memeorandum: Want Michael Lewis's Next Book? You'll Have to Listen to It (Alexandra Alter/New York Times)

1:20 PM ET, June 3, 2018

Top Items:

Morgan Winsor / ABC News:

President Trump ‘probably does’ have the power to pardon himself: Giuliani — President Trump's lead attorney said the president “probably does” have the power to pardon himself. — Rudy Giuliani was discussing with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” …

Discussion: HuffPost, Washington Times, Vox, Splinter, The Hill, Common Dreams, Mediaite, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, Joe.My.God., Taylor Marsh, Breitbart and New York Times

Katherine Faulders / ABC News:

Giuliani threatens legal battle with Mueller over subpoena — The president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani threatened a legal battle with special counsel Robert Mueller if he attempts to subpoena Donald Trump. — “If Mueller tries to subpoena us, we're going to court,” Giuliani told ABC News.

Discussion: New York Daily News, Washington Post, Common Dreams, Talking Points Memo, Politico, NBC News, Mediaite, New York Magazine, The Week, CNN, Daily Kos and Breitbart

Jacqueline Klimas / Politico:

Giuliani: Trump's team ‘leaning toward’ recommending he not talk with Mueller — The president's legal team is “leaning toward not” recommending he participate in an interview with the team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections, Rudy Giuliani, a member of the team, said Sunday.

Discussion: ABC News, Political Wire, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, IJR and Mother Jones

Marshall Cohen / CNN:
Trump lawyers say he ‘dictated’ statement on Trump Tower meeting, contradicting past denials

Discussion: Lawfare, Mother Jones, Talking Points Memo, Joe.My.God., ThinkProgress, Power Line, Common Dreams, Raw Story and The Week

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
The Constitutional Crisis Is Already Underway

Discussion: Washington Post, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Hullabaloo, HuffPost, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Press

David Corn / Mother Jones:
Why the Bombshell Trump Letter Could Be a Big Problem for Donald Trump Jr.

Discussion: The Hill, AOL, Power Line, New York Times, Daily Kos, emptywheel, HuffPost, Washington Post, Shareblue Media and Balloon Juice

Quinta Jurecic / Lawfare:
Documents: Letters to Special Counsel Robert Mueller from the Trump Legal Team

Discussion: NPR, New York Times and FOX2now.com

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Obama - Just Too Good for Us — WASHINGTON — It was a moment of peak Spock. — Hours after the globe-rattling election of a man whom Barack Obama has total disdain for, a toon who would take a chain saw to the former president's legacy on policy and decency, Obama sent a message …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, No More Mister Nice Blog and Penguin Random House

Roger Kimball / American Greatness:

A Clueless “Final Year” — Remember the Duck Rabbit? That's the famous image that, seen one way, looks like a duck but, seen from another angle, looks like a rabbit. The image has provided fodder for children's books and also philosophers, its inherent ambiguity being catnip to both light fancy and epistemological lucubration.

Ben Rhodes / The Atlantic:
Inside the White House During the Syrian ‘Red Line’ Crisis

Discussion: Front Page Magazine

CBS News:

CBS News Battleground Tracker: The House is a toss-up — Dems 219- Reps 216 in tight contest for control — In the race for Congress, most polls report one national percentage for Democrats and Republicans. But that's not very helpful - because this is a race for seats. 435 of them, in fact.

Discussion: Political Wire

Lingling Wei / Wall Street Journal:

U.S., China End Latest Trade Talks Without Settlement — China warns if U.S. introduces threatened tariffs, any results from the negotiations won't go into effect — BEIJING—U.S. and Chinese negotiators wrapped up their latest round of trade talks without a settlement …

Washington Post: Trump thinks he's saving trade. The rest of the world thinks he's blowing it up.

Lauren Meier / Axios:
Under cloud of tariffs, a U.S. trade delegation arrives in Beijing

Discussion: xinhuanet.com and Associated Press

Associated Press:
US singled out by G7 allies over steel and aluminum tariffs

Discussion: Politico and Axios

Sylvan Lane / The Hill:
Trump's economy faces new threats ahead of midterms

Discussion: Politico and POLITICUSUSA

Joshua Zumbrun / Wall Street Journal: G-7 Members Condemn U.S. Trade Actions

Mike Allen / Axios:

Trump's 500-day coup of the GOP, conservatism — Donald Trump has been President Trump for 500 days as of noon today. Jonathan Swan writes that everything has changed, and nothing has changed. — Be smart: In 500 days, Trump's hijacking of the formerly conservative GOP is complete — an astonishing accomplishment.

Lisa Senecal / The Daily Beast:

The NDA Protected Our Predator. I'm Breaking My Silence, Because Women Deserve Better. … I received this message from a woman in my small town of Stowe, Vermont. We had never met, but I knew instantly what her message meant: I was not the predator's only survivor.

Doree Lewak / New York Post:

Dating columnist reveals how ‘Sex and the City’ ruined her life — “Sex and the City” premiered on HBO 20 years ago this week, imprinting on a generation of women a love of fantastic fashion and dreams of their own Mr. Big. Among them was Julia Allison, who moved to New York in the early 2000s to live the Carrie Bradshaw lifestyle.

CBS News:

Bill Clinton and James Patterson co-author a political beach read — A political thriller has to convincingly blend both fact and fiction, which is just what a certain debut novelist with plenty of White House experience says he has to offer. He and his writing partner are talking with Mo Rocca:

Discussion: Washington Times

Josh Smith / Reuters:

Syria's Assad says will visit North Korea, news agency reports — SEOUL (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he plans to visit North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, North Korean state media reported on Sunday, potentially the first meeting between Kim and another head of state in Pyongyang.

Discussion: Washington Post and Politico

Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press:
Mattis warns of bumpy road to US, North Korea nuclear summit

Discussion: The Daily Caller and The Week

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

Jon Tester, a Democrat in Deep-Red Montana, Isn't Sweating Trump's Threats — BIG SANDY, Mont. — Under a nearly cloudless sky on the sun-speckled northern prairie last Tuesday, Jon Tester, this state's senior senator, had his hands deep inside a 25-year-old grain auger.

Oscar Contreras / TheDenverChannel.com:

Denver Police investigating accidental shooting from gun of an off-duty FBI agent — DENVER - Police are investigating an accidental shooting that sent a man to a hospital early Saturday morning. — The apparent, accidental shooting happened just before 12:45 a.m. at the Mile High Spirits club …

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story and The Root

Chris Tomlinson / Breitbart:

Trump's Right Hand Man in Europe Rick Grenell Wants To ‘Empower’ European Anti-Establishment Conservatives — BERLIN, Germany: Trumpian U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell has expressed great excitement over the wave of anti-establishment conservatism in Europe, saying he wants to “empower” leaders of the movement.

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:

Want Michael Lewis's Next Book? You'll Have to Listen to It — When Michael Lewis had an idea for his next book, a contemporary political narrative, he decided he would test it out first as a 10,000-word magazine article, as he often does before committing to a yearslong project.