“President Trump began Tuesday by stoking his on-again feud with Elon Musk and joking about alligators chasing immigrant detainees,” Axios reports.

“He later basked in the Senate’s passage of his signature tax and spending bill — and enthusiastically lobbed threats toward an array of perceived enemies, from immigrants to the media to Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s Democratic nominee for mayor.”

“Trump and his team seemed to view it as his best day as president — a day when his brash, norm-crushing style was paying off in a series of ‘wins’ in D.C. and Florida.”

“President Trump has gotten almost everything he has wanted from the Republican-controlled Congress since he took office in January,” the New York Times reports.

“GOP lawmakers approved his nominees, sometimes despite their doubts. They ceded their power over how federal dollars are distributed, impinging on constitutional authority. And they have cheered his overhaul of the federal bureaucracy, even as he has bypassed the legislative body’s oversight of federal agencies.”

“But now, Mr. Trump is pressuring Republicans to fall in line behind his sprawling domestic policy bill, even though it has elements that could put their party’s hold on Congress in greater peril in next year’s midterm elections. Fiscal hawks are appalled by estimates that the bill would add at least $3.3 trillion to the country’s ballooning debt, while moderate Republicans are concerned about the steep cuts to the safety net.”

New York Times: “The version of Mr. Trump’s business that he projects — a real estate development company that executes large, complex tasks — hasn’t existed for a nearly a decade, since the Trumps’ last two major construction projects failed to make money.”

“Instead, Mr. Trump’s wealth is now built on monetizing the family name in new ways and, intentionally or not, the office of the presidency. It is an enterprise in pursuit of multimillion-dollar checks — from actual real estate developers, from cryptocurrency and social media enterprises run by others. It is also a business that hawks Trump-branded trinkets like watches and gold-toned mobile phones to the president’s passionate supporters.”

“Many of the deals open multiple channels for anyone to funnel cash to a sitting president, often in ways that are untraceable under current disclosure requirements. And because some of what is being sold is use of the president’s name, there are no clear metrics to gauge whether he has received market rate, a premium because of his office or, in effect, a hopeful bribe.”

Paul Krugman: “Does taking some satisfaction in Musk’s demise make me a bad person? Maybe, but I’m only human. Should I go easy on Musk because he came out against the terrible bill that just passed? No.”

“For one thing, Musk’s opposition predictably made no difference. Musk and other oligarchs will soon learn just how little political power their wealth gives them in the political environment they helped create…”

“Beyond that, Musk was against the bill for all the wrong reasons.”

“No one really cares what he says anymore.”

— A senior White House official, quoted by CNN, on Elon Musk.

Siena College Poll: “By a 54% to 33% margin, New York voters say that when they consider everything President Donald Trump is doing domestically and in foreign affairs, Trump will not make America Great.”

By a similar 52% to 28% margin, voters think the President’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will worsen, not improve, life for a majority of Americans.”