memeorandum: John Lewis, Donald Trump, and the Meaning of Legitimacy (David Remnick/New Yorker)

11:25 AM ET, January 17, 2017

Top Items:

CNN:

CNN/ORC Poll: Confidence drops in Trump transition — Washington (CNN)Donald Trump will become president Friday with an approval rating of just 40%, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll, the lowest of any recent president and 44 points below that of President Barack Obama, the 44th president.

Discussion: The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Week, Washington Times and CBS Baltimore

Gary Langer / ABC News:

Trump Remains Unpopular, With the Presidency in Hand (POLL) — Donald Trump enters office as the most unpopular of at least the last seven newly elected presidents, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds, with ratings for handling the transition that are also vastly below those of his predecessors.

Discussion: The Hill, Political Wire, Althouse, alan.com, Towleroad and Daily Kos

Elliot Smilowitz / The Hill:

Trump: Approval polls are rigged against me — on Tuesday tweeted that approval rating polls are rigged against him, as a series of polls show him with historically low approval as he enters office. — “The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls.

Discussion: RedState, Washington Post, Political Wire, The Daily Caller, Sputnik International and Politicus USA

Dan Balz / Washington Post:

Poll: Trump will take office as least popular president in at least 4 decades — After a tumultuous campaign and transition, President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office Friday as the least popular incoming president in at least four decades, but a majority of Americans nevertheless …

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, Shakesville, New York Times, The Week, Hullabaloo, Common Dreams, ABC News and Mediaite

Steven Shepard / Politico:
Polls show Trump with historically low approval ratings

Discussion: Washington Post, ABC News and Business Insider

Bloomberg:

Putin Says Doesn't Believe Trump Met Prostitutes in Russia — Attacks on Trump seek to undermine election result, Putin says — Unsubstantiated claims are ‘obvious fabrications,’ Putin says — Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn't believe that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump met …

Discussion: Political Wire and The Slot

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Putin: Obama administration trying to undermine Trump's legitimacy

Discussion: RedState and Sputnik International

Tyler Cowen / Marginal REVOLUTION:
A bit of context on Trump, NATO, and Germany

Discussion: Cafe Hayek

McKay Coppins / The Atlantic:

‘He Is Going to Test Our Democracy as It Has Never Been Tested’ — Sometime early last fall, John Dean says he began having nightmares about a Trump presidency. He would wake in the middle of the night, agitated and alarmed, struggling to calm his nerves.

Discussion: Political Wire and Raw Story

Margaret Hartmann / New York Magazine:

More Than 40 Democratic Lawmakers Are Boycotting Trump's Inauguration — The number of Democratic lawmakers refusing to attend Donald Trump's inauguration jumped significantly on Monday, with 42 House Democrats now planning to boycott Friday's ceremony, according to the Washington Post.

Discussion: Politico, Raw Story, Washington Post, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit and BizPac Review

Christopher Cousins / State & Capitol:
LePage: Chellie Pingree should resign if she won't attend Trump's inauguration

Discussion: Washington Post, The Portland Press Herald, Raw Story and American Thinker

Elise Viebeck / Washington Post:
More than 40 Democratic lawmakers now skipping Trump's inauguration

Discussion: USA Today, Slate, IJR, Mediaite, State & Capitol, AOL, The Gateway Pundit, NBC News, BizPac Review, CNN, The Week, Occupy Democrats, The Daily Caller, CBS Baltimore, Mashable and ThinkProgress

John Wagner / Washington Post: Surprisingly, Trump inauguration shapes up to be a relatively low-key affair

#DisruptJ20:

DisruptJ20 Releases Statement on Project Veritas Video — January 16, 2017 — Contact: Lacy MacAuley, (202) 815-0288, lacymacauley@gmail.com — Legba Carrefour, (202) 297-4511, media@disruptj20.org — DisruptJ20 Releases Statement on Project Veritas Video

Discussion: Washingtonian, The Gateway Pundit and Project Veritas

Scott Johnson / Power Line:
Return of the leftover left

Discussion: Project Veritas, Front Page Magazine, National Review, Daily Mail, Breitbart and American Thinker

Manu Raju / CNN:

First on CNN: Trump's cabinet pick invested in company, then introduced a bill to help it — Tom Price in 60 seconds Story highlights — Washington (CNN)Rep. Tom Price last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited …

MJ Lee / CNN:
Trump's HHS pick doesn't want to flaunt his own Obamacare bill at confirmation hearing

Discussion: New York Magazine and Politico

Shane Harris / Wall Street Journal:

CIA Director John Brennan Rejects Donald Trump's Criticism — Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan rejected Donald Trump's suggestions that he may have leaked an unsubstantiated dossier on the president-elect while defending the U.S. intelligence community more broadly.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, Fox News Insider, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, CNN, The Federalist, emptywheel, The Last Tradition and The Gateway Pundit

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

The Most Successful Democrat Since F.D.R. — When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, he understood, without quite saying it, that there had been no highly successful Democratic president in decades. — Bill Clinton made the country a better place, but his biggest legislative plans failed and he was beset by scandal.

Discussion: Instapundit and Politico

James Hohmann / Washington Post:

The Daily 202: Monica Crowley losing White House job shows that the rules of politics still apply for Donald Trump — THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump and his team believe that the rules and norms of Washington do not apply to them. They are wrong, and yesterday brought a significant proof point.

Discussion: Washington Times, Daily Kos, Business Insider and NBC News, more at Mediagazer »

David Remnick / New Yorker:

John Lewis, Donald Trump, and the Meaning of Legitimacy — John Lewis represents Georgia's Fifth Congressional District, one vote of four hundred and thirty-five. He is also the singular conscience of Capitol Hill. Lewis is a dismal institution's griot, a historical actor and hero capable …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Associated Press

Nicole Lopez-Alvar / WSVN-TV:
8 shot at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park in Miami on MLK Day; 2 detained

Discussion: CBS Miami, twitchy.com, NBC News, The Gateway Pundit and The Last Refuge

Curtis Houck / NewsBusters:
Reporters Plead with MLK III to Attack Trump; Did Lewis Tweets Shake You ‘To Your Core?’

Discussion: Power Line and Mediaite

Wall Street Journal:

Trump Warns on House Republican Tax Plan — Donald Trump criticized a cornerstone of House Republicans' corporate-tax plan, which they had pitched as an alternative to his proposed import tariffs, creating another point of contention between the incoming president and congressional allies.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNBC, Washington Post, AOL, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Last Tradition and Marginal REVOLUTION

Adam Edelman / New York Daily News:

Scalpers taking losses on tickets to Trump inauguration, as secondary market interest on the mogul's swear-in wanes — Donald Trump will take office as one of the most unpopular President-elects in recent history — and even scalpers are feeling the pain. — Some flippers …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Gothamist, The Slot and Raw Story

GM Media News:

GM Announces 7,000 U.S. Jobs, Builds Off Strong Track Record — DETROIT - General Motors today announced that it will invest an additional $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing operations. These investments follow $2.9 billion announced in 2016 and more than $21 billion GM has invested in its U.S. operations since 2009.

Discussion: Politico and Reuters