“I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime. And if President Trump chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.'”
— Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to reporters.
Jonathan Martin: “I have in mind two baby boomers, the most underrated and under-covered candidates in this midterm: Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and North Carolina’s Roy Cooper. Each comes from a state that has been forbidding for Democrats in federal races.”
“And it’s not an exaggeration to say that each may be the only person who could flip the seat for which they’re running.”
Robert Pape: “The two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran is being described as a pause in hostilities. That description is misleading. What has occurred is not simply a halt in bombing. It is the clearest indication yet of a shift in power.”
“By the core standard of international politics—who can shape the behavior of others—the outcome is unmistakable. Iran has demonstrated the ability to impose costs on the global system and force adjustment across multiple actors. The United States, despite overwhelming military superiority, has accepted a halt under conditions it cannot fully dictate.”
“This is not equilibrium. It is a reversal.”
Washington Post: “The sharply conservative Supreme Court that President Donald Trump’s three appointees remade is the first since at least the 1950s to reject civil rights claims in a majority of cases involving women and minorities, according to a detailed analysis conducted for The Washington Post.”
“The shift brings to an end a streak of successive courts expanding such protections that began with the dawn of the civil rights era.”
Sally Jenkins: “Until this past week, a certain ho-humness had set in about human space flight. The International Space Station has been manned for more than 25 years; routine trips carry relatively anonymous men and women to a giant fan doing its repetitive circles in low-Earth orbit. NASA’s Artemis II scanning expedition to the lunar far side, using repurposed space-shuttle engines, at first seemed hardly capable of breaking an audience’s collective yawn.”
“Then it took off: four people arrowing atop what amounts to a bomb bound for the remotest point that man has visited in the cold, splintering sky. As they soared and circuited and sent back stirring images from their 330-cubic-foot canister, awe made its reappearance among the multitudes of casual sky watchers. So did respect for astronauts’ courage and their ancient-explorer’s hearts.”
Reuters: “Hungary’s opposition party Tisza is on track to win a two-thirds parliamentary majority in Sunday’s election, allowing it to amend the constitution and key laws needed to unlock EU funds, a projection from polling agency Median showed on Wednesday.”
“Veteran nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party are facing the biggest challenge to their rule in 16 years as the centre-right Tisza party, led by Peter Magyar, is leading in independent polls.”
Bloomberg: Viktor Orban fights for his political life.
“The unemployment rate is 4.3%, for heaven’s sake! That’s a boom, for God’s sake!”
— White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, on Fox News.
Playbook: “For doomster-minded NATO leaders, the redeployment of U.S. troops within the alliance might feel like a win at this point. But in truth, the damage is done. NATO is essentially a confidence trick — it’s worked for 80 years because successive Russian leaders have been left with no doubt that an attack on a single member in Europe would be treated as an attack on America. That certainty is gone, regardless of what Trump does next.”
“Some on the left talk wistfully about rebuilding old alliances once a Democrat regains the White House, but Europe is moving on. It would appear a tall task for a future Democratic or traditionally minded Republican president, elected on a four-year term, to convince a traumatized continent that the old America is back. U.S. politics is not about to become less volatile. European leaders are increasingly convinced they must build a solo future.”
Carolyn Kissane: “There is an old Russian line: a pessimist is a well-informed optimist. This moment calls for that posture. Yes, the ceasefire reduces some risk and buys time. It creates space for negotiations, potentially beginning in Islamabad on Friday. But it does not resolve the underlying drivers of the conflict, nor does it restore confidence in the systems that underpin global energy flows.”
“The takeaway is straightforward. The Gulf is more exposed than it was six weeks ago, and energy security, despite the current sense of relief, remains deeply vulnerable. Markets may welcome the reprieve, but a system this disrupted does not normalize quickly.”
Reuters: “Iranian authorities see the truce with the United States and Israel as a strategic victory, but they emerge battered and isolated with an economy in tatters, little prospect of rapid recovery and an impoverished, embittered population.”
“After weeks of U.S. and Israeli strikes, many Iranians have lost their jobs. Prices have surged. Factories, power plants, railways, airports and bridges have been destroyed. And the critical trading relationship with Gulf states has been severed – maybe for decades.”
“The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war. Sign up here. “Even as Iran appears emboldened on the regional stage after exerting its control over crucial energy supplies, it faces mounting internal problems that might ultimately pose a greater threat to the Islamic Republic than Israeli or U.S. bombs.”
Russell Berman: “Democrats in Virginia desperately want permission from voters to gerrymander the state beyond recognition. They also want Virginians to know how profoundly sorry they are to have to ask.”
Said State Senator Creigh Deeds (D): “I believe that people should choose their representatives. Representatives shouldn’t choose their people.”
“This is typically the main argument against gerrymandering, but for Deeds, it was just the windup to a pitch for his party to cast aside its highfalutin principles and start hurling spitballs back at Republicans.”
Deeds lamented: “We’ve been pushed into a situation not of our own choosing.”
Bloomberg: “It’s the biggest moment yet of JD Vance’s vice presidency.”
“The VP (who has been conspicuously quiet for much of the Iran war) is suddenly center stage for peace talks.”
“His work turning a shaky ceasefire into a lasting peace could determine the course of the conflict – with all the related human and economic consequences – not to mention his own future, and that of MAGA. No pressure.”
Politico: “To outside eyes, being President Donald Trump’s attorney general might look like the worst gig going, with the president piling on the pressure for vindictive prosecutions and ready to drop those who fail. But this is politics! And so a madcap scramble to succeed Pam Bondi is already underway.”
“Bondi’s ouster has uncorked long-simmering disputes among powerhouse lawyers who spent years in the trenches for Trump and his allies.”
“Right now, Trump has more power than Reagan. We haven’t seen a President like this on either party since Roosevelt… He’s the whip and the speaker… Article one is the power of Congress; well, that’s kind of been usurped right now.”
— Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), on C-SPAN.
“The first independent, public poll of GOP voters in Kentucky’s much-anticipated 4th Congressional District primary, released Wednesday, shows Rep. Thomas Massie with a double-digit lead, but not quite a majority, over a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump,” the Lexington Herald Ledger reports.
“Quantus Insights conducted a survey of more than 400 likely Republican voters April 6-7 and found that, out of 437 likely voters, 47.4% would vote for Massie if the election were held today, compared to 36.8% who responded they’d vote for Ed Gallrein.”
Playbook: “It’s the second day of the ceasefire. Israel is still bombing Lebanon, killing nearly 200 people in downtown Beirut yesterday… Hezbollah is firing rockets straight back. The Strait of Hormuz is still highly restricted, with Iran charging crypto fees for limited access. And there’s no clarity at all on Iran’s nuclear material.”
“The White House insists it’s all going well — though Trump made clear last night the U.S. military remains on standby should it be required.”
Bloomberg: “It’s a stretch, especially with Republicans holding a fundraising advantage, including a plan this week by the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund to allocate $342 million to the key battlegrounds. But Democrats have history and momentum on their side. In 2006, another Republican president with fading popularity in the middle of his second term — George W. Bush — lost both the House and, more surprisingly, the Senate amid waning support for the war in Iraq.”
“Democrats’ chances likely hinge on four states where they are seen as most competitive, and several more that are potentially in play. They’ll then have to stave off well-funded Republican efforts to flip several Democratic-held seats, including two in states won by Trump, with the GOP touting Trump’s tax cuts and other issues that helped elect the president, like border security.”
Oil prices will remain 20% higher than before the Iran war, even if the Strait of Hormuz were to reopen at full capacity, Axios reports.
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.