memeorandum: Government Shutdown to Continue for Days as Senate Adjourns Until Thursday (New York Times)

8:35 PM ET, December 22, 2018

Top Items:

For Trump, ‘a War Every Day,’ Waged Increasingly Alone — At the midpoint of his term, the president has grown more sure of his own judgment and more isolated from anyone else's than at any point since he took office. — WASHINGTON — When President Trump grows frustrated with advisers during meetings …

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story, Mother Jones and Axios

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

‘A rogue presidency’: The era of containing Trump is over — For two years, they tried to tutor and confine him. They taught him history, explained nuances and gamed out reverberations. They urged careful deliberation, counseled restraint and prepared talking points to try …

Discussion: The Atlantic

Mike Allen / Axios:

Slat man: Trump's Christmas shutdown spooks GOP — President Trump's self-inflicted shutdown before Christmas has left Republicans with a debacle as their last act in control of the House. And now the party is even more worried about the outlook beginning Jan. 3, when Democrats take over.

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico and Raw Story

Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:
You Can't Serve Both Trump and America

Discussion: Hullabaloo

New York Times:
Reliable Allies Refuse to Defend a President Content With Chaos

Discussion: Washington Press, Daily Kos, Politico and ThinkProgress

Margaret Brennan / CBS News:

Brett McGurk, top U.S. envoy in ISIS fight, resigns — Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, had been planning to exit his post in February 2019. But sources tell CBS News that he informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he will accelerate …

Discussion: The Guardian, The Gateway Pundit, The Last Refuge, Axios, Politico, FOX31 Denver, POLITICUSUSA, Mother Jones, Joe.My.God., KXLF-TV and Mediaite

Matthew Lee / Associated Press:

US envoy to anti-IS coalition quits over Trump's Syria move — WASHINGTON (AP) — Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group, has resigned in protest to President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria …

Discussion: BBC, ThinkProgress, Chicks On The Right, Hill Reporter, Washington Post and Splinter

The Times of Israel:

Departing Mattis said to cancel Israel trip, as Israel feels ‘betrayed’ on Syria — TV report says US defense secretary was set to hold talks with in Israel next week on Iran and Syria; senior Israeli officials said to harshly criticize Syria pullout decision

Discussion: New York Times

Josh Lederman / NBC News:

White House says Erdogan promised Trump he'd finish off ISIS in Syria — What took place during Trump's phone call with the Turkish leader has been a central question in the debate over Trump's decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria. — In his phone call with President Donald Trump …

New York Times:
Brett McGurk, Top U.S. Diplomat Leading Fight Against Islamic State, Resigns

Discussion: NPR, The Daily Beast, Raw Story and Daily Kos

Washington Post:
U.S. envoy to coalition fighting ISIS resigns in protest of Trump's Syria decision

Discussion: Washington Press

Elise Labott / CNN:
US envoy in ISIS fight, Brett McGurk, resigns over US withdrawal from Syria

Discussion: The Week

Emily Estelle / American Enterprise Institute: The Islamic State is not defeated in Syria. Or anywhere else. Look at Africa.

Stephen M. Walt / Foreign Policy:
Good Riddance to America's Syria Policy

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Althouse, The American Conservative and Breitbart

Washington Post: U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria is ‘a dream come true for the Iranians’

New York Times:

Government Shutdown to Continue for Days as Senate Adjourns Until Thursday — WASHINGTON — The partial government shutdown that began early Saturday will continue for the next several days, as Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, adjourned the Senate until Thursday and the White House indicated …

Discussion: Politico, Mother Jones, Outside the Beltway and The DC Chronicle

The Daily Beast:

Trump Plan to Win the Shutdown: A Noun, a Verb, and ‘Caravan’ — The White House intends to send surrogates on television to hammer Democrats and to accuse them of wanting drugs, terror, and ‘trafficking’ pouring over the southern border. — With the latest government shutdown …

Discussion: Associated Press

Washington Post:

Shutdown to stretch on until at least Thursday as Senate adjourns with no deal over budget, Trump's border wall — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Saturday afternoon that the Senate would shutter for legislative business until Thursday, leaving many federal agencies closed until later next week at the earliest.

Discussion: Splinter, Daily Kos and Outside the Beltway

The Hill: GOP discord on wall prolongs shutdown fight

Washington Post:
Trump's shutdown stunt is an act of needless stupidity

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Mother Jones, The Daily Caller and ThinkProgress

CBS News:
Senate adjourns through Christmas with government partially shut down — live updates

Discussion: Roll Call, Townhall, USA Today, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Week

Robert Windrem / NBC News:

Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz to help Trump win election, reports say — Building support for Stein was one of a “roster of themes” the Moscow-sanctioned internet trolls “turned to repeatedly,” report says. — Two days before the 2016 presidential election …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Contemptor and Hill Reporter

Bloomberg:

Trump Discusses Firing Fed's Powell After Latest Rate Hike, Sources Say — Advisers warn ousting Fed chairman would lead to market rout — President's legal authority to remove Powell is unclear — President Donald Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell …

Discussion: CNBC, Political Wire, Raw Story, Axios, Outside the Beltway, AOL, Hullabaloo, CNN, POLITICUSUSA, Mediaite, Hill Reporter, Townhall and The Daily Beast

Brendan Murray / Bloomberg:
Fed Scholar Expects Immediate ‘Market Chaos’ If Trump Ousts Powell

Discussion: Raw Story

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:

Mystery Filing Appears to Ask High Court to Act in Mueller Probe — Grand jury dispute has been long been shrouded in mystery — Special counsel is investigating Russian election meddling — A new legal filing appears to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene …

Discussion: Raw Story

John Bowden / The Hill:
Supreme Court refuses to restore Trump's temporary asylum restrictions

Discussion: RedState, POLITICUSUSA and CNN

The Times of Israel:

Simcha Rotem, last surviving fighter in Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, dies at 94 — Rotem fought Nazis in city streets, later helped rebels flee through sewers; Netanyahu says, ‘His story will forever be with our people’ — Simcha Rotem, last surviving fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 …

Jelani Cobb / New Yorker:

The Enduring Russian Propaganda Interests in Targeting African-Americans — In the spring of 2010, I taught a college course on the watershed moments in the American struggle for racial equality, from Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 Supreme Court decision that enshrined segregation …

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
It's official. We lost the Cold War.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE and CNN

BuzzFeed News:

Cory Booker Is Building A 2020 Campaign That's Just Like Him: Vegan, Hyperactive, And Unapologetically Unconventional — French fries with Iowans in Newark. Eager big donors. A clearly defined message of “radical love.” Cory Booker has spent a year laying the groundwork for an ambitious possible presidential bid.

Discussion: twitchy.com

Antonia Noori Farzan / Washington Post:

A reporter's dispatch from Trump country featured a ‘Mexicans Keep Out’ sign. But he made it all up. — When an out-of-town journalist showed up in Fergus Falls, Minn., in February 2017, Michele Anderson couldn't help but feel skeptical. Claas Relotius had been telling residents …