How Trump gets his fake news  —  White House chief of staff Reince Priebus issued a stern warning at a recent senior staff meeting: Quit trying to secretly slip stuff to President Trump.  —  Just days earlier, K.T. McFarland, the deputy national security adviser, had given Trump a printout of two Time magazine covers.

Frelinghuysen Targets Activist in Letter to Her Employer  —  The most powerful congressman in New Jersey, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, wrote a fundraising letter in March to a board member of a local bank, warning him that a member of an activist group opposing the Republican worked at his bank.

Strict North Carolina Voter ID Law Thwarted After Supreme Court Rejects Case  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday announced that it would stay out of a fight over a restrictive North Carolina voting law.  The move left in place a federal appeals court ruling that struck down key parts …

Ann Coulter Is Worried The ‘Trump-Haters Were Right’  —  Conservative author Ann Coulter was one of the most vocal supporters of Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.  —  She wrote “In Trump We Trust” and proclaimed that she worships him like the “people of North Korea worship their Dear Leader - blind loyalty.”

‘Morning Joe’ hosts: Conway secretly hates Trump  —  White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is secretly disgusted by President Trump and spoke harshly off him off-camera during the campaign, “Morning Joe” hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough said Monday

NATO Frantically Tries to Trump-Proof President's First Visit  —  A ‘freaked out’ NATO braces for Donald Trump's first meeting of the transatlantic alliance.  —  NATO is scrambling to tailor its upcoming meeting to avoid taxing President Donald Trump's notoriously short attention span.

MARVEL CANCELS TA-NEHISI COATES' BLACK PANTHER & THE CREW COMIC AFTER TWO ISSUES  —  Ta-Nehisi Coates, the celebrated public intellectual, faced a setback in his attempt to introduce racial diversity to the world of comic books when Marvel announced that Black Panther & The Crew …

US Support for Gay Marriage Edges to New High  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults say same-sex marriages should be recognized by the law as valid.  Although not meaningfully different from the 61% last year, this is the highest percentage to date and continues …

The need for urgent collective action to keep people safe online: Lessons from last week's cyberattack  —  Early Friday morning the world experienced the year's latest cyberattack.  —  Starting first in the United Kingdom and Spain, the malicious “WannaCrypt” software quickly spread globally …

Trump's Madness Invites Mutiny  —  When people behave as if they have something to hide, it is often because they do.  For me, this is a basic law of human behavior.  —  That's why President Trump's baffling, outrageous, unfathomable and just plain bizarre behavior last week strengthened …

Inside Corey Lewandowski's Failed Romp in Trump's Swamp  —  He was a political nobody who helped Donald Trump win the White House.  Then Corey Lewandowski went to Washington, hell-bent on making his fortune and changing the lobbying game forever.  Here's how those grandiose plans blew up …

Miss USA Winner Angers Liberals With Health Care Answer  —  Kára McCullough, a 25-year-old scientist, won the crown at the Miss USA pageant on Sunday night while surprising and angering liberals with her interview answers on health care and feminism.  —  McCullough works …

A Conversation with President Obama on Political Courage  —  By Jack Schlossberg, grandson of President Kennedy and member of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Committee  —  Last week, President Obama received the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his many acts …

If Americans Can Find North Korea on a Map, They're More Likely to Prefer Diplomacy  —  Here are guesses from 1,746 adults:  —  Where is North Korea?  —  Each represents a respondent's guess.  —  Just 36 percent got it right.  Here are the countries they selected:

It's Early, but the GOP Is Already in the Midterm Danger Zone  —  First Read is your briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter  —  Bannon, Preibus & Spicer on the Chopping Block?

France's Macron picks PM from the right, blowing apart old boundaries  —  Newly-inaugurated French President Emmanuel Macron appointed a conservative prime minister on Monday in a move to broaden his political appeal and weaken his opponents before legislative elections in June.

Putin blames off-key piano for hesitant musical rendition  —  Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday an impromptu piano rendition he gave on the sidelines of a meeting in Beijing had been hampered by an out of tune instrument.  —  Putin was captured on camera on Sunday sitting …

Lawrence O'Donnell's Future At MSNBC Is Unclear  —  As his contract nears its end, a renewal doesn't appear to be on the horizon for “The Last Word” host.  —  Lawrence O'Donnell, host of MSNBC's “The Last Word,” has just four weeks left in his contract, and the cable network does not appear to be interested in renewing his deal.

Are there still public servants who will say no to the president?  —  Preet Bharara, a scholar in residence at New York University Law School, was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 until this March.  —  The most dramatic hearing I helped to arrange as chief counsel …

‘American Gods’ Just Aired TV's Most Explicit Gay Sex Scene Ever … American Gods has been called, by various critics, “the most important show on TV,” a show that “couldn't be more timely,” and, by The Daily Beast's Melissa Leon, “a celebration of immigrants in the face of Trumpism.”

“Motivated ignorance” is ruining our political discourse  —  Talking with a political opponent is almost as unpleasant as getting a tooth pulled.  —  If you ever thought, “You couldn't pay me to listen to Sean Hannity / Rachael Maddow / insert any television pundit you violently disagree with here” — you are not alone.

U.S. says Syria cremated thousands of prisoners  —  The U.S. accused Syria Monday of killing thousands of prisoners and then burning their bodies in a crematorium outside of the capital, according to the AP.  The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, Stu Jones, says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad …