“President Trump’s cash-flush political operation is out with its first ad buy — a major nationwide purchase aimed at pushing lawmakers to get behind his economic agenda,” Axios reports.
“Trump’s $500 million-plus political machine is the most powerful force in American politics, and he’s showing that he’s willing to use it.”
G. Elliot Morris: “According to my average of polls, 43.5% of Americans approve of the job Donald Trump is doing as president today, while 51.8% disapprove — for a net rating of -8 (when rounding).”
“We know this is a bad rating because we have historical benchmarks to compare Trump to -8 is, in fact, the worst approval rating for a president in their first(-ish) term since 1935 — other than the president’s rating in his initial 2017 term.”
“Historically, a -8 rating only happened when presidents were presiding over tough economic times or scandals… A net approval of -8 is indeed on the lower end of the historical spectrum, putting President Trump’s party in a potentially precarious position for 2026 — equal to or worse than their position in 2018.”
President Trump on Truth Social:
“The problem with even a ‘TINY’ tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming,’Read my lips,’ the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election. NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election!”
“In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!”
President Trump said in a new Truth Social post this morning that an “80% Tariff on China seems right!”
He added: “Up to Scott B.”
NPR: “Public health workers feel demoralized, and say the sweeping cuts, made with seemingly little consideration for how the CDC operates, have decreased the nation’s ability to track and respond to health threats. It leaves Americans more vulnerable to a host of dangers from lead poisoning to asthma, some cancers, toxic chemicals and deadly infectious diseases among other things.”
Said Dr. Anne Schuchat, a former acting director at CDC: “It’s a five-alarm fire. The kinds of changes that are happening are going to take decades to recover from, and many people will die because of these interruptions.”
The Economist: “The spectacle of India and Pakistan teetering on the threshold of war and then backing off is both alarming and familiar. This time the odds remain in favor of de-escalation, as before. Yet the past two weeks show that relations between the two nuclear powers, which have flared into open conflict four times since partition in 1947, are increasingly unstable and dangerous.”
“It is more important than ever that the two sides address their differences, including Pakistan’s reckless indulgence of militant groups, which threatens itself and India.”
Axios: “The first significant trade accord of this Trump term affirms that the president is in dealmaking mode and wants to steer around the kinds of economic risks generated by his original announcement of large-scale reciprocal tariffs.”
“But U.K. imports will continue to carry a 10% tariff, up from a pre-Trump average of 1.3%. The president referred to that as the ‘lowest end’ import tax.”
After a group of New York Republicans publicly rejected an option proposed by the House Ways and Means Committee to raise the SALT deduction, Punchbowl News reports Speaker Mike Johnson sent a text to the group that read in part: “A negotiation with the tax writers will be much more productive internally.”
Michael Schuman: “The United States and China are finally going to talk. This weekend, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Switzerland to begin negotiations over the trade war that has strangled commerce between the two powers, ever since Donald Trump assumed the presidency and imposed additional tariffs of 145 percent on Chinese imports.”
“Trump’s negotiating position will be the weaker one. Already in recent months, U.S. policy has appeared to vacillate, its strategy and goals uncertain, while Chinese leader Xi Jinping has held fast, presented an image of strength, and kept his larger geopolitical goals in focus. China has taken the opportunity of the chaos of Trump’s trade policy to draw other countries, including American allies, closer to itself.”
“None of this was the White House’s plan. When he imposed the tariffs, Trump seems to have expected that Xi would rush to negotiate their removal. Instead, the Chinese leader matched Trump tariff for tariff and hit back at the United States.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told Politico his decision about running for governor will come down to whether he thinks he can win the general election, not pressure from Trump.
For members: Trump Boxes in Mike Lawler
“John Fetterman’s popularity is sinking among Democratic voters in his backyard, according to an internal poll obtained by Politico— one of the first major indications that the Pennsylvania senator is taking a hit with the very voters who elected him,” Politico reports.
“The poll is likely to take on new relevance as Democrats in Pennsylvania increasingly talk behind the scenes about the prospect of a primary challenge against Fetterman in 2028.”
Axios: Fetterman doubts explode into Capitol Hill firestorm.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has issued internal instructions to the Pentagon to start kicking out transgender troops who do not elect to leave on their own by June 6, Reuters reports.
New York Times: The Pentagon’s culture wars strike West Point.
President Trump’s major announcement coming Monday, which he previously teased as “truly earth-shattering,” will be a “most favored nation” drug-pricing policy, CBS News reports.
Playbook: “It takes a lot to bigfoot a news cycle that Donald Trump has set out to dominate. But that’s precisely what happened yesterday, as the president’s hopes to get as much coverage as possible around his nascent trade deal with the UK (more on that in a moment) went up in smoke — literally: white smoke billowing from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, heralding the election of a new pope.”
“That alone would be enough to merit the world’s attention. Then came the announcement that landed like a haymaker: This pope is an American.”
“The Trump administration is weighing a dramatic tariff reduction during weekend talks with China to de-escalate tensions and temper the economic pain both are already starting to feel,” Bloomberg reports.
Politico: “GOP leaders on Capitol Hill signaled Thursday they are scaling back their tax-cutting ambitions after running into difficulty making deep spending cuts and facing stern warnings from Republican deficit hawks who are threatening to vote against Trump’s sprawling megabill.”
“On the chopping block could be a litany of Trump demands, including a permanent extension of the tax cuts passed during his first term, as well as second-term campaign promises to provide tax relief to seniors while also exempting taxes on tips and overtime earnings. Those provisions could end up getting enacted only temporarily.”
“Fifteen days after taking a marginal tax-rate increase off the table, President Trump put it back in play,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The president, who rejected a ‘millionaire tax’ April 23, is now considering backing a tax structure that would return the top individual income-tax rate to 39.6% from 37% for people making over $2.5 million.”
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.