Top Items:
Daniel Lippman / Politico:
Playbook scoop: Lobbyist married to Pruitt's ex-landlord speaks out as EPA administrator's troubles deepen — FIRST IN PLAYBOOK ... STEVE HART SPEAKS — the lobbyist who is married to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's former landlord: “Williams & Jensen has always been committed …
Discussion:
Hit & Run, The Daily Caller, Daily Caller News Foundation, Talking Points Memo, CNBC, Daily Kos, Reuters and New York Magazine
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Trump's Pruitt Test
Trump's Pruitt Test
Discussion:
VICE News, The Daily Caller, Mother Jones and CNN
Ryan Cooper / The Week:
Scott Pruitt is too corrupt to be corrupted
Scott Pruitt is too corrupt to be corrupted
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Earther, New Republic, Talking Points Memo, The Federalist, Washington Post and The Daily Caller
New York Times:
Job Changes for E.P.A. Officials Who Questioned Scott Pruitt
Job Changes for E.P.A. Officials Who Questioned Scott Pruitt
Discussion:
Raw Story, Media Matters for America, Splinter, One America News Network, Breitbart, Jezebel, Politico, Mediaite, ABC News, Daily Kos, McSweeney's, Talking Points Memo, NBC News, Hullabaloo, AOL, CNN, Washington Post, The Week, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast, Washington Free Beacon, Daily Caller News Foundation, HuffPost, Salon, USA Today, Mother Jones, The Atlantic, ThinkProgress, New York Magazine, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Axios and Political Wire
Peter Nicholas / Wall Street Journal:
White House Chief of Staff Urges Trump to Remove EPA Chief Pruitt
White House Chief of Staff Urges Trump to Remove EPA Chief Pruitt
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Political Wire, Raw Story and The Daily Caller
USA Today:
Donald Trump needs to fire EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, not promote him
Donald Trump needs to fire EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, not promote him
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Vox and Legal Planet
Umair Irfan / Vox:
Scott Pruitt's ethics scandals aren't stopping him from gutting the EPA
Scott Pruitt's ethics scandals aren't stopping him from gutting the EPA
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Politico and US EPA
Peter Nicholas / Wall Street Journal:
What's Driving Trump's Attacks on Amazon? It's Personal — President's attacks on e-commerce company stem from its CEO Jeff Bezos's ownership of the Washington Post, which Trump says covers him unfairly, say people close to the White House — Early in President Donald Trump's term …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, HBR.org, Raw Story and Mediaite
RELATED:
Kathryn Watson / CBS News:
Trump says trade war is “already lost,” and he “probably won't” attend White House Correspondents Dinner — President Trump said in a radio interview aired Friday that the U.S. isn't in a trade war because the trade war is “already lost,” and said he “probably won't” attend …
Discussion:
Splinter and ThinkProgress
Associated Press:
Inside a White House in tumult, John Kelly's clout dwindles
Inside a White House in tumult, John Kelly's clout dwindles
Discussion:
New York Magazine, RedState, Washington Post, Mediaite, NTK Network and Raw Story
Quint Forgey / Politico:
Trump to skip White House Correspondents' Dinner again
Trump to skip White House Correspondents' Dinner again
Discussion:
New York Times, IJR, Refinery29 and BPR, more at Mediagazer »
U.S. Department of the Treasury:
Treasury Designates Russian Oligarchs, Officials, and Entities in Response to Worldwide Malign Activity — WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the Department of State, today designated seven Russian oligarchs …
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
U.S. Sanctions Billionaire Deripaska and Other Russian Oligarchs
U.S. Sanctions Billionaire Deripaska and Other Russian Oligarchs
Discussion:
New York Magazine
Gardiner Harris / New York Times:
Trump Administration Imposes New Sanctions on Putin Cronies
Trump Administration Imposes New Sanctions on Putin Cronies
Discussion:
Political Wire, AlBoeNEWS and The Week
Washington Post:
Trump administration imposes sweeping new sanctions on Russian elite
Trump administration imposes sweeping new sanctions on Russian elite
Discussion:
Axios
Greg Jaffe / Washington Post:
For Trump and his generals, ‘victory’ has different meanings … President Trump's pronouncement that he would be pulling troops out of Syria “very soon” has laid bare a major source of tension between the president and his generals. — Trump has made winning on the battlefields of Iraq …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Common Dreams, Task & Purpose, Splinter, Defense One, New York Magazine and New York Times
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Trump wants out of Syria, but don't say ‘timeline’ — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has spoken: He wants U.S. troops and civilians out of Syria by the fall. But don't call it a “timeline.” — Wary of charges of hypocrisy for publicly telegraphing military strategy …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Mother Jones, CNN and New York Magazine
Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:
Trump Just Jeopardized America's Biggest Asset in the Syria War, U.S. Officials Say
Trump Just Jeopardized America's Biggest Asset in the Syria War, U.S. Officials Say
Discussion:
The American Conservative, Sputnik International and BPR
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook retracted Zuckerberg's messages from recipients' inboxes — Facebook says it was for security, but is it a breach of user trust? — You can't remove Facebook messages from the inboxes of people you sent them to, but Facebook did that for Mark Zuckerberg and other executives.
Discussion:
The Verge, Gizmodo, Forbes, New York Magazine, The Guardian, BGR, AOL, ValueWalk, The Daily Caller, 9to5Mac and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook plans to let everyone unsend messages, won't let Zuckerberg until then
Facebook plans to let everyone unsend messages, won't let Zuckerberg until then
Discussion:
The Verge, Mashable and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »
Phoebe Weston / Daily Mail:
What is Mark Zuckerberg hiding? …
What is Mark Zuckerberg hiding? …
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE, NewsBusters and BGR
Madeleine Albright / New York Times:
Will We Stop Trump Before It's Too Late? — Fascism poses a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II. — On April 28, 1945 — 73 years ago — Italians hung the corpse of their former dictator Benito Mussolini upside down next to a gas station in Milan.
Discussion:
Shakesville and Hullabaloo
Dennis Romboy / Deseret News:
Trump threat of $100 billion tariffs will ‘wake up’ China, Mitt Romney says — SANDY — U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney sees President Donald Trump's proposed $100 billion in new tariffs on China as a shot across the bow but doesn't think it would lead to trade war.
Discussion:
Politico and Political Wire
RELATED:
Gordon G. Chang / The Daily Beast:
Trump's Right to Say He's Not Launching a Trade War With China. He's Doing Something Bigger.
Trump's Right to Say He's Not Launching a Trade War With China. He's Doing Something Bigger.
Discussion:
Power Line, Bloomberg, New York Times, New York Magazine, Jamie Dupree - AJC, Vox and The Guardian
YouTube:
Republican Trey Gowdy Was Known For Being Hyperpartisan — Until Trump (HBO) … South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy is retiring from Congress an unhappy man. He's even counting the number of trips to the airport he has left until he can leave DC for good.
Discussion:
Political Wire
RELATED:
Alayna Treene / Axios:
Trey Gowdy says being in Congress was largely a waste of time
David Wasserman / The Cook Political Report:
April House Overview: Ratings Changes in 13 Districts — The good news for Republicans is that President Trump's approval rating has, on balance, ticked up from 38 percent to 40 percent since January as attention has shifted from unpopular GOP proposals on healthcare and taxes to the economy, tariffs and Stormy Daniels.
Discussion:
Axios, New York Magazine, New York Times, CNN and Weekly Standard
Sarah McCammon / NPR:
‘Concerned’ Evangelicals Plan To Meet With Trump As Sex Scandals Swirl — As allegations continue to swirl about the president and a payout to a porn star to cover up a sexual encounter, evangelical leaders are organizing a sit down with President Trump in June, four sources with knowledge of the planned meeting tell NPR.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, CNBC, Political Wire and Raw Story
Pierre Thomas / ABC News:
Mueller has evidence that Trump supporter's meeting with Putin ally may not have been a chance encounter: Sources — Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained evidence that calls into question Congressional testimony given by Trump supporter and Blackwater founder Erik Prince last year …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Raw Story and Political Wire
NBC News:
Without data-targeted ads, Facebook would look like a pay service, Sandberg says — Users' data are the lifeblood of Facebook, and if they wanted to opt out of all of the platform's data-driven advertising, they would have to pay for it, Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer, told NBC News.
Discussion:
NPR, Townhall, Online NewsHour, NBC News, NPR, Common Dreams, AOL, The Week and BGR, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
James Hohmann / Washington Post:
The Daily 202: Koch network growing frustrated with the GOP's 2018 agenda
The Daily 202: Koch network growing frustrated with the GOP's 2018 agenda
Discussion:
The Week
Tara Golshan / Vox:
If taxes aren't working, will desperate Republicans keep turning to race-based attacks? — The Republican 2018 messaging crisis, explained: They “backpedaled into cultural issues and it looked desperate.” — Republicans are trying to get Americans excited about their tax bill, but it's a tough sell.
Discussion:
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Mashable
Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:
A key Virginia GOP state senator says he is willing to break ranks and vote to expand Medicaid … RICHMOND — Virginia could be on the cusp of expanding Medicaid to 400,000 low-income residents, after a veteran Republican state senator said Friday he is willing to split with his party …
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money
Edward Luce / Financial Times:
Anthony Scaramucci on Bannon and back-stabbing in DC — It has taken a Herculean effort to pin down Anthony Scaramucci. Our lunch was originally scheduled for last November. Then Scaramucci stumbled on an old tweet by the FT's editor, Lionel Barber, which compared the language he used …
John Bowden / The Hill:
Michelle Obama: My husband was ‘the good parent’ compared to Trump — likened her husband's presidency to having “the good parent” at home at a women's leadership conference on Thursday. — At the Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston, Obama appeared to take shots at President Trump
Discussion:
NBC10 Boston, Althouse and Mashable
Daily Mail:
Saudi crown prince says Jared Kushner handed him U.S. intelligence — Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman bragged of receiving classified US intelligence from Jared Kushner and using it as part of a purge of ‘corrupt’ princes and businessmen, DailyMail.com can disclose.
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA