memeorandum: Donald Trump: GOP leaders are ‘already calling’ me (Eun Kyung Kim/TODAY.com)

1:15 PM ET, March 15, 2016

Top Items:

What We're Watching as 5 States Hold Crucial Primaries — Voters in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio cast crucial ballots in the race for the presidency on Tuesday. Here are some of the things we will be watching. — The end or the beginning?

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, Real Clear Politics, The Week, The Talking Dog and Mashable

Kathy Frankovic / YouGov US Opinion Center News:

Trump breaks 50% in national support for the first time — Showing little sign of a “ceiling”, Donald Trump has only grown in support with the exit of Ben Carson and Marco Rubio's collapse … In the last two weeks, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has won more delegates in primaries and caucuses …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Infowars, Western Journalism, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Scared Monkeys and Political Wire

Eliza Collins / Politico:
Trump wins 9 delegates in Northern Mariana Islands

Discussion: Washington Post, Saipan Tribune, Western Journalism, Political Wire and Independent Journal Review

Reid J. Epstein / Wall Street Journal:
Donald Trump Wins in Northern Mariana Islands GOP Caucus

Discussion: OpenSecrets.org and The Daily Caller

Annie Karni / Politico:
Bernie's big chance to rattle the race

Discussion: Yahoo Politics, Scared Monkeys, Liberal Values, The Hill, Hot Air and Common Dreams

Harry Enten / FiveThirtyEight:
What's At Stake For Republicans In The March 15 Primaries

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, The Atlantic and Scared Monkeys

Katie Glueck / Politico:
Cruz campaign doubles down in Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina

Discussion: RedState, Yahoo Politics, Washington Post, YouGov US Opinion Center News, Public Policy Polling, Raw Story, addictinginfo.org and BuzzFeed

Nate Cohn / New York Times:
A Crucial Day for Candidates Trying to Stop Donald Trump

Discussion: Salon, Hullabaloo and Washington Post

New York Times:

Measuring Donald Trump's Mammoth Advantage in Free Media — Of all the ways Donald Trump has shocked the political system, one of the most significant is how he wins primary after primary with one of the smallest campaign budgets. — He still doesn't have a super PAC.

Discussion: Business Insider, National Review, Hot Air, Hit & Run, Independent Journal Review and The Pulse 2016

Abby Phillip / Washington Post:

Caught on a hot mic, Clinton speculates about Chris Christie's support for Trump — What's at stake in the Ohio GOP primary? … Catch up on the 2016 race — CHARLOTTE— It isn't often that Hillary Clinton lets her guard down about what she really thinks about the Republican presidential race.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Mediaite, addictinginfo.org, Talking Points Memo and The Resurgent

MilitaryTimes:

Military Times survey: Troops back Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders for president — In an exclusive survey of American military personnel, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders emerged as active-duty service members' top choices to become the next commander in chief.

Discussion: WHNT-TV

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:
Top liberal leaders call for ‘massive’ anti-Trump campaign

Discussion: Common Dreams and The Gateway Pundit

Eliza Collins / Politico:
Huckabee: Trump is Clinton's ‘worst nightmare’

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Washington Post

Jason Horowitz / New York Times:

A King in His Castle: How Donald Trump Lives, From His Longtime Butler — PALM BEACH, Fla. — Everything seemed to sparkle at the Mar-a-Lago estate here on a recent afternoon. The sun glinted off the pool and the black Secret Service S.U.V.s in the circular driveway.

Discussion: Yahoo Politics, Mediaite, Althouse, The Week and Marginal REVOLUTION

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:

Donald Trump's taste for well-done steaks is disqualifying — A lot has been written about Donald Trump over the course of this campaign season, but a new revelation from a New York Times profile of Trump's longtime butler may finally deliver the piece of information that brings him down — he enjoys his steaks well done.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Eliza Collins / Politico:

Clinton: 'We didn't lose a single person' in Libya — Hillary Clinton on Monday defended the intervention in Libya that she championed as secretary of state, telling MSNBC's Chris Matthews that the United States “didn't lose a single person.” — “Libya was a different kind of calculation.

Discussion: Yahoo Politics, MSNBC, RedState and Hot Air

Fox News:

Clinton commits Benghazi gaffe, saying US 'didn't lose a single person' in Libya — Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton committed her second gaffe in as many days on the campaign trail Monday night, claiming that the U.S. “didn't lose a single person” in Libya during her time as secretary of state.

Discussion: Western Journalism, The Atlantic, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Fox News Insider, Allen B. West, The Last Tradition and twitchy.com

Shoshana Weissmann / Weekly Standard:
Clinton: 'We Didn't Lose a Single Person' in Libya

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Bill Hoffmann / Newsmax:

Ben Carson to Newsmax: I'm Promised a Spot in Trump Administration — Dr. Ben Carson revealed on Newsmax TV Monday that he will work in Donald Trump's administration — at least in an “advisory capacity” — if the Republican presidential front-runner is elected to the White House.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, Washington Post, Weasel Zippers, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Raw Story, Politico and Slantpoint

Josh Israel / ThinkProgressPage Array:
Ben Carson: I Didn't Want To Endorse Trump, But He Promised Me A Position

Discussion: addictinginfo.org

Mark Hensch / The Hill:
Carson: 'We're only looking at four years' if Trump's a bust

Discussion: The Week

Caleb Howe / RedState:
Ben Carson: I Didn't Want To Endorse Trump, But He Promised Me A Job

Discussion: The Atlantic, Mediaite and National Review

John Harwood / New York Times:

A Situation in Which Donald Trump Wins the White House — The specter of further violence at Donald J. Trump's campaign events has amplified warnings from his Republican opponents: If nominated, the bombastic billionaire simply couldn't win the presidency. — “A disaster” for Republicans …

New York Times:
Allies Say Obama's Court Pick Is Near, and Will Be Hard for Republicans to Ignore

Discussion: Hit & Run

Stephanie Mencimer / Mother Jones: Washington's Worst Job: President Obama's Next Supreme Court Nominee

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Trump campaign manager's behavior prompted staff concerns — Donald Trump's staff and advisers have expressed concerns about campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's quick temper and heavy-handed leadership, and some even planned a coup against him last month, sources involved in the discussions told POLITICO.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, RedState, Daily Kos, Raw Story, BuzzFeed, Guardian, The Week, TheBlaze.com, The Right Scoop, The Atlantic, Hit & Run, The Resurgent, CANNONFIRE and Christopher Cantwell, more at Mediagazer »

Joe Tacopino / New York Post:

Tech mogul accused of keeping ex-stripper as sex slave for 13 years — A Silicon Valley venture capitalist has been sued for $40 million by a woman who claims he used her as a virtual sex slave for 13 years. — Michael Goguen, who had worked for a firm that funded Google and Paypal …

David French / National Review:

Working-Class Whites Have Moral Responsibilities — In Defense of Kevin Williamson — This weekend, my colleague Kevin Williamson kicked up quite the hornet's nest with his magazine piece (subscription required) that strikes directly at the idea that the white working-class (the heart of Trump's support) is a victim class.

Discussion: Vox, New York Magazine, alicublog, New York Times, Boing Boing, Balloon Juice, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Washington Monthly

BBC:

Brussels manhunt after gunfire in raid ‘on Paris suspects’ — Belgian security forces are hunting for at least two men after shots were fired at police during a counter-terrorism raid in the capital, Brussels. — Three officers were reportedly hurt, one of them seriously.

Discussion: Jihad Watch and The Jawa Report

Guardian:

Do giant gas bubbles explain the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle? — Age: 52 years. — Appearance: Then all of a sudden ... disappearance! — Location: Between Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda (approx). — What is it? Well, according to Vincent Gaddis, who first coined the phrase …

Discussion: WGN-TV, Daily Mail and LewRockwell

David Siders / Sacramento Bee:

Jerry Brown: If Trump wins, California might need a wall of its own — California governor jokes about protecting state from rest of the U.S. — Brown also takes aim at Rick Perry, calling him ‘forgotten’ — Brown, a fourth-term Democrat, has signed liberal immigration-related measures

Discussion: Raw Story, Breitbart, Weasel Zippers and addictinginfo.org

Zachary Mider / Bloomberg Business:

Soros, Alarmed by Trump, Pours Money into 2016 Race — The billionaire has already spent or pledged $13 million to help Hillary Clinton and other Democrats this year. — zachmider — The liberal New York financier George Soros, whose effort to unseat President George W. Bush …