President Trump instructed Republican senators to “vote the exact opposite” of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
Said Trump: “Republicans, when in doubt, vote the exact opposite of Senator Susan Collins. Generally speaking, you can’t go wrong. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) took a tumble on the Senate floor yesterday but appeared to be fine even though she tipped over a desk.
“The Trump-era special counsel who scoured the Russia investigation for wrongdoing gathered evidence that undermines a theory pushed by some Republicans that Hillary Clinton’s campaign conspired to frame Donald Trump for colluding with Moscow in the 2016 election,” the New York Times reports.
“The information, a 29-page annex to the special counsel’s 2023 report, reveals that a foundational document for that theory was most likely stitched together by Russian spies.”
Jesse Ferguson: “There’s a word Democrats need to ban from their vocabulary if they want to rehab our brand and win elections again: accomplishments.”
“Every time we use that word, we’re telling voters we care more about what happens in the halls of Congress than what happens in their daily lives. We’re bragging about process instead of delivering results. We’re focused on what might be happening on the National Mall when what voters care about is what’s happening in their local mall—and whether they can still afford to shop there.”
“This isn’t a small messaging tweak. It’s a fundamental shift in how Democrats need to think about governing and communicating with the American people. And it may be the difference between political relevance and political exile.”
“Elon Musk contributed $15 million to President Trump and congressional Republicans just days after his public blowup with Trump, an indication the tech billionaire was looking to make peace with the White House,” Axios reports.
“But Musk reversed course less than two weeks later, when he called for the creation of a third party.”
Paul Krugman: “It’s highly likely that what we’re seeing is the effect of Trump’s tariffs — or more precisely the uncertainty that his erratic tariff policy has created.”
“Contrary to myth, tariffs don’t necessarily cause high unemployment. They make the economy less efficient and poorer, but don’t necessarily reduce the total number of jobs. For example, Britain in the 1950s had high tariffs and import controls, but also full employment. The claim that Smoot-Hawley caused the Great Depression is a myth, one fostered in part by anti-Keynesians who didn’t want to admit that the problem was inadequate demand and the answer fiscal stimulus.”
“But Trump has brought something special to the mix: Not just high tariffs, but unpredictable tariffs. Since April 2 nobody (probably Trump included) has had no idea what tariff rates will be for the next few months, let alone for the long term.”
The Hill: Stunning revisions show US added 258K fewer jobs than first reported.
“As the world digests Donald Trump’s self-declared tariff day, a heavy fog shrouds what happens next,” Bloomberg reports.
“But it’s increasingly clear that the president’s rationale for imposing an array of seemingly arbitrary rates on countries’ exports to the US is every bit as political as it is economic.”
“Take Canada, where Prime Minister Mark Carney won a spring election largely on the premise that he could take on Trump and get the tariffs removed. Since then, the nation has mostly watched from the sidelines as Trump focused on hammering out deals with other trade partners.”
“Then yesterday, Trump hiked Canada’s tariff rate to an eye-watering 35% — even as he gave Mexico a 90-day reprieve.”
“Supply constraints and high demand have driven up the cost of beef, with 100% ground beef prices in June surpassing $6 per pound for the first time since data collection started in the 1980s,” USA Today reports.
“A group of House and Senate Democrats who attended Harvard are threatening their alma mater with a ‘rigorous’ investigation if the school cuts a deal to end hostilities with President Trump,” Axios reports.
“Employers continued to create jobs but pulled back on hiring, a sign that more businesses are putting expansion plans on hold as they deal with economic uncertainty,” the New York Times reports.
“The economy added 73,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported on Friday, lower than economists’ expectations. The unemployment rate slightly rose to 4.2 percent, up from 4.1 percent the month before.”
Bloomberg: “Trump is back at it on Truth Social, again calling for, yes, you guessed it, a lower Fed rate.”
“Former President Joe Biden called on attorneys to lead the fight to uphold the Constitution during the Trump administration in a speech at a downtown Chicago hotel on Thursday in which he also reflected on his more than five-decade career in politics and beginnings as a young lawyer,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Said Biden: “It’s not enough to honor the heroes who came before us. We need new heroes now.”
“Four months after Donald Trump shocked the world and roiled markets by unveiling a placard full of tariff rates at the White House Rose Garden, his revisions unveiled Thursday generated a more subdued response among investors,” Bloomberg reports.
“But at an average of 15%, the world is still facing some of the steepest U.S. tariffs since the 1930s, roughly six times higher than they were a year ago.”
CNBC: Trump unleashes sweeping new tariffs in a blow to global trade.
Reuters: Trump hits dozens more countries with steep tariffs.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) “broadened his attack on the Trump administration’s handling of records about the financing of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking network, urging the Internal Revenue Service to investigate his tax and estate planning work for private equity titan Leon Black,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Wyden: “It is unthinkable that transactions amounting to tens of millions of dollars paid to a known criminal for the purpose of helping a mega-wealthy individual dodge billions in taxes were never audited or investigated. When Americans think the system is rigged, this is the kind of abuse they think about.”
“Perhaps it’s naive of me, someone who has seen a lot that most people haven’t seen but I believed that on some level, there are many, there should be many, who consider themselves to be guardians of our system and our democracy who just capitulated. And I didn’t, didn’t see that coming.”
— Kamala Harris, quoted by CNN.
“President Donald Trump’s administration has dramatically expanded its work with Palantir, elevating the company co-founded by Trump ally Peter Thiel as the government’s go-to software developer,” Wired reports.
“Following massive contract terminations for consulting giants and government contractors like Accenture, Booz Allen, and Deloitte, Palantir has emerged ahead. Now the data analytics firm is partnering with those companies—offering them a lifeline while consolidating its own power.”
“The Pentagon has scheduled its first major test of the multibillion-dollar Golden Dome missile defense system for just before the 2028 election, setting an aggressive deadline for military officials to prove they can turn President Donald Trump’s vision for a space-based shield that can protect the entire US into a reality,” CNN 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.