memeorandum: Trump in Iraq on first visit to troops in troubled region (Darlene Superville/Associated Press)

3:55 PM ET, December 26, 2018

Top Items:

Did a Queens Podiatrist Help Donald Trump Avoid Vietnam? — In the fall of 1968, Donald J. Trump received a timely diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that led to his medical exemption from the military during Vietnam. — For 50 years, the details of how the exemption came about …

New York Times:

Donald Trump's Selective Service Records — For many years, Donald J. Trump asserted that it was “ultimately” a high draft lottery number that kept him out of the Vietnam War, rather than a medical condition. But his Selective Service records, obtained from the National Archives, suggest otherwise.

New York Times:

Trump Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq to See American Troops — WASHINGTON — President Trump visited American military forces in Iraq on Wednesday, a surprise trip and the first visit to troops stationed abroad in a combat zone by a commander in chief who has made withdrawing the United States from foreign wars a signature issue.

Discussion: RedState, BuzzFeed News, Roll Call, Morning Consult, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, NPR, The Guardian, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, Townhall and AOL

Darlene Superville / Associated Press:

Trump in Iraq on first visit to troops in troubled region — AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq (AP) — President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Wednesday, leaving behind a partially shuttered U.S. government to greet American troops helping hold off extremists in a country where thousands of Americans died during the recent war.

Discussion: Task & Purpose

Benjamin Siegel / ABC News:

President Donald Trump makes surprise Christmas visit to troops in Iraq in first trip to combat zone — President Donald Trump went to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on his first visit to U.S. troops in the Middle East as president. — First lady Melania Trump joined him on the unscheduled Wednesday visit.

Discussion: CNBC, The Daily Caller, The Hill, Washington Times, One America News Network, Joe.My.God. and The Gateway Pundit

Wesley Morgan / Politico:
Trump makes first trip to Iraq as president

Discussion: ABC News

Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner / NBC News:
Trump becomes first president since 2002 not to visit troops at Christmastime

Discussion: Reuters, Joe.My.God., IJR, The Week, The Gateway Pundit, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Raw Story and Political Wire

Christian Whiton / Fox News:
After Mattis, Trump needs a very different kind of defense secretary

Discussion: Test Feed Using Fields

Washington Post: Trump makes unannounced visit to Iraq a week after announcing a victory over the Islamic State

Amy Russo / HuffPost:
Trump Ditches Tradition, Passing Up Christmas Visits To Troops

Discussion: IJR

Mark Maremont / Wall Street Journal:

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker Incorrectly Claims Academic All-American Honors — Claim from Whitaker's University of Iowa football days listed on résumé and government documents — Matthew Whitaker, the acting U.S. Attorney General, has incorrectly claimed …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Joe.My.God., Contemptor and Mediaite

Josh Kovensky / Talking Points Memo: WSJ: Whitaker Fudged Academic Honors On Resume, Gov Documents

Rachael Bade / Politico:

Federal workforce starts to feel pinch of prolonged shutdown — The partial government shutdown entered its fifth day Wednesday with no signs of a breakthrough and hundreds of thousands of federal workers about to feel the pinch of a protracted standoff. — President Donald Trump …

Discussion: Associated Press, Talking Points Memo and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

David Edwards / Raw Story: C-SPAN caller: I support Trump's shutdown because 'it's getting us closer' to the second coming of Jesus

Mariam Khan / ABC News: Negotiations to end partial government shutdown at a standstill

Darlene Superville / Associated Press:
Post-holiday, partial government shutdown to gain impact

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Caller, Joe.My.God., Axios, KTLA and The Week

CNN:

Trump's frustration with Mnuchin rising after failed attempt to calm markets, source says — (CNN)President Donald Trump's frustration with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is ratcheting up further after markets suffered their worst Christmas Eve drop ever following Mnuchin's attempts …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Outside the Beltway and Washington Post

Thomas Heath / Washington Post: Dow Jones industrial average rises over 2 percent as U.S. stock markets try to recover …

CNBC: Dow gives back 282-point gain as Wall Street's wild ride continues

Jamelle Bouie / Slate:

The Path to the Presidency Could Be Harder for White Democrats in 2020 — Before Barack Obama's election in 2008, the relationship between white racial views and partisanship wasn't as clear-cut as one might think. Yes, Republicans won the large majority of white voters who believed black disadvantage …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and New York Times

Washington Post:

Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologizes for funding a group behind disinformation in Alabama race — Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologized on Wednesday for funding a group linked to a “highly disturbing” effort that spread disinformation during last year's Alabama special election …

Discussion: Axios, more at Techmeme »

Daily Mail:

Ivanka Trump wears a summer dress and a bizarre full straw visor hat — Ivanka Trump rang in the holiday on Tuesday by heading out for a stroll near her family's Palm Beach, Florida estate on Christmas Day with husband Jared Kushner.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Bloomberg, Raw Story and Mediaite

Nicole Lafond / Talking Points Memo:

Huckabee Defends Trump: It's Not Like He's 'Boiling The Little Girl's Rabbit' — After President Trump was roasted for appearing to mock a 7-year-old girl for still believing in Santa Claus earlier this week, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) raised eyebrows when he took it upon himself to defend Trump …

Discussion: NPR, Daily Wire, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, twitchy.com and Balloon Juice

Olivia Messer / The Daily Beast:
Mike Huckabee Defends Trump on Santa Call: It's Not Like He's 'Boiling the Little Girl's Bunny'

Discussion: Contemptor, Mediaite and NPR

Washington Post:

More than 4 million children endured lockdowns last school year, a groundbreaking Washington Post analysis found. The experience left many traumatized. — Locked behind their green classroom door, MaKenzie Woody and 25 other first-graders huddled in the darkness.

Discussion: Axios, Splinter and The Week

David Bauder / Associated Press:

Bad headlines for Trump also means ratings slump for Hannity — NEW YORK (AP) — The drumbeat of bad news for President Donald Trump hasn't been good for his most prominent backer in the media. — While Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity will end 2018 as cable news' most popular personality …

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Margalit Fox / New York Times:

Larry Eisenberg, 99, Whose Limericks Were Very Well Read, Is Dead … Dr. Eisenberg, who died on Tuesday at 99, was for more than a decade one of the most prolific contributors of reader comments on nytimes.com — and, by extension, on the internet as a whole.

Audrey McNamara / The Daily Beast:

Russia Warns United States: Don't Interfere in Saudi Royal Succession — Russia has warned the U.S. against any attempts to influence Saudi Arabia's royal succession, and offered its official support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The prince is under international pressure …

Discussion: Bloomberg

New York Times:

President Trump's Retreat on the Environment Is Affecting Communities Across America — In California, where over a third of the nation's vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts are grown, farm workers are being sickened by a pesticide that the Obama administration tried to ban.

Department of Homeland Security:

CBP Shares Additional Information about Recent Passing of Guatemalan Child — An eight year-old Guatemalan national, previously apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, died shortly before midnight on December 24 at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Politico, The Daily Beast, Hit & Run, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Hullabaloo, Townhall, Splinter, The Gateway Pundit, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Bloomberg, WREG-TV and Washington Post

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Trump lawyers, citing shutdown, ask court for delay in emoluments case — Lawyers for President Donald Trump are invoking the government shutdown to seek a delay in a court case over claims that Trump is illegally profiting from business his Washington hotel does with foreign countries.

Discussion: Raw Story

Daniel Strauss / Politico:

Brown seeks Obama meeting as he considers presidential run — Sen. Sherrod Brown hasn't decided whether he's running for president — but he's checking off a lot of the boxes that come along the way. — The Ohio Democrat is reaching out to fellow senators and party officials in early primary and caucus states.

Discussion: Vanity Fair, The Daily Caller, Joe.My.God. and The Week