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Republicans Get Ready to Walk the Plank

June 23, 2025 at 10:14 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Senate Republicans are aiming to vote this week on what President Trump has dubbed his “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” but public opinion is firmly against it—and growing worse.

A series of new polls show the legislation is deeply unpopular with voters across the political spectrum:

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Filed Under: Members, Senate

Mixed Messages and Mission Creep

June 23, 2025 at 7:17 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth all delivered a carefully coordinated message on the Sunday talk shows: The U.S. airstrikes on Iran were not about regime change.

Said Vance: “We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”

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Filed Under: Foreign Affairs, Members

Can American Intelligence Be Trusted?

June 23, 2025 at 6:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress in March that the U.S. intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.”

It was a clear and direct statement, delivered under oath, about one of the most sensitive national security issues facing the country.

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Filed Under: Members, National Security


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Ranked-Choice Voting Is Not Undemocratic

June 22, 2025 at 2:55 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

There are legitimate criticisms of ranked-choice voting — it can confuse voters and doesn’t always guarantee a majority winner.

But Annie Lowrey’s critique — using this week’s New York City Democratic mayoral primary as her case study — misses the mark.

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Filed Under: Election Administration, Members

Some Early Thoughts on War with Iran

June 22, 2025 at 6:16 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump said the objective of the airstrikes in Iran last night was the “destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity.” He claimed success, saying in a televised address that the nuclear facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.”

Here are some early thoughts:

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Filed Under: Foreign Affairs, Members

A Deep Dive Into Two Senate Races

June 20, 2025 at 3:37 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Just for members: The latest edition of Inside Elections.

This issue is prime evidence that the most important races aren’t just the ones rated as a toss-up.

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Filed Under: Members

Democratic Anxiety Grows Over Party’s Cash Crunch

June 20, 2025 at 1:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

DNC Chair Ken Martin has just two main responsibilities: raise money and win elections.

Right now, he’s falling short on the first—and that could put the second at risk.

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Filed Under: Members

Weekly News Quiz

June 20, 2025 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

What a week… Israel is at war with Iran. The United States may soon be drawn in.

Back home, a sitting U.S. Senator was handcuffed at a press conference. A New York City mayoral candidate was arrested at an immigration hearing. A Minnesota state legislator was assassinated at her home.

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Filed Under: Members

We’re All Rubbernecking

June 20, 2025 at 6:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The latest episode of Trial Balloon is live for members.

It’s been 10 years since Donald Trump became a near permanent fixture in our lives… A MAGA civil war has broken out… And “objects may look closer than they appear” in New York City’s mayoral race.

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Filed Under: Members

The Presidency as Programming

June 19, 2025 at 12:13 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump conducts foreign policy as if it were a reality television show—with himself in the starring role and the global stage reduced to a set.

Every day is scripted like an episode: artificial suspense, breathless speculation, and a dramatic question hanging in the air: What will he do next?

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Filed Under: Members, White House

Trump Pretends Laws Don’t Exist

June 18, 2025 at 9:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump will sign an executive order this week that will once again delay the U.S. ban on TikTok.

That means he’s defying a bipartisan law passed by Congress last year.

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Filed Under: Members, White House

A Few Thoughts on Trump’s Saber-Rattling

June 18, 2025 at 2:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump on Tuesday dramatically escalated tensions with Iran, declaring that the U.S. now has “complete and total control of the skies over Iran” and demanding the country’s “unconditional surrender.”

The rhetoric came as reports swirled that the U.S. was inching closer to joining Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran.

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Filed Under: Members

Trump Gets Rolled Again

June 17, 2025 at 4:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Donald Trump may project strength, but the defining feature of his presidency is weakness.

He’s routinely overruled — by courts, state officials and lawmakers in his own party. That shouldn’t be comforting to his critics. A president this easy to manipulate is a national vulnerability.

The latest example: Trump carved out exceptions in his mass deportation policy for the agriculture and hospitality sectors following pushback from business groups and their Republican allies.

But this week, the carve-outs suddenly vanished.

It appears Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins initially persuaded Trump to protect those industries — only for hardliner Stephen Miller to reverse course behind the scenes.

The infighting is revealing, but it misses the point.

The real story isn’t which adviser won the latest round. The real story is Trump got played again.

Filed Under: Members

Weekly News Quiz

June 13, 2025 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

There have been some big and important stories this week. But did you miss the smaller ones?

Take this week’s quiz…

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Filed Under: Members

Raptors at the Door

June 13, 2025 at 6:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The latest episode of Trial Balloon is live for members.

What is Trump trying to do — and can he be stopped?

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Filed Under: Members

Trump Projects Strength as Poll Reveals Weakness

June 12, 2025 at 1:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump is trying to flex power by deploying federalized National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles — but a new Quinnipiac poll underscores just how little support he actually commands.

Just 38% of registered voters approve of Trump’s job performance, while 54% disapprove — numbers that expose a presidency still mired in deep unpopularity.

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Filed Under: Members, White House

Trump’s Authoritarian Push Is Not Inevitable

June 11, 2025 at 2:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump’s latest moves to wield military power against American citizens mark a chilling escalation — the kind of authoritarian turn long feared but now unmistakably underway.

Yet it’s crucial to remember: Trump is not a strongman in the traditional sense.

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Filed Under: Members, White House

Trump’s Chaos Isn’t a Cover

June 10, 2025 at 7:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

There’s a long-running theory that President Trump deliberately floods the news cycle with outrage after outrage to distract from more dangerous moves happening beneath the surface.

But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the flood of tell-all memoirs and insider accounts from his first term, it’s this: there was no grand strategy — just chaos.

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Filed Under: Members

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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