“It’s been nearly four months since Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and President Trump made a handshake deal to resolve trade tensions between their economies,” the New York Times reports.
“But details of the trade pact have proven contentious — and they will be up for debate again this week, when American trade officials visit their counterparts in Brussels.”
New York Times: “Letters from the FBI landed this month in the mailboxes of California’s political class, notifying recipients that their phone calls and text messages were captured on a wiretap last year. The unwelcome correspondence began to arrive almost immediately after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff was indicted on 23 felony charges.”
“Democratic politicians and activists are quietly lobbying to upend the way the party picks its presidential nominee by urging the use of ranked-choice voting,” Axios reports.
“Supporters of the change — which would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference — told those at a DNC breakfast gathering in D.C. that it would strengthen and unite the party.“
“Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has retreated from the national stage in recent months, privately expressing ambivalence about running for president in 2028 — moves that have stunned many top Democrats,” Axios reports.
“Eager to get an edge in the wide-open 2028 field, potential Democratic hopefuls have spent much of this year hopping across national media, spending big to build digital followings, weighing in on debates, hiring experienced operatives and traveling to early primary states.”
“Whitmer has done little of that since last spring.”
“A civil war is brewing between two heavy-hitting Democratic super PACs in the run-up to the next presidential election,” Axios reports.
“The battle will help determine how hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in the 2028 campaign.”
“It also represents a divide among Democrats over how best to reach voters — whether to emphasize highly tested TV and digital ads aimed at a broad audience, or a more instinctual, risk-taking approach in an effort to break through online.”
“President Trump is expected to announce, as early as Monday, a general framework to address health care costs, calling on Congress to send a bill to his desk that would halt Affordable Care Act premium spikes,” MS NOW reports.
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday the U.S. was not at risk of entering a recession in 2026 and claimed Americans would soon benefit from the Trump administration’s economic policies on trade and taxes,” CNBC reports.
Said Bessent: “I am very, very optimistic on 2026. We have set the table for a very strong, noninflationary growth economy.”
“I think it would go down, frankly, as a historically bad deal, rivaling Neville Chamberlain giving in to Hitler before World War II.”
— Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), on Fox News, on President Trump’s proposed peace deal for Ukraine.
President Trump has yet to follow through on his threat to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on Canadian imports, four weeks after he halted “all trade negotiations” over an anti-tariff ad the province of Ontario ran during the World Series, Politico reports.
New York Times: “The environmental rollbacks came one after the next this week, potentially affecting everything from the survival of rare whales to the health of the Hudson River…”
“If the Trump administration’s proposals [to narrow the Clean Water Act, change the Endangered Species Act and expand offshore oil and gas drilling] are finalized and upheld in court, they could reshape U.S. environmental policy for years to come, environmental lawyers and activists said.”
“Kyrsten Sinema’s old enemies on the left better brace themselves: The former senator is now embracing psychedelics and cozying up to MAHA,” Politico reports.
“After infuriating progressives time and again for stonewalling their priorities, the Arizona Democrat-turned-Independent decided not to seek reelection last year and instead became a senior adviser at the law and lobbying firm Hogan Lovells. She’s since taken up the cause of psychedelic medicine — pro bono, she says.”
“Her drug of choice? Ibogaine, a psychedelic derived from an African shrub, and which she went down to Mexico to try for herself. She and other advocates want ibogaine studied in state-funded clinical trials and eventually hope to win Food and Drug Administration approval of the drug as a mental health treatment.”
A new CBS News poll finds 68% disapprove of President Trump’s handling of inflation and the economy.
The entire poll is brutal:
“President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate, ending an initiative launched with fanfare as a symbol of Trump’s pledge to slash the government’s size but which critics say delivered few measurable savings,” Reuters reports.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said that he still believes President Trump is a “fascist” and a “despot,” but he viewed their first face-to-face meeting at the White House on Friday as an “opportunity” to work together on lowering the cost of living for New Yorkers, NBC News reports.
Said Mamdani: “That’s something I’ve said in the past and I say today. And I think what I appreciated about the conversation that I had with the president was that we were not shy about the places of disagreement, about the politics that has brought us to this moment, and we also wanted to focus on what it could look like to deliver on a shared analysis of an affordability crisis for New Yorkers.”
President Trump again lambasted the six Democratic lawmakers who urged military and intelligence members to “refuse illegal orders,” saying in a late night Truth Social post the lawmakers“SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW,” Mediaite reports.
He added: “MANY GREAT LEGAL SCHOLARS AGREE.”
“For years, Jewish Republicans often denied that the right had a serious problem with antisemitism, pointing instead to anti-Jewish bigotry on the left and celebrating President Trump’s support for Israel,” the New York Times reports.
“But now that problem is staring them directly in the face.”
“Tensions over antisemitism in the party, free speech and Israel have burst to the forefront of G.O.P. politics, and show signs of becoming a fierce point of contention in 2026 primary races and beyond.”
Ron Brownstein: “The latest ideas from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to reconfigure the Affordable Care Act face the same dilemma that every GOP alternative has confronted since Trump’s first term: The plan would impose its greatest costs on key groups within the Trump-era Republican electoral coalition.”
“With the approaching expiration of enhanced subsidies that help Americans buy insurance through the ACA, Republicans are staring down the political threat of large premium hikes for up to 20 million people and the loss of coverage for millions more. In response, Trump and key congressional Republicans have proposed to convert all or part of the ACA subsidies into direct payments to individuals to pay for health care.”
“That approach could initially benefit younger and healthier consumers. But most experts agree it would increase costs and diminish access for older, lower-income and non-college-educated people with greater health needs. And those older, working-class families are now more essential to the Republican than Democratic electoral coalition.”
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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