memeorandum: With Navy's blessing, Coronado schools, city end participation in processions for slain sailors (Carl Prine/sandiegouniontribune.com)

5:45 PM ET, March 4, 2017

Top Items:

Trump, citing no evidence, accuses Obama of ‘Nixon/Watergate’ plot to wiretap Trump Tower — President Trump on Saturday angrily accused former president Barack Obama of orchestrating a “Nixon/Watergate” plot to tap the phones at his Trump Tower headquarters last fall in the run-up to the election.

New York Times:

Trump, Offering No Evidence, Says Obama Tapped His Phones — WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump on Saturday accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of having tapped his phones at Trump Tower the month before the election, calling Mr. Obama on Twitter a “bad (or sick) guy.”

Discussion: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times, ABC News, The Slot, France 24, Daily Kos, Infowars, Gizmodo, TheBlaze, Western Journalism, Politico, Political Wire, WHNT-TV, BizPac Review, CBS Denver and Eschaton

Mallory Shelbourne / The Hill:

Graham: 'I'm very worried' about Trump's wiretapping accusation — (R-S.C.) on Saturday said he is “very worried” about President Trump's accusation that former President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. — “I'm very worried that our president is suggesting the former president has done something illegal …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Week

Tim Hains / RealClearPolitics:

Mark Levin: Was Obama Using NSA Against Trump During 2016 Campaign? — Radio host Mark Levin spent most of his Thursday evening show discussing the alleged scandal surrounding Attorney General Jeff Sessions and what he says is the real scandal: A “silent coup” by the former Obama administration against President Trump.

Discussion: Power Line, The Last Refuge, BBC, RedState, The Hill, Liberty Unyielding, Western Journalism, Hot Air, The Last Tradition, Scared Monkeys, The Gateway Pundit, IJR, Doug Ross and Instapundit

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

The Associated Press Springs to Obama's Defense — After President Trump accused Barack Obama of wiretapping his phones during the election campaign, the Associated Press hurried into print a defense of the former president: … No one fits a lot of details into a tweet …

Discussion: Associated Press

Brooke Seipel / The Hill:
Top Obama adviser to Trump: ‘No president can order a wiretap’

Discussion: BizPac Review, ThinkProgress, RedState, Raw Story, CBS Philly, KTLA, Politico, Politicus USA, Joe.My.God., CBS Dallas and Towleroad

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Donald Trump was a conspiracy-theory candidate. Now he's on the edge of being a conspiracy-theory president.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Raw Story, The Guardian, CBS New York, Fox 59, Politicus USA, BizPac Review and Mediaite

Alicia Melville-Smith / BuzzFeed:
Trump Repeats Talk Radio Rumor That Obama Wiretapped Him During Election

Discussion: The Hill, The Moderate Voice, Mediaite, Raw Story, Common Dreams, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Business Insider, Politicus USA, Balloon Juice, twitchy.com and MARK-CM

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
Trump Goes Nuclear With Claim Obama Wiretapped Him During Election [Updated]

Discussion: Instapundit and TheBlaze

Javier E. David / CNBC:
Trump accuses predecessor of ‘McCarthyism,’ wire-tapping during general election; Obama camp denies

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CANNONFIRE, Fort Smith/Fayetteville News, Politico, The Last Refuge and The Gateway Pundit

David Shepardson / Reuters:
Obama denies Trump claim he wiretapped him during campaign

Discussion: The Last Tradition, Joe.My.God. and AOL

Fox News:
Trump accuses Obama administration of wiretapping Trump Tower phones

CNN:
Trump falsely accuses Obama of wiretapping his phone

Discussion: The Hill, The Guardian, Western Journalism, Hot Air, Geller Report, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and Daily Wire

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
A Special Prosecutor . . . For What?

Discussion: emptywheel, twitchy.com and Daily Wire

Jonathan Karl / ABC News:

Trump flashes anger over Sessions recusal, Russia stories in tense Oval Office meeting — Before heading off to his so-called “winter White House” in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday, President Donald Trump summoned some of his senior staff to the Oval Office and went “ballistic,” senior White House sources told ABC News.

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Mahablog and Political Wire

Nancy Cook / Politico:

Trump fumes over Sessions' recusal from Russia probe — President Donald Trump, increasingly frustrated with his White House rollout, vented to top aides on Friday over Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal from any investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Discussion: Mother Jones, Vox and Raw Story

Nancy Cook / Politico:

Trump expected to sign new executive order on travel ban on Monday — President Donald Trump is expected to sign on Monday a new executive order on his controversial travel ban at the Department of Homeland Security, according to senior government officials familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Political Wire, Mediaite and Axios

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Sessions Controversy Heightens Trump's Feeling of Being Under Siege

Discussion: Axios

Frank Bruni / New York Times:

Donald Trump vs. the Food Snobs — Donald Trump's riches, rages and romance with Russia all demand scrutiny. They shape our fates. — His meals don't, so leave the man to his supper. Let him eat steak. — Let him order it as he wishes and slather it with whatever he pleases.

New York Times:

Trump Inherits a Secret Cyberwar Against North Korean Missiles — WASHINGTON — Three years ago, President Barack Obama ordered Pentagon officials to step up their cyber and electronic strikes against North Korea's missile program in hopes of sabotaging test launches in their opening seconds.

Discussion: RedState, The Daily Caller, Mashable and Axios

Adolfo Flores / BuzzFeed:

A 13-Year-Old Girl Sobbed While Recording Her Immigrant Father Get Arrested By ICE Agents — Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez was arrested this week while dropping off his daughter at a school in Los Angeles. — A sobbing 13-year-old girl recorded the arrest of her undocumented immigrant father …

Discussion: The Root

The Seattle Times:

Sikh man in Kent says he was told ‘Go back to your own country’ before he was shot — Kent police are looking for a gunman who allegedly walked onto a man's driveway and shot him, saying “go back to your own country.”

Discussion: Raw Story and The Stranger …

Johnathan Silver / The Texas Tribune:

Health care sets tone for Texas congressman's contentious town hall — In a rare congressional town hall in North Texas, U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, withstood two hours of booing from hundreds of angry constituents at a local high school. Few of his colleagues have hosted such forums lately.

New York Times:

Trump Team's Links to Russia Crisscross in Washington — WASHINGTON — During the 2016 campaign, Donald J. Trump's second campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, had regular communications with his longtime associate — a former Russian military translator in Kiev who has been investigated in Ukraine …

Discussion: Chicago Boyz, Washington Post, Politico, LifeZette, CNBC and Balloon Juice