Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Says Dollar ‘Getting Too Strong,’ Won't Label China a Currency Manipulator — President leaves open possibility of renominating Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen — WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump said Wednesday the U.S. dollar “is getting too strong” and he would prefer the Federal Reserve keep interest rates low.
Discussion:
ABC News, The Atlantic, Vox, Axios, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, The Hill, CNNMoney, Politico, CNBC, New York Magazine, NBC News, Hot Air, TheStreet, IJR, FITSNews, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Diplomat, Politicus USA, Washington Free Beacon, The Daily Caller, New York Times and Balloon Juice
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Wall Street Journal:
Trump Says He Offered China Better Trade Terms in Exchange for Help on North Korea — President doesn't demand departure of Syria's Assad but says it's likely — WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump said Wednesday he has offered Chinese President Xi Jinping a more favorable trade deal …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice and Political Wire
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Threatens to Withhold Payments to Insurers to Press Democrats on Health Bill — Almost three weeks after canceling a vote on his health-care package over infighting among his fellow Republicans and the opposition of the Democrats, President Donald Trump dug back into the fight …
Discussion:
Politico, Talking Points Memo, Axios, New York Magazine, Business Insider, Balloon Juice, Political Wire, Mediaite, CNBC and Politicus USA
Adam Kredo / Washington Free Beacon:
New Front In White House Civil War as Kushner Asserts Authority at NSC — White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner is leading an unprecedented effort to meddle in the White House's National Security Council, causing mayhem for senior staff who say the president's son-in-law is interfering …
Discussion:
New York Magazine and The Daily Caller
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New York Times:
Trump Undercuts Top Adviser Stephen K. Bannon, Whose Job May Be in Danger — WASHINGTON — Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump's grenade-lobbing pugilist of a chief strategist, has a fitting nickname for his West Wing office: “The war room.” — But more and more, war is being waged on Mr. Bannon himself.
Nikita Vladimirov / The Hill:
Trump backer met with Bannon about post-WH options: report — White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon reportedly met with a key backer of President Trump last week to discuss opportunities for the senior aide should he leave the White House. — Two two sources briefed on the meeting told …
Mike Allen / Axios:
Trump kneecaps Bannon
Trump kneecaps Bannon
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, NPR, Raw Story, Politifact.com Truth …, No More Mister Nice Blog, TalkLeft, Hot Air, Vox, US News, Salon and AOL
Daniel W. Drezner / Washington Post:
I was wrong about Jeff Sessions — An apology for a tweet about the attorney general that has gone viral — Full disclosure: The hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts does not like Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Not one little bit. — I didn't like him when he was the first Senator to endorse Donald Trump.
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Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:
Prosecutor: Jeff Sessions's New Immigration Plan Is ‘F*cking Horrifying’ — NOGALES, Arizona—The crowd was small, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions's speech was short. But his message couldn't have been clearer: — “This is a new era,” said Sessions, who sported a dark suit in the hot Arizona sun.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, CNN, Common Dreams, U.S. Department of Justice, America's Voice and Politico
Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:
Civil Rights Groups Warn Against Return To Bush-Era Politicization Of DOJ Hiring
Civil Rights Groups Warn Against Return To Bush-Era Politicization Of DOJ Hiring
Discussion:
United to Protect Democracy and Daily Kos
Mike McIntire / New York Times:
After Campaign Exit, Manafort Borrowed From Businesses With Trump Ties — That morning, he stepped down from guiding Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign, after a brief tenure during which Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, Democrats' emails were hacked and the campaign's contacts with Russia came under scrutiny.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Politicus USA, Daily Kos, RedState, Axios and Joe.My.God.
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Associated Press:
AP Exclusive: Manafort firm received Ukraine ledger payout — WASHINGTON (AP) — Last August, a handwritten ledger surfaced in Ukraine with dollar amounts and dates next to the name of Paul Manafort, who was then Donald Trump's campaign chairman. — Ukrainian investigators called it evidence …
John Harwood / CNBC:
Trump's budget director on what's on, and off, the table for cuts — As President Donald Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney sits in the center of the storm. — He is drafting a White House budget that members of both parties call dead on arrival. He's still trying to help bridge …
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Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Trump Budget Director Admits Their Goal Is High Inequality, Not Low Deficits
Trump Budget Director Admits Their Goal Is High Inequality, Not Low Deficits
Discussion:
CNBC, The Daily Caller, Business Insider and Axios
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
President Trump's thoroughly confusing Fox Business interview, annotated — President Trump spoke with Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo in an interview airing Wednesday morning, and it was par for the course for Trump. — By which I mean he rewrote history (on his views of attacking Syria) …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, Mother Jones, Hullabaloo, Business Insider, Daily Kos, AOL, Balloon Juice and Politicus USA
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Sarah K. Burris / Raw Story:
Trump hammers FBI's Comey for not jailing Clinton: ‘She was guilty of every charge’
Trump hammers FBI's Comey for not jailing Clinton: ‘She was guilty of every charge’
Discussion:
Shareblue
Dylan Scott / Vox:
Let's speculate about what the Kansas special election means for health care — Republicans barely held on in Kansas. That's bad news for Trumpcare. … The big political news last night was the Kansas special election in the state's Fourth Congressional District, where Republicans kept …
Discussion:
Axios
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Alexis Levinson / BuzzFeed:
Republicans Just Barely Won The First Post-Trump Congressional Election
Republicans Just Barely Won The First Post-Trump Congressional Election
Discussion:
New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Post and Political Wire
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Burger King's new ad forces Google Home to advertise the Whopper — Oh no, Google — Burger King is unveiling a horrible, genius, infuriating, hilarious, and maybe very poorly thought-out ad today that's designed to intentionally set off Google Homes and Android phones.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Engadget and Mediaite, more at Techmeme »
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Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:
Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer — In the latest example of marketers entering the living room, Burger King will release television commercials on Tuesday that are intended to prompt voice-activated smart speakers from Google into describing its burgers — after the 15-second spots end.
Discussion:
The Verge, New York Magazine and GeekWire
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Tillerson and Putin Find Little More Than Disagreement in Meeting — MOSCOW — Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for nearly two hours Wednesday, but the two men appeared unable to agree on the facts involving the deadly chemical weapons assault …
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon and Althouse
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Media Matters for America:
White Nationalists And Neo-Nazis Use Sean Spicer's Hitler Comments To Validate Holocaust Conspiracy Theories, Attack Jews — Sean Spicer Claimed Hitler “Didn't Even Sink To Using Chemical Weapons” And “Was Not Using The Gas On His Own People The Same Way That Assad Is Doing”
Discussion:
CNNMoney, Washington Post and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »
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Brian Beutler / New Republic:
Sean Spicer Is the Perfectly Awful Spokesman That Donald Trump Deserves
Sean Spicer Is the Perfectly Awful Spokesman That Donald Trump Deserves
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Breitbart, Salon, New York Daily News, Washington Post, RT, RedState, Snopes.com, Hot Air, Infowars, twitchy.com, Washington Free Beacon and Vox
Ryan Struyk / ABC News:
President Trump on NATO: 'It's no longer obsolete' — President Donald Trump reversed course on his view of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Wednesday, saying the organization is “no longer obsolete” after months of bashing the defense alliance as no longer relevant during his campaign.
Discussion:
The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, Hit & Run and Mediaite
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David Nakamura / Washington Post:
Trump administration moving quickly to build up nationwide deportation force — The Trump administration is quickly identifying ways to assemble the nationwide deportation force that President Trump promised on the campaign trail as he railed against the dangers posed by illegal immigration.
Discussion:
Axios, The FADER, The Daily Caller, Common Dreams and Political Wire
Aaron Smith / CNNMoney:
Standoff: ‘Charging Bull’ artist wants ‘Fearless Girl’ out of the way — State Street: Why we commissioned the Wall St. ‘Fearless Girl’ — The artist behind “Charging Bull,” the bronze sculpture that has come to symbolize Wall Street, wants “Fearless Girl” out of the way.
Discussion:
NPR, RT, Gothamist, NBC News, CBS New York, TMZ.com, Associated Press and twitchy.com
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Katie Mettler / Washington Post:
‘Charging Bull’ sculptor says ‘Fearless Girl’ distorts his art. He's fighting back.
‘Charging Bull’ sculptor says ‘Fearless Girl’ distorts his art. He's fighting back.
Discussion:
New York Times, RedState and ThinkProgress
The Intercept:
MSNBC'S RACHEL MADDOW SEES A “RUSSIA CONNECTION” LURKING AROUND EVERY CORNER — One day after her network joined the rest of corporate media in cheering for President Trump's missile attack on Syria, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was back to regular business: seeing Russian collaboration with Trump at work.
The Hill:
Clinton campaign plagued by bickering — The following is an excerpt adapted from “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign,” which will be released on April 18. Copyright © 2017 by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. Published by Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
Discussion:
Liberal Values, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon and Instapundit
Associated Press:
Lobbyists tied to ex-Trump aides register as foreign agents — WASHINGTON (AP) — A Washington lobbying firm that worked on a covert influence campaign in the U.S. under the direction of two former top campaign advisers to President Donald Trump has registered after the fact with the Justice Department as a foreign agent.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit
Casey Quinlan / ThinkProgress:
Betsy DeVos rescinds protections for student loan borrowers — Student loan servicers have a poor track record of helping borrowers pay back their loans. — On Tuesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos reversed Obama administration directives that were supposed to make it easier for borrowers to pay back their student loans.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Daily Kos and Common Dreams
Hadas Gold / Politico:
Bret Stephens leaves Wall Street Journal for New York Times — One of the loudest voices against President Donald Trump from The Wall Street Journal's editorial pages is decamping for the competitor across town. — Bret Stephens, the Journal's deputy editorial page editor …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, more at Mediagazer »
Daily Mail:
Melania Trump - An Apology — The Mail Online website and the Daily Mail newspaper published an article on 20th August 2016 about Melania Trump which questioned the nature of her work as a professional model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modelling.