“An ex-DOGE staffer known as ‘Big Balls’ could end up receiving the highest civilian honor in the United States, placing him in the company of luminaries such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Two weeks after 19-year-old Edward Coristine was viciously assaulted during a carjacking in Washington D.C., the White House says it would consider giving the administration official a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his bravery.”
“I don’t think we’ve had anybody have this much impact on the country since FDR.”
— Chuck Todd, speaking to David Brody, on President Trump.
“Investigators have uncovered evidence that Russia is at least in part responsible for a recent hack of the computer system that manages federal court documents, including highly sensitive records that might contain information that could reveal sources and people charged with national security crimes,” the New York Times reports.
“It is not clear what entity is responsible, whether an arm of Russian intelligence might be behind the intrusion or if other countries were also involved, which some of the people familiar with the matter described as a yearslong effort to infiltrate the system.”
“Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked a Texas district court judge to jail former Rep. Beto O’Rourke over his fundraising pitches connected to the state’s intensifying redistricting battle,” Politico reports.
“Paxton’s request accused the Texas Democrat of violating a court order that the judge, Tarrant County’s Megan Fahey, issued last week that barred fundraising by O’Rourke and his nonprofit Powered by People intended to bankroll the efforts by Texas Democratic lawmakers to derail the redistricting effort.”
“We had the island to ourselves which was very cool. I had never been to Disneyland. I thought it was awesome… Sorry to all the people that are Disneyland for the longer lines, but we had a very good time.”
— Vice President JD Vance, talking to Katie Miller, on Disneyland being shut down for his family vacation.
From the Financial Times editorial board:
“Donald Trump’s zeal for dealmaking knows no bounds. In the first 200 days of his second term, the US president has been in constant negotiations. He has threatened and imposed tariffs on America’s trading partners in a bid to extract various concessions. He has also wielded the threat of steep sector-specific tariffs to goad businesses at home and abroad into making billion-dollar investment commitments in the country.”
“But in recent days his quid pro quo approach has taken an even more ominous turn.”
“The U.S. government’s budget deficit grew nearly 20% in July to $291 billion despite a $21 billion jump in customs duty collections from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with outlays growing faster than receipts,” Reuters reports.
“Canadian road trips to the United States have continued to decline for the seventh month in a row as the country continues its boycott of the U.S. According to Statistics Canada, automobile trips by Canadian residents returning from the U.S. dropped 36.9 percent year-over-year in July, while air travel from the U.S. declined 25.8 percent,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Meanwhile, international trips to other destinations from Canada have risen by 5.9 percent, suggesting Canadians are looking elsewhere for their summer vacations.”
“The independent watchdog for the Department of Veterans Affairs said the agency’s health system is facing a severe staffing shortage of clinical and nonclinical workers that has worsened since last year — at the same time the agency has shed tens of thousands of workers and recruited fewer medical workers,” the Washington Post reports.
A new Siena poll finds Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) favorability is just 39% — at its lowest point among New Yorkers in the past 20 years.
In case you missed it, John Oliver absolutely skewered Schumer on his HBO show this week.
“A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed teams affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency to gain access to potentially sensitive data on millions of Americans, overruling a lower court that had blocked that access in February,” the New York Times reports.
“By a 2-1 vote, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted the access to data stored at the Treasury Department, the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in a similar case in June involving Social Security data.”
Vice President J.D. Vance appeared on Katie Miller’s new podcast:
MILLER: So how do you handle a toddler tantrum in a public place?
VANCE: Usha is super patient. She’ll try to reason with them. If they have a tantrum in a public place, I immediately grab them, take them to the bathroom and say, “You got to cut that shit out.”
“Texas Republicans said Tuesday that they would kick off a second special legislative session Friday to redraw the state’s congressional maps in favor of the GOP, putting pressure on absent Democrats to quickly return to the state or commit to remaining away for another month,” the Washington Post reports.
UFC CEO Dana White told CBS News he will stage a historic fight at the White House on July 4, 2026, marking America’s 250th birthday with what would be the first professional mixed martial arts event ever held at the presidential residence.
Said White: “It is definitely going to happen.”
President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Antoni, told Fox News he might suspend the bureau’s flagship monthly jobs report.
“The White House plans to conduct a far-reaching review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions, materials and operations ahead of America’s 250th anniversary to ensure the museums align with President Trump’s interpretation of American history,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
From a letter: “This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
“Republican-led cuts to public assistance programs – carried out at the behest of Donald Trump’s administration – will lead to 2.4 million fewer Americans receiving food stamps, among them families with children,” The Guardian reports.
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.