“I have nothing against any of the people my age who will run, but I really do believe that if we’re going to appeal to the younger generation, we’ve got to change the party.”
— Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean, quoted by Politico, on the need for Democrats to have a younger presidential nominee in 2020.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis openly differed with his commander in chief over North Korea, the latest example of a once-rare public display of disagreement by top U.S. aides that has become more frequent under President Trump, Reuters reports.
“We are never out of diplomatic solutions,” Mattis told reporters, just hours after Trump said in a tweet that ‘talking is not the answer’ to the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.
President Trump’s “tax plans hardly match his populist rhetoric. Though he sold his plan to rewrite the tax code as a boon to the average American worker in a speech Wednesday, he mostly focused on the taxes paid by America’s largest corporations,” Politico reports.
“Trump argued that his plans to cut the 35 percent corporate tax rate for the first time in 30 years would benefit regular wage earners by putting more money in corporate coffers, which he said business leaders would then use to hire more people and raise wages.”
“But most economists say companies’ shareholders would be the primary beneficiaries of a corporate tax rate cut. That’s because it would make companies more profitable, which would boost their stock price while also leaving them with more money to pay out dividends.”
Joe Biden will release a new book this fall that could also serve as a test for whether the country is interested in seeing him run for president, The Hill reports.
Longtime advisers to Biden see his memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship and Purpose as the ultimate test for whether or not he’ll wade into a potentially crowded 2020 field.
A new NBC News-Survey Monkey poll finds 61% of Americans view President Trump unfavorably — with 48% saying they have a strongly unfavorable impression of him — as compared to just 36% who have a favorable view.
Also interesting: 60% of Americans think Trump did the wrong thing when he granted former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio a pardon and 34% said the President did the right think in granting Arpaio a pardon.
Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump’s speech touting tax cuts — the largest ones ever, he promised — was devoted in large part to praise of the 1986 Tax Reform Act. ‘Our last major tax rewrite was 31 years ago,’ he said. ‘It was really something special … In 1986, Ronald Reagan led the world, cutting our tax base by 34 percent. Under this pro-America system, our economy just went beautifully through the roof.'”
“Trump has long attacked the 1986 Tax Reform Act as a disaster. The Act eliminated tax advantages for real estate, and Trump naturally equated the loss of special treatment for his own industry with harm for the economy as a whole. ‘This tax act was just an absolute catastrophe for the country,’ he told Congress in 1991. Eight years later, still fuming that Bill Bradley — a co-sponsor of the law — was running for president, Trump called it ‘one of the worst ideas in recent history.'”
“Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on its investigation into Paul Manafort and his financial transactions,” Politico reports.
“The cooperation is the latest indication that the federal probe into President Trump’s former campaign chairman is intensifying. It also could potentially provide Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump’s campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes.”
Jonathan Chait: “Trump can pardon anybody facing charges from Mueller, but not from Schneiderman. It is probably significant that Mueller is letting this fact be known to Trump’s inner circle. Trump’s biggest source of leverage over Mueller just disappeared.”
Federal prosecutors say that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) allegedly starting taking bribes from a wealthy donor shortly after he entered the Senate in 2006, Politico reports.
“Menendez’s bribery and corruption trial is set to begin next week. In preparation for that, Justice Department prosecutors filed a new document Wednesday laying out their case against the New Jersey senator, as well as Dr. Salomon Melgen, his alleged co-conspirator. Melgen has already been convicted in a separate case of bilking Medicare but has not been sentenced yet.”
“I don’t want to be disappointed by Congress, do you understand me? Do you understand? I think Congress is going to make a comeback. I hope so. I’ll tell you what, the United States is counting on it.”
— President Trump, quoted by Axios, urging Congress to pass a tax reform bill.
“President Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, has given Congress a point-by-point rebuttal of a dossier alleging that he has deep ties to Russian officials — an effort to clear his name as the Justice Department and congressional committees investigate Russia’s attempts to disrupt last year’s election,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Cohen encouraged lawmakers to investigate those who paid for the salacious 35-page dossier, which surfaced online early this year and alleges that President Trump and his campaign conspired with Russia in the November election. The dossier, compiled by a retired British spy, portrays Mr. Cohen as a central figure in the conspiracy.”
A new Fox News poll finds just 36% of voters are happy with how things are going in the country — down 10 points since April — while 64% are dissatisfied.
Most interesting is that the shift “is not, as is often the case, tied to the economy. Positive views on the economy are higher than in more than a decade: 36% say it is in either “excellent” (6%) or “good” (30%) shape. The last time conditions were rated this positively was August 2004.”
NBC News: “While presidential pardons can halt the federal case, local prosecutors could then pursue any Americans suspected of aiding Russia’s election meddling. In fact, legal experts say presidential pardons could make that prospect more likely.”
“According to a new MSNBC legal analysis, federal pardons could open the door to local criminal investigations in several states… According to a source with knowledge of one state attorney general’s preparations, the office is already studying its potential state jurisdiction for Russia-related crimes. The source told MSNBC that state investigators typically defer to federal inquiries, but there is a perception the Russia inquiry may not turn out to be a typical situation.”
Washington Post: “As rescuers continued their exhausting and heartbreaking work in southeastern Texas on Tuesday afternoon, as the rain continued to fall and a reservoir near Houston spilled over, President Trump grabbed a microphone to address hundreds of supporters who had gathered outside a firehouse near Corpus Christi and were chanting: ‘USA! USA! USA!’ ‘Thank you, everybody,” the president said, sporting one of the white ‘USA’ caps that are being sold on his campaign website for $40. ‘I just want to say: We love you. You are special…. What a crowd. What a turnout.’”
Politico: “It was a presidential trip to a deluged state where the president didn’t meet a single storm victim, see an inch of rain or get near a flooded street.”
President Trump “is set to kick off his sales pitch on tax reform Wednesday with a speech in Missouri as he seeks to rally the public behind one of his top legislative priorities,” The Hill reports.
“The White House said that the address is not expected to delve into policy details, including specific tax rates. Instead, Trump is expected to make the case for why he believes changes to the tax code are needed to give people a better chance of achieving the American Dream.”
Jonathan Swan: “Even though Trump’s early tax plans largely follow Republican orthodoxy — major, across-the-board tax cuts — he’ll be selling it like Huey Long. The way White House officials tell it, Trump will describe how he’ll ‘un-rig’ the economy, resurrect ‘Main Street’ and end ‘the special interest loopholes that have only benefited the wealthy and powerful few.'”
Washington Post: “Advocates hoped to build a steady drumbeat of support over the August recess. Instead, the cheerleader-in-chief spent the month ripping open a painful national wound over race while antagonizing his would-be Republican allies on Capitol Hill… A presidential signing ceremony this year now looks remote at best. One presidential address won’t repair the damage.”
Politico: “Interviews with six White House staffers and people close to the president attribute Trump’s shrinking West Wing to three factors: chief of staff John Kelly’s careful review process, which has led to the paring down of an organization that many inside have complained was top-heavy; the chilling factor of five open-ended Russia investigations hanging over the White House, making it hard to attract new talent; and the president’s own dark mood this summer, which has left him increasingly isolated and in the mood to hunker down, not hire up.”
Playbook: “One of the new leading theories among Senate and House Republicans in Washington is that Congress will combine a three-month stopgap spending bill to keep the government open, the first installment of hurricane relief for Texas and Louisiana and an increase of the federal debt limit. The idea is this package would create an undefeatable constituency across the Capitol.”
Military Times: “Transgender troops can continue to serve pending a study and recommendation from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the Defense Department announced Tuesday. The DoD has received Trump’s memorandum on transgender service members and will implement the president’s policy direction, according to a prepared statement from Mattis.”
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.