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Donald Trump’s Shutdown Power Play

October 2, 2025 at 9:23 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Susan Glasser: “During Donald Trump’s first term, the President’s demand that Congress fund his proposed wall on the Mexican border led to the longest shutdown in history—thirty-five days, from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019. In the end, Trump caved, agreeing to reopen the government even without the nearly six billion dollars in border-wall funding that he had demanded.”

“This capitulation was initially portrayed as a triumph for the new Democratic majority under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a stinging defeat for Trump… but it was not. It was, in fact, a moment of revelation in which he realized that he could do just about anything he wanted. In the end, Trump got his border-wall money. He simply went ahead and took it. The history of the Presidency may never be the same.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy, White House

Florida Transfers Land for Trump Presidential Library

September 30, 2025 at 1:28 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state elected officials Tuesday moved ahead with an ambitious plan to deliver prime downtown Miami real estate that will be the location of President Donald Trump’s presidential library,” Politico reports.

“The quick and unanimous vote caps off a mostly off-the-radar transaction pieced together quickly and not widely known about until last week, when Miami Dade College voted to transfer the land over to the state.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

DeSantis Offers Miami Land for Trump Presidential Library

September 23, 2025 at 2:43 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump’s future presidential library appears set to land in South Florida,” Politico reports.

“Top officials in the Florida Cabinet and the governor will vote next week on offering land in the heart of downtown Miami to house the state’s first-ever presidential library center.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

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Who Is the Heir to the MAGA Movement?

August 9, 2025 at 10:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “Republicans are looking ahead to the end of the president’s transformative political tenure with trepidation, unsure whether the GOP’s rising stars can keep hold of the movement that Trump has commanded for the past decade. Trump is in no hurry to choose a successor, as he considers the full bench of ambitious Republicans who are vying for the job and his approval… He thinks the next Republican standard-bearer should have to earn the job.”

“Another reason for the reluctance to discuss a successor: Trump, who has publicly toyed with serving a third term in violation of the Constitution, isn’t thinking about life beyond the White House and doesn’t like contemplating the end of his political career.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

Trump Sons Launch Vehicle to Capitalize on U.S. Policy

August 4, 2025 at 11:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr are backing a new blank check investment vehicle potentially positioned to capitalize on U.S. policy, marking the latest push into public markets by the president’s family,” the Financial Times reports.

“New America Acquisition I Corp will target a company in the U.S. that plays ‘a meaningful role in revitalizing domestic manufacturing, expanding innovation ecosystems, and strengthening critical supply chains,’ the group said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy, White House

Trump Shooting Fueled Beliefs in Divine Right of MAGA

July 13, 2025 at 6:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “There were already whispers of messianism among some of Trump’s supporters, such as the QAnon offshoot called Negative 48 whose members frequented his rallies in 2022. Trump has long claimed that God was on his movement’s side, and attendees at Trump rallies have routinely described the events in spiritual terms.”

“But after the assassination attempt, many of his followers — and most notably Trump himself — more explicitly cast him as a divine instrument.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

Why Politics Is So Insanely Complicated in 2025

June 28, 2025 at 8:54 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Ed Kilgore: “Every major news story in the past week had one thing in common: none of it was remotely simple or easy to explain. The basic facts surrounding the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities were obscured by walls of secrecy and spin. The New York mayoral primary was hard to predict thanks to the city’s complex ranked choice voting system and the byzantine alliances and rivalries it spawned. And above all, the domestic governance of the country continued to be snarled in arcane judicial, congressional, and executive branch procedures.”

“Systemic chaos and confusion have been the reigning leifmotif of the second Trump presidency. If your grasp of the way government is supposed to work is based on Schoolhouse Rock or social studies lessons on ‘how a bill becomes law,’ the last five months or so must have been baffling to you. It’s not an accident, either: Donald Trump’s ways of doing business make the normal business practices of the public sector all but impossible.”

Filed Under: Trends, Trump Legacy

Eric Trump Says He Might Run for President

June 28, 2025 at 7:42 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Eric Trump has hinted that he or another of the Trump family could run for president when his father’s second term in the White House comes to an end,” The Guardian reports.

Said Trump: “The real question is: ‘Do you want to drag other members of your family into it?… Would I want my kids to live the same experience over the last decade that I’ve lived?”

He added: “You know, if the answer was yes, I think the political path would be an easy one, meaning, I think I could do it. And by the way, I think other members of our family could do it too.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

Ten Years of Trump

June 17, 2025 at 11:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Charlie Sykes: “Conventional political analyses do not come close to describing the way our world has been turned on its head. Yes, the GOP lost its spine and its balls; Democrats flailed; the electorate realigned. The entertainment wing of the GOP routed the establishment. Much of the rest of the media has been enshittified.”

“But that really doesn’t capture the velocity or the scope of the transformation. It’s not just our politics. America has become dumber, crueler, crazier, and more violent. To much of the rest of the world, we have become unrecognizable.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

‘The Age of Trump’ Enters Its Second Decade

June 16, 2025 at 5:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “It has been 10 years now, as of Monday, since Donald Trump descended to the lobby of his namesake tower to announce his campaign for president. Ten years of jaw-dropping, woke-busting, scandal-defying, status quo-smashing politics that have transformed America for good or ill in profoundly fundamental ways.”

“In those 10 years, Mr. Trump has come to define his age in a way rarely seen in America, more so than any president of the past century other than Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, even though he has never had anywhere near their broad public support.”

“Somehow the most unpopular president in the history of polling has translated the backing of a minority of Americans into the most consequential political force of modern times, rewriting all of the rules along the way.”

Aaron Blake: The 10 biggest ways Trump has changed our politics.

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

Ten Years of Trump

June 16, 2025 at 6:11 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “It’s 10 years to the day that Trump descended that famous golden elevator in New York’s Trump Tower and announced he was running for president. That slow ride down, that first boisterous, rambling press conference; other surreal moments that were met with shrugs of amusement at the time but can now be seen as a turning point in America’s history.”

“Trump has dominated the decade that followed — unpredictable, inescapable, among the most consequential political figures of our lives. Nobody saw it coming.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

Trump Wants His Presidential Library Set in Florida

June 5, 2025 at 5:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump is considering the campus of Florida Atlantic University for a presidential library, on a site where he has been offered free land, as planning begins for the MAGA mecca he eschewed during his first term,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“After leaving office in 2020, Trump refused to give serious consideration to a library and focused instead on his political comeback. Aides said there was an unspoken rule not to talk about a presidential library because it would signal Trump’s political career was over. Having achieved his return to the White House, he now wants a Trump-size presidential center to commemorate his time at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

Trump Begins Plans for a Presidential Library

May 24, 2025 at 10:57 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“With a $400 million luxury jet waiting in the wings and a $37 million check in hand − thanks to settlements from Meta and ABC− President Donald Trump’s future presidential library plan is ready for take off,” USA Today reports.

“All it needs is a nonprofit − or two − to get it off the ground.”

“To that end, Trump’s son Eric and son-in-law Michael Boulos have filed paperwork establishing a nonprofit to raise money for the library.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy, White House

Pence Receives Profile in Courage Award

May 5, 2025 at 6:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly invoked the Constitution and said it is what “binds us all together” after receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, the AP reports.

The award recognized Pence “for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Filed Under: Democracy, Trump Legacy

Flashback Quote of the Day

April 6, 2025 at 5:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed — and we will deserve it.”

— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on X, in May 2016.

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

Canadian Senator Challenges Don Jr. to Boxing Match

March 7, 2025 at 4:28 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Canadian Sen. Patrick Brazeau challenged Donald Trump Jr. to a charity boxing match over the “bogus” tariffs implemented this week by his father, President Trump, The Hill reports.

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

The Most Extraordinary Meetings of Trump’s Presidency

February 28, 2025 at 5:29 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

If you had to pick just three meetings that have defined Donald Trump’s presidency, they all have one thing in common: Vladimir Putin.

Let’s review:

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Filed Under: Members, Trump Legacy

Musk Called Trump a ‘Fucking Moron’ at 2020 Meeting 

February 26, 2025 at 7:55 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic began in the United States in 2020, Musk traveled to Washington to meet with Trump about building a Tesla gigafactory in Mexico instead of Texas — a plan Trump had caught wind of and had invited Musk to the West Wing to discuss.”

“Before the meeting, Musk and an associate met with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then were hosted by Tim Pataki, who served as assistant to the president and the deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. A person who was within earshot of Musk later recounted that Musk called Trump ‘a fucking moron’ behind his back while in the White House.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

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About Political Wire

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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