memeorandum: Trump's ‘hard power budget’ increases defense spending, cuts to State Dept, EPA (Dan Merica/CNN)

12:20 PM ET, March 16, 2017

Top Items:

Trump federal budget 2018: Massive cuts to the arts, science and the poor — President Trump on Thursday will unveil a budget plan that calls for a sharp increase in military spending and stark cuts across much of the rest of the government including the elimination of dozens …

Discussion: RedState, Occupy Democrats, Consumerist, Hot Air, Lawyers, Guns & Money, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hullabaloo, Raw Story and New York Times

Joel Achenbach / Washington Post:

Trump's budget calls for seismic disruption in medical and science research — President Trump's budget calls for a seismic disruption in government-funded medical and scientific research. The cuts are deep and broad. — They also go beyond what many political observers expected.

Discussion: Vox and Common Dreams

Louis Nelson / Politico:

Mulvaney justifies budget: We can't ask a coal miner to pay for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — As they fleshed out the budget blueprint released Thursday morning by the White House, Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney said officials from the administration …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Post, CNBC, BillMoyers.com, Daily Kos, Common Dreams, The Week and New York Times

New York Times:

Donald Trump Budget Slashes Funds for E.P.A. and State Department — WASHINGTON — President Trump's budget blueprint for the coming fiscal year would slash the Environmental Protection Agency by 31 percent and cut State Department spending by a similar amount in a brash upending …

Discussion: Vox, Daily Kos, Washington Post, Death and Taxes, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, Reuters, BizPac Review, Politico, Grist and ewg.org

Benjamin Locke / Occupy Democrats:
Trump Just Announced Plan To End ‘Meals On Wheels’ For Seniors

Discussion: New York Times, Mashable, Daily Kos and Vox

Dan Merica / CNN:
Trump's ‘hard power budget’ increases defense spending, cuts to State Dept, EPA

Discussion: Forbes and The Root

Elaine Lies / Reuters:
Tillerson says State Department spending ‘simply not sustainable’

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Sarah Ferris / Politico:
Trump budget would pay for military buildup with domestic cuts

Discussion: ABC News and Vox

Dan Merica / CNN:
Trump to release ‘hard power budget’ with cuts to State Dept, EPA

Discussion: Washington Post and New York Magazine

Stephanie Simon / STAT:
Trump budget calls for slashing biomedical and science research funding

Discussion: The Atlantic and Washington Post

The Forward:

EXCLUSIVE: Nazi-Allied Group Claims Top Trump Aide Sebastian Gorka As Sworn Member — Sebastian Gorka, President Trump's top counter-terrorism adviser, is a formal member of a Hungarian far-right group that is listed by the U.S. State Department as having been “under the direction …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Week, Mediaite, The Times of Israel and Raw Story

Fox News:

Trump says he will submit evidence of wiretapping to House committee ‘very soon’ — President Trump discussed his tweeted accusation that President Obama ordered “wires” at Trump Tower tapped during last year's presidential campaign in an exclusive interview with Fox News' “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday.

Discussion: Daily Wire, Hot Air, Raw Story, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Gateway Pundit, AOL and Joe.My.God.

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:

Trump to Tucker Carlson: “I know” counties that voted for me will lose under the Republican health plan — “A lot of things aren't consistent.” — Tucker Carlson's sit-down with Donald Trump Wednesday night was not exactly a hard-hitting interview, but the Fox News host did speak …

Discussion: ABC News, New York Magazine, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Moderate Voice

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Trump Acknowledges Repeal Bill Wouldn't Be Great For His Supporters

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Daily Caller

Paulina Firozi / The Hill:

McDonald's tweets to Trump: ‘You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President’ — McDonald's' in a tweet on its corporate account called President Trump “a disgusting excuse of a President” on Thursday morning. — The tweet, which was briefly pinned to the top of the account before being deleted …

Discussion: Politico, Axios, Althouse and CBS Philly

Nivea Serrao / EW.com:

Chelsea Clinton announces new picture book, She Persisted — Count Chelsea Clinton among the many people whom Elizabeth Warren inspired when she refused to be silenced in the Senate. — Clinton, the daughter of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former U.S. President Bill Clinton …

Discussion: The Hill, RedState, Politico, Daily Wire, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon, The Week, Althouse, New York Magazine, twitchy.com and TheBlaze

Ken Dilanian / NBC News:

Clinton Ally Says Smoke, But No Fire: No Russia-Trump Collusion — Former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell, who endorsed Hillary Clinton and called Donald Trump a dupe of Russia, cast doubt Wednesday night on allegations that members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

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

Alexander Burns / New York Times:

2 Federal Judges Rule Against Trump's Latest Travel Ban — A federal judge in Hawaii issued a nationwide order Wednesday evening blocking President Trump's ban on travel from parts of the Muslim world, dealing a stinging blow to the White House and signaling that Mr. Trump will have to account …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Breitbart, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Common Dreams, Religion News Service, Shakesville, National Review, Occupy Democrats, The Guardian, Little Green Footballs, Snopes.com, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Above the Law and Philip Greenspun's Weblog

Laura Jarrett / CNN:
Federal judge blocks new Trump travel ban

Discussion: Mashable, Death and Taxes, Balloon Juice, TheBlaze and CBS Baltimore

Rich Lowry / Politico:

How the GOP Crackup Happens — Less than two weeks after the unveiling of the GOP Obamacare replacement, the party is already staring into the abyss. — The bill has had the worst rollout of any major piece of legislation in memory, and failure is very much an option.

Discussion: Vox, BuzzFeed, Booman Tribune, Washington Examiner and Balloon Juice

Adam Cancryn / Politico:
Obamacare repeal bill survives narrow committee vote

Discussion: Vox

J. D. Vance / New York Times:

Why I'm Moving Home — COLUMBUS, Ohio — In recent months, I've frequently found myself in places hit hard by manufacturing job losses, speaking to people affected in various ways. Sometimes, the conversation turns to the conflict people feel between the love of their home and the desire to leave in search of better work.

Discussion: Althouse

CNBC:

600+ companies are bidding to build Trump's ‘border wall’ — including one from Mexico — More than 600 businesses want in on the action with President Donald Trump's “border wall” — including one from Mexico. And a by-the-numbers CNBC analysis of those companies reveals a wide variety of owners and other details.

Discussion: Washington Post and Axios

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:
Republicans skeptical about paying for wall as Trump releases budget

Discussion: CNN, Political Wire and Business Insider

Alissa J. Rubin / New York Times:

Geert Wilders Falls Short as Wary Dutch Scatter Their Votes — THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The far-right politician Geert Wilders fell short of expectations in Dutch elections on Wednesday, gaining seats but failing to persuade a decisive portion of voters to back his extreme positions …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Reuters, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Hot Air, The Week, BBC, The Resurgent, The Daily Caller and The Guardian

Jon Henley / The Guardian:
GreenLeft proves to be big winner in Dutch election

Discussion: AOL, France 24, Balloon Juice, CNN and Little Green Footballs

Mark Finkelstein / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:

Paul: McCain “makes a really, really strong case for term limits” — Payback is a . . . Rand Paul. After John McCain, speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, accused Paul of “working for Vladimir Putin,” Paul had a crushing comeback on today's Morning Joe.

Discussion: The Week

Andrew Kirell / The Daily Beast:
John McCain: Rand Paul ‘Is Now Working for Vladimir Putin’

Discussion: The Resurgent, The Daily Caller, Occupy Democrats, Hit & Run, Hot Air and Raw Story

Michael Paulson / New York Times:

Justin Trudeau Brings Ivanka Trump to Broadway Show on Welcoming Outsiders — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose emphasis on welcoming refugees has been at odds with the harsher stance of the Trump administration, on Wednesday night brought Ivanka Trump to a Broadway show …

Discussion: AOL

Alastair Jamieson / NBC News:
Justin Trudeau Warns Trump About NAFTA Plan, Says Deal Is Good for U.S. Jobs

Discussion: Washington Times

Thomas B. Edsall / New York Times:

The Increasing Significance of the Decline of Men — At one end of the scale, men continue to dominate. — In 2016, 95.8 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs were male and so were 348 of the Forbes 400. Of the 260 people on the Forbes list described as “self-made,” 250 were men.

Sam Knight / The Guardian:

Operation London Bridge: the secret plan for the days after the Queen's death — She is venerated around the world. She has outlasted 12 US presidents. She stands for stability and order. But her kingdom is in turmoil, and her subjects are in denial that her reign will ever end.

Sylvan Lane / The Hill:

Debt ceiling returns, creating new headache for GOP — The legal limit on how much the United States government can borrow returns on Thursday, potentially setting up an intense political battle in Congress. — Lawmakers will have until sometime this autumn to raise the debt ceiling …

Discussion: Political Wire

Yashar Ali / Mother Jones:

Secret Service Agents Under Investigation for Taking Photos of Donald Trump's Sleeping Grandson — A source with knowledge of the information tells Mother Jones that two Secret Service agents who were assigned to protect Donald Trump III, President Donald Trump's grandson, took selfies with the eight year old while he was sleeping.

Discussion: RedState and IJR

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:

Obama chief of staff: ‘The president cannot order a wiretap’ … Former President Barack Obama — 's chief of staff on Thursday pushed back against President Trump's wiretapping allegations. — “The president cannot order a wiretap, president does not order a wiretap, the president did not order a wiretap,” Denis McDonough

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, AOL, Occupy Democrats and Joe.My.God.

Bloomberg:

Trump Budget Plan Declares War on ‘War on Poverty’ Programs — Initiatives aimed at aiding Appalachia, rural water eliminated — “America First” means priority on security, White House says — President Donald Trump's budget proposal to Congress calls for eliminating social programs dating …

Discussion: Raw Story

Amanda Whiting / Washingtonian:

Trump Places Personal Call To Tomi Lahren, Thanking Her After Hannity Appearance — Turns out, if you want a personal phone call from the President of the United States, say something nice about him on Hannity. That's precisely what Tomi Lahren did on February 7, when she appeared …

Discussion: Mediaite and New York Magazine

BuzzFeed:

How Trump's Lawyer Placed A Big Casino Bet That Left Dozens Empty-Handed — Years before Trump's candidacy, Michael D. Cohen backed a different kind of venture: a gambling cruise that stiffed employees and vendors, and blew off many of the ensuing lawsuits. — The Atlantic sailed