“President Trump on Monday promised the government would pay out $2,000 tariff dividend checks starting around mid-2026,” Axios reports.
“Putting a timetable on the checks is a significant step forward versus just suggesting the idea, which Trump has done multiple times this year.”
“But the dividends would require legislation, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last weekend, and it’s not clear if Congress has the appetite.”
“Former Harvard University President Larry Summers said he would be stepping back from public commitments after receiving criticism over his correspondence with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Summers: “I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”
“House Democrats failed Monday to stop several of their members from voting to advance a motion denouncing Rep. Chuy García (D-IL) for effectively ensuring his chief of staff will replace him in Congress,” Axios reports.
“The motion will likely pass when it comes up for a vote on Tuesday, highlighting Democrats’ internal divisions at a moment when they had hoped to be united around releasing the Epstein files.”
New York Times: “Russia and China abstained in the vote, which provides a legal mandate for the Trump administration’s vision of how to move past the cease-fire to rebuild the war-ravaged enclave after two years of war.”
Punchbowl News: “Democrats will offer a motion to table Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s (D-WA) resolution to formally disapprove of retiring Rep. Chuy García (D-IL). MGP, a moderate Democrat from a red district, is unhappy that the timing of García’s retirement announcement resulted in his chief of staff becoming the only Democrat who filed to succeed him…”
“Democratic leadership was furious at Gluesenkamp Perez’s decision to offer her disapproval resolution on Wednesday in the middle of the shutdown debate. Democrats had been urging their members all week to train their anger on Republicans and the lack of action on health care.”
“President Trump signaled a willingness to expand his military campaign in Latin America to include possible strikes in Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico as he complained about the flow of drugs and migrants into the US,” Bloomberg reports.
Washington Post: Trump says he won’t rule out sending troops into Venezuela.
“Attorney General Pam Bondi’s prosecutorial sprint speed is improving, at least from the perspective of the man holding a stopwatch, President Trump,” the New York Times reports.
“Just 217 minutes elapsed between Mr. Trump’s command on Friday morning that she investigate prominent Democrats like Bill Clinton who were named in documents Congress obtained from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate and Ms. Bondi’s announcement that she had referred the matter to the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Earlier demands took days, sometimes weeks, to fulfill.”
“Ms. Bondi’s statement was an unmistakable demonstration of Mr. Trump’s near-total success in subordinating the Justice Department’s post-Watergate independence to his will. Friday was a milestone of sorts. The department was deployed, in effect, as an arm of the president’s rapid-response operation to help him muscle through a damaging news cycle.”
For members: Trump Reopens Epstein Probe to Avoid Releasing the Files
“President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he will allow Saudi Arabia to purchase F-35 stealth fighter planes, a move that will likely anger Israel as the U.S. deepens ties with another Middle East powerhouse,” Politico reports.
New York Times: “Saudi Arabia has long been the biggest purchaser of American weapons. But its conduct on the world stage has made some in government wary of the potential national security implications of giving Riyadh unfettered access to some of the United States’ most sensitive stealth technology, even if the kingdom has deep enough pockets to purchase it.”
Influential billionaire GOP donor John Catsimatidis — a fierce critic of New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — now says he wants conservatives to work with the incoming administration to ensure the city’s success, the New York Post reports.
President Trump’s voice was notably hoarse during an Oval Office presser Monday, and one of the first questions from reporters was to ask about the reason why, Mediaite reports.
Said Trump: “I feel great. I was shouting at people because, they were stupid about something having to do with trade in a country, and I straightened it out, but I blew my stack at these people — it’s so stupid.”
President Trump said he would sign the bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files relating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein if it comes to his desk, ABC News reports.
Said Trump: “I’m all for it.”
He added: “Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it. But don’t talk about it too much, because, honestly, I don’t want it to take away from us. It’s really a Democrat problem.”
Timothy O’Brien: “The reality is that it was conspiracy-minded Republicans who set the Epstein firestorm in motion last summer, outraged that Trump’s Justice Department ended an investigation into Epstein’s suicide and clientele.”
“Trump, who hasn’t been accused of any crimes in connection with Epstein, once made political hay stoking conspiracy theories about Epstein’s relationships with elites. He knitted that tale into a broader narrative about institutional malfeasance smothering average Americans, and it may not have occurred to him that some of the traps he set would eventually snap back.”
“It should have crossed Trump’s mind, of course. After all, he and Epstein were pals. Trump once bragged to me that their friendship was stronger than mere business after showing me a prized Palm Beach property that he had outbid Epstein to secure.”
FBI director Kash Patel’s girlfriend has a security detail made up of elite FBI agents usually assigned to a SWAT team, MS Now reports.
People familiar with FBI security protocols said they were unaware of any instance in which the girlfriends of top FBI officials received government-staffed security details.
Time: “Schumer has professed indifference to the discontent and he had pretty good reasoning: no one who wants him gone has the power to make it happen, and no one who could do it is publicly calling for him to go. Even privately, there is little sign that Senate Democrats expect to replace Schumer before the midterm elections, according to just about every Capitol insider with a grudge and an insight. It’s pretty easy to hold onto a job when no one else is ready to step into it.”
“David Richardson on Monday resigned as acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to people familiar with the situation, ending a brief tenure leading an agency the administration had publicly expressed a desire to dismantle,” the Washington Post reports.
“Richardson, who spent about six months as the acting head of the nation’s disaster response agency, kept a low profile and was known for frequently being inaccessible, including during the early hours of the flood disaster in Texas over the Fourth of July weekend.”
Olivia Nuzzi, who claims to have had a nonphysical affair with Robert Kennedy Jr., denied in her new book that he had a worm in his brain, NewsNation reports.
Wrote Nuzzi: “I loved his brain. I hated the idea of an intruder therein.”
She claims he told her: “Baby, don’t worry. It’s not a worm.”
President Trump is set to issue a retributive endorsement against one of a handful Indiana Senate Republicans who opposes the White House’s mid-cycle redistricting plan, Politico reports.
Among the holdouts targeted by the White House: state Sen. Jim Buck (R), who is facing a primary from Tracey Powell.
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.
