“Trump has completely ceded narrative control to Putin. What Ukraine is just basically getting as a concession is for the Russians to stop fighting. And this is Putin’s way all the way through the 25 years of his presidency, which is: ‘I’m going to beat you up and my concession is that I stopped beating you up.’”
— Fiona Hill, quoted by Politico.
Politico: “By the time it was wheels-down in Washington for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last night, the ground had shifted underfoot. For all the chatter in recent weeks that President Donald Trump had come around to a fairly pro-Ukrainian perspective on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against the country, a Truth Social post last night was a wake-up call.”
Wrote Trump: “President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.”
He added there will be “no getting back” Crimea, and “NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE.”
Axios: “Forget about a ceasefire right now. President Trump’s sole short-term goal for his Russia-Ukraine diplomacy, advisers say, is to get the countries’ leaders face-to-face to talk peace.”
“Nearly six months ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was asked to leave the White House after a televised confrontation with President Trump over “real security guarantees” the Ukrainian leader insisted upon for any peace agreement with Russia,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“When Zelensky returns to the Oval Office on Monday the gap over security guarantees will have narrowed, but a chasm over Moscow’s territorial demands remains. That leaves Zelensky with a dilemma: how to sustain Trump’s support while responding to Russian territorial proposals he feels compelled to refuse.”
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his European allies arrive in Washington on Monday anxious to find out what Donald Trump committed to at his summit with Vladimir Putin and apprehensive that he’ll force Kyiv into making unpalatable concessions,” Bloomberg reports.
Playbook: “This time, the European leaders may be cleaning up another mess, if Trump’s Truth post last night is any indication: the residue left from Putin’s sales job during the Alaska summit on Friday.”
“Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is taking a gamble that other potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders are not: that party voters might reward her — or at least not punish her — for working with President Trump,” Axios reports.
“Whitmer’s approach is a sharp break from other prominent Democrats such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who are defining themselves as anti-Trump warriors.”
“Whitmer has visited the White House three times this year — most recently this month, when she met with Trump to discuss tariffs, Medicaid funding and northern Michigan’s recovery efforts from a spring ice storm.”
“It’s the most vomit-inducing episode in all the tawdry history of international diplomacy.”
— Former British prime minister Boris Johnson, quoted by the Daily Mail, on President Trump’s summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Ron Brownstein: “President Donald Trump is moving systematically to tighten his grip on Democratic-leaning big cities — the geographic center of resistance to his agenda — by undermining their autonomy and eroding their political strength.”
“Those militant goals are the common thread that links the high-profile initiatives Trump has launched in recent days to seize control of law enforcement in Washington, DC; pressure red states to draw new congressional district lines; and potentially pursue an unprecedented ‘redo’ of the 2020 census.”
“These new efforts compound the pressure Trump is already placing on major cities with an agenda that includes aggressive immigration enforcement; cuts in federal research funding to universities central to the economy of many large metros; and threats to rescind federal funding for jurisdictions that resist his demands to impose conservative policies on immigration, education, homelessness and policing.”
“Vulnerable incumbents and deficit hard-liners are joining forces in an unlikely partnership, pushing House GOP leaders to put earmarks on the table to head off a government funding fight this fall,” Politico reports.
“The federal coffers are due to dry up Sept. 30. And, as part of any agreement to avert a shutdown Oct. 1, a significant segment of the House Republican Conference is now demanding the inclusion of so-called community project funding. That’s the name Democrats gave their earmark rebrand in 2021 after Republicans banned a more permissive version of the practice for a decade.”
“The Trump administration is undermining — or has stopped collecting — key, once-nonpartisan data that kept the public informed about the state of the nation,” Axios reports.
“From Congress to city halls to boardrooms, critical decisions rely on accurate government data and public trust in that data. Without it, leaders risk making costly mistakes that could affect millions.”
“Across economics, energy, and health care, data once seen as trusted and apolitical is increasingly caught in the political crossfire.”
“Bolivia’s once-dominant left was swept aside in Sunday’s presidential election, with voters handing the ruling party the worst electoral defeat in two decades and all but ensuring that the next government will be led by a pro-U.S., market-friendly candidate,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The New York court weighing President Trump’s appeal of a roughly $500 million civil-fraud judgment typically acts swiftly and unanimously, with many of its decisions coming within weeks after hearing arguments,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Trump’s experience stands out as an unusual exception.”
“A five-justice panel has yet to render a decision nearly a year after taking up the case, leaving him and his business in limbo. Behind the scenes, members of the panel have been divided, and three of them have been writing opinions, according to people familiar with the matter. It couldn’t be determined how they are split. Justices do occasionally shift their positions, and the number of opinions could change, the people said.”
“Protesters in Israel participated in a nationwide strike on Sunday to demand a deal that would result in a ceasefire with Hamas and the release of hostages who remain in Gaza,” CBS News reports.
“The ‘day of stoppage,’ which blocked roads and closed businesses, marked an escalation in the population’s growing frustration after 22 months of war.”
“Papers with U.S. State Department markings, found Friday morning in the business center of an Alaskan hotel, revealed previously undisclosed and potentially sensitive details about the Aug. 15 meetings between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage,” NPR reports.
“Eight pages, that appear to have been produced by U.S. staff and left behind accidentally, shared precise locations and meeting times of the summit and phone numbers of U.S. government employees.”
New York Times: “During their private meeting and their public appearance in Anchorage on Friday, both leaders blamed Mr. Biden for the war in Ukraine, never mind that Mr. Putin was the one who ordered troops to invade his neighbor and keeps authorizing strikes against civilian targets.”
“The Russian president complained that Mr. Biden did not accede to Russian demands before the full-scale invasion three and a half years ago, and he played to the current president’s ego by agreeing that the war would not have happened had Mr. Trump still been in office in 2022. By Mr. Trump’s account, Mr. Putin behind closed doors also endorsed the lie that Mr. Trump actually won the 2020 election, only to have it stolen by Democrats.”
“The Supreme Court’s landmark opinion on same-sex marriage isn’t the only high-profile precedent the justices will have an opportunity to tinker with – or entirely scrap – when the court reconvenes this fall,” CNN reports.
“From a 1935 opinion that has complicated President Donald Trump’s effort to consolidate power to a 2000 decision that deals with prayer at high school football games, the court will soon juggle a series of appeals seeking to overturn prior decisions that critics say are ‘outdated,’ ‘poorly reasoned’ or ‘egregiously wrong.’”
“President Trump and two advisers spent Sunday trying to recast the lack of a cease-fire in the war in Ukraine as one step in a possibly slow march toward peace,” the New York Times reports.
“It was a significant departure from the peace agreement that the president said he had wanted out of a meeting in Alaska with President Vladimir Putin of Russia just 48 hours earlier.”
Associated Press: “As the Republican president pushes states to redraw their congressional districts to the GOP’s advantage, Democrats have shown they are willing to go beyond words of outrage and use whatever power they do have to win…”
“There is no guarantee Democrats can prevent the Republican-powered redistricting, just as Democrats on Capitol Hill have not been able to stop Trump’s moves. But it’s a notable turn for a party that, by its own leaders’ admissions, has honored conventional rules and bypassed bare-knuckled tactics.”
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.
