Texas race.”
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.
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