memeorandum: Stormy Daniels sues her former attorney, accusing him of being a ‘puppet’ for Trump (Beth Reinhard/Washington Post)

9:25 AM ET, June 7, 2018

Top Items:

Another mess for Pruitt: Overstaying his White House welcome at lunch — Too many visits for lunch at the Mess earned a rebuke from the White House. — EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt loves eating at the White House mess, an exclusive U.S. Navy-run restaurant open only to White House officials, Cabinet members and other dignitaries.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and The Week

CNN:

Exclusive: Trump invokes War of 1812 in testy call with Trudeau over tariffs — (CNN)President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a testy phone call on May 25 over new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration targeting steel and aluminum imports coming from Canada …

Washington Post:

Joseph Hagin, point person on Korea summit, plans to leave White House soon — White House deputy chief of staff Joseph Hagin, President Trump's point person arranging the North Korean nuclear summit, is preparing to leave his West Wing post soon, according to four people familiar with White House planning.

Discussion: Breitbart

Mike Sielski / Philly.com:

Eagles' Pederson on cancelled White House visit: 'I'm not discussing, it's over' — “Is this all about the national anthem thing?” — “Probably a lot of people came for it, and now they're slumming.” — What we came for, of course, was the White House Visit That Wasn't.

Discussion: SBNation.com, Hot Air, ThinkProgress and Mediaite

Matthew Nussbaum / Politico:
Foreign leaders who embraced Trump now feel burned

Discussion: Raw Story, Political Wire, NBC News and Washington Post

Washington Post:
Trump complains about traveling to Canada ahead of Singapore summit with Kim

Discussion: Splinter and iPolitics

Meridith McGraw / ABC News:
Trump holds first Iftar amid tense relations with Muslim American community

Discussion: Politico, HuffPost, Associated Press, Breitbart and Axios

Ken Klippenstein / TYT Network:
You'll Never Believe What Israel Gave to Donald Trump

Discussion: Splinter, Raw Story and CBS News

Daniel Lippman / Politico:
Playbook: Inside the House GOP's big immigration meeting

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite and The Week

Eliana Johnson / Politico:

Trump and Bolton spurn top-level North Korea planning — After two months on the job, Trump's new national security adviser has not called a single top-level National Security Council meeting on North Korea. — National Security Adviser John Bolton has yet to convene a Cabinet-level meeting …

Discussion: Reuters, The American Conservative, Outside the Beltway and One America News Network

Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:

Democrats Childishly Resist Trump's North Korea Efforts — Shock! Horror! President Trump is actually doing something right. — Sadly, Democrats in Congress are responding in a quite Trumpian way: They seem more concerned with undermining him than supporting a peace process with North Korea.

Discussion: New Republic

The Daily Beast:
Trump Has Weighed Golfing With Kim Jong Un if Singapore Summit Goes Well

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Mediaite, One America News Network, Washington Press, RedState, Hot Air, AOL, CNBC and Daily Kos

Josh Rogin / Washington Post: Trump still holds Jimmy Carter's view on withdrawing U.S. troops from South Korea

Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
Trump and Kim could meet for second day in Singapore

Discussion: Foreign Policy, The Hill and Wall Street Journal

Tracy Wilkinson / Los Angeles Times: With rival camps in his inner circle, Trump's ideas on North Korea have evolved

Mark Murray / NBC News:

Poll: Economic satisfaction under Trump isn't helping his party's 2018 chances — By a whopping 25-point margin, voters say they're more likely to back a congressional candidate who promises to serve as a check on President Donald Trump, according to a new national poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.

Discussion: Daily Caller News Foundation, Joe.My.God., Politico, The Week and Political Wire

John Harwood / CNBC:

More Americans are crediting Trump with the stronger economy, but that isn't helping the GOP with voters: NBC/WSJ poll — A new poll found that seven in 10 voters say the economy has improved under the Trump administration. — But the survey found that respondents favored Democrats …

Michael Scherer / Washington Post:
Democrats strengthen hand in seeking control of House, even if odds of a blue wave are diminishing

Discussion: New York Times, Politico and Political Wire

Peter Nicholas / Wall Street Journal: Democrats' Interest in Midterm Elections Running Ahead of Republicans'

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:

Lou Dobbs and Rep. Gaetz Trash ‘Disaster’ Paul Ryan: ‘Get the Hell Out of the Office’ — If you thought SpyGate on Fox News primetime was lit, take a gander over at what's happening on Fox Business Network, where host Lou Dobbs is truly wilding on a nightly basis.

Discussion: MSNBC and CNBC

Rachael Bade / Politico:

GOP congressman blasts Trump's spy conspiracy — Rep. Tom Rooney, a top Republican lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee, is ripping President Donald Trump's unsupported claim that the FBI inserted a spy inside his campaign. — “What is the point of saying that there was a spy in the campaign when there was none?”

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Joe.My.God., Shareblue Media, New York Magazine, Splinter, New York Times, Axios and Mediaite

CNN:
From Reddit to Trump: How the President latched onto a conspiracy theory

Discussion: Vox and ThinkProgress

Rachael Bade / Politico:
Ryan undercuts Trump on Russia at fraught moment

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is requesting that witnesses turn in their personal phones to inspect their encrypted messaging programs — Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is asking witnesses to turn in their phones in order to access encrypted messaging applications, sources tell CNBC.

Discussion: The Week, AOL, New York Magazine, Washington Press, Breitbart, Daily Kos, Conservative News Today, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, VICE News, Daily Wire, Raw Story, Axios and Associated Press

Aris Folley / The Hill:
Former US attorney says Manafort will likely go to prison Friday

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Reuters: Lawyer to ex-Trump campaign aide Manafort taps ethics adviser

Paul Rosenzweig / Lawfare:
The Manafort Tampering Allegations

Discussion: Hot Air and Daily Kos

Beth Reinhard / Washington Post:

Stormy Daniels sues her former attorney, accusing him of being a ‘puppet’ for Trump — The porn star Stormy Daniels on Wednesday sued her former lawyer Keith Davidson, accusing him of being a “puppet” for President Trump and releasing text messages that the lawsuit says show “collusion” between Davidson and Trump's personal attorney.

Discussion: CNN, ABC News, Above the Law, Politico and Washington Times

NBC News:
Stormy Daniels suit: My old lawyer was a ‘puppet’ for Trump, Cohen

Discussion: ABC News, Lawyers, Guns & Money, New York Times, CNN, HuffPost, The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, Washington Press, Mediaite, Daily Kos, AOL, Raw Story, Joe.My.God. and What The Fuck …

CNN:
Giuliani defends comments about Stormy Daniels' credibility

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and Mediaite

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Giuliani: Melania Trump ‘believes her husband’ over Stormy Daniels

Discussion: Globes Online, Mediaite, Raw Story and The Daily Caller

Josh Dawsey / Washington Post:

In private FEMA remarks, Trump's focus strays from hurricanes — The meeting was supposed to be about hurricane preparedness, as disaster officials gathered at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters days after the start of the 2018 season. — But President Trump had a lot else on his mind …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, MSNBC and Mother Jones

Berkeley Lovelace Jr / CNBC:

US strikes a deal with China's ZTE to end crippling sanctions, Commerce Secretary Ross says — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says the U.S. has struck a deal with Chinese telecom giant ZTE to end crippling American sanctions. — Commerce said the deal includes a $1 billion penalty …

Discussion: The Hill, National Review, Politico and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:

Judge Calls Trump's Border Separations of Children ‘Brutal’ — ACLU lawsuit is allowed to proceed in San Diego federal court — Administration says policy helps prosecute undocumented adults — The Trump administration failed to kill a legal challenge to its practice …

Discussion: HuffPost

Liz Robbins / New York Times:

He Delivered Pizza to an Army Base in Brooklyn. Now He Faces Deportation. — Food delivery. Sanctuary. Those are often the anchors for the more than half a million undocumented immigrants who live and work in New York City. — But an incident at the United States Army base in Fort Hamilton …

Discussion: Axios

BuzzFeed:

Ivanka Trump Was In Contact With A Russian Who Offered A Trump-Putin Meeting — Her contact, a Russian Olympic weightlifter, said a meeting between Trump and Putin could expedite a Trump tower in Moscow. — Amid intense scrutiny of contacts between Donald Trump's inner circle and representatives …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Hill, CNBC, Shareblue Media, POLITICUSUSA, New York Magazine, Washington Press, The Week, The Atlantic, Mediaite, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos, New Republic and Raw Story

Sarah Jones / New Republic:
John Conyers's Medicare for All bill gains steam in the wake of Trumpcare's failure.

Discussion: The American Spectator, Washington Post and CNN

New York Times:

A Medical Mystery Grows as U.S. Consulate Workers in China Fall Ill — GUANGZHOU, China — A crisis over a mysterious ailment sickening American diplomats and their families — which began in Cuba and recently appeared in China — widened on Wednesday. The State Department evacuated at least …

Discussion: CNN, Task & Purpose, Washington Post, VICE News, HuffPost, New York Magazine, NBC News, KTLA, Gizmodo and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:

Does Google think it's better than the U.S. military? — Giving in to pressure from its workforce, Google recently announced that it is pulling out of Project Maven, a groundbreaking Pentagon program to harness artificial intelligence to sift through and interpret video imagery from drones.

Discussion: Stanford Daily

Charles Robinson / Yahoo! Sports:

Sources: Colin Kaepernick's legal team expected to subpoena President Trump in case against NFL — After months of circling President Donald Trump during NFL depositions and discovery, Colin Kaepernick's lawyers are expected to force Trump directly into the ongoing legal battle between the quarterback and league.

Elaina Plott / The Atlantic:

Pruitt Aide Resigns Amid Scandals — A top aide to Scott Pruitt, Millan Hupp, resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a source briefed on the matter and correspondence reviewed by The Atlantic. Her last day will be Friday. — Hupp, who worked as the director …

Alicia H. Munnell / Politico:

Millennials and retirement: How bad is it? — Today's young adults are falling behind but there's a way they can catch up. … Concern about the financial health of America's younger generations is growing—especially millennials, a demographic boom that came of age in an environment …

Pedro Nicolaci da Costa / Business Insider:

Elizabeth Warren says there's a dirty little secret behind the Republicans' push for broad deregulation — Senator Elizabeth Warren sharply criticizes the Trump administration's wide-ranging deregulatory efforts, pushing hard against the notion that rules of the road restrict economic freedom.