“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accepted $4 million in book advances and more than $270,000 in gifts over the past year from close allies who are working to advance his Make America Healthy Again agenda,” the New York Times reports.
“Ethics experts said the financial relationships may violate federal rules barring officials from profiting from their government position, and call into question the secretary’s ability to remain independent and impartial.”
According to Forbes, President Trump’s net worth hit $7 billion in 2026.
That’s more than triple where it was in early 2024.
“The Trump administration is preparing a plan to ban exports of diesel for 90 days, despite splits inside the administration and with the oil industry, in a bid to bring down energy prices weighing on Republicans leading into the midterms,” Politico reports.
“A few weeks ago, Europeans were so incensed that a Russian official was invited to the G-20 finance minister’s meeting in North Carolina that they refused to participate in a group photo with him,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Well, that standoff was nothing compared with what might be coming.”
“The Trump administration has invited Russian Putin Vladimir Putin to the Group of 20 meeting in December at the Trump National Doral Miami resort.”
Washington Post: Trump invites Putin to this year’s G-20 summit in Florida.
Nate Silver notes that President Trump’s net approval now at -22.4 percentage points, lower than at any point in his two terms — even after the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
By comparison, he was at -11.6 percentage points at this point in the 2018 midterm elections.
Harry Enten: “A brand new CNN poll shows President Trump at an all time low in his approval rating… look at his net approval rating now with pure independents — it’s negative 71 points! I mean, these are the deep depths of the ocean. You never see numbers like these. An 86 point shift away from the president!”
“President Donald Trump has spent the last 20-plus months thumbing his nose at conflicts of interest,” CNN reports.
“And yet, corruption isn’t generally considered to be among Trump’s biggest political problems.”
“But Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding could be changing that dynamic somewhat — to the point where even some Republican senators are finding the stench difficult to ignore.”
“Fox News’s bond with President Trump is undeniable. Prime time stars like Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters cheerlead his policies, the president’s daughter-in-law hosts a weekly show on the network, and Fox’s founder, Rupert Murdoch, attended Mr. Trump’s nominating convention in 2024,” the New York Times reports.
“Nonetheless, this week Fox News has joined other networks in standing up for the rival media outlets that Mr. Trump decried as ‘fake’ and banned from the White House — and two senior Fox journalists emerged as lead actors in the White House press corps’s standoff with the administration.”
“President Donald Trump’s AI-fueled vision for a drone port he intends to install atop the new White House ballroom includes missile-bearing unmanned aerial vehicles and gun-toting troops, ostensibly to protect the 18-acre complex and the nation’s capital,” the Associated Press reports.
“A few hundred feet away, a drone port, run by the U.S. Secret Service and not the military, is already quietly operational.”
“Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke before the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, even as his country remains at war with the United States and a day after President Donald Trump threatened in a speech before the same body to ‘annihilate’ Iran,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Pezeshkian: “Iran must be powerful so as to avoid being threatened, to avoid its future being threatened.”
“He’s doing the best that he can.”
— Melania Trump, on Fox & Friends, when asked how she thinks her husband is doing as president.
“First lady Melania Trump revealed Wednesday that a two-part docuseries offering an intimate look at her life and responsibilities inside the White House will be released later this year,” the New York Post reports.
Said Trump: “It’s more conversation one on one with me. There’s some private questions that I will answer that people never heard before, so it’s kind of exciting.”
“The Trump administration is holding back Covid vaccines for all children in at least 11 states and one U.S. territory, and officials have not indicated when or whether the shots will become available,” The Guardian reports.
“It’s the latest step by top officials to restrict vaccines in America – and it sets a precedent for holding back other immunizations.”
“American oil executives thought they had won their fight to persuade Washington to keep diesel shipments flowing. Then, President Trump spoke up,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, he said he is considering restricting diesel exports. Prices have climbed to record levels ahead of the midterm elections in November, threatening some of the president’s Republican allies in Congress. Diesel is used by commercial truckers, farmers and others to move everything from groceries to electronic gadgets to the market.”
“Trump’s support for the idea blindsided industry officials.”
“The U.S. and China are in an AI arms race. But don’t expect a grand bargain out of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s three-day trip to Washington,” Politico reports.
Said one former Trump administration official: “There isn’t a deal to be had on AI. There’s not. This is not realistic, and I don’t know that there ever will be.”
“Iran has pushed back on claims that it dropped former preconditions for reopening the strait of Hormuz in surprise talks held in New York under the mediation of Qatar between Tehran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner,” The Guardian reports.
“Trump said the three-hour talks held in a room at the UN headquarters had gone very well and been very productive. He suggested further talks were possible imminently, which led to the price of a barrel of Brent crude to fall to below $100 (£75) for the first time in two weeks. Witkoff said the talks had been ‘encouraging, constructive and successful.'”
A new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds President Donald Trump’s approval at 33%, while 63% disapprove.
The same poll finds Democrats leading Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, 52% to 42%.
“Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted his upcoming trip to the U.S. to be categorized as a ‘state visit,’ the highest tier of diplomatic pageantry. The designation would come with honor guards, a 21-gun salute and a formal welcome on the White House South Lawn,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“When he arrives Wednesday, Xi will get his way, but reaching an agreement took weeks of work.”
“The two sides sparred over what to call the trip before Washington agreed to Beijing’s requests, said people involved in the preparations, marking this the first state visit for the Chinese leader in more than a decade. That quiet fight over a label, more than anything likely to be announced in Washington this week, captures what this summit is really about.”
“The Trump administration says Americans should prepare between now and Election Day for a wave of new arrests and prosecutions over alleged non-citizen voter fraud,” Axios reports.
“The Trump administration is deploying hundreds of federal investigators and attorneys to pursue President Trump’s long-running fixation — and test a broader Republican claim that tougher enforcement will uncover far more illegal voting.”
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.