Political Wire (original) (raw)

“Iran and the U.S. have agreed on a peace deal, the two nations announced Sunday, a major breakthrough after nearly four months of fighting that created global political and economic turmoil,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Pakistani negotiators said a formal signing would come later this week… The official signing ceremony will be on Friday in Switzerland.”

“The United States and Iran have reached a deal to end months of fighting, according to President Donald Trump and the leader of Pakistan, which has been mediating the talks,” the Washington Post reports.

“There was no immediate confirmation from Iran.”

Wall Street Journal: “Trump said this deal, which Iran hasn’t yet confirmed it would agree to, will either be signed electronically by himself or Vice President JD Vance.”

Michelle Goldberg: “If you were cooking up an ideal 2028 candidate in a lab, he — and let’s face it, it’s probably a he — would look a lot like Ossoff. He’s young and handsome, with a picture-perfect family: a beautiful wife who works as an obstetrician-gynecologist and two small daughters. He’s a Southerner from a reddish state with a history of wooing Black voters. And he’s a Jewish critic of Israel who, as much as anyone in politics today, has the potential to bridge the Democratic Party’s agonizing divide over Zionism.”

“But the excitement Ossoff is generating is about more than demographics. It stems from his skill in eviscerating Trump’s gluttonous profiteering, his brazen attempts to turn this country into the most squalid sort of kleptocracy.”

Washington Post: “With the Democratic primary only days away, Washingtonians are wading through a last barrage of mass campaign mailings and television and social media ads as they prepare to elect new leaders to manage a mountain of political and economic challenges, the magnitude of which the city has not faced in more than a generation.”

“Adding to the uncertainty, residents are making their choices in a new way this year, with the city inaugurating ranked-choice voting, allowing voters to list in order of preference as many as five candidates for mayor and a slew of other offices.”

John Harris: “So there they are: three American presidents turning 80 this summer, old men by any measure. They have starkly different styles, temperaments and goals for their country. But they are united in some important ways. All in their own way and in their time were uncommonly talented politicians.”

“All three are also the preeminent representatives of the generation that trashed American politics.”

“Clinton, Bush and Trump surely hold significantly different measures of culpability for the squalor of American political culture. But all three children of 1946 are central characters in a decades-long descent in which Americans have been progressively more tribalistic in their political affiliations; ever-more coarse and insulting in public discourse; more mystified by and contemptuous of those who disagree; less trusting in government and most other establishment institutions, less confident in the country’s ability to reliably and rationally govern itself or fashion a consensus around solving long-term problems, or even to agree on the most basic standards of right and wrong.”

Politico: “A record number of groups are exploiting a gap in campaign finance law to flood this year’s primary elections with money — without disclosing their donors until long after the race is over.”

“More than $48 million has already been spent on House and Senate primaries this year by super PACs that did not have to reveal their donors before elections took place… That is more than double the total at this time in the 2024 cycle, and 10 times higher than in 2018.”

Axios: “Top White House officials believe New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan obtained audio recordings of Situation Room meetings for their forthcoming book, Regime Change.”

“Such a taped leak would be a shocking breach of one of the most secure settings on Earth. Independent recording devices in the Situation Room are forbidden.”

“”We’re afraid some of our most sensitive conversations were being recorded,” an administration source told us. “And we have no idea which ones.””

“Americans have a bleak outlook on the nation’s future ahead of its 250th birthday next month, with most saying the U.S. has already seen its best days and a record-low number saying they are extremely proud to be Americans,” according to a new NBC News poll.

“President Donald Trump’s poor approval rating continues to weigh down his party ahead of the midterms — though the GOP has a slim measure of separation from the president, with Democrats holding a 5-point lead in the battle for control of Congress,” according to a new national NBC News poll.

“The poll found 49% of registered voters say they prefer to see Democrats control Congress as a result of this year’s elections, compared to 44% who prefer Republican control and 7% who are unsure.”

“President Trump is blitzing through construction projects in the nation’s capital faster than the courts can keep up,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“His signature White House ballroom project has run into legal problems but has continued largely unabated. A government lawyer told an appeals court earlier this month that it is too late for the courts to halt the president’s construction of the 90,000-square-foot building where the East Wing once stood.”

“Anna Paulina Luna has a knack for going viral,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“In the span of a single month, the Florida Republican championed a CIA whistleblower’s theories on JFK assassination records, promised a fresh dump of classified UFO files, teamed up with MAHA activists to fight pesticide manufacturers, and openly flirted with a run to lead the Republican National Committee.”

“It is an eclectic agenda, but it shares a single, underlying ingredient: high-octane internet virality. At 37, the congresswoman has become one of Capitol Hill’s most aggressive practitioners of attention politics, thriving on a curated cocktail of public confrontations and MAGA-friendly internet rabbit holes.”

Wall Street Journal: “Starting at 8 p.m. on Sunday, 14 men are scheduled to face off in seven bouts under a towering spaceshiplike structure on the South Lawn, fulfilling President Trump’s penchant for showmanship and boundary-pushing as he hosts the Ultimate Fighting Championship.”

“Even by Trump’s standards, the event will be a rare spectacle, merging corporate interests on one of the most famous plots of public land with exclusive access for select VIPs.”

Wall Street Journal: “President Trump rebuked Israel on Sunday over a strike on Beirut in response to Hezbollah drone attacks, calling it disproportionate and ill-timed just as he was about to reach a deal with Tehran to end the war.”

Said Trump: “This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran. Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process.”

New York Times: “Mr. Patel has yet to reach a settlement or a favorable jury verdict in the cases. Each of the news organizations he has sued has defended its journalism and said it was protected by the First Amendment.”

“But the strategy is a familiar one. Mr. Trump, the man who appointed Mr. Patel to lead the F.B.I., has long turned to the courts when faced with unfavorable press coverage. And perhaps no one in his two administrations has followed his lead as closely as Mr. Patel, who has filed at least six defamation lawsuits against news media companies and commentators in nearly seven years.”

“In some of the cases, Mr. Patel filed strongly worded complaints only to allow them to languish in the ups and downs of civil litigation — a trajectory that some legal experts said raised questions about his objectives.”

“Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the former majority leader, was admitted to the hospital on Sunday,” the New York Times reports.

Vice President JD Vance told CBS News that he and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, will discuss whether he should seek the 2028 Republican presidential nomination later this year, following the 2026 midterms.

Said Vance: “I have no doubt that the president of the United States is going to be very supportive of anything that I ultimately decide to do. But we really just haven’t talked about what that thing will be.”

“President Trump and Iran over the weekend offered conflicting timelines for the signing of a potential peace agreement, casting doubt on whether a deal might be signed on Sunday or in the coming days,” the New York Times reports.

Washington Post: U.S. and Iran to close deal within a day, Trump says, but Tehran yet to confirm.

“President Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, both resist the idea that ostensibly weaker powers fought them to a stalemate, with the two leaders leaning on negotiations to win the capitulation that they failed to secure in battle,” the New York Times reports.

“Iran and Ukraine have pushed back robustly against this ‘might makes right’ mentality, with top officials adopting an even more defiant tone in recent days.”