memeorandum: 'It's worse than a refugee camp': Disastrous Bella Hadid-backed Bahamas Fyre Festival is CANCELLED … (Julian Robinson/Daily Mail)

3:40 PM ET, April 28, 2017

Top Items:

MJ Lee / CNN:

First on CNN: Ahead of Trump's 100th day mark, Obama says Obamacare is more popular than Trump — One moment from each of Trump's first days — New York (CNN)Former President Barack Obama hailed the political resilience of his signature health care law at a private event Thursday …

Discussion: Political Wire, Shareblue, Raw Story, Occupy Democrats, Politicus USA, Business Insider, IJR, Reuters, The Week and TheBlaze

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Why can't House repeal Obamacare? Because a lot of Republicans don't want to — “We're going to go when we have the votes,” Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday when asked when the House will pass a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Lawmakers will not be constrained by any “artificial deadline,” Ryan declared.

Discussion: Raw Story, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Hit & Run, Hot Air, Daily Wire, The Hill, Politico and Political Wire

CNN:

CNN/ORC poll: Expectations plummet for health care overhaul — Trump supporter: Paul Ryan not helping Trump — Washington (CNN)Three months ago, just before Donald Trump took office, about half of Americans said it was very likely that the new President, armed with a Republican majority …

Discussion: Political Wire and Politicus USA

Peter Weber / The Week: Trevor Noah wants you to cut the outrage over Obama's $400,000 Wall Street speech

Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon:
The Democrats' First 100 Days — Let's reverse angle.

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Kimberly Leonard / Washington Examiner:
Kasich comes out against GOP's Obamacare repeal bill: 'I'm not for it'

Discussion: Axios

Noam N. Levey / Los Angeles Times:
GOP shuts out doctors, experts, Democrats — pretty much everybody — as they work on Obamacare repeal

Discussion: Mother Jones and IJR

Raw Story:

Trump admits he thought being president would be a lot easier than his old life — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — He misses driving, feels as if he is in a cocoon, and is surprised how hard his new job is. — President Donald Trump on Thursday reflected on his first 100 days …

Reuters:

Exclusive: Trump says ‘major, major’ conflict with North Korea possible, but seeks diplomacy — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday a major conflict with North Korea is possible in the standoff over its nuclear and missile programs, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute.

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Kasich: Trump should ‘eradicate’ North Korean leadership — Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former Republican presidential candidate, said Friday that President Trump ought to “eradicate” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his top lieutenants in a surgical military strike designed to give rise to a more benign leadership in Pyongyang.

Discussion: Political Wire and The Week

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
Trump now agrees with the majority of Americans: He wasn't ready to be president

Discussion: Mother Jones, ThinkProgress, The Atlantic, Shareblue, Outside the Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, Vox, Salon, Hullabaloo and Hot Air

David Choi / Business Insider:
South Korea rebuffs Trump's $1 billion use-charge for a US missile-defense system

Discussion: Vox, Washington Post, The Resurgent, France 24, New York Times, Politicus USA and The Week

Eliana Johnson / Politico:

DeMint set to be ousted from Heritage Foundation — The controversial president of The Heritage Foundation, former Sen. Jim DeMint, may soon be out of a job, following a dispute with board members about the direction of conservative think tank, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: New York Times, Talking Points Memo, RedState, Political Wire, Washingtonian, The Week, FITSNews, Washington Times and Axios

Rachel Stockman / Mediaite:

EXCLUSIVE: Advanced Talks Underway For New Conservative Network Amid Fears Fox News Moving Too Far Left — On the heels of major shakeups at the Fox News Network, an alternative conservative network is being actively discussed amongst conservative fat cats.

Discussion: The Hill, Axios, The Gateway Pundit, BizPac Review, The Week, New York Times, RedState, Deadline, New York Magazine, Business Insider, TheBlaze, Media Matters for America and CNNMoney, more at Mediagazer »

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

Murdochs Exploring Fox News Options as Pressure on Bill Shine Mounts — The company has quietly put out feelers for a possible new head of Fox News with the preference, say sources, that it be a woman. — The Murdochs may be preparing for a leadership change at Fox News.

Discussion: The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Daily Wire, TheBlaze and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Justin Baragona / Mediaite:
'He's Pretty Close to Perfect': Lou Dobbs and Hannity Take Turns Gushing Over Trump

Discussion: RedState and Joe.My.God.

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Alex Jones Suffers Defeat In Custody Hearing — “Mr. Jones is like a cult leader,” the conspiracy blogger's ex-wife told the jury. “And we've seen the horrific damage cult leaders do to their followers.” — Reporting From — AUSTIN — After a grueling 10-day trial …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Occupy Democrats, Raw Story and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Austin American-Statesman:
VERDICT: Ex-wife of Alex Jones wins joint custody after bitter trial

Discussion: New York Daily News and RedState

Doug Stanglin / USA Today:
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones loses primary custody of his kids

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Tarini Parti / BuzzFeed:

The Convicted Con Artist Of The Winter White House … WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — An admitted fraudster who owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to his victims has had access to President Donald Trump through his wife, who is the guest reception manager of Mar-a-Lago, the Winter White House.

Discussion: The Week

Cameron Easley / Morning Consult:

Political Media Earns Poor Marks From Americans — As political journalists prepare to gather at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday to celebrate their work, a new Morning Consult poll is likely to make many of them cringe.

Discussion: Front Page Magazine, AOL, Hot Air and The Gateway Pundit

Politico:
What It's Really Like to Cover Trump

Discussion: Mother Jones and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Michael Warren / Weekly Standard:
The Ad Hoc Presidency

Discussion: Washington Post

Alex Young / Consequence of Sound:

$12,000 luxury Fyre Festival is basically a disaster zone — This weekend was to mark the launch of Fyre Festival, a boutique, luxury music festival taking place in Exumas, Bahamas. Tickets to the festival ran between $4,000 and $12,000, with the price of admission including a chartered flight from Miami …

Discussion: Breitbart, IJR, New York Magazine, Mashable, The FADER, New York Times, Refinery29, NBC News, CBS San Francisco, Boing Boing, Washington Post, CBS Miami, Raw Story, CBS Dallas, OneRandomChick, theGrio, AOL and The Week

Julian Robinson / Daily Mail:
'It's worse than a refugee camp': Disastrous Bella Hadid-backed Bahamas Fyre Festival is CANCELLED …

Discussion: The FADER, Refinery29 and Althouse

Rachana Pradhan / Politico:

Trump names anti-abortion leader Yoest to top HHS post — President Donald Trump on Friday said he would name one of the most prominent anti-abortion activists in the country to a top communications post at HHS. — Charmaine Yoest, tapped to be assistant secretary of public affairs, is a senior fellow at American Values.

Discussion: New York Magazine, LifeNews.com, Axios and TheBlaze

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Trump To Appoint Anti-Abortion Leader Charmaine Yoest To Post At HHS

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Rewire, Right Wing Watch, Daily Kos and Shakesville

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

N.S.A Halts Collection of Americans' Emails About Foreign Targets — WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is stopping one of the most disputed forms of its warrantless surveillance program in which it collects Americans' emails and texts to and from people overseas and that mention …

Discussion: Axios, The Verge and Reuters, more at Techmeme »

Mark Penn / The Hill:

Why the polls are wrong about Trump. Again. — Today we live in a polling bubble - surveys taken from the perches in New York, Washington and Los Angeles may be obscuring rather than illuminating many of the underlying views and trends of the American electorate.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Common Dreams and Washington Post

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

Schumer blocks one-week stopgap funding bill — (D-N.Y.) on Thursday objected to a deal on passing a one-week stopgap government funding bill, citing concerns about ongoing negotiations over a larger spending agreement. — Schumer said there were still unresolved “poison pill riders” …

Discussion: Politico, ThinkProgress and Daily Kos

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
McConnell: Senate will pass short-term funding bill to avoid shutdown

Discussion: taxpolicycenter.org and Outside the Beltway

Sho Chandra / Bloomberg:

U.S. Economy Grew 0.7% in First Quarter, Slowest in Three Years — Consumption is worst since 2009 on auto demand, utilities — Investment is bright spot, including housing and oil drilling — The U.S. economy expanded at the slowest pace in three years as weak auto sales …

Discussion: Reuters, Washington Post, New York Times, Media Matters for America and The Week

Jeffry Bartash / MarketWatch: U.S. economy bogs down in first quarter with slowest growth in 3 years, GDP shows

Morgan Eads / Lexington Herald-Leader:

‘You are safe,’ Transylvania attacker says to Republican student in coffee shop — A man who used a machete to attack a Transylvania University student in a campus coffee shop Friday first asked people about their political affiliations, a witness said. — The assailant, thought …

Discussion: Washington Post, Occupy Democrats and Raw Story

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Living in the Trump Zone — Fans of old TV series may remember a classic “Twilight Zone” episode titled “It's a Good Life.” It featured a small town terrorized by a 6-year-old who for some reason had monstrous superpowers, coupled with complete emotional immaturity.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Raw Story and CNN

New York Times:

State Department Wants to Clear Nikki Haley's Remarks Before She Speaks — UNITED NATIONS — The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, has often been the first, most outspoken member of the Trump administration to weigh in on key foreign policy issues …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Hill, New York Magazine, FITSNews, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Free Beacon, The Week, RedState, Axios and Political Wire

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:

Donald Trump's first 100 days have been a moneymaking success story — He's getting what he cares about. — Donald Trump attracted a reputation over the years as a ruthless and unscrupulous businessman. He said on the campaign trail that having been “greedy all my life,” …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Raw Story, ABC News and Politico

Joanna Weiss / Politico:

The Strange Psychological Power of ‘Fox & Friends’ — It was a typical Tuesday in March, and President Donald Trump was getting hammered by the press. One of his signature campaign promises, repealing Obamacare, had just collapsed. The Republican co-chairman of the House Intelligence Committee …

Discussion: The Rush Limbaugh Show and dailyrushbo.com

Max Greenwood / The Hill:

NRA head: Sanders ‘a political predator’ — National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre on Friday tore into Sen. Bernie Sanders — (I-Vt.), calling him a “political predator” who lied to young people. — “Bernie Sanders was not a movement …

Discussion: Raw Story