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2:15 PM ET, May 21, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Washington Post:
Trump and GOP's tax bill would force cuts to Medicare, CBO says  —  Some $500 billion in cuts to Medicare could be avoided if Congress instructs the White House budget office to disregard the reconciliation package's debt impact.  —  President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans' mammoth tax …
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Steve Benen / MSNBC:
Budget office: Republicans' megabill would give to the rich and take from the poor  —  If GOP officials are looking for good news in the Congressional Budget Office's new report on the party's reconciliation package, they won't find any.  —  Common sense might suggest that congressional Republicans …
Charles Gaba / ACA Signups:
Surprise! GOP Medicaid Massacre bill is also a Medicare Massacre bill!
Discussion: Politico, KFF and New Republic
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Trump's $4 trillion deficit bomb
Washington Post:
Divided House GOP tries to push Trump's tax bill over the finish line
Michael Gold / New York Times:
House G.O.P. Races to Revamp Major Policy Bill, Grasping for Votes to Pass It
Luis Martinez / Associated Press:
Pentagon accepts luxury jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One  —  The Air Force will work to ensure the jet can safely transport the president.  —  The Pentagon is seen in Washington, March 2, 2022.  —  The United States officially accepted a luxury jet to use as Air Force One from Qatar …
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New York Times:
Trump Administration Live Updates: President and South African Leader Meet at White House  —  Where Things Stand  — South African visit: President Trump is meeting President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa at the White House and is expected to press him to roll back his country's racial equity laws …
Alexandra Hutzler / ABC News:
Trump to host South Africa's president amid tensions over US resettlement of white Afrikaners
Nancy A. Youssef / Wall Street Journal:
Pentagon Says It Has Taken Possession of 747 Jet From Qatar
Avery Lotz / Axios:
Trump ambushes South Africa's president with video footage in Oval Office
Anusha Mathur / Washington Post:
Gerry Connolly, congressman who protected federal workforce, dies at 75  —  The nine-term Virginia Democrat pushed back against the Trump administration's efforts to strip protections from civil servants and federal unions.  —  Gerry Connolly, a Democratic congressman who played a large part …
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Susan Heavey / Reuters:
Democratic US Representative Connolly dies, his family says
RELATED:
ABC News:   Justice Department to drop police reform agreements with Louisville, Minneapolis
NBC News:
Justice Department pulls civil rights investigations into local police departments
Scott Macfarlane / CBS News:   Changes at Trump's Justice Department could shift which local police agencies get federal grants
Politico:
Trump admin deportation flight to South Sudan violated court order, judge rules  —  The swift deportations to the war-torn African nation failed to provide required due process, the judge said.  —  The Trump administration “unquestionably” violated a court order when it abruptly deported seven men …
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New York Times:
Judge Orders U.S. to Keep Custody of Migrants Amid Claims They Were Sent to South Sudan
New York Times:
If Justice Dept. Can't Prosecute Trump's Foes, It Will ‘Shame’ Them, Official Says  —  Prosecutors have long spoken only through court filings, to investigate crimes, not people.  That's changing as President Trump demands his administration target enemies, with little evidence of criminality.
Discussion: Thinking about and Fox Business
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Devlin Barrett / New York Times:
Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Cuomo, Singling Out Another Political Target  —  After killing a criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams, the Trump administration has begun investigating his chief rival in the New York City mayoral race over his testimony about the pandemic.
Chiara Eisner / NPR:
Diseases are spreading.  The CDC isn't warning the public like it was months ago  —  To accomplish its mission of increasing the health security of the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that it “conducts critical science and provides health information” to protect the nation.
Discussion: Raw Story
Reuters:
Exclusive: Hacker who breached communications app used by Trump aide stole data from across US government  —  A hacker who breached the communications service used by former Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz earlier this month intercepted messages from a broader swathe of American officials …
New York Times:
Official Pushed to Rewrite Intelligence So It Could Not Be ‘Used Against’ Trump  —  An assessment contradicted a presidential proclamation.  A political appointee demanded a redo, then pushed for changes to the new analysis, too.  —  New emails document how a top aide to Tulsi Gabbard …
Discussion: New Republic, Reuters and SpyTalk
Politico:
GOP hard-liners threatening late revolt over megabill  —  House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a last-minute rebellion from conservatives on Republicans' megabill, with a deal on a key tax deduction with blue-state Republicans and a lack of progress on settling other key provisions frustrating hard-liners.
RELATED:
Indradip Ghosh / Reuters:
Weak US economic outlook persists despite brief trade truce with China: Reuters poll  —  The outlook for the U.S. economy remains weak despite a temporary cooling of the U.S.-China trade war, a Reuters poll of economists showed, with a debate over the country's fiscal health hanging in the balance.
George Joseph / The Guardian:
Revealed: UnitedHealth secretly paid nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers  —  A Guardian investigation finds insurer quietly paid facilities that helped it gain Medicare enrollees and reduce hospitalizations.  Whistleblowers allege harm to residents  —  UnitedHealth Group …
Financial Times:
Russian-linked Ukrainian politician shot dead in Spain  —  A former high-ranking Ukrainian politician connected to the country's ousted pro-Russian president was shot dead on Wednesday outside an exclusive international school near Madrid, according to Spanish and Ukrainian authorities.
Jamelle Bouie / New York Times:
Trump Is Waging War on the Future  —  It's fitting that a political movement whose slogan is the backward looking “Make America Great Again” — and whose tribune, Donald Trump, appears to live in an eternal 1990 of his own mind — is waging war on the American future.  —  This war has four theaters of conflict.
Matt Dixon / NBC News:
Matt Gaetz flirts with a run for Florida governor, adding a bit of chaos to the race  —  Rep. Byron Donalds has Trump's support, but both former Rep. Matt Gaetz and first lady Casey DeSantis are also eyeing potential bids.  —  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Former Rep. Matt Gaetz …
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
JD Vance on His Faith and Trump's Most Controversial Policies  —  On this episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross Douthat interviews Vice President JD Vance about the Trump administration's deportations, the tariff backlash and how Vance's faith influences his politics.
New York Times:
Trump's New Position on the War in Ukraine: Not My Problem  —  In a reversal, President Trump appears to have backed off joining a European push for new sanctions on Russia, seemingly eager to move on to doing business deals with it.  —  For months, President Trump has been threatening …
Leigh Kimmins / The Daily Beast:
Musk Insults Interviewer for Daring to Ask About His Big DOGE Promise  —  TOUCHY SUBJECT  —  Musk said the cost-cutting task force would save $2 trillion.  By its own estimate, just $160 billion has been saved.  —  A defensive Elon Musk shut down an interviewer by saying …
Discussion: CNN, Mediaite, Gizmodo, Blaze Media and RedState
Debra Cassens Weiss / ABA Journal:
Proposal to limit courts' contempt power, part of spending bill, is ‘terrible idea,’ Chemerinsky says  —  A budget bill by the U.S. House of Representatives contains a “stunning” provision that would limit federal courts' ability to hold government officials and other litigants in contempt …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Washington Post:
China to donate $500 million to WHO, stepping into gap left by U.S.
Discussion: Reuters and The Daily Wire
Betsy Morais / Columbia Journalism Review:
Journalists Attest to Experiences of Sexual Misconduct with Wesley Lowery
Simon Kuper / Financial Times:
Meet the insurgent economists promoting a global wealth tax
Discussion: KDFX-TV and The Guardian
Alfred Ng / Politico:
Phone companies failed to warn senators about surveillance, Wyden says
The Guardian:
Israel-Gaza war live: more than 80 killed in latest strikes as aid deliveries condemned as ‘ridiculously inadequate’
Washington Post:
A Kansas family farm, barely getting by, grapples with Trump's cuts
Discussion: Raw Story
 Earlier Items: 
Jennifer Rubin / The Contrarian:
The Spanish Historical Lesson
Cas Mudde / The Guardian:
The real story isn't young men supposedly voting far right. It's what young women are up to
Discussion: Fortune
Liz Dye / Public Notice:
DOJ politicization escalates with bogus arrest of congresswoman
Philip Bump / Washington Post:
The conspiracy theory that broke Dan Bongino
Discussion: New Jersey Online and The Bulwark
Washington Post:
Musk was once a political force on X. Now he's back to business.
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Netflix agrees to acquire WBD's studios and streaming business in an $82.7B cash-and-stock deal, including debt, to close after WBD splits in two in Q3 2026

New York Times:
The New York Times sues Perplexity, claiming the AI startup violated its copyrights and kept using its content despite repeated demands over the past 18 months

Liam Scott / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at the First Amendment Watch's SLAPP Back Initiative, a US SLAPP tracker; in 2024, 69 of 500 cases involved the media, of which 46 were dismissed

 
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