Joe Rogan said on his podcast that the Trump administration’s refusal to release more info about Jeffrey Epstein — to “gaslight” everyone — is a “line in the sand.”
Said Rogan: “Like, do you think we’re babies? Like, what is this?”
Brian Stelter: “Epstein’s name came up more than 40 times on the episode. It’s yet another instance of Rogan heaping criticism on his Trump administration friends — and another illustration of why this conspiracy-coded controversy isn’t going away.”
President Trump claimed he’s stopped six wars, The Guardian reports.
Said Trump: “I’m averaging about a war a month.”
“A day after the European Union and United States struck a trade deal on Sunday, the French government has come out swinging against the agreement, calling instead for tariff retaliation and warning that Europe would be politically weakened if it didn’t hit back,” the New York Times reports.
Said Prime Minister François Bayrou: “It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, gathered to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submit.”
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“Vice President J.D. Vance is hitting his home state on Monday to continue promoting the GOP’s sweeping tax-and-border bill,” the AP reports.
“The visit marks Vance’s second trip this month to sell the package, filled with a hodgepodge of conservative priorities that Republicans have dubbed the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ as the vice president becomes its chief promoter on the road.”
“President Trump said Monday that he disagrees with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that there is no starvation in Gaza,” Axios reports.
Said Trump: “Based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry… There is real starvation in Gaza – you can’t fake that.”
“The largest super PAC backing House Democrats is creating a new fund with upward of $20 million to target congressional Republicans in Texas if legislators there follow through on plans to redraw district lines to eliminate Democratic seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections,” the New York Times reports.
“President Donald Trump said he would reduce the 50-day deadline he gave Russian leader Vladimir Putin to reach a truce with Ukraine, saying he was disappointed in his counterpart over the continuation of the war,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him. So we’re going to have to look and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number.”
“A majority of Americans remain supportive of President Trump’s goal of cracking down on illegal immigration—but they say his approach has gone too far,” according to a new Wall Street Journal poll.
“The poll found just over half of voters approve of Trump’s handling of illegal immigration, a centerpiece of his agenda, and that 62% of respondents favor deporting people who came to the country illegally. But the Trump administration’s mechanisms and levers for doing so are proving unpopular.”
“Specifically, two steps under Trump’s mass-deportation push were opposed by 58% of voters. The first is detaining and deporting people believed to be in the U.S. illegally without them seeing a judge or getting a hearing. The second is deporting immigrants to prisons in other countries, such as El Salvador and South Sudan, where they have no personal connections.”
“More than 132 million people across the central and eastern US are facing blistering temperatures to start the week, with rising humidity making it feel even worse and putting a strain on the energy grid as air conditioners and fans get a workout,” Bloomberg reports.
Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) said that “he will join the field challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in the state the GOP has named as their top target to add a Senate seat in 2026,” Bloomberg reports.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution says Collins “launched his campaign after laying the groundwork for months — locking down endorsements from prominent conservatives, meeting with Trump advisers at the White House and teasing his campaign in an online video urging supporters to ‘stay tuned.'”
Bloomberg: “Advocates of Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy say he’s asserting US leadership while rebalancing relations that harmed American interests. Europe should pay more for defense, trade ties were unfair, and Trump’s simply negotiating hard before striking good deals, they argue.”
“Around the world, though, countries that counted on the US to take the lead are rethinking that strategy, concluding that dependence on Washington, whether for aid, trade or anything else, has made them vulnerable.”
“In the long term, that will likely come at a cost to the US even as Trump celebrates his current victories.”
“The Trump administration is debating whether to allow a planned US stopover by Taiwan’s leader next week as concerns mount that it could derail trade talks with China and a potential summit with President Xi Jinping,” Bloomberg reports.
CNN: “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week made it clear that the Trump administration intends to shake up the Federal Reserve — just as it has done with the rest of the federal government.”
“Change at the central bank will accelerate once Chair Jerome Powell steps aside at the end of his term in May 2026 — or earlier if he resigns or Trump manages to fire him. Those changes include the rules that impact the largest US banks, which are already being reviewed, and on the Fed’s workforce of tens of thousands across the country.”
Wall Street Journal: “For decades, the Treasury Department’s choice of what mix of bonds to sell investors has been boring by design. Officials stressed they weren’t trying to get the best rate by market timing, worried that could invite speculation and uncertainty, eventually driving rates higher.”
“The Trump administration is sending a different message. Calling himself ‘the nation’s top bond salesman,’ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has talked openly about waiting for interest rates to come down before considering the increases in longer-term debt issuance that he had hinted would be necessary before joining the government.”
“One thing has become clear as we’ve gotten more detail about the E.U.-U.S. trade pact this morning: There are still huge outstanding questions,” the New York Times reports.
“European Commission officials have made it clear that what was signed yesterday is a legally non-binding outline, and that while negotiations are happening behind the scenes, they are working toward a statement that will lay out the details of the blueprint. This is more of set of agreed-upon principles than a set-in-stone deal.”
Bloomberg: “European capitals are putting a brave face on the trade deal they struck with President Donald Trump, which will see the European Union accept a 15% tariff on most of its exports to the US while reducing levies on some American products to zero.”
CNBC: Europe balks at “unbalanced” U.S. trade deal.
President Trump took questions from reporters after announcing a trade deal with the European Union:
REPORTER: Was part of the rush to get this deal done to knock Jeffrey Epstein’s story out.
TRUMP: You got to be kidding me.
“Thailand and Cambodia agreed to a cease-fire starting at midnight on Monday, the leaders of both countries said, after the deadliest conflict between their two countries in more than a decade killed at least 36 people and prompted hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee the area,” the New York Times reports.
“The United States and China, both of which have strategic and economic interests in Thailand and Cambodia, have ratcheted up pressure on the Southeast Asian nations to stop fighting.”
“J.D. will tear through those fuckers while they are all running at 0.5 percent, and I’ll send each one of them a fruit basket after they drop out.”
— A Republican close to the White House, quoted by Playbook, on Vice President J.D. Vance leading the 2028 Republican presidential field.
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.
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