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Leigh Ann Caldwell, Julia Ioffe, Peter Hamby, Abby Livingston & John Heilemann
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Sunday through Thursday
Puck’s daily political newsletter from Washington—featuring Leigh Ann Caldwell, Julia Ioffe, Peter Hamby, Abby Livingston, and John Heilemann—on what’s really happening in this town, from the White House to the Pentagon to Capitol Hill, K Street, and the campaign trail.
THE LATEST ARTICLES
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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May 21, 2025
Johnson Faces the Senate SALT Mines
As the House speaker struggles to find “equilibrium” in his conference between the deficit cutters and the SALT-cap raisers, he faces a potentially even more complicated problem down the line: the Senate.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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May 8, 2025
The Banks Job
A candid chat with Indiana freshman Senator Jim Banks about tariffs, midterms, and not repeating the G.O.P.’s 2017 mistakes.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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May 7, 2025
Kamala vs. … Cloobeck?
As the Democrats stumble out of the wilderness, California’s otherwise snoozy governor’s race might provide a test of voters’ patience for their own party’s version of the real estate developer turned reality star turned pol.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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May 4, 2025
Mike Johnson: Man on Wire
One hundred days into Trump’s term, the speaker faces his greatest test yet: passing the president’s “big, beautiful bill” through a fractured and mutinous conference. “Rarely have the stakes been higher; rarely have the margins been narrower,” said one of his closest confidants. “And rarely has the difference of opinion of where we need to go in the House been starker.”
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 30, 2025
Smiling Through the Trumpocalypse
Senate and House Republicans are determined to stick by the president, even as his poll numbers dip and more Americans start to question his tariffs, deportations, executive orders, and DOGE downsizing.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 27, 2025
Better Ask Axe
A candid conversation with David Axelrod, the longtime Illinois resident and former Obama strategist, about his state’s shifting politics, Pritzker for president, and the dire need for introspection from the Dems.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 23, 2025
Pete Pray Love
News and notes on the internal Capitol Hill conversation about Pete Hegseth’s latest security snafu.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 20, 2025
The Jeff Roe Alamo
Roe, the Republican operative who was essentially blacklisted by the Trump White House, has become an unexpected wrinkle in the looming Senate primary between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton—with potential political repercussions bigger than Texas, itself.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 16, 2025
Trump Gets Ready to… Tax the Rich?
The G.O.P. is contemplating the once unthinkable, at Trump’s suggestion: a higher tax rate on the wealthiest Americans. Backing such a policy would signal a “reality altering” shift for the no-new-taxes party. It would also be among the stranger things to have happened in the increasingly strange Trump era.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 13, 2025
The DOGE Days of Spring
With the handy defeat of Elon Musk’s millions in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, and his declining popularity, Hill Republicans are finding less to love—or fear—from Trump’s wealthiest sidekick.
