DNC Vice Chair David Hogg told NewsNation that his organization ‘Leaders We Deserve’ will focus on challenging more than a dozen Democratic incumbents in 2026, The Hill reports.
The group will focus on mobilizing a younger generation of leaders. They’ve slated $20 million for the initiative.
“House Republicans discussed a new, controversial proposal to cut federal spending for Medicaid in a closed-door meeting late Monday night, as lawmakers even beyond the moderate bloc are warning GOP leaders they will not swallow another alternative,” Politico reports.
“The emerging plan would still risk Medicaid health care services for millions of low-income people by shifting the costs of any additional coverage beyond the federal allotment to states as Republicans hunt for savings to pay for the party-line package to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda. The expansion program that many GOP-led states have embraced has helped contribute to record-low rates of uninsured people.”
“Shipments of goods from China to the U.S. are dropping sharply with the Trump administration’s steep tariffs in place, leading major U.S. retailers to warn about impending supply shortages,” CBS News reports.
“At the Port of Los Angeles, which, along with the Port of Long Beach, receives roughly 40% of all imports from Asia, shipments last week were down 10% compared with the same period one year earlier. That number is expected to keep falling.”
The Trump administration’s emerging media strategy targets the 8 a.m. hour of a cable news program frequently watched by President Trump, CBS News reports.
Said one White House official: “Often, there’s an audience of one. No other press really matters.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) “is drawing a red line on Medicaid cuts,” Politico reports.
“The Nebraska Republican has privately told the White House he won’t accept more than $500 billion in reductions to the program… That could complicate the GOP’s effort to pass a domestic policy bill that is set to include an extension of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.”
“Bacon’s vote could be crucial, and other lawmakers share his concerns about Medicaid cuts. If all members currently sworn are present and voting, Speaker Mike Johnson can lose no more than three Republicans on a party-line vote.”
Time: “So far, Congress has only passed six bills—five of which have been signed into law—the fewest of any president in the first 100 days of an administration in the last seven decades.”
“At this point in his first term, Trump had already signed 30 bills into law—a high watermark for Presidents this century. Former President Joe Biden signed 10 bills by his 100th day in 2021, compared to 14 by Barack Obama in 2009 and seven by George W. Bush in 2001. Some earlier presidents—including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter—signed 20 or more pieces of legislation within their first 100 days.”
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced no new tariff deals with major trading partners Tuesday but hinted negotiations with India may be close to concluding with one,” The Hill reports.
Said Bessent: “Seventeen are in motion.”
Ed Kilgore: “So Trump has produced a revived government in Ottawa with a distinct mandate to fight him tooth and nail. But that’s not the only way he was a loser on Monday. It’s not at all unusual for politicians to rally domestic support by picking a fight with other countries; it’s a jingoistic political tale as old as time. In this case, there is zero evidence (outside the hardest core of MAGA loyalists) that Americans have rallied to Trump’s Canada-bashing cause. Au contraire, as they might say in Quebec…”
“If that’s not enough, the president’s persistent bullying of Canada has drawn extra attention to his single most unpopular economic policy initiative: the on-again, off-again trade war that has unsettled markets everywhere and convinced price-conscious Americans that inflation is about to make a comeback.”
New York Times: “The cuts come as President Trump’s tariffs are prompting some UPS customers to ship fewer goods. The company said ‘macroeconomic uncertainty’ prevented it from updating its forecasts for revenue and profits for 2025.”
Said Stewart, in this week’s show: “Trump is not only not the best negotiator, he is maybe the worst negotiator.”
“The White House is debating whether to send its rescission request this week or hold off for a couple of weeks, allowing Congress to make further progress on reconciliation,” NOTUS reports.
“The administration was expected to send Congress its rescission request on Monday, but now the process has been slowed down and could be delayed for weeks.”
Paul Krugman: “The Canadian election demonstrates why Trumpist trade policy, and foreign policy in general, is doomed to catastrophic failure. Trump isn’t trying to drive tough substantive bargains. Mainly, he seems to want to indulge in narcissism, demanding that other nations humiliate themselves so he can put on a display of dominance. And America doesn’t have remotely enough leverage, even against Canada, to make such demands. You could say that Trump is a reverse Godfather, making offers other countries can’t accept.”
“Consider the state of negotiations — or, actually, non-negotiations, since talks appear to have broken down — with Japan, another country Trump appears to have thought he could bully. Japan does sell a lot to the United States and might have been willing to offer something to preserve its access to our market.”
“But reports indicate that Japanese representatives sent to Washington left without accomplishing anything because they found Trump’s people impossible to deal with.”
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters on Tuesday that President Trump’s trade policy would not result in shortages of consumer goods, as some economists and CEOs have warned,” Axios reports.
Said Bessent: “I wouldn’t think that we would have supply chain shocks. I think retailers have managed their inventory in front of this.”
An Amazon spokesperson said the e-commerce giant was never considering adding import fees on all purchases to show the cost of President Trump’s new tariffs, dismissing a news report that prompted an attack from the White House, the Washington Post reports.
CNN: “Consumer confidence sank 7.9 points in April to a reading of 86, the Conference Board said in its latest survey released Tuesday. That’s the lowest level since May 2020 and a larger decline than economists had projected.”
“The survey’s Expectations Index, which captures people’s outlook on the economy, plummeted 12.5 points this month to 54.4, the lowest level in 13 years.”
The White House bashed Amazon for reportedly planning on displaying how much President Trump’s tariffs added to the cost of an item, calling it an aggressive move by the e-commerce giant, The Hill reports.
Said press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon. Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest levels in 40 years?”
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.