memeorandum: U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Resigns in Disgust After Trump Anti-Europe Rants (Robbie Gramer/Foreign Policy)

9:55 AM ET, June 30, 2018

Top Items:

Lili Loofbourow / Slate:

The America We Thought We Knew Is Gone — Because countries are not people, it's tricky to translate whatever “loving one's country” means—it's quite abstract—into the language of heartbreak. It sounds melodramatic. What can heartbreak mean as a civic matter? And yet it is what I feel.

Discussion: Jezebel

Daily Mail:

BREAKING NEWS: Trump says he's cut his Supreme Court short-list down to five candidates including TWO women and he'll announce a nominee July 9 - but he doesn't plan to ask any of them about Roe v. Wade — President is under pressure from conservatives to pick a reliably right-wing Supreme Court justice …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

An explosion is coming — Eight years ago, when Congress was about to pass Obamacare, John A. Boehner, leader of a powerless Republican congressional minority, gave a passionate, prescient speech on the House floor. — “This is the People's House, and the moment a majority forgets this …

Discussion: MSNBC

Washington Post:

Top Supreme Court prospect has argued presidents should not be distracted by investigations and lawsuits — U.S. Circuit Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy who is viewed as one of the leading contenders to replace him, has argued that presidents …

Discussion: Washington Press, Raw Story, The Hechinger Report, Townhall, CNBC, LifeNews.com, Scared Monkeys, ABC News and Vox

Bloomberg: Trump Says He'll Announce Supreme Court Nominee July 9

Wall Street Journal:
Trump Says He Has Narrowed List of Possible Supreme Court Picks to Five

Discussion: Washington Times

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Trump says he is considering two women for Supreme Court, will announce pick July 9

Discussion: Associated Press, ABC News, Politico, Vox and Hot Air

Paul Schiff Berman / New York Times:
A Better Reason to Delay Kennedy's Replacement

Discussion: VTDigger

NBC News:

North Korea has increased nuclear production at secret sites, say U.S. officials — “Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles,” said one U.S. official. — WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea …

Discussion: Politico, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Joe.My.God., Mother Jones, The Daily Caller, Daily Caller News Foundation, NK News, Al Jazeera English, Axios, Mediaite and HuffPost

Robbie Gramer / Foreign Policy:

U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Resigns in Disgust After Trump Anti-Europe Rants — James Melville is the latest in a string of career diplomat resignations over Trump's comments and policies. — The U.S. ambassador to Estonia, James D. Melville Jr., a career diplomat and member …

Discussion: Radio Free Europe, Joe.My.God., Washington Press, National Review and Politico

Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:

G.M. Says New Wave of Trump Tariffs Could Force U.S. Job Cuts — General Motors warned Friday that if President Trump pushed forward with another wave of tariffs, the move could backfire, leading to “less investment, fewer jobs and lower wages” for its employees.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story and Hullabaloo

BBC: US ambassador to Estonia resigns ‘over Trump comments’

CNNMoney:
GM warns tariff could force job cuts, raise cost of cars

Discussion: CNN

Toluse Olorunnipa / Bloomberg:

Trump Apparently Duped by Prankster on Air Force One Phone Call — President Donald Trump appeared to return a call from a prankster posing as New Jersey's Democratic Senator Bob Menendez during an Air Force One flight earlier this week, calling into question the White House's security protocols.

Discussion: Althouse, The Stuttering John Podcast, Raw Story, The Root, New York Times, Washington Post and Mashable

John Harwood / CNBC: Trump's White House has been a money-making machine

Annie Karni / Politico: Why a new chief of staff wouldn't change Trump's White House

Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Prank caller patched through to Trump on Air Force One

Discussion: CNN, Daily Mail, The Guardian, ABC News, New York Daily News, Breitbart, Washington Press, Hot Air, Joe.My.God., Gizmodo, New Republic, Boing Boing and Shakesville

Louis Nelson / Politico:
White House scrambles to figure out how prankster got on the phone with Trump

Discussion: Fox News, HuffPost, TheBlaze, ThinkProgress, IJR, The Stuttering John Podcast, Raw Story and Law & Crime

Bradford Betz / Fox News:

Reporter resigns after false tweet that Maryland shooting suspect had MAGA hat — A reporter in Springfield, Mass., resigned from his job Friday after posting a Twitter message falsely stating that Maryland shooting suspect Jarrod Ramos had brought a “Make America Great Again” hat to the office of the Capital Gazette.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Hill and Breitbart

Laura Lippman / New York Times:

At the Capital Gazette, the Death of a Reporter's Reporter — I believe there are two kinds of reporters — ones who can find a story by pointing to a random name in the phone book, and those who would rather impale themselves on an old-fashioned newsroom spike than do business that way.

Hadas Gold / CNNMoney:
Fundraisers set up for Capital Gazette shooting victims

Discussion: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, USA Today, Faithwire and The Atlantic, more at Mediagazer »

Rebecca Traister / The Cut:

Summer of Rage — It shouldn't have been such a shock. After all, many of those most painfully poleaxed by the news of Anthony Kennedy's retirement on Wednesday were the same ones who'd always understood the stakes; we knew that this was the risk, we've been scared for a long time.

The Babylon Bee: Democratic Socialist Candidate's Primary Win Revoked After All Her Votes Forcibly Redistributed

Alexander Mallin / ABC News:

President Trump defends ICE amid increasing calls from Democrats to abolish the agency — President Donald Trump took to Twitter Saturday morning to attack Democrats over increased calls among the left ranks of the party for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to be eliminated.

Discussion: Axios, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

The Daily Beast:
Abolish ICE? Not So Fast, Says Congressional Hispanic Caucus in New Talking Points.

Discussion: Fox News, Washington Post, Washington Times and Sean Hannity

Bloomberg:

Trump Leaves Door Open to U.S. Recognizing Russia's Crimea Grab — President Donald Trump left the door open to recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea, telling reporters that such a move would be up for discussion when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.

Ewen MacAskill / The Guardian: Edward Snowden describes Russian government as corrupt

Washington Post:

U.S. assessing cost of keeping troops in Germany as Trump battles with Europe — The Pentagon is analyzing the cost and impact of a large-scale withdrawal or transfer of American troops stationed in Germany, amid growing tensions between President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to people familiar with the work.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, AOL, The Local and Talking Points Memo

New York Times:

‘Shaken’ Rosenstein Felt Used by White House in Comey Firing — WASHINGTON — In the days after the F.B.I. director James B. Comey was fired last year, the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, repeatedly expressed anger about how the White House used him to rationalize the firing …

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and Mediaite

New York Times:

Russians Offered Business Deals to Brexit's Biggest Backer — LONDON — Arron Banks, a British financier who bankrolled the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, has long bragged about his “boozy six-hour lunch” with the Russian ambassador eight months before the vote.

Discussion: Politico and Washington Post

Adam Davidson / New Yorker:

The Inconvenient Legal Troubles That Lie Ahead for the Trump Foundation — Barring an unexpected change, the Donald J. Trump Foundation will be defending itself in a New York courtroom shortly before this fall's midterm elections. The proceedings seem unlikely to go well for the institution …

Charles S. Clark / GovExec.com:

Former ICE General Counsel Heads to Prison for Identity Theft — By angelo gilardelli / Shutterstock.com — A former top legal adviser to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau was sentenced to 48 months in prison for wire fraud and identity theft affecting aliens, the Justice Department announced on Thursday.

Deanna Paul / Washington Post:
An ICE attorney made almost $200,000 stealing immigrants' identities. Now he's going to prison.

Discussion: TheBlaze, Daily Kos, New York Times and The Guardian

Natasha Korecki / Politico:

Ted Cruz: ‘Vote for the Democrat’ over the GOP Nazi — CHICAGO — Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday urged residents of a Chicago-area congressional district to vote for a Democrat if they must, to avoid giving even one vote to an avowed Nazi who won the GOP nomination.

Discussion: KTLA, twitchy.com, Raw Story and Mediaite

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:

Trump administration may detain migrant families longer than previously allowed — The Trump administration plans to detain migrant families together in custody rather than release them, according to a new court filing that suggests such detentions could last longer than the 20 days envisioned by a court settlement.

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

To Report or Resist? A Journalist's Struggles in the Age of Trump — There comes a time when you wonder if staying on the sidelines is the responsible thing to do — It has been a week of blows. — As a journalist, I've always resisted activism. That doesn't mean I don't have opinions …

Seth Abramovitch / Hollywood Reporter:

Death in a Hollywood Sex Dungeon: How a Top Agency Executive's “Mummification” Ritual Ended in Tragedy — For years, WME vp Skip Chasey has led an openly double life as a “master” in L.A.'s BDSM community. But a role-playing encounter involving plastic wrap went horrifically wrong …

Parisa Hafezi / Reuters:

Iran's rulers face discontent as U.S. pressure mounts — ANKARA (Reuters) - Mounting pressure from the Trump administration combined with discontent among many Iranians at the state of the economy are rattling the Islamic Republic, with little sign that its leaders have the answers, officials and analysts say.

Discussion: Power Line and Sean Hannity