memeorandum: Trump does more damage to himself than his opponents ever manage to do (Dan Balz/Washington Post)

12:50 PM ET, January 14, 2018

Top Items:

Robert O'Harrow Jr / Washington Post:

Meet the 24-year-old Trump campaign worker appointed to help lead the government's drug policy office — In May 2016, Taylor Weyeneth was an undergraduate at St. John's University in New York, a legal studies student and fraternity member who organized a golf tournament and other events to raise money for veterans and their families.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

John Bowden / The Hill:

Lewandowski: 'We've got a real problem' if Dems retake the House — 's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — said in an interview broadcast Sunday that Trump and Republicans are “in trouble” if Democrats retake the House in the 2018 midterms. — In an interview with John Catsimatidis …

Discussion: Political Wire

Mike Allen / Axios:

Trump's nightmare — Trump's day of reckoning ... The one thing that could dramatically diminish President Trump's chances of avoiding impeachment and chalking up legislative wins is Democrats winning the House. — And, thanks to series of recent developments, Trump knows this no longer just seems plausible, but probable.

Daniel Strauss / Politico: The next GOP panic: Governors' races

Louise Radnofsky / Wall Street Journal:

White House Disputes Trump Quote in Journal Interview — The Wall Street Journal stands by what it reported and releases audio of disputed portion of interview — WASHINGTON—The White House disputed that President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview Thursday that …

Discussion: CNNMoney, ThinkProgress, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Axios, The Guardian, The Gateway Pundit, IJR, New York Times, Mediaite, AOL, Mother Jones, The Week and Shareblue Media

ABC News:
‘This Week’ Transcript 1-14-18: Rep. John Lewis, Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Jeff Flake

Discussion: Politico and Breitbart

Eliana Johnson / Politico:
White House scrambles after false missile warning in Hawaii

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Post, The Guardian, Politicus USA, Washington Press and Vox

Virginia Heffernan / Los Angeles Times:

Column A close reading of Glenn Simpson's Trump-Russia testimony — Glenn Simpson's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, released this week, is a tale of two research projects. One is about the financier turned criminal-justice crusader William F. Browder.

Rowan Scarborough / Washington Times:
Fusion GPS, firm behind disputed Russia dossier, retracts its claim of FBI mole in Trump camp

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
Anatomy of a Farce — Fusion GPS founder's testimony shows …

Discussion: Althouse

Washington Post:

Vulgarity used by president projected onto Trump hotel in D.C. — The expletive President Trump used last week in a discussion about immigration in the Oval Office and other slogans were projected Saturday night onto an outer wall of the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington.

Discussion: IJR

Katie Way / babe:

I went on a date with Aziz Ansari. It turned into the worst night of my life — She approached him because she recognized his camera flash — Aziz Ansari was taking pictures at the 2017 Emmy Awards after-party with a film camera, not a digital one. “I stood up, and I'm like tipsy at this point and feeling really confident.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Consequence of Sound

John Hawkins / Townhall.com:

How Conservatives Are Being Destroyed by Facebook, Twitter and Google Without Even Realizing It — Today, as you read this, my website Right Wing News is shutting down operations. It has been around since 2001, but became massive a few years ago because of Facebook.

USCIS:

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: Response to January 2018 Preliminary Injunction — Update: Due to a federal court order, USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA. Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance …

Discussion: National Immigration …, Breitbart, Splinter, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller, NBC News, Politico, NPR, FOX40, Washington Times and IJR

Matt Stevens / New York Times:
DACA Participants Can Again Apply for Renewal, Immigration Agency Says

Discussion: theGrio

Laura Meckler / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Resumes Accepting DACA Renewals

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Political Wire and The Daily Caller

YouTube:

Chelsea Manning for U.S. Senate — We live in trying times. — Times of Fear— of suppression— of hate. — We don't need more—or better leaders. — We need someone willing to fight. — We need to stop asking them to give us our rights. — They won't support us.

Discussion: The Guardian

Washington Post:
Chelsea Manning files to run for U.S. Senate in Maryland

Discussion: wbal.com, Breitbart, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, Gizmodo, TheBlaze, Daily Wire, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mediaite, IJR, The Verge, Politico, Power Line, Axios, The Daily Caller, AOL and thecut

Michael Scherer / Washington Post:

New alarm among Republicans that Democrats could win big this year … A raft of retirements, difficulty recruiting candidates and President Trump's continuing pattern of throwing his party off message have prompted new alarm among Republicans that they could be facing a Democratic electoral wave in November.

Discussion: Political Wire

Associated Press:

The Latest: Durbin spokesman: GOP senator has no credibility — The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local): — A spokesman for Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is questioning the credibility of a Republican senator who says President Donald Trump did not refer …

Discussion: ABC News and Breitbart

Dan Balz / Washington Post:
Trump does more damage to himself than his opponents ever manage to do

Discussion: Politico

Margaret Atwood / Globe and Mail:

Am I a bad feminist? — Margaret Atwood is the author of more than 40 books of poetry, fiction and essays, including The Handmaid's Tale. — It seems that I am a “Bad Feminist.” I can add that to the other things I've been accused of since 1972, such as climbing to fame up a pyramid …

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

'I'm Running,' Romney Says Privately, but as a Trump Friend or Foe? — SALT LAKE CITY — A few days after Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah announced that he would conclude his tenure after serving 42 years in office, the state's governor, Gary Herbert, was growing anxious about whether Mitt Romney would run for the seat.

Discussion: Political Wire

Veronica Stracqualursi / CNN:

Trey Gowdy steps down from House Ethics Committee, citing ‘workload’ — (CNN)Rep. Trey Gowdy stepped down from the House Ethics Committee this week after five years of serving on the panel. — The South Carolina Republican tendered his resignation in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, IJR and Axios

Jack Shafer / Politico:

Sell the New York Times. Now. — And other unsolicited advice for A.G. Sulzberger. — The cult worship of the New York Times commenced not long after that day in 1896 when Adolph S. Ochs of Chattanooga, Tenn., spent a mess of borrowed money to purchase controlling ownership in the respected …

Discussion: Notes

Nellie Bowles / New York Times:

Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You're Not — SAN FRANCISCO — Recently the founder of something called Ripple briefly became richer than Mark Zuckerberg. Another day an anonymous donor set up an $86 million Bitcoin-fortune charity called the Pineapple Fund. A Tesla was spotted with a BLOCKHN license plate.

Discussion: Althouse

New York Times:

In Some Countries, Facebook's Fiddling Has Magnified Fake News — SAN FRANCISCO — One morning in October, the editors of Página Siete, Bolivia's third-largest news site, noticed that traffic to their outlet coming from Facebook was plummeting. — The publication had recently …