memeorandum: Trump's trampling of political norms spurs strongman comparisons (Michael Crowley/Politico)

11:00 AM ET, May 16, 2017

Top Items:

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador — President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials …

Discussion: Shareblue, The Atlantic, Vox, Washington Monthly, The Hill, ThinkProgress, Politico, Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo, Power Line, Newsmax, Axios, Townhall.com, Daily Kos, Mother Jones, Raw Story, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Tennessean.com, CNBC, Fox News, The Guardian, Media Matters for America, Political Insider blog, Washington Post, The American Mirror, Just Security, The Resurgent, National Review, Sputnik International, Fox News Insider, The Daily Caller, NBC News, BillMoyers.com, Washington Free Beacon, WGN-TV, Outside the Beltway, CNN, New York Times, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Hullabaloo, Hot Air, IJR, Politicus USA, Associated Press, CBS New York, AOL, Mashable, Daily Mail, Washington Times, The Week, emptywheel, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Times of Israel, Washingtonian, Taylor Marsh, Reuters, Informed Comment, Roll Call, twitchy.com, RedState, ABC News, France 24, TheStreet, CBS Philly, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, PRI, The Root, Little Green Footballs, TheBlaze, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hit & Run and Refinery29

David Brooks / New York Times:

When the World Is Led by a Child — At certain times Donald Trump has seemed like a budding authoritarian, a corrupt Nixon, a rabble-rousing populist or a big business corporatist. — But as Trump has settled into his White House role, he has given a series of long interviews …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Mediaite and Raw Story

JGoldsmith / Lawfare:

Bombshell: Initial Thoughts on the Washington Post's Game-Changing Story — Donald Trump meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak / Russian Foreign Ministry — The Washington Post this afternoon published a stunning story reporting …

Discussion: Axios, The Atlantic, Politico, RedState, Raw Story, The Guardian, Mediaite, AOL, The Week, Washington Post and bradford-delong.com

Ashley Parker / Washington Post:

Trump acknowledges ‘facts’ shared with Russian envoys during White House meeting — President Trump appeared to acknowledge Tuesday that he revealed highly classified information to Russia — a stunning confirmation of a Washington Post story and a move that contradicted his own White House team after it scrambled to deny the report.

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, Instapundit, Axios, Gizmodo, Media Matters for America, The Times of Israel, The Week, Sputnik International, Raw Story, WREG-TV, Althouse, Vox, WATE-TV, twitchy.com and The Atlantic

The Daily Beast:

White House Staff ‘Hiding’ As Russia Chaos Engulfs West Wing … White House and administration officials are reeling at reports that President Donald Trump reportedly shared classified information with Russia's top diplomats during an Oval Office meeting last week.

Discussion: Raw Story, New York Magazine and Shareblue

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

GOP senator: Senate panel needs briefing on whether Trump shared info — (Maine) says the White House needs to brief the Senate Intelligence Committee over allegations that President Trump shared classified information with top Russian officials. — “Although the President has the legal authority …

Discussion: Associated Press, RedState, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, fox5sandiego.com and The Daily Caller

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Law Can't Stop Trump. Only Impeachment Can. — Shortly after the Washington Post's devastating report that President Trump “revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador” and “jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State,” Republicans in Congress began to weigh in.

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos, FiveThirtyEight, Raw Story, The Week, Fox News Insider and Politicus USA

BuzzFeed:

Trump Revealed Highly Classified Information To Russians During White House Visit — The president discussed classified national security information with the Russian ambassador and foreign minister last week, two US officials confirmed to BuzzFeed News. — President Trump revealed highly …

Stephen Collinson / CNN:

Why the latest White House crisis is a really big deal — Trump's discussing classified information with the Russian foreign minister impacts his political standing and US national security interests — (CNN)Donald Trump's latest crisis — over his reported disclosure of highly classified information …

Discussion: The Week

Kristina Wong / Breitbart:

Deep State Leaks Highly Classified Info to Washington Post to Smear President Trump — Current and former U.S. officials, supposedly concerned that President Trump had shared some “highly classified information” with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador to the U.S. last week …

Discussion: Vox, Politico, Daily Kos, CNN, Mediaite, Washington Post, Washington Free Beacon, Just Security, Washington Times, The Week, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Power Line, Media Matters for America, CNBC, Axios and Shareblue

New York Times:
Trump Revealed Highly Classified Intelligence to Russia, in Break With Ally

Discussion: Raw Story, Indy Week, Axios, Politico, CNBC, Washington Post, Mediaite, The Week, The Atlantic, Reuters, Vox, Washington Free Beacon, Mother Jones and CBS Boston

Wall Street Journal:
Trump Shared Intelligence Secrets With Russians in Oval Office Meeting

Discussion: The Week

Katya Golubkova / Reuters:
Russia's response to Trump leak reports: don't read U.S. newspapers

Discussion: IJR

Eli Lake / Bloomberg:
Trump's Best Defense on Russia Is Incompetence

Discussion: Washington Post and CNBC

Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:
The Terrible Cost of Trump's Disclosures

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Vox, CNN, The Guardian, CNBC, Gizmodo, Media Matters for America, AOL, Associated Press, New York Times, Daily Mail, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog and ThinkProgress

Jan M. Olsen / Associated Press:
THE LATEST: EUROPEAN COUNTRY MIGHT HALT US INTEL-SHARING

Discussion: The Week

Zachary Cohen / CNN:
Intel officials: Trump disclosure ‘carelessly’ threatened relationship with ally

Discussion: Mediaite and WTVR-TV

Ian Schwartz / RealClearPolitics:
McMaster: “The Story That Came Out Tonight As Reported Is False”

Discussion: Washington Post, Axios, Politico, NBC News, CNN, Raw Story, TheBlaze, The Guardian, Vox, The Atlantic, Washington Times, New York Magazine, Daily Mail, Scared Monkeys, Bloomberg, CNBC, Power Line and The Gateway Pundit

Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:
Pro-Trump media dismisses bombshell report the president shared classified info

Discussion: CNN, Axios, Politico, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Vox and Raw Story

John Podhoretz / Commentary Magazine:
Trump's Supposed Leak: The Worst Thing Yet?

Discussion: Washington Post, Politicus USA and The Atlantic

CNN:
Congress' exasperated as White House in ‘downward spiral’

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Vox

Malia Zimmerman / Fox News:

Seth Rich, slain DNC staffer, had contact with WikiLeaks, say multiple sources — The Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10 on a Washington, D.C., street just steps from his home had leaked thousands of internal emails to WikiLeaks, law enforcement sources told Fox News.

Discussion: twitchy.com, RedState, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Hot Air, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

Marina Marraco / WTTG-TV:

Family's private investigator: There is evidence Seth Rich had contact with WikiLeaks prior to death — WASHINGTON - It has been almost a year since Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was murdered in the nation's capital. There have been no solid answers about why he was killed until now.

Discussion: Raw Story, The Daily Caller, Fox News Insider, Scared Monkeys, The Gateway Pundit and The Last Tradition

Alex Campbell / BuzzFeed:
The Family Of A Murdered DNC Staffer Has Rejected A Report Linking His Death To WikiLeaks

Discussion: RedState, Mediaite and The Week

Erick Erickson / The Resurgent:

I Know One of the Sources — I tend to take these stories about the President with a grain of salt. We have seen key details of a number of salacious stories retracted within 48 hours. The media hates the President so much that they'll run a negative story about him without very much provocation.

Discussion: Axios and Raw Story

Ryan Lizza / New Yorker:

A Preview of Our Interview with Sally Yates — Last Thursday morning, I sat down with Sally Yates, the former acting Attorney General, whom President Trump fired on January 30th, after she refused to defend his original executive order banning travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Euan McKirdy / CNN:
Sally Yates: Russians had ‘real leverage’ over Michael Flynn

Discussion: Politico and Political Insider blog

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:

McConnell: I recommended Merrick Garland for FBI director — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has encouraged President Donald Trump to nominate Merrick Garland to lead the FBI, the Kentucky Republican said Tuesday. — “I have spoken with the president about it.

Discussion: Axios

Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg:
McConnell Calls for ‘Less Drama’ From Trump's White House

Discussion: Politicus USA, Daily Kos and Vox

NBC News:

Manafort Got $3.5M Mystery Mortgage, Paid No Tax — Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort took out a $3.5 million mortgage through a shell company just after leaving the campaign, but the mortgage document that explains how he would pay it back was never filed — and Manafort's company …

Discussion: Axios and Political Wire

John Bowden / The Hill:

Hannity calls for White House control of media at press briefings … Fox News host Sean Hannity is urging the Trump administration to “restructure” the daily White House press briefings and restrict the topics raised by reporters. — “First, the White House press team should regularly develop …

Discussion: RedState

Yvonne Wenger / Baltimore Sun:

Rod Rosenstein says he's defending Constitution, not worried about reputation — “Many people have offered me unsolicited advice over the past few days about what I should do to promote my personal reputation,” said Rod Rosenstein. (Kevin Richardson / Baltimore Sun video)

Matthew Smith / YouGov:

Regional voting intentions show Tory tide rising across country — With the opening stage of the campaign drawing to a close as parties unveil their manifestos, YouGov reveals how each region of Britain intends to vote at the general election … For the first time in this election …

Discussion: Shot in the Dark

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

How Democrats Can Get Their Mojo Back — The great new dividing line in American life is the four-year college degree. The line runs through virtually every part of society. — The pay gap between college graduates and everyone else has soared in recent years. The unemployment gap has, too.