New York Times: “In the first three months of the year, President Trump’s brokerage accounts placed more than 3,600 trades, as they bought and sold a wide variety of stocks and bonds, according to a disclosure form released last month.”
“On the surface, it appeared to be an unusual trading spree. In prior months, Mr. Trump typically reported a couple hundred trades or fewer. One disclosure last year showed only 25.”
“The cost to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has ballooned to more than $14.65 million — exceeding the original estimated cost of the no-bid contract by more than $4 million, according to federal contract data,” ABC News reports.
“In addition to the repainting by Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the National Park Service paid $1.74 million to Green Water Solutions, an Ohio-based company, earlier this year to install a ‘nano bubble’ system to kill algae, using a similar no-bid contract to speed up the work in time for Fourth of July celebrations.”
Mediaite: Owner of company responsible for part of Trump’s Reflecting Pool renovation pleaded guilty to bribery.
“The relationship between President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans neared a breaking point this week as he upended their efforts to speedily confirm one of his own nominees and said he would not sign the renewal of a key surveillance law unless they agree to new terms,” Associated Press reports.
“The open tensions are an almost complete reversal from a year ago when Senate Republicans worked closely with Trump on a complicated effort to push through his massive package of spending and tax cuts.”
“You know, they call it a memorandum of understanding. It’s actually an instrument of surrender. We started a war and we surrendered. Let’s be very clear about that. And let’s give Trump credit where credit’s due. He did what Lyndon Johnson did not do in do in Vietnam — just get out. He didn’t do what Bush and even Obama did in Afghanistan — just get out. You understand? I think the best thing Biden ever did was just leave Afghanistan, and I’ll give Trump credit. He saw this thing was going the wrong way, and he just quit and got out, and then sometimes you gotta do that.”
— James Carville, on NewsNation.
Bloomberg: “Both countries have cast the memorandum of understanding — signed by the two countries’ leaders on June 17 — as a victory for their side. Analysts suggest that Iran came out on top by securing new sanctions relief and funds for reconstruction.”
“The U.S., on the other hand, only secured the reopening of a waterway — the Strait of Hormuz — that was operating normally before the war, and got concessions on Iran’s nuclear program that Tehran has made before.”
Los Angeles Times: Long list of U.S. concessions to Iran raises specter of a “lost war.”
“Assessments that Ukraine has reached a turning point in the conflict with Russia may well prove premature. But the towering dome of black smoke that hung over Moscow this week after a Ukrainian drone onslaught showed that Kyiv still has plenty of cards to play, no matter President Trump’s earlier appraisal of its prospects in the war,” the New York Times reports.
“The strikes on Moscow left part of the city’s biggest oil refinery in flames. An immense blast sent the top of a fuel storage vessel soaring into the air — and blew the roof off the idea that Russia could continue to shield Muscovites from the war.”
Bloomberg: Ukraine’s biggest strike on Moscow brings fears of fuel shortage.
Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked a firestorm of criticism on Friday by declaring “all of Lebanon must burn” after four Israeli soldiers were killed by Hezbollah in the country, Mediaite reports.
“Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a fresh ceasefire, after fighting between the two foes once again threatened to derail a broader diplomatic push to end the war in the Middle East,” the Financial Times reports.
Semafor: US warns Israel against disrupting deal with Iran.
“Former President Barack Obama said it seems like the United States has either returned to the status quo or is ‘worse off’ now than before President Donald Trump launched the war on Iran in February,” NBC News reports.
Said Obama: “We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off.”
New York Times: The costs of the Iran war: thousands of lives and billions of dollars.
“Hours after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth upbraided his NATO allies and announced a Pentagon review of their performance, the leaders of many European nations were assessing a check list of progress made on security priorities,” Associated Press reports.
“In essence, Hegseth was telling the Europeans things they already know.”
“The list included their hike in defense spending, investment in industry to boost the production of military equipment, best use of lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, and the need to buy or develop drones, air defense systems and long-range weapons.”
CNBC: Hegseth warns NATO allies that some nations will ‘fail’ U.S. defense review.
New York Times: “So far this year, Mr. Hegseth has blocked the promotions of at least 40 senior officers to general and admiral ranks. About half of those are women or members of minority groups.”
New York Times: “In this respect, the administration’s contradictions and obfuscations about the status, cost, rationale and resolution of the war reveal something different than officials intend. It’s not just that they appear to be in denial about what the conflict means. It has enabled the rest of the world to clearly see what the White House cannot acknowledge: The United States is no longer the world’s unquestioned hegemon, and the promise of its protection is not absolute. The war in Iran marks the end of any lingering illusions of American omnipotence.”
“Almost every end of empire has been accompanied by a particular kind of wishful thinking — call it self-deception, call it willful misdirection — to process the new reality.”
The Guardian: A president’s wishful thinking gives way to uncomfortable realities.
Bloomberg: “Eighteen years after he energized a party that desperately needed a fresh leader, Democrats are back in a similar situation — and looking ahead to their most wide-open presidential primary since Obama surged to victory in 2008.”
“A slew of White House hopefuls are already auditioning to again lead the party out of the wild, with several parallels to the post-Bush era that produced a Democratic breakout star.”
“Just as Obama followed two dry establishment nominees — Al Gore and John Kerry — Democrats are now again looking for something bolder after Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris came across as creatures of the status quo.”
Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said Friday she was left “stunned” by President Trump reportedly telling an Italian network that she had “wanted a picture with me so badly” at the G7 summit earlier in the week, and that he only said yes because he “felt sorry for her,” CBS News reports.
Said Trump: “She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her.”
He added: “She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”
CNN: Italian foreign minister cancels trip to US over Trump’s comments about Meloni.
“White House officials have for months delayed the release of a U.S. government report that outlines what it describes as significant vulnerabilities in the nation’s voting machines ahead of the November midterms,” Reuters reports.
“The report, produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, concludes that voting machines could be further safeguarded by, for example, updating their software, the sources said. It does not say the vulnerabilities have led to votes flipping, but examines security gaps in how the machines are used during U.S. elections.”
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has set up secretive new cells in Iraq to carry out attacks on Gulf countries that host American forces, bypassing established militia networks to avoid detection,” Reuters reports.
“Iran said ships that cross the Strait of Hormuz need its permission to pass the vital waterway, in a document that sets the stage for future tolling arrangements by requiring them to buy insurance from Tehran,” Bloomberg reports.
“Vessels that cross the Strait of Hormuz will need a mandatory insurance policy that is currently free but could have a cost in the future, the country’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority said in a document on its website.”
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.