“Data went dark this month. The government shutdown is halting the collection and release of statistics tracking the job market, public health and crop production, as well as other economic indicators,” Axios reports.
“The numbers are critical for understanding what’s happening in the U.S., particularly at a moment of rapid change in both government policies and in the job market.”
“World leaders have developed something of a blueprint for President Trump when he comes to visit: produce a lavish welcoming ceremony and launch a charm offensive in hopes of securing relief from U.S. tariffs and demands to spend more on defense,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“President Donald Trump has been clear about one thing in particular on his three-country tour of Asia: He really wants to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un,” the Washington Post reports.
“So much so, Trump suggested aboard Air Force One on Monday, that he would extend his nearly week-long trip to make the meeting happen, if Kim agrees.”
The Washington Post runs an excerpt from Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department by Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis.
“This behind-the-scenes account reveals new details about the inner workings of Smith’s highly secretive team as he pushed it to complete a historic investigation in record time, including the venue choice that led to the unraveling of the most clear-cut criminal charges that Trump faced.”
“It lays bare previously unreported dissension on the Smith team over how to manage the classified documents investigation. And it recounts for the first time Smith’s effort to remove Cannon from the case, an idea that a top Justice Department official rejected and that Smith never presented to Attorney General Merrick Garland.”
“More than 160,000 New Yorkers flocked to the polls this weekend to give an energetic kickoff to the start of early voting in the bitterly contested election for mayor, with the candidates’ attack lines hovering over an unusual three-way race,” the New York Times reports.
“The pace of early voting so far suggested high turnout for an off-year election, reflecting heightened interest in the contest.”
“Sanae Takaichi, who last week became the first woman to lead Japan as prime minister, has never met President Trump. She does not play golf, Mr. Trump’s favored sport, nor is she known to share his love of hamburgers,” the New York Times reports.
“But when Ms. Takaichi holds talks with Mr. Trump in Tokyo on Tuesday, she will have another card to play as she tries to win reassurance from him on trade and security. She is expected to emphasize her connection to Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister assassinated in 2022, who was Ms. Takaichi’s political mentor and who forged a closer bond with Mr. Trump than perhaps any other world leader.”
“Russia has successfully tested its nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable Burevestnik missile and is preparing to deploy it, President Vladimir V. Putin said Sunday, a pointed message to the West after plans for a summit with President Trump collapsed,” the New York Times reports.
“Because the weapon runs on nuclear power, it can fly for much longer than other missiles can, and, the Kremlin says, is capable of evading missile defense systems.”
Said Putin: “This is a unique product that no one in the world has.”
President Trump claimed in a social media post that Democrats “shipped” millions of ballots to California to rig the vote on early redistricting.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) will visit Illinois today to meet with Democratic lawmakers on redistricting, NBC Chicago reports.
Playbook: “The Nov. 4 elections are almost upon us — and while the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey offer more useful barometers of how the parties are faring, it’s the mayoral contest in New York City that is grabbing all the headlines.”
“Frontrunner Zohran Mamdani packed out the iconic Forest Hills Stadium last night at an extraordinary rally alongside fellow socialist stars Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Nearly 13,000 people turned out to see the trio take the stage in Queens, further cementing Mamdani’s reputation as a genuine superstar of the left. Mayoral rallies do not normally look like this.”
Punchbowl News: “We’ve seen this in several ways over the course of the year. First, there was DOGE, when Republican lawmakers had to beg Elon Musk to communicate with them better, or go around to ask President Donald Trump to fix what DOGE broke. Then there was the rescissions package, followed by the pocket rescissions request GOP members had asked not be executed.”
“And now, Republican committee chairs often aren’t getting the courtesy heads up from the White House before their priorities are slashed, paused or even eliminated during this shutdown.”
“It’s a departure from past administrations, which mostly made sure to keep their congressional overseers, particularly from their own party, in the loop on major decisions. If for no other reason, they wanted lawmakers’ buy-in so Congress didn’t upend the policies the president was trying to implement.”
“Sen. Rand Paul has a new idea to end the government shutdown, calling on President Donald Trump to appoint a bipartisan commission to address the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies at the heart of negotiations,” NOTUS reports.
Said Paul: “I suggest that President Trump come forward and name three Republicans and three Democrats in the Senate to an official commission to figure this out over a one-month period and come back with a solution. But in exchange for that, I think the Democrats need to open the government for a month, and then we need to pay the workers, pay our soldiers.”
“President Javier Milei’s party won Argentina’s midterm vote Sunday, a result that will give the libertarian leader a strong foothold in Congress to continue pursuing aggressive free-market policies that have won praise and a financial lifeline from Donald Trump,” Bloomberg reports.
“Jon Stewart says he’s not ready to leave ‘The Daily Show’ after his contract expires in December, and is actively working on an extension with Comedy Central – which now falls under David Ellison’s Skydance Media,” The Wrap reports.
Matt Labash: “And if you’re fine with all that, you should ask yourself what’s broken inside of you. Because I can almost guarantee you that wherever you stand on the political spectrum, you wouldn’t have been fine with it ten or fifteen years ago.”
“The true danger of corruption isn’t merely that it’s evil. Because conscientious good people tend to react against evil. The real danger is that evil ceases to be regarded as such by otherwise good people. Rather, it just becomes the new normal. Our corruption Muzak. Something that is processed as background noise, then ignored.”
President Trump pushed for several Biden-era Justice Department officials to be prosecuted over an FBI investigation into the fallout of the 2020 election, CBS News reports.
Trump accused four high-ranking officials — former Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, special counsel Jack Smith and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco — of signing off on an FBI probe in which investigators allegedly looked at nine Republican lawmakers’ phone records.
Anne Applebaum: “In truth, the administration’s unannounced destruction of the East Wing of the White House reflects a similar kind of disdain, and belongs to a similar kind of tradition. Ignoring the National Capital Planning Commission, eschewing the deference that presidents have usually shown to public opinion and precedent, Trump sent in the bulldozers before anyone was able to stop them.”
“The message is the same as in the AI video: Trump doesn’t care about public opinion, or that it belongs to the American nation rather than himself, or that it was the product of Thomas Jefferson’s belief in order, proportion, and discipline. He believes that only he can decide what it should look like, and he wants it to reflect his Mar-a-Lago taste: bigger, uglier, with the Rose Garden covered in concrete and fake gold ornaments pasted onto the walls of the Oval Office.”
“He is discarding history, tradition and propriety, destroying a symbol that belongs to all of us, weakening one of the few remaining images that unite us.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) said that President Trump told him that he plans to brief members of Congress on possible military action in Latin America, including potentially shifting attacks targeting Venezuela from the sea to land, The Hill 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.