Top Items:
Damian Paletta / Washington Post:
In big reversal, new Trump budget will give up on longtime Republican goal of eliminating deficit … President Trump on Monday will offer a budget plan that falls far short of eliminating the government's deficit over 10 years, conceding that huge tax cuts and new spending increases …
Discussion:
The Week and Political Wire
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
U.S. Budget Director Warns Interest Rates May ‘Spike’ on Deficit — Mulvaney says Trump's economic moves ‘not a sugar high’ — OMB is adjusting 2018, 2019 budgets after spending bill passed — The U.S. will post a larger budget deficit this year and could see a “spike” …
Washington Post:
Trump plan will drop GOP's traditional goal of balancing budget within 10 years … President Trump is remaking the Republican economic playbook in his own image, abandoning ideological consistency in favor of a debt-busting strategy that will upend how Washington taxes and spends trillions of dollars each year.
Jennifer Scholtes / Politico:
Trump to demand tough budget cuts for domestic programs
Discussion:
TheBlaze
Josh Rogin / Washington Post:
Pence: The United States is ready to talk with North Korea — Despite the mutual chilliness between U.S. and North Korean officials in South Korea last week, behind the scenes real progress was made toward a new diplomatic opening that could result in direct talks without preconditions between Washington and Pyongyang.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, CNN, The Guardian, Reuters, Business Insider, CNBC, The Daily Caller, NBC News and The Week
RELATED:
Susan B. Glasser / Politico:
Kim Jong Un, North Korea's ‘10-Foot-Tall Baby’ — President Donald Trump, defying his own advisers and intelligence agencies, loves to call North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a “madman,” when he isn't taunting Kim about his height, weight and the relative size of his nuclear button.
Discussion:
One America News Network and Raw Story
New York Times:
Kim Jong-un's Sister Turns On the Charm, Taking Pence's Spotlight — PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — When the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, decided to send a large delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea this month, the world feared he might steal the show.
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, The Daily Beast, Breitbart, CNN, Washington Post, NewsBusters, TheBlaze, Mediaite, Reuters, Fox News, The Korea Times and The Guardian
Daniel W. Drezner / Washington Post:
Is North Korea really winning the soft power Olympics?
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Weekly Standard
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Twisted: Trump says Porter sick, guilty; defends him publicly — President Trump is defending Rob Porter even though, privately, he says he's guilty. — Behind closed doors: The president has told multiple people that he believes the accusations about Porter, and finds him “sick.”
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, ABC News, Business Insider, The Week, AOL, Mediaite and Raw Story
RELATED:
Axios:
Trump's real plan for 2018 — President Trump today will unveil a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan that his own aides don't think will pass, and a $4 trillion budget that Axios' Jonathan Swan calls “science fiction.” — It's the strangest of year-ahead plans for a party that controls …
Kurt Schlichter / Townhall.com:
Principles, Schminciples - Lynch Mobs Are Cool If They Derail Trump
Discussion:
Philly.com, CNN, Women in the World, CBS New York and Common Dreams
New York Times:
Abuse Case Exposes Fissures in a White House in Turmoil
Discussion:
Political Wire, AOL and New York Magazine
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
White House can't get its story straight on Rob Porter exit
Discussion:
The Week, Splinter, Shareblue Media and AOL
Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
He Predicted The 2016 Fake News Crisis. Now He's Worried About An Information Apocalypse. — In mid-2016, Aviv Ovadya realized there was something fundamentally wrong with the internet — so wrong that he abandoned his work and sounded an alarm. A few weeks before the 2016 election …
Discussion:
Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »
Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:
First-class travel distinguishes Scott Pruitt's EPA tenure … Just days after helping orchestrate the United States' exit from a global climate accord last June, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt embarked on a whirlwind tour aimed at championing President Trump's agenda at home and abroad.
RELATED:
Daniel Lippman / Politico:
PLAYBOOK SCOOP: PELOSI pulls in nearly 50 million bucks for House Dems in 2017 — EXCERPTS from 'DEVIL'S BARGAIN' paperback edition ... BANNON says OPRAH could win Democrats the House back — BUDGET DAY — By JAKE SHERMAN (sherman@politico.com; @JakeSherman), ANNA PALMER (anna@politico.com …
Discussion:
The Week, Mediaite and New York Times
Paul Sperry / RealClearInvestigations:
Exclusive: CIA Ex-Director Brennan's Perjury Peril — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes next plans to investigate the role former CIA Director John Brennan and other Obama intelligence officials played in promoting the salacious and unverified Steele dossier on Donald Trump …
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit
Burgess Everett / Politico:
McConnell's immigration gamble — Mitch McConnell is taking the reins of an immigration debate that may prompt a fix for “Dreamers” — or quickly spiral out of control. — Usually careful with his every move, the Senate majority leader is taking a gamble this week with his pledge for a free …
Discussion:
Bloomberg and ImmigrationProf Blog
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Trump takes ‘shackles’ off ICE, which is slapping them on immigrants who thought they were safe … A week after he won the election, President Trump promised that his administration would round up millions of immigrant gang members and drug dealers. And after he took office …
Robert Costa / Washington Post:
Hillary Clinton, a favorite GOP foil, plans discreet 2018 strategy — There was a long line for selfies with Hillary Clinton last week at a Georgetown soiree for Lanny Davis, a Clinton loyalist whose latest book blames former FBI director James B. Comey for her 2016 presidential defeat.
Charles M. Blow / New York Times:
G.O.P. Visions of Tectonic Realignment — Yes, President Trump is vile. That's a given. — Yes, we should focus on the Robert Mueller investigation, particularly since Trump, his congressional cohort and the purely propagandistic Fox News are treating that investigation as an existential threat …
Tommy Christopher / Shareblue Media:
GOP candidate and Trump ally faces global backlash for racist attack on Meghan Markle — Republican congressional candidate Paul Nehlen's response to the denouncement was just as repugnant as his hateful tweet. — Congressional candidate and prominent Trump supporter Paul Nehlen (R-WI) …
Discussion:
Daily Mail, Daily Kos and The Guardian
Sarah Kleiner / Center for Public Integrity:
Leader of Put Vets First! PAC prioritizing telemarketers, himself — The political committee is not contributing money to politicians as PACs typically do. — likes — The leader of a veterans-focused political action committee rapidly increased payments to himself late last year …
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