Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
10:15 PM ET, May 12, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Politico:
Trump's free plane is not so free  —  The Boeing aircraft that Qatar may give the president would require a pricy and complicated overhaul to serve as Air Force One.  —  President Donald Trump insists he's getting a “free, very expensive airplane” from Qatar's royal family.
RELATED:
Slate:
Donald Trump's Corruption Reaches New Heights  —  On Sunday, ABC News reported that President Donald Trump plans to accept a $400 million “flying palace” from the royal family of Qatar.  The deal, it appears, is that the super-luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet will become the new Air Force …
New York Times:
Auction to Dine With Trump Creates Foreign Influence Opportunity … The sale of face-to-face access to President Trump using the Trump family's own cryptocurrency has done more than benefit him financially, though it has certainly done that.  —  Mr. Trump announced last month that leading buyers …
Garrett M. Graff / Doomsday Scenario:
Corruption and a Security Catastrophe in Plane Sight  —  Of course a foreign government would love to give the US president a plane....  I will admit that as a presidential historian and national security nerd one of my first thoughts last November after Donald Trump won office was, “Ugh” …
Discussion: Fox News
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Trump's Plan to Accept Luxury Jet From Qatar Strains Bounds of Propriety  —  The second Trump administration is blowing through limits on the mixing of public office and personal benefits.  —  During President Trump's first term, the idea that special interests and governments were buying meals …
Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money
Liz Dye / Law and Chaos:
Qatar Bribes Trump With Bling Blimp
Edith Olmsted / New Republic:
Trump Melts Down Over Damning Report on Qatar Giving Him a Private Jet
Politico:
Hill leaders question Trump's attempted Library of Congress takeover  —  Top congressional leaders are pushing back against President Donald Trump's attempt to replace to Library of Congress leaders, with the dispute over presidential powers over the institution leaving its future in question Monday.
RELATED:
Axios:
Trump naming his former defense attorney as acting Librarian of Congress  —  President Trump will name deputy attorney general Todd Blanche to be the acting Librarian of Congress, a Justice Department official confirmed to Axios.  —  Why it matters: Blanche, who represented Trump in his hush money trial …
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Todd Blanche, DOJ No. 2, is now acting Library of Congress chief  —  The Justice Department's No. 2 official now has a second job: running the Library of Congress.  President Donald Trump has appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as the acting librarian, a DOJ official said Monday.
Discussion: HuffPost, Forbes, Daily Kos and Raw Story
RELATED:
Janna Brancolini / The Daily Beast:
Markets Celebrate Total Trump Surrender on Signature Policy  —  WHITE FLAG  —  The U.S. agreed to temporarily lower tariffs on Chinese products while the two sides negotiate.  —  Investors welcomed the news on Monday that President Donald Trump was backing away from at least …
New York Times:
U.S. and China Agree to Temporarily Slash Tariffs in Bid to Defuse Trade War
David Frum / The Atlantic:   The Ultimate Bait and Switch of Trump's Tariffs
Wall Street Journal:   The Great Trump Tariff Rollback
Associated Press:
US and China reach a deal to slash sky-high tariffs for now, with a 90-day pause
Jack Jenkins / RNS:
Episcopal Church refuses to resettle white Afrikaners, ends partnership with US government  —  (RNS) — In a striking move that ends a nearly four-decades-old relationship between the federal government and the Episcopal Church, the denomination announced on Monday (May 12) …
RELATED:
The Episcopal Church:
Letter from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe on Episcopal Migration Ministries  —  Office of Public Affairs  —  English  —  Dear People of God in The Episcopal Church:  —  I am writing today with some significant news about Episcopal Migration Ministries, the organization that leads The Episcopal Church's refugee resettlement ministry.
Washington Post:
White South Africans arrive at Dulles as refugees under Trump order
President Donald J. Trump / The White House:
Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients  —  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:  —  Section 1.  Purpose.  The United States has less than five percent …
RELATED:
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
Republicans Try to Cram Ban on AI Regulation Into Budget Reconciliation Bill  —  Republicans try to use the Budget Reconciliation bill to stop states from regulating AI entirely for 10 years.  —  Late last night, House Republicans introduced new language to the Budget Reconciliation bill …
Discussion: The Hill
RELATED:
Department of Homeland Security:
DHS Terminating Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan
Discussion: CBS News, UPI and Axios
Andrew Beaujon / Washingtonian:
Rock Creek Isn't Safe to Swim In.  RFK Jr. Did It Anyway.  —  Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went for a swim in Rock Creek yesterday.  —  Health officials typically advise against swimming in that DC waterway, because sewage from the city's aging system flows into it.
RELATED:
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Rule of law is ‘endangered,’ chief justice says  —  Speaking at Georgetown Law, Chief Justice John Roberts denounced “ad hominem” criticism of the justices.  —  Chief Justice John Roberts described the rule of law as “endangered” and warned against “trashing the justices,” …
Discussion: Bloomberg and The Gateway Pundit
New York Times:
Why Trump Suddenly Declared Victory Over the Houthi Militia … President Trump has never bought into long-running military entanglements in the Middle East.Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times  —  When he approved a campaign to reopen shipping in the Red Sea by bombing the Houthi militant group …
Lisa Mascaro / Associated Press:
House Republicans unveil Medicaid cuts that Democrats warn will leave millions without care  —  House Republicans unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of President Donald Trump's “ big, beautiful bill ” late Sunday, at least $880 billion in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks.
RELATED:
Josh Hawley / New York Times:
Don't Cut Medicaid  —  Polls show Democrats down in the dumps at their lowest approval level in decades …
Taragallegos / Governor of California:
Governor Newsom releases state model for cities and counties to immediately address encampments with urgency and dignity  —  What you need to know: Governor Newsom today released a model ordinance for cities and counties to immediately address dangerous and unhealthy encampments …
RELATED:
Taylor Lorenz / User Mag:
Hasan Piker detained at the border and questioned for hours over politics  —  “They straight up tried to get something out of me that I think they could use to basically detain me permanently” … Hasan Piker, the biggest progressive political streamer in America, was detained by Customs …
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 10:15 PM ET, May 12, 2025.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Danielle Battaglia / The Charlotte Observer:
NC congressman hit another man with a clipboard at conference, Rotarian says
New York Times:
Elon Musk's Boring Company Is in Talks With Government Over Amtrak Project
Jay Nordlinger / National Review:
WFB & Co.  —  I can't remember when I first encountered Bill Buckley — in print, I mean, not in the flesh.
John L. Dorman / Business Insider:
Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill’ includes $1,000 ‘MAGA accounts’ for kids
Discussion: Semafor and Raw Story
 Earlier Items: 
Reporters Without Borders:
Radio Free Asia's Uyghur service in danger following Trump's decisions: “Without RFA, China will truly become a black hole for information”
Discussion: JURISTnews
Molly Taft / Wired:
The EPA Will Likely Gut Team That Studies Health Risks From Chemicals
Carrie Johnson / NPR:
Race to lead D.C. lawyers' association grows heated amid attacks on law firms
Discussion: Axios and Washington Examiner
Courtney Kube / NBC News:
Pentagon spent at least $21 million on flights to Guantanamo, which currently holds 32 migrants
Discussion: Daily Kos, CBS News and DNyuz
New York Times:
Here Is Everything That Has Changed Since Congestion Pricing Started in New York
Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money
Barak Ravid / Axios:
Hamas to release Israeli-American hostage as gesture to Trump
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Bloomberg:
Sources: WBD begins exclusive talks with Netflix to sell its film and TV studios and HBO Max; Netflix is offering a $5B breakup fee if the deal isn't approved

The Guardian:
Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands exit Eurovision after Israel received an all-clear to compete; the BBC and Germany's SWR plan to participate

James Faris / Business Insider:
Kalshi strikes a deal with CNBC that will integrate Kalshi's prediction data into CNBC's channel, site, and app starting in 2026, days after striking a CNN deal
 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page