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Trump Delayed Tariffs After Bessent Wanted More Time

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“President Trump decided to delay the implementation of his so-called reciprocal tariffs to Aug. 1 after advisers including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told him he could get trade deals with more time,“ the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Administration officials including Bessent felt as if they were making progress on deals with several trading partners such as India and the European Union as Trump’s previous deadline approached.”

Washington Post: Trump combats TACO reputation as White House extends tariff deadline.

Can Congress Avert a Shutdown?

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Punchbowl News: “Here’s the scary reality: No one has any idea yet how Congress is going to avert a shutdown come Sept. 30.”

“There’s virtually no chance the House and Senate are going to pass all 12 appropriations bills between now and the end of September. It’s not even clear that GOP appropriators can get them all out of their respective committees by then. At least one continuing resolution is needed, maybe multiple CRs.”

“Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer caught hell from the Democratic base when he helped Republicans keep federal agencies open in March by passing a long-term CR, a decision that will come back into play later this year.”

“GOP leaders can’t avert a shutdown without the help of Democrats. Yet so far, the White House is demanding tens of billions of dollars in spending cuts that Democrats oppose.”

Ted Cruz Toured the Parthenon Before Heading Home

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“Sen. Ted Cruz, whose superpower is always doing the wrong thing, appears to have gone sightseeing in Athens the day after a devastating natural disaster hit his home state, killing more than 100 people, including more than two dozen girls and staff members from a summer camp,” Vanity Fair reports.

“In addition to being in deeply poor taste, the revelation suggests that the lawmaker did not actually attempt to get back to Texas ‘as fast as humanly possible,’ as his office claimed.”


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Pete Hegseth Goes Rogue

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“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized a pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine last week, setting off a scramble inside the administration to understand why the halt was implemented and explain it to Congress and the Ukrainian government,” CNN reports.

Loss of Foreign Workers Begins to Bite U.S. Economy

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“President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration is starting to ripple across the U.S. economy,” Politico reports.

“From small farms in California, to meat packing facilities in Nebraska to corporate giants like Disney, businesses are scrambling to replace workers after recent administration actions have taken immigrants, both legal and illegal, out of the labor force, including several hundred thousand people who had been given temporary work permits under President Joe Biden.”

Elon Musk’s Grok Praises Hitler

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“Elon Musk’s AI platform Grok faced backlash Tuesday for repeated use of an antisemitic phrase and other offensive posts in its replies on X,” Axios reports.

“Musk has recently expressed frustration with Grok’s way of answering questions and suggested in June that he would retrain the AI platform. It’s unclear how well that’s going.”

The Atlantic: Elon Musk’ Grok is calling for a new holocaust.

Trump Now Backs Tough Russia Sanctions

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“A bill targeting Russia with substantial new sanctions is gaining momentum in the Senate, with a key GOP senator signaling Tuesday that President Donald Trump is now on board,” Politico reports.

Said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “We’re moving… Trump told me it’s time to move so we’re going to move.”

Enthusiastic Surrender

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Sam Stein: “Is Donald Trump a stronger and more skilled politician than he was eight years ago—or are the guardrails that once hindered him just weaker?”

“That question has come up often over the last six months as Trump has enjoyed a series of successes that eluded him during his first term in office. Clearly, he has used the power of the presidency in ways neither he nor any prior president has before. He hasn’t just changed the shape and direction of the executive branch and moved his agenda through Congress, but reshaped entire sectors of American society—from academia, to entertainment, to the law itself.”

“Yet what has stood out along the way is not how far Trump has pushed the envelope but how little resistance he’s encountered.”

Supreme Court Clears Way for Mass Firings

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“The Trump administration can move forward with plans to slash the federal work force and dismantle federal agencies, the Supreme Court announced on Tuesday. The decision could result in job losses for tens of thousands of employees at agencies including the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, State, Treasury and Veterans Affairs,” the New York Times reports.

“The order, which lifted a lower court’s ruling that had blocked mass layoffs, was unsigned and did not include a vote count, which is typical in such emergency applications. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a public dissent.”

“The case represents a key test of the extent of President Trump’s power to reorganize the government without input from Congress.”

Washington Post: “Two of the liberal justices — Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — appeared to have joined the conservatives in allowing the administration to plan reorganizations and reductions in the workforce.”

The American Police State Is Here

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Jonathan Last: “While most people spent the budget fight fixated on health care policy, I suspect that in a year we will consider this legislation to be the moment that Trump created his own internal security apparatus: His goal is to have ICE supplant the FBI in national law enforcement.”

“This is a big deal. Because the FBI is a professionalized organization with strict standards and a well-defined mission while ICE is more or less a national brute squad.”

“The Trump administration realized that corrupting the FBI would be a tall order. So while they’re certainly trying to do that, they put most of their chips on a different number: Reinventing ICE as the primary instrument of internal state power.”

Never Zohran Is Looking a Lot Like Never Trump

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Patrick Ruffini: “An insurgent outsider surges to the front of the pack to defeat, among others, the scion of a political dynasty. In doing so, he takes positions considered unthinkable to many in the party’s traditional voting base. He is considered so anathema that many in his own party vow never to support him, organizing desperate bid after desperate bid to organize a viable third party challenge in November.”

“The situation might describe the current predicament facing New York City with the nomination of Zohran Mamdani (of ‘globalize the intifada,’ ‘seize the means of production’, defund the police, abolish prison notoriety), but readers will recognize it as a not-too-thinly veiled reference to Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party in 2016 and the failed efforts to stop him after the primaries.”

“The anti-Zohran forces of today bear a lot of resemblance to the Never Trump movement of 2016, and without a decisive attempt to unify behind a single candidate, are likely to suffer the same fate.”

Vanity Fair: “Cuomo and Adams: You drop out of the mayor’s race… No you drop out of the mayor’s race.”

GOP Lawmaker Won’t Challenge Josh Shapiro

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“At a rally in Pittsburgh in May, Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) received the most powerful co-sign in Republican politics: an endorsement from President Donald Trump in the upcoming gubernatorial race,” ABC News reports.

“But after months of speculation, Meuser has recently told associates he will not enter the race to challenge Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D).”

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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