Political Wire

Become a member to get many great benefits -- exclusive analysis, trending news, a private podcast, no ads and more!

Inside Paul Manafort’s Comeback

October 28, 2025 at 12:03 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico excerpts Ken Vogel’s new book, Devils’ Advocates.

“Manafort made his name by helping launder the reputations of blood-stained foreign figures whom he sold to Ronald Reagan’s Washington as Cold War allies. But it’s a new era in Washington, and the pitch has changed. Instead of winning over an American administration by casting his clients as anti-communist stalwarts, he’s positioning them as comrades in Trump’s war against globalist, deep-state elites.”

Devils' Advocates: The Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the Washington Insiders on the Payrolls of Corrupt Foreign Interests

Amazon Kindle Edition
Vogel, Kenneth P. (Author)
English (Publication Language)
399 Pages - 10/14/2025 (Publication Date) - William Morrow (Publisher)

What Everyone Is Talking About

October 28, 2025 at 11:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “The afterlife of the White House press secretary is normally a charmed one, with all those high-pressure televised briefings giving way to something more comfortable and — dare I say — even better-paid…”

“But it doesn’t always go that way. And things are certainly looking a little shaky this morning for Karine Jean-Pierre… As you cannot have failed to notice if you’ve opened any form of social (or even legacy) media this week, KJP currently has a book to sell. And — how to put this delicately? — the book tour is not going terribly well.”

“In retrospect, this no-regrets interview with the Never Trumpers at The Bulwark at the start of last week should have been a red flag. Conservative circles shared her defense of Biden’s media performances with glee. Then another ‘no regrets’ interview, with MSNBC, went equally viral on the left — and not in a good way. Jean-Pierre’s answers to the most critical questions the Democratic Party has faced in decades seemed… incoherent, at best. This book review, by Washington Post’s Becca Rothfeld, was one of the most excoriating things your Playbook author has read in a long time.”

“And now we have KJP’s ‘Chotiner moment,’ the inevitably catastrophic New Yorker Q&A in which participants are routinely hoisted by their own petard.”

UFC Fighter Says Trump Is the ‘Antichrist’

October 28, 2025 at 11:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

UFC star Bryce Mitchell proclaimed that President Trump is the “Antichrist” after previously heaping praise for him, Mediaite reports.

Said Mitchell: “I do not like the guy at all. The first thing for me was he didn’t release the Epstein files. They’re even acting like they didn’t exist. And, of course, they’re sending Israel and Ukraine all of our tax dollars just like the numb-nuts before him did. Putting America last, and now he’s blaming the beef farmers for the price of beef.”

He added: “Hey, I’m not biased, man. He talked a good game, he tricked me. I was fooled. I admit it.”

Still Being Followed Online?

Google recently confirmed it’s keeping third-party cookies alive — meaning advertisers and data brokers can still follow your every click across the web.

Surfshark hides your IP address, encrypts your connection, and stops trackers from profiling you based on your browsing habits. And it works on all your devices. It’s the simplest way to keep your private life from becoming ad fuel.

I use it and highly recommend it.

Take back control of your privacy with Surfshark.

Military Destroys Four More Boats

October 28, 2025 at 11:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Trump administration launched another round of deadly strikes on vessel it accused of smuggling drugs, killing 14 people in four boats on Monday in its growing military campaign off the Central and South American coasts,” the New York Times reports.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “said that the strikes — three of them — took place in international waters and that there had been one survivor. They bring the overall death toll to 57 in the campaign, which began in September.”

U.S. Sought to Turn Nicolás Maduro’s Pilot

October 28, 2025 at 11:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Associated Press: “The federal agent had a daring pitch for Nicolás Maduro’s chief pilot: All he had to do was surreptitiously divert the Venezuelan president’s plane to a place where U.S. authorities could nab the strongman.”

“In exchange, the agent told the pilot in a clandestine meeting, the aviator would be made a very rich man.”

“The conversation was tense, and the pilot left noncommittal, though he provided the agent, Edwin Lopez, with his cell number — a sign he might be interested in helping the U.S. government.”

Trump Hints at Sending ‘More Than the National Guard’

October 28, 2025 at 10:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump told American troops assembled in Japan that he was prepared to send “more than the National Guard” into cities to enforce his crackdowns on crime and immigration, further escalating how he has talked about using the military at home and abroad, the New York Times reports.

Said Trump: “We have cities that are troubled, we can’t have cities that are troubled. And we’re sending in our National Guard, and if we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard, because we’re going to have safe cities.”

Sean Duffy Warns of Worsening U.S. Flight Delays

October 28, 2025 at 10:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that flight delays could get worse as the U.S. government shutdown enters its 28th day and air traffic controllers miss their first full paycheck,” Bloomberg reports.

“More than 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents now face working without pay during the shutdown.”

Cuomo Narrows In on Mamdani

October 28, 2025 at 10:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Suffolk University poll finds Andrew Cuomo has cut Zohran Mamandi’s lead in the New York City mayor’s race by 10 points, after trailing by 20 points in Suffolk’s September poll.

Mamdani leads Cuomo 44% to 34% ahead of the Nov. 4 election, with Curtis Sliwa in third place at 11%. Some 7% of voters surveyed were undecided.

Elon Musk’s Politics Cost Tesla One Million Sales

October 28, 2025 at 10:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Elon Musk’s polarizing political actions since acquiring Twitter, later rebranded X, in 2022 dramatically hurt the automaker’s U.S. sales, underscoring how deeply its fortunes are intertwined with the billionaire’s persona,” CNN reports.

“The findings quantify for the first time how the political actions of the world’s wealthiest person – including his role in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration – may have cost Tesla billions in lost vehicle sales while benefiting rival electric carmakers.”

Newsom Tells Redistricting Donors to Stop Sending Money

October 28, 2025 at 10:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Gov. Gavin Newsom signed onto his regular Zoom call with his political brain trust last Friday as they ticked through the latest developments in the high-stakes redistricting measure headed for a vote next week,” the New York Times reports.

“They were far ahead in the polls. The opposition was mostly off the airwaves. And there was plenty of money in the bank.”

“Then, according to two participants in the call who shared details of the private discussion on condition of anonymity, his senior advisers presented the California governor with a peculiar idea: Stop fund-raising from small donors altogether in the final stretch.”

Trump Media to Enter Prediction Markets Business

October 28, 2025 at 8:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump’s social-media company is getting into the prediction markets business, where record betting is attracting a host of new entrants,” Bloomberg reports.

Inside Trump’s Plan to Subvert the Midterms

October 28, 2025 at 8:46 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

David Graham: “Imagine for a moment that it’s late on Election Day, November 3, 2026. Republicans have kept their majority in the Senate, but too many House races are still uncalled to tell who has won that chamber. Control seems like it will come down to two districts in Maricopa County, Arizona.”

“ICE agents and National Guardsmen have been deployed there since that summer, ostensibly in response to criminal immigrants, though crime has been dropping for several years. The county is almost one-third Hispanic or Latino. Voting-rights advocates say the armed presence has depressed turnout, but nonetheless, the races are close. By that evening, the Republican candidates have small leads, but thousands of mail and provisional ballots remain uncounted.”

“Donald Trump calls the press into the Oval Office and announces that the GOP has held the House—but he warns that Democrats will try to steal the election, and announces plans to send a legal team to Arizona to root out fraud. He spends the rest of the night posting threats and allegations on Truth Social. In the morning, Republican lawyers file to stop vote counting, arguing that any votes counted after Election Day are illegal under federal law.”

The Political Economy of Trump’s Luck

October 28, 2025 at 8:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Edward Luce: “Donald Trump’s ill-wishers often reassure themselves that his health will fade soon. A PhD could be had from analysing the cottage industry that for years has been predicting Trump is about to keel over, or has finally lost his mind. Yet the 79-year-old is still going in roughly the same way.”

“The same is broadly true of the U.S. economy. Throughout this year, as was also true when he was first president in 2017, the Trump recession has always been just around the corner. Yet the term ‘Trumpcession’ still has no reason to enter circulation.”

“There is a recurring lesson here for liberals, which is that they should base their plans on the world as it is, not as they want it to be. In terms of the U.S. economy, forecasters should add a Trump luck factor to their models.”

Virginia Democrats Brace for Split Ticket Results

October 28, 2025 at 8:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Virginia Democrats are bracing for the possibility of split-ticket results in the governor and attorney general races, which could pose a significant impact on policy and issues like redistricting,” The Hill reports.

Republicans Plan to Weaponize Mamdani

October 28, 2025 at 7:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Congressional Republicans have a “battle plan to weaponize” Zohran Mamdani as the new face of the Democratic Party in House battleground races, Axios reports.

“For years, Republicans made former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) their ‘bogeywoman,’ consistently using her in attack ads to rile up the base.”

“With Pelosi out of the spotlight, GOP strategists are testing new symbols of the party’s left, and hope Mamdani will fill that void.”

President for Life

October 28, 2025 at 7:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

J. Michael Luttig: “Donald Trump is trying to amass the powers of a king.”

House Panel Urges Probe of Biden’s Executive Actions

October 28, 2025 at 6:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Republican-led House Oversight Committee recommended that the Justice Department investigate all of former President Joe Biden’s executive actions, particularly clemency decisions, and determine whether he authorized them,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Washington Post: “The report is the result of a five-month-long investigation into accusations made by President Donald Trump and his allies, that aides covered up a decline in Biden’s cognitive ability, and that the Biden administration misused the presidential autopen to issue executive actions without Biden’s direct involvement.”

“The committee said its investigation found there was no record that Biden approved executive actions in several instances, including ones related to presidential pardons. The committee also said it found Biden’s autopen — a mechanical device that can replicate signatures and that presidents often use to quickly sign documents — may have been used to sign off on actions without his knowledge.”

Fed’s Policy Path Looks More Treacherous

October 28, 2025 at 6:57 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Federal Reserve has wagered since August that it could afford to lower interest rates even as inflation picked back up for two crucial reasons. Price pressures from President Trump’s tariffs were likely to be temporary, and a weakening labor market would help to keep inflation in check as companies hesitated to make their products more expensive and wage growth stayed subdued,” the New York Times reports.

“The government shutdown, which is entering its fifth week, has made that path all the more treacherous. The federal workers who collect and report economic data on inflation, the labor market, wages and a range of other metrics are no longer performing that work, obscuring officials’ view of the economy at a moment when divisions over the policy outlook have sharpened.”