“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will not be the next AI czar, President Donald Trump announced Friday, leaving the coveted White House role open as the AI industry’s rapid development becomes a leading policy issue in Washington,” the Washington Sun reports.
Axios: Inside Trump’s “super intelligence” naming problem.
“Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his state visit to Washington on Friday by announcing that he expects to meet President Donald Trump two more times before the end of the year, doubling the number of face-to-face discussions between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies in 2026,” the Associated Press reports.
“The promise of more meetings to come capped off a three-day state visit that has been criticized by some in the U.S. for being heavy on pomp and light on substance, though Trump said they discussed the war in Iran.”
Bloomberg: Trump claims productive meeting with Xi but offers no details.
“ICE has received more than $75 billion to expand operations since President Trump returned to office — and wasted millions on scaled-back and mismanaged projects, a new GAO report found,” Axios reports.
“In rushing to execute Trump’s mass deportation agenda, the agency failed to properly develop a strategic plan.”
“The U.S. network video pool for the White House was back in operation Friday, for the first time since President Donald Trump banned three news outlets in a high-profile showdown over media access,” the Washington Sun reports.
MS NOW: White House allows CNN back into TV pool after blocking some journalists hours earlier.
“My Trump sources say the president’s worst nightmare imaginable has arrived… panicked texts and emails from GOP insiders are blowing up my phone. They’re all saying the same thing.”
— Mark Halperin, writing in the Daily Mail.
“Pope Leo XIV told reporters they were welcome to cover him, as he responded to the Trump administration’s attempt to bar U.S. media from the White House and affirmed the importance of journalists covering public figures,” the Associated Press reports.
“The Trump administration has been quietly holding talks with China about its rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal amid doubts over Beijing’s compliance with a 30-year test ban,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“President Donald Trump said he had a ‘very productive meeting’ with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, but provided no details on any potential deals or breakthroughs from their discussions,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “Tremendous things will be happening.”
Bloomberg: Trump-Xi summit small on substance, big on pomp.
“President Trump blasted CNN and MS Now on Thursday over their coverage of his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which did not include live video coverage and came as a federal judge reinstated the outlets’ White House access,” NewsNation reports.
Said Trump: “The event was magnificent — Actually made for Television but, because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to ‘TRUMP,’ they refused to be there.”
Deadline: CNN says it was denied Trump White House access to cover arrivals at state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Tom Nichols: “Summits are a problem in this administration for two reasons. The most important is that Trump’s unpredictability and obvious lack of preparation make them dangerous. State visits require a lot of political groundwork, and leaders rarely go into top-level meetings without a set of issues they’ve already agreed to discuss. This agenda-setting gets done long before a president actually sits down with another head of state so that stray asides (or rising tempers) do not derail whatever business needs to be discussed.”
“The grim outcomes of previous summits with Trump, however, suggest that they are seat-of-the-pants affairs, with little preparation, or perhaps with preparation that was ignored by the president.”
“The most effective escalation of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign happened quietly,” the New York Times reports.
“Unlike earlier high-profile raids that drew thousands of protesters into the streets of Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, the surge in arrests in June, July and August was captured mostly by grainy security camera footage, through cracked blinds and from behind closed doors.”
“Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this summer soared to record highs since the start of this Trump administration — with 43,000 in June, more than 49,000 in July and nearly 51,000 in August — as officials cut or narrowed the pathways to legal residency in the United States and expanded the pool of people eligible for deportation.”
“Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has reportedly shared a Washington, D.C. home with Rep. Jason Smith for three years, renewing speculation about the two men,” the Advocate reports.
“Mullin, a former professional fighter, met Smith, the Missouri Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, while leading bipartisan congressional workouts, The New York Times reported in 2014. The workouts also included former Rep. Aaron Schock, an Illinois Republican who came out as gay after leaving Congress.”
“Efforts to rekindle talks to end the war between the U.S. and Iran are running into resistance from major Persian Gulf oil producers that have swung against any accommodation of Tehran,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Gulf countries generally agree that Trump shouldn’t escalate militarily against Iran. But oil kingpin Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are lobbying the Trump administration to keep up the economic pressure on Iran and not agree to concessions that would ease sanctions or the U.S. Navy blockade.”
A new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds 46% of Americans say their own life is worse off than four years ago, and just 25% say it’s better.
“When we asked respondents the same question about conditions in the country as a whole, 58% say they are worse off: 40% much worse, 18% somewhat. Just 24% say better.”
“When China’s leader, Xi Jinping, traveled to the United States in 2015 for his first state visit, he brought a delegation of Chinese chief executives to meet their American counterparts,” the New York Times reports.
“Disputes over human rights, cyberattacks and trade were straining relations. But Washington and Beijing still shared an undeniable common interest: making money in each other’s markets.”
“A decade later, the contrast with this week’s summit between President Trump and Mr. Xi could not be more stark. No prominent Chinese chief executives attended Thursday night’s state dinner at the White House.”
“The diesel export ban that President Donald Trump is mulling in a bid to bring down record-high prices would backfire in two ways — further dividing Hill Republicans while risking even pricier gasoline,” Semafor reports.
“It’s not clear that the Trump administration will impose diesel export limits, which the president said this week that he’d explore as average national prices push past $6.50 per gallon. If Trump does push ahead, his main cheerleaders will be GOP candidates in tight races this fall who are eager to market more ideas to lower costs before the midterms.”
“But most congressional Republicans want nothing to do with the idea, no matter how close they are with the administration.”
New York Times: Why a U.S. diesel export ban may not lower prices.
New York Times: “Mr. Trump — known for inviting world leaders to his private clubs — has hosted only four state dinners across his two terms. Joe Biden hosted six. Ronald Reagan holds the record with 59.”
“Mr. Trump’s first state dinner came over a year into his first presidency, when he shared a kiss on the cheek and racks of lamb with President Emmanuel Macron of France in a relationship that has since soured.”
“CNN and MS NOW were denied entry to cover a state dinner at the White House Thursday night despite a federal judge ordering that their access be restored,” The Wrap reports.
“President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a state dinner at the White House on Thursday night. When reporters from the outlets attempted to cover arrivals at the event, officials from the Trump administration told them they were not allowed to do so.”
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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