“Tariffs are back — and they couldn’t come at a worse time for the GOP,” Politico reports.
”Some Republicans fear the eye-popping new levies President Donald Trump threatened to slap on Canada and generic drug makers this week will aggravate Americans who were already blaming the tariffs for stubborn inflation ahead of a midterm election dominated by economic issues.”
“When President Dwight D. Eisenhower went to the United Nations in 1953 to offer countries nuclear technology and know-how in return for a promise to use them peacefully, the policy went by a memorable shorthand, ‘Atoms for Peace.’ Seven decades later, it could go by a less idealistic name: nuclear hedging,” the New York Times reports.
“President Trump’s civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, announced this week, reflects a volatile world in which America’s allies are seeking nuclear capabilities to hedge against predatory neighbors, harmful energy disruptions and the shrinking security umbrella of the United States. It also reflects a White House, hungry for lucrative deals for American companies, that is willing to loosen nonproliferation standards for a favored partner in a dangerous region.”
“A little-known court tasked with handling highly sensitive deportation cases against alleged alien terrorists has laid dormant since its 1996 creation, lacking even a website for tracking any proceedings before it,” CNN reports.
“But this month, the Alien Terrorist Removal Court sprung to life with a first-of-its-kind case filed by the Trump administration as it reaches for new deportation tactics.”
“For 30 years, a rotating set of judges assigned to the court have sat ready to hear any cases brought to it. Yet never before has the federal government thought it had a case that required the court – or was worth the risk of testing the constitutionality of its controversial procedures.”
“The number of Senate-confirmed officials who have left their roles in the Trump administration is more than double the amount of departures at this point of President Trump’s first term,” NewsNation reports.
“The Trump administration is back at war. It just doesn’t want to admit it,” The Atlantic reports.
“In the 11 days since the United States resumed its air strikes against Iran, neither President Trump nor any other senior administration official has publicly addressed the campaign. U.S. forces began by striking Iranian military facilities but later expanded to attacking civilian infrastructure that the administration says is being used for military purposes.”
“As of today, congressional officials had yet to receive classified briefings on the latest phase of the war, aides told us.”
“Melania Trump urged a federal court earlier this week to sanction journalist Michael Wolff, after he unsuccessfully sued the first lady in an effort to thwart a $1 billion defamation lawsuit,” the New York Post reports.
David Graham: “Every politician does some pandering, but few do it as clumsily, or with such evident disdain for their own supporters, as the vice president.”
“A Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance’s security detail is under internal review and has been put on administrative leave after being suspected of leaking information for a news story that included details about Vance’s travel,” CNN reports.
“A second source confirmed officials had identified a person believed to have been leaking information about Vance.”
“The stakes of the Iran war are becoming increasingly stark, and President Donald Trump was confronted with the latest evidence today when he traveled to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to pay his respects to four American soldiers killed in the line of duty,” Bloomberg reports.
“What was supposed to be a relatively brief military incursion, undertaken alongside Israel, is headed toward its sixth month. And now, at least 18 U.S. service members have died in a war waged by a president who railed against America’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan during past campaigns.”
CNN: Trump greets the fallen as he faces a decision point on Iran.
“The Trump administration is split over how to respond to the rapid rise of China’s leading AI models, according to multiple people familiar with deliberations,” Wired reports.
“The debate is broadly divided between parts of the White House, which has pushed for stricter controls on Chinese AI that may soon rival the most powerful U.S. models, and the Commerce Department, which has viewed those restrictions as unworkable.”
“President Donald Trump is comparing the death toll from the war in Iran to several past wars in what appears to be an attempt to downplay the rising number of fatalities,” ABC News reports.
“Via posts on his social media platform, Trump displayed the number of fatalities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam and Korea — multi-year conflicts that cost thousands of American lives — alongside statistics from the Iran war, a four-month conflict in which 18 Americans have been killed.”
“Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is ramping up immigration arrests, ending a spring lull that followed the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens by federal agents,” Bloomberg reports.
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made 16,213 arrests during the first 11 days of July for a daily average of more than 1,400, according to federal records. That came after a daily average of more than 1,300 in June, when the monthly total of almost 40,000 set a record for President Donald Trump’s second term.”
“The U.S. is surging forces, medics and weaponry to the Middle East to give President Trump more muscular military options as he considers expanding the conflict against Iran, according to people familiar with the matter,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In the past week, special-operations forces have deployed to the region from their U.S. bases, according to flight-tracking data and U.S. officials. Squadrons of jet fighters have been staged across the Middle East, and bomber aircraft at bases in the U.S. and U.K. are on high alert to ramp up operations, according to one of the officials.”
“Oil prices rose Wednesday after President Donald Trump threatened again to bomb Iranian bridges and power plants and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tehran was not serious about reaching a deal to end the fighting,” CNBC reports.
“President Trump on Wednesday took aim at Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and what he called ‘communist’ Democrats during his speech in the Peach State, calling him ‘terrible’ and likening him to the comedic character Pee-Wee Herman,” NewsNation reports.
Said Trump: “Jon Ossoff and the Democrat communists want to let the Marxists into power, bankrupt your families, and leave you totally undefended with wide open borders. But we will not let that happen to our country.”
Fox News Poll: “President Donald Trump’s job approval remains near a record low, more Democrats are motivated to vote, Republicans join Democrats and independents in rating the economy negatively, and 4 in 10 voters want ‘dramatic’ or ‘revolutionary’ change.”
“Plus, more view the GOP as tied to elites than the Democratic Party.”
New York Times: “Dating back to the first Trump administration, members of the Trump family have faced criticism for mixing business with politics. But what sets apart the latest moves by Donald Trump Jr. is how he and Mr. Malik, through 1789 Capital, are cashing in on the policies of the current administration openly and without apology.”
“Many of the companies that 1789 has invested in have large government contracts while others, like Polymarket, have benefited directly from new Trump policies or rollbacks of existing laws. The firm bought shares in some of the most coveted private companies before many went public, including SpaceX, Anduril, Cerebras and Reflection AI, often by leveraging their political and business connections to secure a stake or to help boost the companies’ sales.”
“Just two years ago, 1789 managed a few hundred million dollars. It now oversees more than $3 billion. Its main investment fund generated returns of roughly 200 percent as of June 30, according to a person familiar with the firm’s performance.”
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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