memeorandum: A stunning profile of Ben Rhodes, the a**hole who is the president's foreign policy guru (Thomas E. Ricks/Foreign Policy)

8:40 PM ET, May 6, 2016

Top Items:

Jeb Bush / Facebook:

I congratulate Donald Trump on securing his place as the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. There is no doubt that he successfully tapped into the deep sense of anger and frustration so many Americans around the country rightfully feel today. — The tremendous anger of the current U.S. electorate …

Alex Pareene / Gawker:

Don't Blow This — It's Trump versus Clinton. It's a well-funded mainstream Democrat against a widely reviled demagogue who will struggle to earn the support of his party's donor base. It's a man whose every public utterance is potential negative ad waiting to be cut, versus the most cautious candidate in modern memory.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and The Stranger …

Tom LoBianco / CNN:

First on CNN: Cheney says he will support Trump — Washington (CNN)Former Vice President Dick Cheney will support Donald Trump, he told CNN Friday, an important move as the presumptive Republican nominee is encountering intense resistance from senior members of his own party.

Erick Erickson / The Resurgent:

Republicans, Apologize to Bill Clinton — Upon arrival in Washington, DC in January of 1993, Bill and Hillary Clinton found themselves in a never ending independent counsel investigation. The investigation began over a land deal that was known as Whitewater.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hullabaloo, Towleroad, Mediaite and Talking Points Memo

Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:

Donald Trump agrees to meet with Paul Ryan ‘before we go our separate ways’ … Likely Republican nominee Donald Trump disagrees with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus's characterization of a conversation they had on Thursday about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) not yet being ready to support Trump.

Discussion: Politico, The Last Refuge and Mediaite

Harper Neidig / The Hill:

Election analyst flips 11 states toward Democrats due to Trump — The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has shifted 11 states on its election scorecard toward Democrats since Donald Trump — became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. — “This has been an exceedingly unpredictable year,” the analyst said.

Discussion: Politicus USA, Hot Air, Politico, NBC News, The Cook Political Report and Balloon Juice

New York Times:

Sheldon Adelson Says He Will Support Donald Trump — The casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson said on Thursday night that he would support Donald J. Trump now that he has become the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. — “Yes, I'm a Republican, he's a Republican,” Mr. Adelson said in a brief interview.

Discussion: Fox 59, Politico, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Taylor Marsh, New York Magazine, Talking Points Memo, USA Today, Mother Jones, JP Updates, Associated Press, Hullabaloo, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Outside the Beltway, The Week, Guardian and CNN

Dana Bash / CNN:
Lindsey Graham won't vote for Trump or Clinton in 2016

Discussion: Townhall.com, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Washington Free Beacon, The Last Refuge, Western Journalism, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Guardian and Politico

Nick Gass / Politico:
Priebus on Trump: 'He's trying'

Discussion: The Atlantic, RedState, Washington Post, Althouse and The Hill

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Neither Clinton Nor Trump

Discussion: Power Line and National Review

Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:
Trump tells West Virginians not to vote in Tuesday's primary

Discussion: Courthouse News Service, RedState, Western Journalism, New York Magazine and BuzzFeed

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:
Paul Ryan's primary opponent: I'll support Trump

Discussion: The Last Refuge

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Graham: I won't vote for Trump

Discussion: RedState and Mediaite

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Lindsey Graham Goes Full On #NeverTrump

Discussion: Raw Story

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
What does Paul Ryan want from Donald Trump?

Discussion: Hot Air

Michael Tomasky / The Daily Beast:
Yo, Hillary: Hit Donald Where It Hurts

Discussion: TIME, CNN and Bloomberg.com

Michael Barone / Townhall.com:
Can Trump Disrupt the General Election as He Did the Primaries?

Discussion: The Hugh Hewitt ShowThe …

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
The ideological earthquake and the aftermath

Discussion: Power Line

Nick Gass / Politico:
Trump camp suggests Ryan unfit to be speaker

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Post, Forbes, ABC News, CNN and Sky Dancing

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

This Is Astounding — So many stories in presidential politics, in all politics, are more sound and fury than substance. This one isn't. It's hard to overstate how big a deal it is. Donald Trump caught a lot of grief during the primaries for putting several of his companies through bankruptcies during his career.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Mother Jones, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times and Washington Times

Binyamin Appelbaum / New York Times:

Donald Trump's Idea to Cut National Debt: Get Creditors to Accept Less — One day after assuring Americans he is not running for president “to make things unstable for the country,” the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, said in a television interview Thursday that he might seek …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, alan.com, Washington Post, Vox, Hot Air, RedState, Zero Hedge, The Week, Business Insider, The Hayride, Western Journalism, Balloon Juice and rubber hose

Washington Post:

Man arrested in Maryland killing spree allegedly menaced his wife, stepdaughters — When Gladys Tordil went to court in March to plead for protection against her husband, she portrayed him as a man who had menaced her and her two daughters for at least a decade.

Discussion: 6, WWBT-TV, CBS New York and Associated Press

Washington Post:
One killed, others injured in shootings at Md. mall, grocery store

Discussion: 6, alan.com, Shakesville and Washingtonian

The Daily Beast:
D.C. Shooting Suspect Nabbed at Boston Market From Hell

Discussion: WTOP, The Stranger … and 6

Fox News:
Gunman at large in deadly Md. shootings; police consider possible link to wanted murder suspect

Discussion: ABC News, Western Journalism, Independent Journal … and The New Civil Rights Movement

Thomas E. Ricks / Foreign Policy:

A stunning profile of Ben Rhodes, the a**hole who is the president's foreign policy guru — The profile of one Ben Rhodes running in Sunday's New York Times Magazine is not unsympathetic, which makes it all the more devastating. — Perhaps the key sentence is this: “His lack …

John Amato / Latest from Crooks and Liars:

Of All The Disgraced Reporters In All The Gin Joints, Judith Miller Takes The Cake — Disgraced and former NY Times reporter Judy Miller, who is now a paid Fox News contributor, is very worried about the state of journalism in America after reading a Ben Rhodes interview in the NY Times …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon and Front Page Magazine

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
Here's How the White House Shapes Foreign Affairs Coverage

Discussion: New York Post, Independent Journal …, the daily howler and The Atlantic

Orin Kerr / Washington Post:

The rise of Donald Trump and the politics of delegitimization — Ilya Shapiro argues at The Federalist that some of the blame for the rise of Donald Trump belongs to Chief Justice Roberts' 2012 opinion in the Obamacare case, NFIB v. Sebelius. To a lot of readers, this probably sounds far-fetched.

Discussion: Balkinization and The Federalist

TU Plus / Albany Times Union:

UAlbany women who claimed bus attack kicked out of school — The University at Albany confirmed that the three women who gained national attention after a January CDTA bus incident have been punished by the Student Conduct Board. — Ariel Agudio and Asha Burwell have been dismissed …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Fox News:
Two New York college students who claimed to be victims of racist attack expelled

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Western Journalism, The Moderate Voice and Liberty Unyielding

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Judge delays Trump University trial — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appears to have escaped the possibility of an awkward federal class-action trial over his Trump University real estate program taking place just as his campaign for the White House shifts into high gear.

Discussion: National Review

Andrew Prokop / Vox:

The political scientist who saw Trump's rise coming — Norm Ornstein on why the Republican Party was ripe for a takeover, what the media missed, and whether Trump could win the presidency. — In the summer of 2015, most of the political world still thought Donald Trump's candidacy was a joke.

Discussion: New York Times and Balloon Juice

C. Ramsey Fahs / Harvard News:

Harvard to Sanction Final Clubs, Greek Organizations — Starting with Class of 2021, members of clubs, Greek organizations will be ineligible for multiple leadership positions and fellowships — Starting with Harvard's Class of 2021, undergraduate members of unrecognized single-gender social organizations …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, FIRE, Hit & Run, Heat Street, The TickerThe Ticker, Campus Reform and Associated Press

Brian Tashman / Right Wing Watch:

Trump Campaign Manager: ‘Nobody Cares’ About Policy Plans! — If you wonder why Donald Trump has only offered vague, rash and reckless plans and has flip-flopped on nearly every one of his positions — most recently on the minimum wage, the national debt and his economic plan …

Discussion: GraniteGrok, ThinkProgress and Hot Air