memeorandum: Mueller Poised to Zero In on Trump-Russia Collusion Allegations (Bloomberg)

2:15 PM ET, June 26, 2018

Top Items:

Supreme Court Upholds Trump's Travel Ban, Delivering Endorsement of Presidential Power — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld President Trump's ban on travel from mostly-Muslim nations, delivering a robust endorsement of Mr. Trump's power to control the flow of immigration …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review, Reason, SCOTUSblog, Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog, Breitbart, Florida Politics, Outside the Beltway, Gothamist, The American Conservative and Political Wire

Sam Baker / Axios:

Go deeper: Supreme Court upholds Trump's travel ban — The Supreme Court upheld President Trump's most recent travel ban today in a 5-4 decision, ruling that it falls within the president's traditional power to control immigration policy. — The big picture: This is the court's first major ruling on a Trump policy — and it showed.

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post, Politico, Associated Press, Vox, The Daily Beast, twitchy.com and Breitbart

Tucker Higgins / CNBC:

Supreme Court rules that Trump's travel ban is constitutional — The ruling concerned the third version of President Donald Trump's immigration restriction, which was challenged on the grounds that it amounted to a “Muslim ban.” — In the 5-4 opinion penned by Chief Justice John Roberts …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and Conservative Review

Sam Baker / Axios:

Supreme Court curtails mandatory abortion notices — California went too far when it required anti-abortion pregnancy clinics to notify women that abortion is an option, the Supreme Court said today. — The issue: Crisis pregnancy centers, often run by Christian organizations that oppose abortion …

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Post, Politico, ABC News and Refinery29

Ariane de Vogue / CNN:
Supreme Court upholds travel ban

Discussion: The Federalist, Washington Post, Little Green Footballs, ThinkProgress, ABC News, Politico, CNBC and WTVR-TV

Richard Wolf / USA Today:
Supreme Court rules against California law targeting anti-abortion pregnancy centers

Discussion: Splinter and The American Conservative

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:
Supreme Court upholds Trump travel ban

Discussion: Axios, Politico, ABC News, Mother Jones, New York Times, Shareblue Media, Vox and The Daily Beast

Dylan Matthews / Vox:
Read: Sonia Sotomayor condemns Trump's “unrelenting attack on the Muslim religion and its followers”

Discussion: HuffPost and The Root

Mark Sherman / Associated Press:
Supreme Court upholds Trump travel ban

Discussion: Washington Post and Raw Story

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
The Supreme Court Upholds Trump's Travel Ban

Discussion: Mother Jones, Vox, Law & Crime and cupbord

Bloomberg:

Mueller Poised to Zero In on Trump-Russia Collusion Allegations — Special counsel to focus once he resolves obstruction inquiry — The meetings with Russians stretched as far back as 2015 — Special Counsel Robert Mueller is preparing to accelerate his probe …

Discussion: IJR, Hullabaloo, BloombergQuint, Talking Points Memo and Tickle The Wire

Lee Smith / RealClearInvestigations:

The Mysterious Seven Preludes of the FBI's Trump-Russia Probe — The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened its probe of the Trump campaign after Western intelligence assets and Clinton-affiliated political operatives repeatedly approached the Trump team and evidently tried but failed to damage …

Discussion: Maggie's Farm, JustOneMinute, Power Line and Instapundit

YouTube:

EMIN - Got Me Good (Official Video)

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

We Have a Crisis of Democracy, Not Manners — Last year, the white nationalist Richard Spencer was kicked out of his Virginia gym after another member confronted him and called him a Nazi. This incident did not generate a national round of hand-wringing about the death of tolerance …

Grabien News: Montage: Media Turning Trump Voters into Public Enemy No. 1

Monmouth University Polling Institute:

GOP Trailing in CD10 — Trump's unpopularity hurts House incumbent — West Long Branch, NJ - The race for Virginia's 10th Congressional District starts out with the GOP Republican incumbent trailing by ten points according to the Monmouth University Poll.

Discussion: Axios

James Hohmann / Washington Post:

The Daily 202: A poll commissioned by Bush and Biden shows Americans losing confidence in democracy — THE BIG IDEA: Half of Americans think the United States is in “real danger of becoming a nondemocratic, authoritarian country.” A majority, 55 percent, see democracy as “weak” - and 68 percent believe it is “getting weaker.”

Discussion: Spectator USA and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Bloomberg:
Trump Says Harley Move Abroad Would Be ‘Beginning of the End’

Discussion: Shareblue Media, New York Times and Mediaite

Gabrielle Coppola / Bloomberg:
Trump Gets Harley Plans Wrong in Attack Over Trade War ‘Excuse’

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Mother Jones, Wall Street Journal, Raw Story and Conservative News Today

Erica Pandey / Axios:
Trump turns on Harley-Davidson over offshoring

Discussion: Vox, The Atlantic, CNBC, Associated Press and Politico

Henry J. Gomez / BuzzFeed:

Trump Supporters Boo A CNN Reporter, Then Ask Him For Selfies — Live from civility night in South Carolina. — Reporting From — West Columbia, South Carolina — Hundreds of President Trump's supporters marched into a high school gymnasium Monday and began blistering their new perceived enemy …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Splinter, The Week, Conservative News Today and Mediaite

Josh Dawsey / Washington Post:
In South Carolina rally, Trump targets Sanford, McCain and TV comedians

Discussion: Vox, Wall Street Journal, Louder With Crowder, Breitbart and ABC News

Daniel Lippman / Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: The tax bill as a political football

Discussion: Daily News, Deadline, Splinter and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Nick Miroff / Washington Post:

DHS warns threats against staff are rising amid anger over Trump immigration policies — Employees of the Department of Homeland Security have been targeted by escalating online threats and harassment in their neighborhoods during the past week, officials say, with rancor …

Merdie Nzanga / USA Today:
Stephen Miller's D.C. home a target of immigration policy protest

Discussion: HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and twitchy.com

Politico:

White House eyes Helsinki for Trump-Putin sitdown — The Finnish capital would give Trump and Putin a backdrop loaded with historical significance for U.S.-Russia relations. — The White House is blocking off three days on the back end of President Donald Trump's upcoming mid-July trip …

Stephen Sestanovich / Axios: Bolton tees up a Trump-Putin summit

Paul Sperry / RealClearInvestigations:

Here's One Unverified File the Feds Won't Leak: About Loretta Lynch — The FBI had little problem leaking “unverified” dirt from Russian sources on Donald Trump and his campaign aides - and even basing FISA wiretaps on it. But according to the Justice Department's inspector general …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics

CNN:
Conservatives grumble about House GOP's handling of investigation into FBI

Discussion: Salon

Politico:

GOP flails ahead of immigration vote — Despite furious horse-trading among moderate and conservative Republicans, the legislation appears likely to fail in the House. — A last-minute effort to salvage a House GOP immigration bill appeared to flounder Tuesday, amid unyielding opposition from the far right.

Tara Golshan / Vox: House Republicans' “compromise” immigration push is actually very conservative

Chad Pergram / Fox News:

Intern who cursed at Trump is identified, was suspended but not fired — The Congressional intern who hollered “Mr. President, f— you!” across the Capitol Rotunda last week during a presidential visit has been identified. — Sources tell Fox News the woman in question is 21-year-old Caitlin Marriott …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, TheBlaze, Conservative News Today, The Gateway Pundit, twitchy.com, The Daily Beast, New York Post, Washington Times and Roll Call

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Intern for Dem senator suspended for shouting ‘f— you’ at Trump

Discussion: Washington Post, HuffPost and The Root

Sarah Ferris / Politico:

U.S. cruises toward record-breaking debt on Trump's watch — The nation's fiscal outlook looks ever bleaker, thanks in part to deficit spending during President Donald Trump's first term, Congress' nonpartisan budget scorekeeper projected Tuesday. — Within 16 years, the federal deficit …

Discussion: Washington Post and Raw Story

Faye Penn / InStyle.com:

16 Espressos and a 5 a.m. Call Time: A Day In The Life of NBC's Andrea Mitchell — Badass Woman spotlights women who not only have a voice but defy the irrelevant preconceptions of gender. — A few minutes past 1 p.m., Andrea Mitchell enters an NBC green room fresh off a show that spanned …

Discussion: twitchy.com

Perry Bacon Jr / FiveThirtyEight:

Democrats Are Wrong About Republicans. Republicans Are Wrong About Democrats. — Welcome to Secret Identity, our regular column on identity and its role in politics and policy. — The defining divide in American politics is probably between Republicans and Democrats.

Discussion: Breitbart

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

USA Today Network launches a conservative opinion newsletter for the heartland — Since its founding in 1982, USA Today has prided itself on a feel for all 50 states that eludes East Coast media. Now its network is launching a new conservative opinion initiative aimed at Trump voters …

Brian Faler / Politico:

Republican tax law hits churches — Some nonprofits could start paying taxes for the first time. — Republicans have quietly imposed a new tax on churches, synagogues and other nonprofits, a little-noticed and surprising change that could cost some groups tens of thousands of dollars.

Discussion: Axios, Raw Story, Friendly Atheist, MSNBC and The Week

CBS News:

Experts say U.S. among 10 most dangerous nations for women — The United States has been ranked for the first time among the ten nations deemed to be the most dangerous for women by experts in the field. A survey by the Thompson Reuters Foundation of about 550 experts in women's issues around …

Discussion: Townhall, CNN and twitchy.com

Donie O'Sullivan / CNN:

Her son was killed — then came the Russian trolls — Videos produced by Samantha Guff, Julian Quinones and Margaret Dawson — (CNN)It was the height of presidential primary season, just a few weeks before the Republican and Democratic conventions, but on July 7, 2016 …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Leinz Vales / CNN:

Woman cites Trump while calling man ‘rapist,’ ‘illegal’ in viral rant — Man berated in racist rant caught on camera — (CNN)A Latino man and his mother who were doing yard work in California were verbally attacked by a woman who called them “illegals” and “rapists,” and a video of the encounter has gone viral.

Discussion: New York Daily News, New York Times and KTLA

Richard L. Hasen / Slate:

Did Justice Anthony Kennedy Just Signal His Retirement? — For Anthony Kennedy, America's most powerful jurist, this term has brought unexpected and surprising expressions of powerlessness. After Tuesday's ruling in the Trump travel ban case, it's starting to feel like the end of his time on the court is near.

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post and electionlawblog.org

Ronald Brownstein / CNN:

GOP increasingly opposes legal — not just illegal — immigration — Trump: GOP should stop wasting time on immigration — (CNN)The firestorm over the separation of children from their undocumented parents at the border has almost completely overshadowed another milestone …

Discussion: Washington Monthly