memeorandum

1:35 PM ET, May 25, 2026

Top Items:

Donald Trump's Ego-Driven “Excursion” Has Crashed Into Reality — Trump lost his war, bigly. Why? — “Many questions, few details in latest Iran peace proposal,” read the headline on a New York Times report Sunday. As the subhead explained, “It is too early to tell what exactly Trump …

Discussion: RealClearPolitics and New York Times

Yuliya Talmazan / NBC News:

Iran says no deal ‘imminent’ despite progress in talks with U.S. — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier Monday that an agreement could be finalized “today,” though he cautioned that if talks fail, Washington would find “another way” to resolve the situation.

Discussion: Financial Times, CoinDesk, Al Jazeera, KTVZ-TV, Raw Story, Washington Times, Middle East Monitor, UPI, NPR, Responsible Statecraft, CBS News and RTÉ

Reuters:

Rubio says US will find ‘another way’ if Iran talks fail — The United States will either have a good agreement with Iran or deal with the country “another way,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, as Washington played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough in the three-month-old war.

Discussion: CNBC, NewsMax.com, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, The Times of Israel, Al Jazeera, Straight Arrow, Grabien, The American Conservative, The Daily Signal, Townhall, Bloomberg, NPR and Washington Post

Tom Nichols / The Atlantic:

Trump's War Is Staggering to an Incoherent Defeat — Even the president's supporters are alarmed. — No one yet knows the details of the Iran deal that President Trump has been teasing on social media for the past day or so. The president himself has admonished his followers not to …

Discussion: Forbes, NewsMax.com, The Hill, HuffPost, RedState, MS NOW, The Guardian, CNBC, New York Times, Mediaite, Roll Call and Mother Jones

New York Times:

To Get the Strait Open, Trump Had to Leave the Hardest Issues for Later — President Trump is hailing is agreement with Iran as groundbreaking, even as he admits is “isn't even fully negotiated.” But the nuclear stockpile, enrichment and missiles have not been discussed.

Discussion: Breitbart, FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, NewsMax.com, The Post Millennial, The Times of Israel, Middle East Monitor, Reuters, Semafor, RedState, Mediaite, Politico, The Hill and American Thinker

Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
Why Any Plausible Iran Deal Is a Humiliation for Trump

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press, Israpundit, Bloomberg, The Free Press, The Gateway Pundit, Al Jazeera and Middle East Monitor

Wall Street Journal:
Will Trump Bail Out Iran's Regime?

Discussion: New York Times, NewsMax.com, American Thinker, Mediaite, CBS News, The Times of Israel and New York Post

Steff Danielle Thomas / The Hill:
Trump urges Gulf allies to join Abraham Accords amid US-Iran talks

Discussion: Associated Press, Raw Story, New York Post, Washington Examiner, RedState, Mediaite, Reuters, CBS News, U.S. Home, NewsMax.com, The Gateway Pundit, IJR, Middle East Monitor, Breitbart, Al Jazeera, One America News Network and Axios

Associated Press:
Trump says not to rush as details emerge of a potential Iran deal

Anton Troianovski / New York Times:
Rubio Says Details on Iran Nuclear Program Still to Be Negotiated

Discussion: CBS News, Breitbart, Reuters, The Hill, Human Events, The Daily Wire and Al Jazeera

Associated Press:

Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Holy See's own role in legitimizing slavery — Watch live as Pope Leo XIV and Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah launch the pontiff's first encyclical, a document on the care of human dignity in the era of artificial intelligence.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, RTÉ, Mediaite and WTOP News, more at Techmeme »

Isabella Piro / vaticannews.va:

Pope Leo's ‘Magnifica humanitas’: AI must serve humanity not concentrate power — Marking the 135th anniversary of Rerum novarum, Pope Leo XIV releases his first encyclical, entitled ‘Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.’ He appeals …

Discussion: The Verge, Washington Examiner, Human Events, Truthout, The Daily Signal and Althouse

New York Times:

Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I. in 42,300-Word Encyclical — The document marks a powerful foray by the leader of the Roman Catholic church into the debate about the misuse or overuse of artificial intelligence. — Pope Leo XIV on Monday set out a sweeping vision for corporate executives …

Discussion: CNN, Reuters, RNS, TMZ.com, vaticannews.va, CBS News, Mother Jones, Straight Arrow and New York Sun, more at Techmeme »

Associated Press:

Pope calls for robust regulation of AI in manifesto that ponders the future of humanity — Pope Leo XIV called Monday for robust regulation of artificial intelligence and for its developers to work for the common good rather than profit, issuing a sweeping manifesto on safeguarding humankind …

Discussion: Axios, CBS News, Reuters, NPR, Vox, The Hill, Al Jazeera, New York Times, KGW-TV, Breitbart, The Times of Israel, The Atlantic, RNS, Bloomberg, WTOP News, Politico, Washington Post and RTÉ, more at Techmeme »

Elisabetta Povoledo / New York Times:
Pope Leo Has Released an Encyclical About A.I. Why Is That Important?

Discussion: RNS, Politico, TechCrunch, Variety, vaticannews.va, Bloomberg, Diane Montagna's Substack, Althouse and The Daily Wire, more at Techmeme »

Dan Diamond / Washington Post:

Trump faces health questions ahead of another Walter Reed trip — The president trumpets claims that he is in excellent health, but independent physicians say the White House hasn't answered key questions ahead of his third visit in 13 months. — Summary

Discussion: NBC News, U.S. Home, Newsweek, Raw Story, Metro.co.uk and NewsMax.com

New York Times:

Trump's Self-Indulgence Deepens G.O.P. Fears in Midterms … A little more than five months ahead of the midterm elections, President Trump seems to be focused on virtually anything other than keeping Republican control of Congress. — He endorsed a MAGA challenger over Texas's senior Republican senator …

Discussion: Raw Story and Fox News

Ramsey Touchberry / Washington Examiner:
GOP senators spurn ‘anti-weaponization’ fund payouts for phone data seizure: 'I don't need any compensation'

Discussion: New York Sun

Politico:

Canadians are folding on Vegas. Democrats see a royal flush. … Trump narrowly carried Lee's district in 2024 and nearly won two other Vegas-area districts held by Democrats. Republicans are less bullish than they were a year ago about flipping the seats, but they view Lee's as their best chance.

Discussion: CNN

Sarah Owermohle / CNN:10 minutes ago

Exclusive: Trump admin shutting key US researchers out of global virus response talks, documents and sources reveal — Key officials responsible for leading US research on infectious disease threats have been barred from speaking directly with the World Health Organization …

Discussion: U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and NPR

Matthew Gault / 404 Media:

An Incomplete List of Successful Anti-Data Center Legislation — No one wants to live next to a noisy computer warehouse and communities across the country are successfully fighting them. — Opposition to the massive data centers that power AI is bipartisan and growing across the country.

Alice Miranda Ollstein / Politico:

Anti-abortion activists' frustrations escalate after abortion pill ruling … The Trump administration had quietly spent the weeks leading up to the May 14 ruling ramping up outreach to anti-abortion leaders who are increasingly frustrated with its inaction on abortion pill access …

Discussion: NewsMax.com

Tom Schaller / Public Notice:

The triple toll of Trump's terrible tariffs — This special Memorial Day edition of Public Notice is made possible by paid subscribers. If you value this newsletter but haven't already signed up to support our journalism, please consider doing so 👇 — 🗽 Subscribe to PN 🗽

Adam Sella / New York Times:

What to Know About the Citizenship Lists Trump Wants to Create — President Trump is trying to create individual lists of citizens by state to determine who can vote, even as his administration acknowledges they would be unreliable. — President Trump is seeking to create state-by-state citizenship lists …

Discussion: Election Law Blog

Don Moynihan / Can We Still Govern?:

Scenes from a personalist regime — When asked about constraints on his power, President Trump replied: “There is one thing. My own morality.” Not Congress. Not Courts. Not the constitution. Not law, domestic or international. Not allies. … His party can't stop him.