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5:20 PM ET, February 15, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
New York Times:
Hegseth's Bruising 72-Hour Debut Overseas  —  It was a crash course in geopolitical realities as the new defense secretary stepped onto the world stage.  —  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has had a rocky trip to Europe this week.  —  In his debut on the world stage, Mr. Hegseth told NATO …
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
RELATED:
Financial Times:
Ukraine rejects Trump bid to take rights to half its mineral reserves  —  Kyiv wants security guarantees to be tied to any natural resources deal  —  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a US bid to take ownership of around 50 per cent of the rights to his country's rare earth minerals …
Discussion: Pravda EN, Reuters, CBS News and EADaily
Washington Post:
Ukraine rejects initial Trump request for half its mineral wealth  —  Ukraine is hoping to reach a deal on a counter-offer, but the opening proposal rippled through European diplomatic circles not only for its audacity but because the war-ravaged country appears ready to play ball.  —  February 15, 2025
Politico:
Trump team to start Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Saudi Arabia  —  Negotiators from Kyiv will be joining the talks that launch in the coming days.  —  EXCLUSIVE … MUNICH — Senior Trump administration officials are heading to Saudi Arabia to start peace talks with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators …
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Trump strangles Europe
Adam Wren / Politico:   Playbook: GOP confronts a continental divide
Patrick Wintour / The Guardian:
JD Vance's Munich speech laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance
Associated Press:
Zelenskyy calls for ‘European army’ as EU leaders bristle at new US policies on Ukraine
RELATED:
Politico:
Stunned federal workers brace for the real-world repercussions of Trump's purges
Washington Post:
Records show how DOGE planned Trump's DEI purge — and who gets fired next  —  A DOGE team plans to fire federal workers who are not in DEI roles and employees in offices that protect equal rights, internal documents show.  —  A team of workers from the U.S. DOGE Service developed step …
Discussion: Politico and Althouse
RELATED:
Tom Boggioni / Raw Story:
Internal DOGE documents lay out plans for ‘Phase 3’ to begin on Wednesday: report  —  According to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) documents obtained by the Washington Post, Elon Musk's unofficial agency is set to launch what they have labeled as “Phase 3” of their drive to dismantle the government on Wednesday.
Washington Post:
As federal workers and aid recipients reel, Trump's team is unmoved
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Trump-Musk Scandal at USAID Takes Unnerving Turn With Vile Leaked Memo  —  Shockingly, it turns out that empowering the richest human being on the planet to maliciously and gratuitously heap additional misery on that planet's most poor, hungry, and desperate people might—just might …
New York Times:
Don't Assume Trump Is Wrong About Birthright Citizenship  —  On his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order that purports to end birthright citizenship for certain children.  It does so despite Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which declares, “All persons born …
Discussion: Reason, Fox News and ZeroHedge News
Brenda Wintrode / The Baltimore Banner:
Maryland National Guard out of Frederick Douglass parade after DoD order declares Black History Month ‘dead’  —  Strict guidance from the national defense department crushed plans for an Eastern Shore parade held in honor of Frederick Douglass' 207th birthday because it was being held during …
Gilad Edelman / The Atlantic:
‘The Gulf of America’ Is the Wrong Fight to Pick  —  The more that politicians mess around with place names, the more important it is to respond according to consistent principles.  —  The executive order rechristening the body of water known internationally as the “Gulf of Mexico” is not an easy document to take seriously.
Associated Press:
Trump administration fires 20 immigration judges with no explanation  —  Courts are currently backlogged with 3.7m cases as US president demands more deportations  —  The Trump administration fired 20 immigration judges without explanation, a union official said on Saturday amid sweeping moves …
RELATED:
Myah Ward / Politico:
Trump administration fires new immigration judges
Discussion: UPI and CBS News
Ashley Holt / HuffPost:
Trump Supporters Shared How He Could Lose Their Support, And There's One Issue That's Verrrrry Important To Them  —  “We didn't vote for my husband to lose his government career and benefits.”  —  Ashley Holt— BuzzFeed … We recently asked people in the BuzzFeed Community who voted …
Discussion: New York Daily News
Francis Fukuyama / Persuasion:
Don't Say “Chaotic” or “Transactional”  —  We're not living in Trump 1.0  —  I'm struck by the degree to which the mainstream media is still living in the Trump 1.0 world of 2017-2020, using words like “chaotic” or “transactional” to describe the new administration's behavior.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro / New York Times:
Senator Ruben Gallego on the Democrats' Problem: 'We're Always Afraid'  —  Philip Montgomery for The New York Times  —  There has been an onslaught of political news over the past few weeks as President Trump and his billionaire backer Elon Musk try to remake America's government.
Discussion: Business Insider and Townhall
RELATED:
Joe Gould / Politico:
Senator Warner: Democrats' ‘brand is really bad’
Discussion: Washington Examiner
New York Times:
6 Americans on What They Think of Trump, Elon Musk and Gaza  —  In his first three weeks back in office, President Trump has set a dizzying pace of political and social change, issuing dozens of executive directives meant to dramatically remake the federal government and drive the country in a new direction.
Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:
Not Quite a Unified Theory of Trumpism, but Still an Alarming Pattern  —  President Trump's second term dizzies many Americans, but I find it oddly familiar — an echo of the time I lived in China as a reporter.  —  Americans sometimes misperceive Trump's actions as a fire hose of bizarre …
Discussion: Associated Press
Financial Times:
Is corporate America already souring on Trump?  —  Optimism at the prospect of tax cuts and lighter regulation has given way to anxiety over trade policies
Discussion: The Daily Wire
Katie Glueck / New York Times:
Georgia's First Jewish Senator Is Losing Jewish Support  —  Democratic donors and Jewish leaders are so unhappy with Jon Ossoff over his position on Israel that some have quietly urged Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, to run against him.  —  Four years ago, Senator Jon Ossoff was sworn in using …
Discussion: Washington Examiner and WXIA-TV
Washington Post:
Forced to flee Congo, USAID workers lost everything.  They're suing Trump.  —  USAID workers based in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, tell a harrowing story of how Trump's attack on the agency complicated an escape.  —  January 28 began as a normal day for “Marcus Doe,” …
Discussion: OutsideTheBeltway
CBS News:
How a Vermont border agent's death exposed violence linked to the cultlike Zizian group  —  In the wooded outskirts of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a perplexed landlord noticed odd sights at two of his rental properties.  —  Tenants wore long black coats and parked box trucks outside the duplexes.
Discussion: The Guardian and SFGATE
Aaron Wiener / Washington Post:
Federal workers are being rushed back to the office.  It's causing chaos.  —  Some need to win a coin flip to use a desk.  Others say they're killing time when workstations aren't available.  —  As the Federal Emergency Management Agency prepared for its full workforce to report in person this month …
Discussion: Raw Story
CBS News:
Book excerpt: “A Different Russia” by Marvin Kalb  —  We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article.  —  In “A Different Russia: Khrushchev and Kennedy on a Collision Course” (BookBaby), veteran journalist Marvin Kalb writes about the 1963 Cold War summit …
Bloomberg:
Trump's Threats and Statehood Taunts Reset Race to Lead Canada  — ‘The enemy is not in Ottawa, the enemy is in Washington’  — Conservatives pivot to ‘Canada First’ message as polls narrow  —  For over a year, Canada's Conservative Party seemed on track to win a decisive victory …
Discussion: UnHerd
 
 
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 More Items: 
Will Neal / The Daily Beast:
Former RNC Chair Erupts On-Air: To Hell With Republicans!
Discussion: Raw Story
Naftali Bendavid / Washington Post:
Mass resignation marks a new kind of defiance in the second Trump era
Jamie Gangel / CNN:
White House forcing out top leadership at National Archives in major shakeup
Discussion: Reuters
Politico:
Trump Media says it lost more than $400M last year
 Earlier Items: 
Filip Timotija / The Hill:
Missouri judge moves to temporarily block ‘discriminatory’ abortion restrictions
Discussion: ACLU of Missouri
Steff Danielle Thomas / The Hill:
Palin keeping door open to joining Trump administration
Susan Snyder / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Penn scrubs diversity initiatives from its website to comply with Trump order
CNN:
Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country's weapons stockpile, sources say
 

 
From Techmeme:

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Tech stocks fall after President Trump announced new global tariffs: Amazon drops as much as ~6%, Meta drops ~5%, Nvidia ~6%, Alphabet ~3%, and Microsoft ~3%

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Nintendo shares Switch 2 details: a 7.9", 120fps, 1080p display, 4K at 60fps when docked, a custom Nvidia processor, 256GB of storage, and a new Pro Controller

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Europol says German and Dutch authorities shut down Kidflix, a CSAM streaming platform with 1.8M+ users between April 2022 and March 2025, on March 11

 
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