“The European Union is preparing for more tariffs from the United States, despite conversations with President Donald Trump’s administration earlier this week,” CNBC reports.
“It’s been an intense back-and-forth over the past few months, with Trump accusing the EU of being among the worst culprits in its trade treatment of the U.S.”
“The U.S. has removed sanctions from the chief of staff of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the latest move by the Trump administration to dissociate itself from decisions taken by former president Joe Biden,” the Financial Times reports.
“Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he trusts President Donald Trump despite recent surveys showing growing disapproval of the American leader in Australia just weeks before the May 3 election,” Bloomberg reports.
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The Economist: “Another sign of the times is that Pentagon figures recently questioned one ally about why it was still supplying weapons to Ukraine—a challenge that was ignored. Diplomats in Washington also report that some Trump aides say privately that they are ‘fed up’ with Europe’s effort to strengthen Ukraine. As always with such a chaotic administration, it is hard to distinguish the true signal from the noise.”
Joan Biskupic: “Chief Justice John Roberts has been outmatched by President Donald Trump in the fight over the administration’s wrongful deportation of a Maryland man to El Salvador.”
“No matter how much the right-wing justices wanted to balance deference for the executive branch with the effort to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia, they now appear ineffectual. The White House has rendered the Supreme Court’s order in the case completely hollow, insisting it won 9-0 and need do nothing to bring Abrego Garcia back from a notoriously brutal Salvadoran prison.”
“The Trump team read the Supreme Court’s order in the stingiest terms possible, acting with a degree of bad faith that the justices may not have anticipated.”
Wall Street Journal: “Since taking office less than three months ago, Trump has challenged the global order and upended Washington. In his spare time, he has also become the White House art director, adding golden flourishes to every corner of the government.”
“In recent weeks, Trump has turned parts of the White House gold, making the world’s most famous address look more like Mar-a-Lago, his Florida club.”
“To assist with the White House makeover, Trump brought in a man that one of his advisers referred to as the president’s ‘gold guy.'”
Ed Martin, President Trump’s interim U.S. attorney for D.C. and his pick to serve full time in the role, appeared more than 150 times on RT and Sputnik — networks funded and directed by the Russian government — as a guest commentator from August 2016 to April 2024, the Washington Post reports.
President Trump himself ordered Pentagon staffers to kill a secret briefing on China for Elon Musk, Axios reports.
Said Trump: “What the fuck is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn’t go.”
Wall Street Journal: “Now that Harvard has stuck its neck out, it is waiting for support. The institution is working with Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with close ties to Trump that the university hired earlier this year. It is also leaning on its own team in Washington to reach out to potentially sympathetic Republicans in the administration or in Congress who might be willing to help.”
“The pitch to Republicans, according to a person familiar with the matter: Don’t overreach, this is a private institution.”
Axios: Trump’s pressure campaign against universities hits a Harvard-sized snag.
David Ignatius: By saying ‘no’ to Trump, Harvard saves its soul.
“China has warned its people to think twice before visiting the United States, citing trade tensions. It also told its students to be careful about studying there and accused two American universities of hacking. And it has vowed to cut down on the number of Hollywood films that can be shown in China,” the New York Times reports.
“The trade war between the United States and China is already eroding far more than just economic ties. The rapid expansion of the battlefield, from trade to culture and education, underscores how fragile the relationship between the United States and China has become.”
“Republicans are discussing an idea that has long been anathema within the party: a tax hike on the wealthy,” NBC News reports.
“In a twist, members of the GOP are debating whether to allow tax rates to go up on top earners when major parts of the 2017 tax law expire at the end of this year as part of a massive bill to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda.”
Said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND): “It’s just so fun to be a Republican these days, just to watch the transformation, where suddenly people are going — when you think about it, why do we worry so much about that?”
He added: “So whether it’s allowing them to go up a little bit or even lowering some of the other stuff more — there’s a populism growing in the party, even among those of us with powdered wigs.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is suing Donald Trump over tariffs in an aggressive move to end the president’s stranglehold on global commerce, Politico reports.
Loren Taylor took a slim lead over Barbara Lee early Tuesday night with just over 51% of the vote in a nail-biting Oakland mayor’s race, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Politico: “The tight margin all but guarantees the vote tally will stretch into the coming days as mail ballots are counted and could come down to voters’ backup selections under the city’s ranked choice system.”
Punchbowl News: “A dozen House Republicans are warning GOP leaders that they won’t back a reconciliation package that includes massive cuts to Medicaid…”
“It’s an escalation of what’s going to be the most difficult problem for Republicans as they try to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda in the coming months.”
“These moderate Republicans, many of them in key swing seats, are going to be locked in a battle of wills with conservative hardliners who want to slash federal spending, including Medicaid and other social safety net programs.”
David Graham: “During the first two months of his presidency, the prevailing theme of Trump’s White House was the Elon Musk–led attempt to drastically cut federal agencies. The purge is incomplete—the U.S. DOGE Service continues to seek cuts at more agencies, and litigation has slowed or blocked some of the cuts—but we seem to have already moved into the next stage: revenge.”
“Less than three months after the young political activist David Hogg was elected as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, he is undertaking a new project that is sure to rankle some fellow Democrats: spending millions of dollars to oust Democratic members of Congress in primary elections next year,” the New York Times reports.
The Wall Street Journal looks at how Elon Musk juggles more than a dozen children and “harem drama” along with running his companies and advising President Trump.
“Musk’s baby-making project is relevant to his ambition for NASA, which he wants to move faster to go to Mars. He said on X that making people multiplanetary is ‘critical to ensuring the long-term survival of humanity and all life as we know it.’”
“In Musk’s dark view of the world, civilization is under threat because of a declining population. He is driven to correct the historic moment by helping seed the earth with more human beings of high intelligence.”
“His businesses are set up to serve the idea: The main objective of SpaceX is to build a rocket ship capable of getting to Mars, and his other companies, including electric-car maker Tesla, help finance the plan.”
“We can’t go on like this as a divided nation, as divided as we are. Like I said, I’ve been doing this a long time. It’s never been this divided. Granted, it’s roughly 30%, but it’s a 30% that has no heart.”
— Former President Joe Biden, quoted by NBC News.
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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