“President Donald Trump said he did not discuss a possible extension of his tariff truce when he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a summit in China,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “We didn’t discuss tariffs. They’re paying substantial tariffs, but we didn’t discuss.”
Bloomberg: “President Donald Trump said China’s Xi Jinping largely agrees with him on the risks of Iran becoming a nuclear power but said he did not push his Chinese counterpart to pressure Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.”
Said Trump: “He said that very strongly, they cannot have a nuclear weapon and he wants them to open up the strait.”
Norman Solomon: “After several months of heated arguments over whether the Democratic National Committee should release its autopsy report on the 2024 election, the dispute has neared a boiling point. With one recent media appearance after another, the DNC chair, Ken Martin, has set off fierce criticism and even derision, while offering notably illogical explanations for keeping the autopsy secret.”
“As the controversy simmers, no one has more at stake than the party’s latest standard-bearer. Kamala Harris, apparently preparing for another run, leads in polls for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. One of the last things she needs is a widely publicized narrative from the DNC about failures of her 2024 campaign.”
G. Elliot Morris: “Republicans across half a dozen states spent the last year passing new congressional gerrymanders to give themselves an unfair advantage over Democrats in this November’s midterm elections. After the Supreme Court blew up Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais two weeks ago, GOP legislatures in Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, and elsewhere have moved to cut even more Democratic seats from the map. Democrats could end up needing to win the popular vote in the House by 4 points or more in order to win the majority of seats.”
“This is a huge boon to a party that, just three weeks ago, was staring down the barrel of a virtually assured loss of the House and likely loss of the Senate, too.”
“And yet, it doesn’t change the big picture of how Americans feel about the president today.”
“Senate Democrats heaped praise on their colleague John Fetterman this week amid fresh speculation he might leave the party,” NOTUS reports.
“The iconoclastic Pennsylvania Democrat has often seemed like a senator without a party in recent years. He has broken with his party over Israel, immigration funding and government shutdowns, while defending some of Trump’s projects, including building a grand ballroom at the White House and his revamp of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.”
President Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund “to compensate allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration,” ABC News reports.
“We did discuss Iran. We feel very similar. We want the straits open. We’re closing it now. They closed it and we closed it on top of them—but we want them open.”
— President Trump, talking to reporters on his meetings with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is familiar with her every move getting analyzed for possible clues to her future. Her approach to this election year, however, sends a clear signal: She’s genuinely unsure what’s next,” Semafor reports.
“The 36-year-old New York Democratic socialist is being choosy in which candidates she campaigns for, a shift from past uses of her star power that’s less likely to cause intraparty friction than some other potential presidential hopefuls. She’s also broaching 2028 with palpable caution when asked in public.”
NOTUS: “He stayed largely silent for more than five years. But now, the three-term senator, two-term governor and former education secretary has penned a more-than-500-page tome, The Education Of A Senator, and gets a lot of things off his chest.”
Said Alexander: “Trump undermined the United States Constitution and assaulted one of the most hallowed precepts of the American democracy, the peaceful transfer of power.”
He added: “If those actions do not constitute a ‘high crime or misdemeanor,’ I do not know what does.”
New York Times: “More than two dozen interviews, reviews of his financial documents and a visit to his hometown reveal a back story that defies easy categorization, complicating the blue-collar image cultivated by Mr. Platner and his campaign.”
“Mr. Platner is an oysterman, a combat veteran and a former harbor master from tiny Sullivan. He is also the son of a Dartmouth College-educated lawyer, the grandson of a famed Connecticut architect and a graduate of a private high school.”
“His parents have offered him privileges and connections and have helped him financially.“
“Senator Bernie Sanders has endorsed more than five dozen candidates for local and state offices nationwide as he seeks to remake the Democratic Party in his image and build a progressive bench as part of his legacy,” the New York Times reports.
“Almost a third of the membership of the Congressional Black Caucus — 19 of its 62 members — are at risk of losing their seats through the 2028 election cycle as Republicans in southern states where they control the legislature move swiftly to redraw congressional maps less than two weeks after the Supreme Court dealt a blow to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” ABC News reports.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told CBS News he won’t run for president in 2028.
President Trump said he would install his proposed sculpture garden of “American Heroes” in West Potomac Park, a stretch near the National Mall that includes the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “Right now, it is a totally BARREN field of Prime Waterfront Real Estate along our Mighty Potomac River. When finished, West Potomac Park will be a World Class Masterpiece with elegant Landscaping, and adorned with Beautiful Statues, and be yet another one of my great projects to make Washington, D.C., the Safest and Most Beautiful Capital in the World.”
“The Senate may have confirmed Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair, but that doesn’t mean he’s in the door,” Semafor reports.
“Before Warsh can be sworn in, the president — who left for China before lawmakers took their last vote — must sign paperwork installing Warsh in the role. Warsh has also agreed to divest from more than $100 million in undisclosed assets before starting the job (though he has more time to dump other investments).”
“At least one box has been checked: Stephen Miran, who temporarily filled Warsh’s seat at the central bank, sent his letter of resignation on Thursday.”
New York Times: As Powell steps down, the Fed confronts “regime change.”
“Donald Trump got the pageantry he craved during his trip to China,” Bloomberg reports.
“But the U.S. president concluded the summit largely where he began, receiving little help from his ‘friend’ Xi Jinping in dealing with a messy war in Iran and a challenging political climate at home.”
Paul Krugman: My president went to China and all I got was more expensive gasoline.
“The post-2024 narrative that Latino voters shifted right is facing its first real stress test — including in districts Republicans thought were safely red,” Axios reports.
“The biggest immediate test is in Texas, where Republicans drew new maps assuming continued Latino gains. But GOP House seats are also at risk in California, New York, Colorado and Nevada.”
“New modeling from Democratic group Oath finds several GOP-drawn ‘safe’ districts could become competitive if recent Latino voting trends hold.”
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.
