A new Gallup poll finds more Americans today (40%) than two years ago (33%) believe President Trump has the personality and leadership qualities a president should have, although that still represents a minority of the public.
In contrast, roughly six in 10 Americans thought George W. Bush and Barack Obama had the right presidential characteristics at a similar point in their presidencies.
Embattled Texas Secretary of State David Whitley (R), who had questioned the U.S. citizenship of nearly 100,000 people, “resigned Monday ahead of being forced out of office, stepping down as Republicans went home to defend their vulnerable majority in 2020 rather than try forcing a late vote to save Gov. Greg Abbott’s nominee (R),” the AP reports.
Washington Post: “Whitley, a gubernatorial appointee and former aide to Abbott, spent less than six months overseeing Texas elections. He will leave office best known for the disastrous elections-integrity operation that wrongly identified thousands of naturalized citizens as suspected noncitizens illegally registered to vote.”
Bloomberg: “Illinois lawmakers paved the way for higher taxes on the state’s richest residents, approving a constitutional amendment to do away with the flat income tax that will go before voters during next year’s presidential election.”
“The state’s House of Representatives on Monday voted to approve a constitutional amendment that would allow for higher tax rates on the top earners, the centerpiece of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s plan to stabilize the worst-rated state’s finances. The state Senate already passed the measure, leaving it poised to go on the November 2020 ballot for voter approval.”
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New York Times: “After five months as a presidential candidate, Ms. Warren is showing signs of success at distinguishing herself in a packed field. She has inched higher in national polls and, at events within the last month, consistently overshot the campaign’s expected amount of attendees.”
“She has been propelled in part by a number of disruptive choices, most notably the breakneck pace at which she introduces policy proposals. That has helped keep her in the news, put pressure on rivals and provided more opportunities to shore up her campaign’s once-lackluster fund-raising.”
First Read: “Can policy beat Trump? Especially policy that might have little chance for passage in today’s divided Congress?”
“Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has retained shares in a construction-materials company more than a year after the date she promised to relinquish them,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Shares of the company, Vulcan Materials Co. , the country’s largest supplier of the crushed stone, sand and gravel used in road-paving and building, have risen nearly 13% since April 2018, the month in which Ms. Chao said she would be cashed out of the stock, netting her a more than $40,000 gain.”
Politico: “He’s dominating in the polls, his fundraising is going gangbusters and he’s showing broad support from key political players in the early presidential states.”
“So where are the big energetic crowds, the lines around the block to get into Joe Biden’s events? The question is no small matter in a party still recovering from a bitter 2016 defeat — a loss marked by a lack of enthusiasm for an establishment nominee in several critical states.”
New York Times: “Parts of the federal government will no longer fulfill what scientists say is one of the most urgent jobs of climate science studies: reporting on the future effects of a rapidly warming planet and presenting a picture of what the earth could look like by the end of the century if the global economy continues to emit heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels.”
Politico: “This time around, the candidate with an aversion to schmoozing and a reputation as a loner in the Senate is bowing to a side of politics he’s long despised. Sanders is making dozens of calls each week to elected officials, labor leaders and party chiefs, according to his aides. In between his rallies, he regularly meets with politicians behind closed doors. And surrogates including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), the co-chair of his campaign, are aggressively courting House members to get on board.”
“All of that is standard fare for a top-tier presidential campaign, but it represents a major shift for Sanders. His willingness to step up his efforts to win institutional support is the latest sign that he recognizes that shunning the Democratic establishment might work for a long-shot outsider campaign, but won’t cut it if he truly wants to win the nomination.”
PBS: Sanders’ 2020 challenges look a lot like 2016
Politico: “Get ready for more Rudy. Done sparring with Robert Mueller, Donald Trump’s personal attorney is now training his attacks on the president’s reelection rivals. Giuliani plans to meet with the president and his campaign in the coming weeks to discuss pivoting to this new role, which he expects will also include making policy and political connections for the 2020 effort.”
“Giuliani has long served as an all-purpose attack dog for Trump — to mixed results. The president and some of his top aides have occasionally cringed at the lawyer’s frequent off-script messaging and rambling TV appearances that can spark one or more unexpected news cycles.”
President Trump says he is not seeking “regime change” in Iran, the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “We’re not looking for regime change. I want to make that clear. We’re looking for no nuclear weapons.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi to Reuters: “We currently see no prospect of negotiations with America.”
“GOP senators say that if the House passes articles of impeachment against President Trump they will quickly quash them in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has broad authority to set the parameters of a trial,” The Hill reports.
“While McConnell is required to act on articles of impeachment, which require 67 votes — or a two-thirds majority — to convict the president, he and his Republican colleagues have the power to set the rules and ensure the briefest of trials.”
“Supporters of an Obama-era plan to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill were disappointed last week by news that the Treasury Department has delayed the bill’s redesign,” CNN reports.
“But artist Dano Wall decided not to wait for the Trump administration to honor the Underground Railroad hero. He has created a stamp that can be used to superimpose Tubman’s image over President Andrew Jackson’s portrait.”
Said Wall to the Washington Post: “My goal is to get 5,000 stamps out there. If there are 5,000 people consistently stamping currency, we could get a significant percent of circulating $20 bills with the Tubman stamp, at which point it would be impossible to ignore.”
Steven Rattner looks at three different election models which predict Donald Trump wins the 2020 presidential election.
Use the interactive Electoral Vote Map to make your own forecast.
This weekend traditionally marks the beginning of summer. We’ve also been busy this year celebrating our oldest son’s graduation from college.
But let’s never forget the real purpose of this holiday. We should be forever grateful for the men and women who died while serving our country in the armed forces.
Thanks to them — and their families — for their tremendous sacrifice.
“President Trump’s tweets don’t pack the punch they did at the outset of his presidency. His Twitter interaction rate — a measure of the impact given how much he tweets and how many people follow him — has tumbled precipitously,” Axios reports.
“It’s a sign that his strongest communication tool may be losing its effectiveness and that the novelty has worn off. Trump’s interaction rate has fallen from 0.55% in the month he was elected to 0.32% in June 2017 — and down to 0.16% this month through May 25.”
Brian Stelter: “The question arises: Is Trump having to try harder and harder to get the public’s attention?”
Washington Post: Here’s former vice president Joe Biden’s agenda for the holiday weekend, according to his campaign: ‘Joe Biden has no public events scheduled.'”
“Those seven words are becoming familiar for the Biden team. Aside from a campaign swing right after announcing his candidacy, Biden has kept his head down while his rivals rush from state to state to state. Even when he has held public events, they have included only a handful of questions from voters or reporters.”
“The light public schedule reflects the unique position of his campaign, advisers say: With near universal name recognition and high favorability ratings among Democrats, the former vice president does not need to introduce himself to voters like nearly every other candidate. And as the leader in early polls, he can attract media attention without splashy events.”
Washington Post: “Pelosi’s allies said her taunting of Trump now is intentional, designed to get under his skin and elicit an angry reaction, according to officials close to her who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.”
“When a Democrat compared Trump to a fifth-grader, Pelosi responded that such a remark was an insult to fifth-graders, according to an individual who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the conversation.”
Said Pelosi: “Don’t say that. Children are wonderful!”
Renato Mariotti: “In the space of three days this week, two federal judges ruled decisively in favor of Congress’ right to subpoena President Donald Trump’s personal financial and business records. The speed of the decisions—unusual in complex federal litigation—demonstrates a significant flaw in the administration’s “fight all the subpoenas” strategy. More importantly, it suggests that Trump’s strategy of categorically fighting all congressional subpoenas will undermine his ability to stonewall Congress in subsequent cases.”
“Already, one of the rulings has been appealed by the Trump administration, and a three-judge panel is scheduled to hear the case in July. In the meantime, however, we are witnessing profound legal decisions in defense of congressional power. If Trump’s stonewalling strategy was intended to run out the clock by forcing Democrats into interminable court fights, it appears so far to be having the exact opposite effect—almost like a little league game that gets called early because one team is scoring too many unanswered runs.”
The Hill: Democrats claim victory as Trump gets battered in court.
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.
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