Punchbowl News: “This is what happens when you leave huge decisions on reshaping huge swaths of the federal government to the last minute.”
“Speaker Mike Johnson’s House Republican Conference is in the midst of a low-grade rebellion against the GOP’s reconciliation proposal.”
New York Times: “At home, President Trump is ordering up investigations into his political opponents and finding creative ways to use his executive power to ruin the lives of even some of his milder critics.”
“Abroad, Mr. Trump has sent a different message: Let bygones be bygones. Even if those bygones involved trying to assassinate him or working with Al Qaeda.”
“In a series of speeches and off-the-cuff remarks during the first major foreign trip of his second term, Mr. Trump has told audiences in the Middle East that he is willing to set the past aside in the interests of peace and profit.”
“The Trump administration on Thursday fired nearly 600 employees at Voice of America, a federally funded news network that provides independent reporting to countries with limited press freedoms,” the New York Times reports.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been working with writer and producer Rob Worsoff to pitch a reality TV show—titled The American—where immigrants will compete in a string of challenges across the country “for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship,” the Daily Mail reports.
It would lead to a grand finale with the winner getting sworn in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the U.S. Secret Service is looking into a post from former FBI Director James Comey, in which she and others in the White House say is a threat to President Donald Trump, ABC News reports.
“If Republicans stick to their current strategy for funding their tax cut bill, the midterm elections are heading toward a fight over something different altogether: health care,” Semafor reports.
“The House GOP’s move to slash $715 billion in Medicaid and other health care spending is igniting familiar timber in the halls of Congress. Health care activists are protesting Republicans, Democrats are syncing up a unified message, and some in the GOP are pointedly questioning their leaders’ plans.”
“President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda is suddenly under sustained attack from Republicans, with conservatives now threatening to vote against the reconciliation package in the Budget Committee tomorrow,” Punchbowl News reports.
“Conservatives want far larger spending cuts for the Medicaid program than the House Energy and Commerce Committee has approved. They’re still seeking changes to how the federal government reimburses states for Medicaid recipients. But revising the reimbursement formula would lose GOP moderates and sink the bill.”
The Washington Post reviews the vast amounts of money Donald Trump has made in the early months of his second presidency.
A new Emerson College survey in New Jersey finds 28% of Democratic Primary voters plan to support Rep. Mikie Sherrill, while 11% respectively support Mayor Steven Fulop, Mayor Ras Baraka, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer and 10% support Sean Spiller. With about a month until the primary, 24% are undecided.
On the Republican side, 44% support Jack Ciattarelli, while 18% support Bill Spadea, and 8% support Jon Bramnick. Twenty-three percent are undecided.
“A planned Friday vote in the House Budget Committee to advance the GOP megabill is increasingly in peril, with at least three hard-liners pledging to oppose the party-line legislation,” Politico reports.
“Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who sits on the Budget Committee, told reporters he will vote against the package of tax cuts and extensions, border security investments, energy policy and more. So will Reps. Josh Brecheen (R-OK) and Chip Roy (R-TX).”
Meanwhile, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said he may delay his panel’s markup of the reconciliation package due to “growing” GOP opposition.
Forbes: “While many have speculated that the Qataris have offered Trump the luxurious plane to curry favor with the famously transactional president, there may be a simpler rationale: they just don’t want it anymore.”
“The royals have failed to sell the plane, which was put on the market in 2020, according to an archived listing. Giving it away could save Qatar’s rulers a big chunk of change on maintenance and storage costs… Making Trump happy would be an added bonus.”
“Qatar, which has given away another blinged-out 747 and may have mothballed two more, epitomizes the fading demand for these huge, fuel-guzzling, highly personalized airplanes.”
In a speech to U.S. troops in Qatar, President Trump bragged about his two new “Victory Day” working holidays, impersonated French president Emmanuel Macron, and said the U.S. did “more to win the war than France,” New York Magazine reports.
Said Trump: “And the fact is Russia was celebrating, France was celebrating, everybody was celebrating but us. And we’re the ones that won the war! We won the war. And they helped. But without us they don’t win the war, we’re all speaking German. Without us they’re speaking German, maybe a little Japanese, too.”
“Florida has become the second state to officially ban fluoride in public water,” NBC News reports.
Gov. Ron DeSantis called the fluoridation of water “forced medication,” saying it violates “informed consent.”
Tampa Bay Times: “The move to block fluoride has been decried by major health organizations, who warn that it would negatively affect residents’ health.”
“Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is exploring ways to placate two rival factions who have emerged as the biggest roadblocks in the House to a massive bill for President Donald Trump’s agenda: blue-state Republicans who want larger tax breaks for their constituents and conservatives who want Medicaid cuts to kick in sooner,” NBC News reports.
Said Johnson: “I am convinced that we’ll be able to adjust the dial, so to speak, so that we can come to an agreement that will meet the criteria that everybody has and that we can move this thing forward.”
He added: “If you do more on SALT, you have to find more savings. So these are the dials, the metaphorical dials, that I’m talking about.”
The Hill: Trump package to be changed to appease recalcitrant Republicans.
“The Trump administration is investigating whether Harvard’s admissions policies comply with a Supreme Court ruling that ended affirmative action, opening a new front in its widening effort to bring the institution to heel,” the New York Times reports.
“The investigation adds to the mounting pressure on the nation’s oldest, wealthiest university to overhaul its admissions, curriculum and hiring practices to align with President Trump’s political agenda.”
“As Rep. Chuck Edwards navigated allegations that he assaulted a man at a Rotary event in Asheville — prompting an investigation that ended with no criminal charges — he did so without the top staffers that had led his team since he was elected to Congress,” the Charlotte Observer reports.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is racing to resolve a suite of remaining issues with the GOP megabill just days before he hopes to put it up for a floor vote,” Politico reports.
“Warring factions inside the House Republican Conference huddled with the speaker Thursday, jockeying primarily over what to do about SALT — the state-and-local-tax deduction.”
“But other disagreements are also raging around major spending cuts for Medicaid, clean energy tax credits enacted under former President Joe Biden and a slew of other issues that are part of a complex funding puzzle.”
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.
