“To President Trump’s many roles, formal and self-designated, add a new one to the list: chairman of all boards,” Axios reports.
“The president has assumed a quasi-authority to orchestrate how the private sector operates, both broadly and down to the management and ownership of individual companies.”
“No one’s stopping him, so he continues to confidently plow ahead.”
Rachel Bade: “To many Washington insiders, President Trump’s early August Beltway crime crackdown seemed like an opportunistic and hamhanded pivot after getting walloped for weeks over the Jeffrey Epstein affair.”
“But if it wasn’t clear then, it is now: The White House’s public safety play is a deliberate ploy to refocus the narrative on an issue that favors Republicans ahead of the midterms — one that’s already backing Democrats into a corner.”
“If his recent escalation was an attempt to goad Democrats into declaring that crime isn’t a problem, repelling swing voters in the process, top Democrats did not disappoint him.”
“We go in, we will solve Chicago within one week, maybe less. But within one week, we’ll have no crime in Chicago, like no crime in D.C.”
— President Trump, quoted by Politico.
“California Republicans are again asking the state Supreme Court to block California from redrawing its congressional boundaries, charging chief proponent Gov. Gavin Newsom and his legislative allies with violating the state Constitution, the same day the White House said it would also sue California,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
A new Change Research poll finds 52 percent of “registered voters in Indiana — which Trump won by 19 points last year — said they are against Republicans revising their maps, with 43 percent ‘strongly’ opposing the effort.”
“That opposition rises to 60 percent after voters are informed of arguments for and against redistricting.”
Playbook: “It’s a massive moment for the nation and the economy. Trump’s actions suggest he has his eye on a far more ambitious prize than just replacing Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term ends next May. Instead, the president appears to want total control over the bank’s interest-rate setting structures. Firing Cook now would give Trump a majority of appointees on the Fed’s seven-person board, ahead of a key moment next year when the board reappoints the independently chosen regional chairs who make up the rest of the voting bloc.”
“The bottom line: Plenty of Fed watchers believe we’re seeing the greatest threat to its independence in generations.”
Associated Press: Why the Federal Reserve has historically been independent of the White House.
New York Times: Can Trump fire a Fed governor?
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger (D) is out with a new ad attacking Winsome Earle-Sears (R) for supporting President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Playbook: “It marks the first time a major Democratic candidate has targeted a Republican opponent over the megabill, which Earle-Sears said ‘does so many great things.’”
“California’s two biggest Republican names have both returned from retirement to fight Proposition 50, the mid-decade partisan gerrymander being promoted by top Democrats. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is raising money for a Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab committee, while former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has backed donor Charles Munger Jr.’s Protect Voters First,” Politico reports.
“But the two committees are not coordinating their efforts… That distance reflects a core divide among the Republicans jumping into the fray against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Prop 50 — one faction that hopes to manage President Donald Trump’s involvement, one that wants to keep him far away.”
“The Utah Legislature will need to rapidly redraw the state’s congressional boundaries after a judge ruled Monday that the Republican-controlled body circumvented safeguards put in place by voters to ensure districts aren’t drawn to favor any party,” the AP reports.
“The U.S. will increase tariffs and impose export restrictions on countries that tax or regulate U.S. tech firms, President Trump said on Monday evening, in his most direct threat to retaliate against nations that he views as discriminating against companies such as Google and Meta Platforms,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
CNBC: Trump vows ‘substantial’ new tariffs, chip restrictions on countries with digital taxes.
“President Donald Trump said he would like to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year as South Korea floated the idea of constructing a Trump Tower in the reclusive country if diplomatic relations improve,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “I will say that Kim Jong Un and I had a very good relationship, as you remember, and still do. We can do big progress, I think, with North Korea. Absolutely.”
While Donald Trump is attacking NBC and ABC and threatening to revoke their broadcast licenses, he is heaped praise on the “great man” who “just bought CBS,” Media Matters reports.
Said Trump: “I think he’s going to do the right thing with it.”
“President Donald Trump moved to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her post at the US central bank in the wake of allegations that she falsified documents on mortgage applications,” Bloomberg reports.
CNBC: “Trump’s move pushes the Federal Reserve into uncharted territory and will likely lead to a legal clash that could wind up at the Supreme Court.”
New York Times: “Ms. Cook has not been charged with any wrongdoing or convicted in court of a crime. Her dismissal threatened to touch off a landmark legal battle over the president’s authority to fire members of the independent board. The Federal Reserve Act, the law that charters the central bank, would allow Mr. Trump to dismiss a governor if he could demonstrate cause, typically defined as professional neglect or malfeasance.”
Video footage of a 2024 conversation between President Donald Trump and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore disproves Trump’s claim that Moore called him “the greatest president of my lifetime,” CNN reports.
It also didn’t show Moore hugging Trump as they met.
“Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker promised to challenge President Trump’s plan to deploy the National Guard to the nation’s third-largest city, calling the move unconstitutional and un-American,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The clash highlighted the rocky path the president faces in trying to expand his troop rollout into more blue cities.”
Said Pritzker: “The state of Illinois is ready to stand against this military deployment with every peaceful tool we have. We will see the Trump administration in court.”
Former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX), who announced her bid to unseat Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) earlier this year, is returning to her original district and mounting her third comeback campaign against Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), the Washington Examiner reports.
New York Times: “The private agreement was this: The party would pick up the tab for any outstanding 2024 bills, allowing Ms. Harris to claim she did not end the race in debt. In turn, Ms. Harris would raise the money to cover all of those leftover costs, leaving the party whole financially as it sought to navigate the second Trump era.”
“Left in the dark were the small donors who received nearly 100 email solicitations sent from the Harris operation this year alone on behalf of the D.N.C. The emails did not disclose that funds raised from those emails were essentially earmarked for leftover bills. Convincing donors, both big and small, to pay for debts is typically a tough sell…”
“The total tally in post-election bills that the DNC has covered so far is $20.5 million, federal records show.”
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.
Just for members: The latest issue of