“After weeks of discussions among his advisers, allies and donors about how he could intervene in the race for New York City mayor, President Trump appears increasingly resigned to a potential victory by Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “I’m not looking at the polls too carefully, but it would look like he’s going to win. And that’s a rebellion. It’s also a rebellion against bad candidates.”
“Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said former Trump adviser Elon Musk was “backward” in his efforts to cut government waste through the firings led by the U.S. DOGE Service,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Lutnick: “The focus should have been on cutting the waste, fraud and abuse, and the people you could do over time. I thought he got that backward.”
“Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a potential 2028 presidential candidate, quietly met with several state legislators Friday morning in the critical Democratic primary state of South Carolina,” Axios reports.
“Kelly has been raising millions of dollars and traveling the country the last several months, which could set the Arizona senator up for a presidential bid.”
“A federal judge worried publicly Friday that the Trump administration had, ‘with a wink and a nod,’ deported a group of African nationals to Ghana, only to have Ghana redirect them to countries where they may face torture and persecution,” Politico reports.
“U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is still weighing what, if any, power she has to order protections for the group of Nigerian and Gambian citizens, who were abruptly sent to Ghana last week aboard a U.S. military plane. But she made clear that she viewed the administration’s actions as underhanded.”
“I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”
— White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaking to reporters.
“Two days after the killing of Charlie Kirk made national headlines, the late public speaker’s podcast went live once again. This time, with an empty chair in his honor,” The Wrap reports.
“Missouri Republicans handed President Donald Trump a political victory Friday, giving final legislative approval to a redistricting plan that could help Republicans win an additional U.S. House seat in next year’s elections,” the AP reports.
Politico: “The Congressional Budget Office’s new economic estimates released Friday predict that over the next three years, policies implemented this year by Trump and the Republican-led Congress will have little effect on growth before the 2028 election.”
“That’s because Trump’s tariff policies and crackdown on immigration are estimated to cool the economy this year, more than outweighing any growth spurred by the tax and spending package Republicans turned into law this summer.”
Bloomberg: “The report also shows unemployment peaking at a higher rate of 4.5% at the end of this year.”
“Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh stressed the importance of the separation of powers in government during a rare appearance at a Texas community college Thursday, despite mounting criticism against the court for decisions favoring President Trump’s administration,” The Hill reports.
Said Kavanaugh: “The framers recognized, in a way that I think is brilliant, that preserving liberty requires separating the power. No one person or group of people should have too much power in our system.”
Coffee prices in the U.S. have surged more than 20% in the last year, as duties on some of the world’s biggest producers take effect, Semafor reports.
“Trump health officials plan to link coronavirus vaccines to the deaths of 25 children as they consider limiting which Americans should get the shots,” the Washington Post reports.
“The findings appear to be based on information submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which contains unverified reports of side effects or bad experiences with vaccines submitted by anyone.”
A new Fox News poll finds that more voters say President Trump has made the economy worse rather than better, 52% to 30%.
Those sentiments are almost identical to how they felt about Joe Biden – and are the reverse of how voters felt eight years ago during Trump’s first term.
“National Republicans are wading into the race for New Jersey governor — the latest indication that the party is bullish about Jack Ciattarelli’s chances of flipping the state in November,” Politico reports.
“Restore New Jersey, a super PAC backed by the Republican Governors Association, is placing an initial $1 million advertising buy over the next week to boost Ciattarelli in the final stretch of his campaign against Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who is benefiting from $20 million in spending from her own super PAC.”
“President Donald Trump dismissed congressional Democrats’ demands ahead of a looming shutdown deadline in a Fox News interview Friday, casting doubt on whether a deal to keep the government open is even possible,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “There is something wrong with them. If you gave them every dream right now… they want to give away money to this or that and destroy the country. If you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it.”
He added: “Don’t even bother dealing with them. We will get it through because the Republicans are sticking together for the first time in a long time.”
“There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved. It is an ideology at war with family and nature. It is envious, malicious, and soulless.”
— White House adviser Stephen Miller, on X.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said the United States would respond, without specifying how, after former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election,” Reuters reports.
Said Rubio: “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt.”
Philip Bump: “It has been observed that individual Americans are putting up more fight than many institutions. Those individuals are also smaller targets for the authoritarian president and his allies. They are less powerful.”
“But that’s obviously why it’s more important for the institutions to engage and not to succumb to the climate of fear. That climate, after all, only exists if it goes unchallenged. There is no climate of fear without capitulation.”
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.