President Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “father of IVF,” on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at expanding access to in vitro fertilization, NOTUS reports.
The order specifically “directs” recommendations to protect IVF access that the White House said would “aggressively” reduce costs for patients seeking the treatment.
New internal Democratic polling finds Elon Musk’s approval rating is upside down, 43% to 51%, and his favorability is even worse, 42% to 51%.
President Donald Trump says he has opened the letter former President Joe Biden left for him in Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, calling it “very nice” and suggesting he might make it public, ABC News reports.
New York Times: “The dozens of major donors who are coming to Washington for inauguration weekend include some who paid big money to get seats for the swearing-in on Monday. The Rotunda at the Capitol is much smaller than the National Mall, of course, and so some of them tell me they’re expecting to be shuffled instead over to a watch party at Capital One Arena.”
“A select group of the very biggest donors most likely will make it into the Capitol; others may end up in the arena’s suites. Expect there to be a lot of angling over the next 72 hours as donors try and get their money’s worth.”
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. ticked up this week to slightly above 7%, the highest level in eight months, the AP reports.
President-elect Donald Trump said Republicans would push to eliminate daylight saving time, calling it “inconvenient” and “costly,” The Hill reports.
Jonathan Bernstein: “United States Senators are really, really, old. There’s nothing wrong with some aging Senators; there’s something very out of whack when the more than half of them have reached 65.”
Anne Applebaum: “The former president is psychologically preparing Americans for an assault on the electoral system.”
“A wave of Donald Trump-focused books is due to crash upon the American public in 2025,” Status reports.
“Jonathan Karl, the ABC News chief Washington correspondent, is working on a book about the former president, due out next year, according to people familiar with the matter. Karl has spoken to Trump via phone on multiple occasions in recent months. He’s drawn on those conversations, which have occurred during key moments on the campaign trail, for reporting on ABC News, but will also surely reference them in his forthcoming book for Penguin Random House.”
“Karl joins a number of other prominent journalists who have inked deals to write about the former president, including: The New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan; The Washington Post‘s Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf; NBC News’ Jonathan Allen and The Hill‘s Amie Parnes; and Politico‘s Alex Isenstadt.”
“As Donald Trump and Kamala Harris feverishly chase undecided voters in the final stretch of the presidential campaign, millions of people in battleground states are being served ads on Facebook and Instagram from an obscure page calling itself The Daily Scroll,” CNN reports.
“The social media ads, which are adorned with a nondescript logo resembling a pair of checkmarks, have promoted news articles from mainstream outlets including CNN, ABC and NBC, showing easing US inflation, cheaper insulin prices, and the consequences of state abortion bans.”
“But the ads on Meta-owned platforms aren’t being paid for by any news outlet — they’re a product of Harris’ presidential campaign, which has spent heavily on social media platforms and embraced influencers to power her online efforts against Trump.”
Drew Harwell: “A sign of how challenging it’s become to promote news articles on social platforms: the Harris campaign is paying lots of money so that people can see factual information about slowing inflation, falling drug prices and abortion ban risks in their feeds.”
Montana U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy’s (R) book appears to contain four plagiarized portions, the Daily Montanan reports.
“It is not the first time the details of Sheehy’s life before politics have come under scrutiny for their truthfulness. Sheehy’s past, including a gunshot wound that may have been sustained in Glacier National Park, claims of parachute training over Glacier, and his business dealings including his aerial firefighting company, Bridger Aerospace, have come under fire.”
A campaign adviser tells Business North Carolina that gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson (R) “is expected to go on CNN today to defend himself regarding a pending story the national network is preparing.”
Said adviser Jason Williams: “I spoke to Mark this morning and he was prepared to go on CNN and defend himself against the allegations.”
Williams described the CNN story as a “hit piece,” while adding: “The main ones I remember were that they were alleging he made some extremely racist comments about Martin Luther King, referred to himself as a Black Nazi and used antisemitic language referring to Jews.”
Earlier reports suggested Robinson was being pressured to drop out of the governor’s race.
J.D. Vance filled in some of the gaps on Donald Trump’s “concepts of a plan” for health care over the weekend, but in doing so raised new questions about how a second Trump administration would handle pre-existing conditions, Semafor reports.
“White House officials are signaling that President Joe Biden will not imminently move to block Nippon Steel’s bid to acquire U.S. Steel amid mounting concerns over the political and economic consequences of nixing the deal,” the Washington Post reports.
Moments after the presidential debate ended tonight, the Harris campaign called for a second debate, CNN reports.
“President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will appear together on Monday in Pittsburgh to celebrate labor unions, a crucial mobilizing force for Democrats, at their first joint campaign event since Ms. Harris replaced Mr. Biden at the top of the ticket in July,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Biden has called himself the most pro-union president in history, and last year he became the first sitting president to visit a picket line.”
“Now Ms. Harris is hoping to adopt that pro-worker mantle for herself. As vice president, she led a task force examining the ways that the government could help expand union membership. But business leaders generally see her as friendlier to their interests and more flexible on policy than Mr. Biden.”
Associated Press: Harris looks to Biden for a boost in Pennsylvania as the two are set to attend a Labor Day parade.
“Donald Trump’s campaign was warned about not taking photographs before an altercation at Arlington National Cemetery during a wreath-laying ceremony earlier this week to honor service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal,” the AP reports.
“Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s revenge tour is sputtering to an end this week, with just one primary win to show for it,” Axios reports.
“McCarthy’s former colleagues complain he’s effectively lit millions of dollars on fire and made it harder for new leaders to do their jobs.”
“Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is expected to win easily on Tuesday despite a McCarthy-linked PAC spending more than $3 million against him.”
Said Gaetz: “McCarthy thinks about me a lot more than I think about him.”
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.