“Israel’s top general warned on Friday that the war with Iran could be lengthy, calling it the most complex military campaign in the country’s history,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“He spoke as European foreign ministers met Iranian officials in Geneva on Friday to press them to de-escalate and limit Tehran’s nuclear activities. Iran’s foreign minister said as the talks began that Israel’s attacks he described as ‘merciless acts of aggression’ had undermined constructive negotiations.”
“It is dangerous to me that politicians are being rewarded for spewing absolute bullshit when it comes to vaccines. What they’re doing is incredibly dangerous for public health. I think we have a responsibility to not reward them politically and to stand up against what they are pushing out there.”
— Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), quoted by Rolling Stone.
New York Times: “The longer Israel waits for Mr. Trump, the greater the strain on its air defense system. To keep out Iran’s ballistic missile barrages, Israel is burning through its stocks of missile interceptors, forcing it to prioritize the protection of some areas over others. As time goes on, that raises the risk of more missiles hitting both civilian neighborhoods and strategic security sites.”
“With Israel’s airspace closed and much of its economic life suspended, the war’s protraction will also come at an economic cost. The sooner the war ends, the faster commercial flights will return and businesses can resume full operations.”
“Rather than wait for American help, Israel could decide to attack Fordo alone — taking a chance with the planes and munitions it has at its disposal. Some analysts say that Israel could even send commandos to enter and sabotage the site.”
“Iran sent a barrage of missiles into Israel on Friday that struck in several places,” the New York Times reports.
“Both sides traded fire even as European ministers were meeting with Iran’s top diplomat in Switzerland to try to cool the week-old conflict. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said Tehran was not interested in negotiating an end to the war until Israel stopped its attacks.”
Politico: “Many of Cuomo’s former detractors have abruptly reversed course without publicly reckoning with his controversy-laden past, leaving little explanation as to why elected officials who once deemed him unfit for public office now want him to run the nation’s largest city.”
“Cuomo’s comeback is no accident — it’s the result of four years of steadfast campaigning behind the scenes to rebrand his image. Now, a roster of New York power players is throwing its weight behind his campaign, propelling him back into the political limelight.”
President Trump is demanding that a special prosecutor be appointed in order to investigate his 2020 election loss, based on his disproven claims that “MASSIVE and OVERWHELMING” fraud was responsible for Joe Biden’s victory.
The Economist: “Iran’s regime is often described as decaying, corrupt, bankrupt and despised by its citizens. Is it about to collapse? Israel’s shock-and-awe campaign continues relentlessly: on June 16th it said it had ‘full air supremacy over Tehran’. On June 17th President Donald Trump called for Tehran to ‘immediately evacuate’ and cars have already been streaming out of the city in recent days. Its shops are shuttered. On social media some Iranians have celebrated the assassination of their generals with emojis of barbequed meat.”
“The humiliation illuminates the failure of the regime’s military strategy and, some hope, may trigger an uprising or a coup d’état, in turn creating chaos or national renewal. Yet Iran’s default is to defy its aggressors, not to capitulate. And an extended war with large civilian casualties could act to rally public opinion in an intensely nationalistic country, allowing the regime to survive and redouble its efforts to race for a bomb.”
Richard Haass: “There is no easy option without downsides. The best course of action for Trump now would be to give Iran one last chance to accept a diplomatic deal. Such a proposal would require that Iran agree to hand over all of its enriched uranium, dismantle centrifuges and other known elements of its nuclear programme, and agree to open-ended inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
“Such an offer would include relief for Iran from economic sanctions, a withdrawal of the US threat to attack, a larger ceasefire and some face-saving mechanism by which Iran could participate in a regional uranium enrichment consortium tied to the generation of nuclear energy, not weapons.”
“Iran might accept it. After all, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini reluctantly agreed to an end to the war with Iraq in 1988 to save the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic into existence. Khomeini compared making this decision to drinking poison.”
“Elon Musk may have stopped sparring with President Donald Trump online, but the former presidential adviser and megabacker isn’t done publicly sniping at members of Trump’s administration,” Politico reports.
“The former DOGE chief slammed Sergio Gor, a top Trump adviser who played a role in his split with the president, bashing him as a ‘snake’ late Wednesday night.”
“As President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his tax-and-spending bill change by the hour, his party is getting accustomed to a new reality: No one knows what’s going on with the economy,” Semafor reports.
“Record-high uncertainty stemming from his administration’s on-again-off-again trade talks and unpredictable tariff strategy has deterred the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates and made it harder for businesses to plan around imports and borrowing costs. Those same businesses have had to simultaneously struggle with negotiations over Republicans’ megabill that are full of optimism — but short on clarity.”
William Kristol: “The fact is, for all the talk about rejecting ‘globalists,’ the experience of the Trump administration is one of intervening, repeatedly, in global affairs. There is no Fortress America possible in the 21st century. ‘America First’ is dead, if it ever really existed.”
“Sen. Josh Hawley is urging GOP leaders to strike Senate Finance Committee language altering a key Medicaid financing provision, warning he’s already hearing from House Republicans that it can’t clear their chamber,” Politico reports.
Said Hawley: “I don’t know why we would pass something that the House can’t pass and will force us into a conference.”
Axios: “Hawley has been the loudest GOP voice fighting against Medicaid cuts. He was shocked and angered by the Senate going even further than the House to find Medicaid savings. House leadership’s concerns could help his case.“
Politico: “Russ Vought’s relationship with Republican appropriators was already strained. Then he started talking about pursuing the ultimate end-run around their funding power heading into the fall.”
“The White House budget director has been persistently touting the virtues of ‘pocket rescissions,’ a tactic he has floated as a way to codify the spending cuts Elon Musk made while atop his Department of Government Efficiency initiative, and which the federal government’s top watchdog says is illegal.”
“Democrats and clean energy advocates are ratcheting up pressure on a handful of Republican senators to salvage billions of dollars in projects, ahead of an expected vote next week on President Trump’s megabill that targets critical subsidies for elimination,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“How fast to wind down clean-energy credits is one of several contentious pieces of the tax-and-spending legislation, along with reductions in Medicaid spending, that Republican party leaders need to iron out quickly to hit a July 4 deadline for delivering the bill to Trump’s desk. While some Republicans are trying to protect funding for projects in their states, other GOP lawmakers see the subsidies as a ripe target for savings, as the party moves to extend and expand Trump’s tax cuts.”
The latest Strength in Numbers/Verasight poll finds President Trump’s approval on foreign policy sits at 39% to 53%.
G. Elliot Morris: “If the news agenda shifts to covering Trump on foreign policy, voters will be reminded of a policy agenda they rate him very poorly on.”
“And any backlash would intensify even more if the president does involve the U.S. in Iran — which a supermajority of Americans oppose, per YouGov.”
Molly Ball: “The Trump administration’s aggressive deportation program is testing the political bounds of what Americans will tolerate, spurring a backlash from voters and some Republicans and testing the administration’s resolve.”
“Federal officials in recent weeks have stepped up raids on worksites and farms, seeking to fulfill President Trump’s pledge of mass deportations. The move has sparked alarm in immigrant communities and street protests in Los Angeles and other cities. Last weekend, Trump directed that arrests be paused at farms and hotels, only to reverse the directive days later.”
“The back-and-forth was a sign of the confusion and conflict within the administration, which faces pressure from businesses and some Republicans to dial back enforcement even as it is under pressure from the MAGA base to pick up the pace.”
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.