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Aaron Blake: “Ever since releasing a memorandum of understanding last week that appeared heavily slanted toward Iran, the Trump administration has kept claiming Tehran agreed to other major concessions in ongoing negotiations.”
“The problem is that none of them appeared in the MOU — and Iran keeps denying them.”
“And given the Trump administration’s own demonstrated credibility problems, it’s not at all clear whom to trust.”
“Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani sought to mend fences with the U.S., saying the two countries should work to de-escalate tensions after a spat between President Donald Trump and Premier Giorgia Meloni,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Tajani: “It’s not a definitive rift; that would be a mistake for all. Italy’s alliance with the US is not only sustainable, it is indispensable.”
Rachel Bade: “It’s been just over a week since the administration announced its détente with Iran, but in Washington, Republican infighting over the deal is still dominating the conversation…”
“But the hawks aren’t backing down. Over the past 24 hours, many have doubled down…”
“Now the hawks are seizing on Iran’s purported refusal to allow IAEA inspectors to access bombed facilities — a contradiction of Vance’s high-profile proclamation just Monday.”
“Top-ranking Senate Democrats are calling for hearings into a secret $500 million investment into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture from a group led by a senior Emirati royal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
A new University of Texas poll finds Ken Paxton (R) narrowly leading James Talarico (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 43% to 42%.
Labour Party lawmaker Andy Burnham, who looks increasingly likely to be Britain’s next prime minister, has previously criticized President Trump, accusing the American leader of bringing “instability” to the world, CBS News reports.
Said Burnham: “The path we’re on, if we are not careful, is a path towards the politics of the United States of America… a polarized, poisonous politics where people in communities don’t work together anymore.”
Bloomberg: Who is Andy Burnham, the UK’s likely next prime minister.
David Graham: “What sets Iran and the Reflecting Pool apart from some previous cases is that he has been unable to deny reality. In the past, Trump has spun setbacks as victories, lying prodigiously to do so. In the case of his bogus claim of a stolen 2020 election, for example, he has relied on generalized public distrust of institutions, robust conservative media, and the arcana of election procedure to help create at least some doubt.”
“But no one can deny that the Reflecting Pool is, in fact, currently green. Nor can Trump spin the war in Iran—not when Americans spent weeks filling up their cars with gas that spiked well above $4 a gallon, and not when ships are visibly bottled up in the strait. These failures are plain in a way that exceeds even Trump’s capacity to get his supporters to believe him over their own eyes.”
Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL), a pro-life Republican, told Tara Palmeri that she nearly died during a pregnancy complication that required an abortion.
Cammack broke down in tears and said she feared she might die while medical professionals debated whether they could legally provide treatment.
Cammack later asked Palmeri not to publish that portion of the interview.
“A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume using a fast-track deportation process throughout the country that is typically reserved for people apprehended shortly after crossing the southern border,” the New York Times reports.
“The decision revived a pillar of President Trump’s mass deportation plans.”
“When the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool was replenished this month after a $14 million-plus renovation, ducks quickly took to the water. Tourists delighted at the sight of ducklings paddling through the pool,” the Washington Post reports.
“But then, over the weekend: a disturbing discovery.”
“A duck carcass was photographed floating in the algae-filled water… Then, two other dead ducks were found in a pond at Constitution Gardens on the National Mall — roughly 250 feet from the Reflecting Pool.”
“President Donald Trump said that six people have been arrested for allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool, which has been plagued by algae and peeling paint after a renovation that he directed,” Bloomberg reports.
“The nature of the charges were not clear and law enforcement has yet to confirm or announce the full scope of the arrests.”
“Last winter, a lawyer representing the Teamsters union made a proposal to leaders at the Justice Department: After 35 years, the lawyer said, it was time for the government to stop monitoring the union,” the New York Times reports.
“The outreach, which has not previously been reported… paved the way for a motion filed last week by the Teamsters and federal prosecutors in Manhattan that would dismantle what remains of external disciplinary structures established in 1989 to rid the union of organized crime.”
“Russia has accused the US of abandoning efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine after Donald Trump appeared to be shifting again in favour of Kyiv,” the Financial Times reports.
“Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said the US was ‘seemingly stepping back from the role of an objective mediator’ in the war and had ‘forgotten’ about Trump’s own statements last year inching towards Moscow’s position.”
John Avlon: “The U.S. Constitution was designed to protect the rights of the people against the rise of a would-be tyrant. The founders understood they were embarking on a rebellious project that had never succeeded before. As John Adams scowled, ‘There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.’ Their aim was to build a structure that could withstand the forces that destroyed democracies in the past.”
“That’s why the founders explicitly warned about the dangers of a demagogue, the poison of hyperpartisanship, the corrosive effects of corruption and foreign influence, the politicization of religion, and the erosion of the separation of powers.”
“Yes, by those basic standards, we’re living through the founders’ nightmare. But the right response is not civic despair but a defiant resolve to reclaim American patriotism and fix what’s been broken so that we can strengthen our democracy to survive the next 250 years.”
“Europe’s outsized holdings of U.S. Treasuries give it significant sway in any future standoff with President Donald Trump, according to new research,” Bloomberg reports.
“If nations in the region including the UK were to end the privileged treatment of U.S. government debt in banking and insurance regulations, demand for those bonds would fall by about $200 billion over a decade, a study by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said on Tuesday. That would add as much as $42 billion per year to US fiscal costs because of rising yields.”
“Iranian officials said they have no plans to allow international inspections of their country’s damaged nuclear facilities, just a day after Vice President JD Vance said Iran had agreed to allow such inspections,” the Washington Post reports.
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled a Rastafarian can’t pursue a lawsuit against prison officials who forcibly sheared his dreadlocks in violation of a court order while he was incarcerated at a facility in Louisiana,” the Washington Post reports.
“In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the justices found Damon Landor could not sue prison officials as individuals under a 2000 federal law that requires states to protect the religious rights of prisoners in state institutions.”
New York Times: “The economic warnings were wrong, but only in their timing.”
“Brexit has damaged the British economy and the costs have steadily accumulated over the past decade, greatly outweighing any benefits, economists say. More visibly, Brexit has unleashed a torrent of political instability.”
CNBC: Brexit 10 years later: How the U.K. economy and politics changed, in charts.
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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