“A fifth of U.S. adults now regularly get news on TikTok, up from just 3% in 2020,” according to a new Pew Research survey.
“In fact, during that span, no social media platform we’ve studied has experienced faster growth in news consumption.”
For members: Another Trump Power Grab
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) announced she would introduce articles of impeachment against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. due to the “health care chaos” and “reckless cuts” he’s brought under his tenure.
Elizabeth Wagmeister: “Last week, Disney was on the verge of a Hollywood boycott… today, Hollywood is rallying around Kimmel with open arms.”
“Hollywood’s new crusade is fighting against government censorship and suddenly, Kimmel is the industry’s face of free speech.”
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice — and without a stated reason — at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year,” the Washington Post reports.
“The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide.”
“We have people in power making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproven. The degree to which those comments can undermine public health, do harm to women who are pregnant, create anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic – is violence against the truth.”
— Barack Obama, on X.
“New architectural renderings obtained by CBS News reveal in more detail the White House ballroom that is currently under construction,” CBS News reports.
“The Trump administration announced in July that a 90,000-square-foot ballroom with a seated capacity for 650 people will be constructed in the White House’s East Wing…”
“The new ballroom will be significantly larger than the main White House building, which comprises about 55,000 square feet over the ground floor, state floor and residence. That does not include the East and West Wings.”
“One of the most lucrative tax breaks corporate America won in Donald Trump’s signature economic legislation — worth an estimated $67 billion this year — is hitting a roadblock in a minimum tax Congress set three years ago under Democratic President Joe Biden,” Bloomberg reports.
“Trump’s recently enacted tax law sweetened a break for corporate research and development investments, a provision especially valuable to technology, pharmaceutical and manufacturing businesses.”
“But some businesses won’t be able to take full advantage of the break, thanks to the Biden-era provision that lobbyists argue threatens to curtail the economic boost in Republicans’ tax law.”
“Initial claims for unemployment insurance were well below expectations last week, helping to douse caution at the Federal Reserve and elsewhere that the labor market is in danger,” CNBC reports.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports the U.S. economy “grew more strongly in the second quarter than previously estimated, after figures on consumer spending were revised sharply higher.”
Variety: “Kyle and his mother go to war with prediction market apps while Donald Trump inadvertently terrorizes FCC chair Brendan Carr while trying to kill his butt baby with Satan.”
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “Several defeated senators are currently running or considering runs for Senate in 2026.”
“In the postwar era, about 220 sitting senators have lost their seats in general elections or primaries, and most do not try to reenter electoral politics.”
“Still, almost 30 defeated senators have tried to return to the chamber, although only six have been successful since 1946.”
“Early this week, at an ABC affiliate owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the phones were ringing off the hook,” according to the Columbia Journalism Review.
“Every two minutes, someone was calling to complain about Jimmy Kimmel’s show being suspended from their local station.”
“Only Donald Trump would try to prove he wasn’t threatening ABC by threatening ABC.”
— Jimmy Kimmel, quoted by CNN.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had the explicit backing of Trump to strike key Russian targets such as energy infrastructure and arms factories, and that if Ukraine gets sought-after long-range weaponry from the US, “we will use it,” Axios reports.
And he warned: “They have to know where the bomb shelters are. They need it. If they will not stop the war, they will need it in any case.”
“A common ritual during the increasingly regular government shutdown fights is for the individual military branches to write to lawmakers warning how a funding lapse would threaten national defense,” Punchbowl News reports.
“That practice may not hold this time around.”
“With less than a week before the Sept. 30 funding deadline, the individual heads of the military branches have yet to send correspondence to lawmakers about the impact of a shutdown.”
“Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will soon be imprisoned after he was sentenced to five years in jail on Thursday by a court that found him guilty of criminal conspiracy over dealings with Libya, an unprecedented punishment for a leading French political figure,” Reuters reports.
“The sentence was harsher than many expected, and a first in modern French political history. Sarkozy, who was president between 2007-2012, will spend time in jail even if he appeals the ruling.”
“I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”
— White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaking to reporters.
“European officials fear Donald Trump’s latest rhetoric on Ukraine aims to set them an impossible mission that will allow the US president to shift blame away from Washington if Kyiv falters in the war or runs short of cash,” the Financial Times 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.
