memeorandum: Putin and Trump likely to discuss Ukraine sanctions: White House aide (Reuters)

11:30 AM ET, January 27, 2017

Top Items:

Donald Trump's Mexico Tantrum — Less than a week into the job, President Trump on Thursday raised the specter of a trade war with America's third-largest partner, Mexico, as the White House warned that the United States could impose a 20 percent tariff on Mexican imports.

Discussion: ABC News, Politico, Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway and Taylor Marsh

Michael Waldman / New York Times:

Voting Fraud Inquiry? The Investigators Got Burned Last Time — For days President Trump has promoted the absurd notion that three million to five million people voted illegally in the presidential election. — On Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump went further.

Discussion: The Guardian, Talking Points Memo, twitchy.com and Business Insider

Associated Press:
Questions Swirl After Trump Admin Says Tax Will Pay for Wall

Discussion: Politico, The Week and ABC News

Azam Ahmed / New York Times:
In a Corner, President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico Punches Back

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Trump Plans 20% Tax on Mexican Imports to Pay for Border Wall

Discussion: Vox, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Caller, Eater, Hit & Run, Wall Street Journal, Politicus USA, Refinery29, Hot Air, ABC News, Business Insider, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, The Atlantic, Washington Post and CNN

Reuters:
U.S.-Mexico crisis deepens as Trump aide floats border tax idea

Discussion: Forbes, BillMoyers.com and Daily Kos

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:
GOP congressional leaders: The border wall will cost $12 billion to $15 billion

Discussion: Politico, ABC News and Political Wire

Michael Wolff / Newsweek:

Why the media keeps losing to Donald Trump — Donald Trump is obsessed with the media. And the media is obsessed with Trump. Let's take it as a given that this obsession is unhealthy. The last time there was such a level of neurotic fixation and overwhelming distrust between a president …

Mike Allen / Axios:

The Bannon coup — White House and Hill GOP leaders are astonished by the unambiguous, far-reaching power of Steve Bannon and policy guru Stephen Miller over, well, just about everything. — They wrote the Inaugural speech and set in fast motion a series of moves to cement Trump as an America-first Nationalist.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Week, Daily Kos, AOL, Raw Story and alan.com

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Trump Strategist Stephen Bannon Says Media Should ‘Keep Its Mouth Shut’ — WASHINGTON — Just days after President Trump spoke of a “running war” with the media, his chief White House strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, ratcheted up the attacks, arguing that news organizations had been “humiliated” …

Dylan Byers / CNNMoney:
Steve Bannon: Media should ‘keep its mouth shut’

Discussion: The Hill, RedState, alan.com, Raw Story, The Week, BizPac Review, CNN, Business Insider, TheBlaze, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, Althouse and Axios, more at Mediagazer »

Kim Janssen / Chicago Tribune:

Rod Blagojevich's 20-year-old daughter Amy unloads on Barack Obama — Patti Blagojevich with her daughters Annie, center, and Amy on Aug. 9, 2016, at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago after former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's resentencing. — Scratch the Obamas off Amy Blagojevich's Christmas card list.

Discussion: Althouse

Peter Sullivan / The Hill:

GOP chairman to introduce pre-existing conditions bill — The Republican chairman of a key healthcare committee will introduce a bill next week aimed at protecting people with pre-existing conditions in the event that ObamaCare is repealed. — “We want to make sure that people …

Discussion: RedState, Washington Examiner and Talking Points Memo

Nicholas Weaver / Lawfare:

President Trump's Insecure Android — Lost amid the swirling insanity of the Trump administration's first week, are the reports of the President's continued insistence on using his Android phone (a Galaxy S3 or perhaps S4). This is, to put it bluntly, asking for a disaster.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Trump's Still Using His Old Android Phone. That's Very, Very Risky

Discussion: RedState, The Week, Refinery29, Defense One, Techdirt, Motherboard, The Guardian, Raw Story, New York Times and Politico

Washington Post:

Trump pressured Park Service to find proof for his claims about inauguration crowd — On the morning after Donald Trump's inauguration, acting National Park Service director Michael T. Reynolds received an extraordinary summons: The new president wanted to talk to him.

Discussion: New York Times, Hullabaloo, Raw Story, The Week, Talking Points Memo, Gizmodo, Washingtonian, Daily Kos, The Guardian, Little Green Footballs, Political Wire and CNET, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Trump Will Call for a Pentagon Plan to Hit ISIS Harder, Officials Say — WASHINGTON — The White House is drafting a presidential directive that calls on Defense Secretary James N. Mattis to devise plans to more aggressively strike the Islamic State, which could include American artillery …

Discussion: Defense One, Political Wire, The Daily Caller, Reuters and Washington Free Beacon

Fortune:

Mexico's Richest Man Carlos Slim Just Called a Rare Press Conference — Mexican mogul Carlos Slim, who was attacked by President Donald Trump during his election campaign but who later met with the U.S. leader in Florida, on Thursday called a press conference for Friday amid growing tensions between the two nations.

Wall Street Journal:

Trump's Little Mexican War — The President is treating our neighbor like Obama treated Israel.

Tara Palmeri / Politico:

Trump won't attend Alfalfa Club dinner — President Donald Trump will not attend the annual Alfalfa Club dinner Saturday night, an exclusive black-tie dinner — and White House roast — that every president since Ronald Reagan has attended. — Instead of the president himself …

Discussion: Political Wire

David Tweed / Bloomberg:

Need a Proofreader? Team Trump Spells British PM's Name Wrong — As President Donald Trump looks to create jobs in the U.S., his press office is demonstrating an urgent need to hire a proofreader. — The White House just put out a memo highlighting Trump's meeting on Friday with “United Kingdom Prime Minister, Teresa May.”

Discussion: The Week

Associated Press:
In Need of Allies, Trump and Britain's Theresa May to Meet

Discussion: Politico and The Republic

Peter Hasson / The Daily Caller:

Women's March Featured Speaker Who Kidnapped And Tortured A Man — The Women's March on Washington last week featured as a speaker convicted felon Donna Hylton who, along with several others, kidnapped a man and then tortured him to death. — Hylton's name is listed on the Women's March …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Instapundit

Paul Demko / Politico:

Trump White House abruptly halts Obamacare ads — The Trump administration has pulled the plug on all Obamacare outreach and advertising in the crucial final days of the 2017 enrollment season, according to sources at Health and Human Services and on Capitol Hill.

Discussion: ABC News, Vox, NBC News, Balloon Juice, The Week, Washington Free Beacon, Talking Points Memo, Axios, Business Insider, Bloomberg and Political Wire

Reuters:

Putin and Trump likely to discuss Ukraine sanctions: White House aide — Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump are likely to discuss the sanctions that Washington imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine when the two leaders speak by telephone on Saturday, a senior White House aide said.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, CNN and Fox News Insider

Valerie Strauss / Washington Post:

Sen. Franken: No Democrat will vote for Betsy DeVos as education secretary — and we're seeking Republicans to oppose her … Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) told Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC show Thursday night that no Democrat will vote to confirm Betsy DeVos, the Michigan billionaire tapped by President Trump to be his education secretary.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and WOOD-TV

Democracy Now:

Shailene Woodley on Malia Obama's Presence at Sundance Standing Rock Solidarity Event Against DAPL — This is viewer supported news. Please do your part today. — The Sundance Film Festival has been abuzz this year with sightings of former first daughter Malia Obama.

Discussion: AOL and Heat Street

Jina Moore / BuzzFeed:

The White House Has Finally Said More About What Its Global Anti-Abortion Rule Means — The clarification opens the door to a vastly different version of the rule than previously thought. — A White House official on Thursday clarified a new policy that renews abortion-related restrictions …

Discussion: The Guardian

Patrick Gillespie / CNNMoney:

Still slow: U.S. economy grew 1.6% in 2016 — America had another year of sluggish growth. — The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 1.6% in 2016, the Commerce Department reported Friday. — In the last three months of the year — between October and December — the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.9%.

Discussion: TheBlaze

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

Republicans Now Marching With Trump on Ideas They Had Opposed — PHILADELPHIA — From the time he became their candidate until he took the oath of office, congressional Republicans treated President Trump's policy pronouncements — largely out of step with Republican dogma — as essentially a distraction.

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:

The Trump Administration's Day One Moves Were Copied From Mitt Romney's Playbook — WASHINGTON — When White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked Wednesday about a potential executive order that would revive Bush-era detention and interrogation policies, he flatly denied any knowledge of its existence.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog