memeorandum: Trump's Hard Truth for the GOP: Conservatism Doesn't Matter (Edward Morrissey/The Fiscal Times)

9:40 PM ET, May 5, 2016

Top Items:

Donald J. Trump / Facebook:

Happy Cinco de Mayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!

Joe Klein / TIME:

Why the Clintons Don't Fear the Coming Armageddon With Donald Trump — Hillary Clinton's ultimate trump card will not be her gender but her relative humanity — On the night that Donald Trump effectively won the Republican nomination for President, Hillary Clinton observed radio silence.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Danielle Allen / Washington Post:

Hillary Clinton is walking into Donald Trump's trap — The writer is a political theorist at Harvard University and a contributing columnist for The Post. — Donald Trump has set a big, fat trap for Hillary Clinton, and so far she has stepped right into it. He turned his attacks against women against her.

Discussion: Liberal Values, Althouse and The Slot

The Cook Political Report:
New Electoral Scorecard Ratings in 13 States

Discussion: RedState, Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice and Wall Street Journal

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
Everyone Is Getting Today's Trump Tweet Totally Wrong

Discussion: Mashable, Guardian, The Daily Caller, Vox and NBC News

Burgess Everett / Politico: Reid spoiling for a fight with Trump

Harry Enten / FiveThirtyEight:
Americans' Distaste For Both Trump And Clinton Is Record-Breaking

Discussion: The Week

John Cassidy / New Yorker:
Why Bernie Sanders Is Staying in the Race

Discussion: The Atlantic, NBC News, New York Times, Washington Post, Sky Dancing and CBS New York

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Woman Who Built Trump Tower Says She's Backing Clinton Over Trump

Discussion: Shakesville

Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic:
The Republican Party's Woman Problem

Discussion: New York Magazine

Jake Sherman / Politico:

How Ryan decided to ditch Trump — On Wednesday morning, not even 24 hours after Donald Trump effectively clinched the Republican nomination, Paul Ryan convened his top advisers for a call. With Congress out of session, Ryan was bouncing between multiple states, raising the piles of money needed …

Discussion: ABC News and Political Wire

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Mitt Romney will skip Trump's nominating convention in Cleveland … Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, plans to skip this summer's Republican National Convention in Cleveland where Donald Trump will be officially nominated — an unusual move that underscores the deep unease …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Guardian, Politico, Political Wire, RedState, AOL, Western Journalism, Business Insider, Independent Journal …, ABC News, Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon, The Week, The Daily Caller, CBS Boston and New York Times

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

Paul Ryan Says He Cannot Support Donald Trump for Now — WASHINGTON — Speaker Paul D. Ryan, the nation's highest-ranking elected Republican, said Thursday that he was “not ready” to endorse Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. — Mr. Ryan, who is also chairman …

Discussion: Western Journalism, National Review and Politico

Eric Bradner / CNN:

Paul Ryan: 'I'm just not ready' to back Donald Trump — (CNN)House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday he cannot yet support presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump's presidential campaign. — “I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now,” the Wisconsin Republican told CNN's …

Discussion: Vox, The Atlantic, The Gateway Pundit, ABC News, Western Journalism, Complex, Washington Post, Politico, NY State of Politics, The Week and The Huffington Post

Wall Street Journal:

Ben Carson Says Donald Trump Could Consider Democrat for Running Mate — Former GOP candidate, now a Trump ally, also takes his name out of the running as possible pick — Ben Carson, the former rival now helping presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump choose a running mate …

Discussion: RedState, Complex and The Week

Dana Bash / CNN:
First on CNN: Rick Perry endorses Donald Trump for president

Discussion: Trail Blazers Blog, Independent Journal … and Washington Times

Dan Riehl / Breitbart:
Paul Nehlen: Paul Ryan ‘Sold His Vote! I Absolutely Believe That’

Discussion: The Last Refuge

Ben Kamisar / The Hill:
Dole alone in not shunning GOP convention

Discussion: Politico and Talking Points Memo

Sara Jerde / Talking Points Memo: Carson Says He Won't Be Considered For Trump's VP, But A Dem Might Be

Wall Street Journal:
The Trump Reality — He may be the highest variable nominee in American history.

Discussion: Guardian

Julian Hattem / The Hill:
GOP experts choose exile over Trump

Discussion: Red Alert Politics

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Paul Ryan says he's not ready to support Trump

Discussion: Hit & Run and The Week

Ben Sasse / Facebook:

AN OPEN LETTER TO MAJORITY AMERICA — TO: Those who think both leading presidential candidates are dishonest and have little chance of leading America forward: — (...or, stated more simply) — TO: The majority of America: — Note: If you are one of those rare souls …

Tarini Parti / BuzzFeed:

New Trump Finance Chair Has Given Twice As Much To Democrats As To The GOP — Donald Trump has hired a Wall Street tycoon who has donated more than twice as much to Democrats as to Republicans to be his campaign's finance chair, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings.

Discussion: Hot Air, Talking Points Memo, Politicus USA, Washington Free Beacon and The Resurgent

Alexander Bolton / The Hill: Third-party push gaining steam

Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg:
Trump Names Hedge Fund Manager as National Finance Chairman

Discussion: The Daily Beast, zerohedge.com/fullrss2 …, CANNONFIRE, Talking Points Memo, The Talking Dog and Raw Story

Ben White / Politico: Hillary forces target Bush donors

CNN:

First on CNN: FBI interviews Clinton aides including Huma Abedin as part of email probe — (CNN)Some of Hillary Clinton's closest aides, including her longtime adviser Huma Abedin, have provided interviews to federal investigators, as the FBI probe into the security of her private email …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Times, Politicus USA, AOL, Western Journalism, NBC News, LawNewz, U.S. Uncut and Washington Free Beacon

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Report: Hillary Clinton aides interviewed by FBI in email probe

Discussion: ABC News

Brandon Cockerham / Judicial Watch:
Judicial Watch Lawsuit Uncovers More Hillary Clinton Emails Withheld from State Department

Discussion: Independent Journal …

Streiff / RedState:

BREAKING. Donald Trump Renounces His Own Tax Plan — We've said over and over... and to no avail... that Donald Trump believes in absolutely nothing more than Donald Trump. During the course of this campaign, Donald Trump has proposed any number of half-baked, nonsensical ideas and now he's in the process of reneging on them.

Discussion: MSNBC, Politico, neo-neocon and TheStreet.com

Bryce Covert / ThinkProgress:
Donald Trump Walks Back His Only Detailed Economic Proposal

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

fda.gov:

FDA takes significant steps to protect Americans from dangers of tobacco through new regulation — Rule extending oversight to all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, allows agency to address public health concerns such as youth access to tobacco products … For Immediate Release

Discussion: CNN, Liberty Unyielding, Washington Post, ABC News, OpenMarket, Consumerist and Refinery29

Jayne O'Donnell / USA Today:
Feds announce final e-cigarette rule that nearly bans them

Discussion: New York Times, NPR, USA TODAY College, Red Alert Politics, Vox, Hit & Run, Washington Post, Gothamist, Complex and LawNewz

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

This brutal new ad shows the shredding machine that awaits Trump — THE MORNING PLUM: — Predictably enough, the hand-wringing has already begun among some Democrats over the prospect of Donald Trump waging “unpredictable” attacks on Hillary Clinton and the possibility that the Clinton camp will be …

Discussion: CNN, Politico, The Stranger …, Althouse, Talking Points Memo, Townhall.com, Mother Jones, Slate, The Moderate Voice and Shakesville

David Samuels / New York Times:

The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama's Foreign-Policy Guru — How Ben Rhodes rewrote the rules of diplomacy for the digital age. — Picture him as a young man, standing on the waterfront in North Williamsburg, at a polling site, on Sept. 11, 2001, which was Election Day in New York City.

Discussion: Weekly Standard and EconLog

Edward Morrissey / The Fiscal Times:

Trump's Hard Truth for the GOP: Conservatism Doesn't Matter — And there shall be a great wailing and gnashing of teeth .... again. Once again, movement conservatives have gone into a Republican presidential primary season arguing that the time had come to nominate a true follower of the faith.

Discussion: Hot Air and Competitive Enterprise …

Fred Imbert / CNBC:

Barry Diller: Donald Trump is ‘actually of evil character’ — Expedia Chairman Barry Diller shares his view on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. — Media mogul Barry Diller had some harsh words about Donald Trump on Thursday. — “There's nobody that I've ever known, ever …

Discussion: New York Post and Liberty Unyielding

Media Matters for America:
STUDY: Trump Won The Fox Primary, Doubling Any Other Candidate In Interview Airtime

Discussion: Salon

Barack Obama:

A Nation of Second Chances — Earlier this spring, I met with a group of individuals whose sentences were commuted either by President Bush, President Clinton, or myself. They were all at different stages of a new chapter in their lives, but each of their stories was extraordinary.