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1:30 PM ET, August 21, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
The City:
Eric Adams Advisor Winnie Greco Handed a CITY Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Potato Chips  —  A former top City Hall advisor and current campaign confidante to Mayor Eric Adams attempted to give money to a reporter from THE CITY following a campaign event in Harlem Wednesday.
RELATED:
New York Times:
Adams Adviser Suspended From Campaign After Giving Cash to Reporter  —  A campaign volunteer for Mayor Eric Adams of New York was suspended after giving a journalist cash in a potato chip bag.  —  A close adviser to Mayor Eric Adams was suspended from his re-election campaign on Wednesday …
Annabelle Timsit / Washington Post:
Eric Adams adviser suspended after giving reporter cash in potato chip bag  —  City reporter Katie Honan said that Winnie Greco, a volunteer for Adams's reelection campaign, apologized and told her the gesture was cultural.  —  Just now  —  A volunteer adviser to New York Mayor Eric Adams …
Discussion: NBC News and New York Post
Associated Press:
Appeals court throws out massive civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump  —  An appeals court has thrown out the massive civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump, ruling Thursday in New York state's lawsuit accusing him of exaggerating his wealth.
RELATED:
Ed Morrissey / HotAir:
BREAKING: NY Appellate Court Tosses Letitia James' Judgment Against Trump  —  Is this a total vindication for Donald Trump?  Not exactly.  But any day a court puts $527 million back in your pocket and keeps your business license in place is a very good day indeed.
New York Times:   Divided Court Eliminates Trump's Half-Billion-Dollar Fine in Fraud Case
Ben Kochman / New York Post:
Trump's massive $500M civil fraud fine in AG Tish James' case thrown out by NY appeals court
Discussion: The Hill, MSNBC and twitchy.com
Josephine Walker / Axios:
Donald Trump's $465 million civil fraud penalty tossed out by New York court
Discussion: The Last Refuge and Raw Story
RELATED:
New Republic:
Stephen Miller Erupts in Manic Fascist Rant—and Reveals a Big Weakness  —  Stephen Miller exploded in a long, unhinged rant about demonstrators who are protesting President Trump's military occupation of Washington, D.C. It was classic authoritarian agitprop, attacking demonstrators as …
New Republic:
Transcript: Stephen Miller's Crazed Fascist Rant to Media Is Revealing
RELATED:
Politico:
Playbook: One big, beautiful rebranding
Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story
Punchbowl News:   8/21/25 ☀️ AM: … Rogers is seeking a do-over in 2026 and has some wind in his sails this time.
Wall Street Journal:
Weaponizing the Housing Regulator  —  Bill Pulte, the FHFA chief, goes after Trump's political opponents.  —  Click for Sound  —  Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director William Pulte on Wednesday accused Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee, of mortgage fraud.
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Fed Found Over 22,000 Mortgages Like Those Pulte Is Flagging  —  President Donald Trump and his allies are demanding Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook resign over alleged owner-occupancy fraud — a practice the central bank itself has found to be “broad-based” across the US.
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Unlikely enforcers shape Trump's “weaponization” crusade
Discussion: Bloomberg
ProPublica:
How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies  —  When the Trump administration announced massive cuts to federal health agencies earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was getting rid of excess administrators who were larding the government with bureaucratic bloat.
NBC News:
White House suspends tours for ballroom construction  —  The White House announced last month that construction on the ballroom would start in September.  —  WASHINGTON — The White House is suspending public tours because of the construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom initiated …
RELATED:
Jonathan Edwards / Washington Post:
White House tours canceled indefinitely because of Trump's ballroom
Chris Cameron / New York Times:
Trump Officials Demanded Confidential Data About Transgender Children Seeking Care  —  A June subpoena to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia sought Social Security numbers and addresses of patients who received gender-related care, as well as “every writing or record” made by doctors on such treatments.
RELATED:
Matt Gertz / Media Matters for America:
Eight damning new revelations about Fox's 2020 election lies from the Smartmatic filings  —  Newly available filings in the election technology company Smartmatic's $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News provide fresh insights into the network's egregious and irresponsible promotion …
President Donald J. Trump / The White House:
Joint Statement on a United States-European Union Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade  —  The United States and the European Union are pleased to announce that they have agreed on a Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade ("Framework Agreement").
Jake Tapper / CNN:
Witkoff delivered Russian medal from Putin to family of American who was killed fighting for Russia in 2024  —  US special envoy Steve Witkoff delivered a Russian medal to the grieving family of an American who was killed fighting for Russia in 2024, a senior administration official told CNN.
Rachel Roth Aldhizer / New York Times:
I'm a Proud Conservative.  My Disabled Son Needs Medicaid to Live.  —  I'm a registered Republican who just watched her party spend much of the summer pushing through new cuts to Medicaid.  I'm also here to tell you why I'm an unlikely supporter of the program.  My son's life depends on government assistance.
The Guardian:
Revealed: Israeli military's own data indicates civilian death rate of 83% in Gaza war  —  Figures from classified IDF database listed 8,900 named fighters as dead or probably dead in May, as overall death toll reached 53,000  —  Emma Graham-Harrison and Yuval Abraham in Jerusalem
Discussion: Atlantic Council
David French / New York Times:
One Sentence in the Constitution Is Causing America Huge Problems  —  On Nov. 8, 1787, a pamphleteer who wrote under the pseudonym Cato published one of the most prescient warnings in American history.  —  Cato looked at the proposed Constitution and declared that it might well turn into a vehicle for tyranny.
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Wired and Business Insider remove ‘AI-written’ freelance articles  —  Wired and Business Insider have removed news features written by a freelance journalist after concerns they are likely AI-generated works of fiction.  —  Freedom of expression non-profit Index on Censorship is also in the process …
New York Times:
How Tiffany Trump's Husband Benefited From Proximity to Power  —  A Times investigation found that Michael Boulos and his family benefited financially from proximity to his in-laws for years.  —  Michael Boulos and his wife, Tiffany Trump, at the Liberty Ball for the inauguration …
Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:
James Dobson, Influential Leader of the Religious Right, Dies at 89  —  The founder of the evangelical group Focus on the Family, he spent decades denouncing what he saw as the unraveling of the social order.  —  James Dobson, the evangelical Christian broadcaster who waged war on homosexuality …
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:
August 20, 2025  —  President Donald J. Trump created a firestorm yesterday when he said that the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum, education, and research complex, located mostly in Washington, D.C., focuses too much on “how bad slavery was.”
Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
Trump demands release of Colorado official sentenced in election data scheme  —  Former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters is serving a nine-year prison sentence on charges that include conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation.  —  President Donald Trump is demanding the release …
Karoun Demirjian / New York Times:
Vance Recounts Telling Zelensky to ‘Behave’ in Trump Meeting  —  It was not the first time that the vice president had addressed Ukraine's leader with words more commonly spoken to toddlers than heads of state.  —  As President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine headed into a high-stakes meeting …
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
Jerome Powell Should Learn from Gavin Newsom  —  It's time for Fed Fight Club.  —  ∙ Paid  —  1. Just Jay  —  Tomorrow in Jackson Hole Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will give a speech.  —  What I want to talk about today is why it should be a big deal—why Powell should use this speech to take a hard stance against Trumpism.
Joseph Choi / The Hill:
CDC finalizes roughly 600 layoffs; union says workforce ‘decimated’  —  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued layoff notices to hundreds of employees Wednesday after a federal judge last week shielded some but not all offices within the agency.
Pew Research Center:
U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reached a Record 14 Million in 2023  —  Preliminary data indicates continued growth into 2024 and a decrease in 2025  —  Table of Contents Table of Contents  —  Pew Research Center conducted this research to understand changes in the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States.
Ryan J. Reilly / NBC News:
Military officers shifted to prosecute local D.C. crimes amid Trump takeover  —  Members of the Judge Advocate General Corps are set to join the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.  —  WASHINGTON — As members of the National Guard deploy to the nation's capital as part …
Dana Goldstein / New York Times:
Trump Administration Retracts Instructions on Helping English Learners  —  Officials removed decade-old guidance outlining the rights of students who are still learning English, which could weaken support for immigrant children.  —  The Trump administration has rescinded federal guidance requiring schools …
Washington Post:
ICE is joining D.C. police patrols.  Moped drivers are an early target.  —  D.C. police's efforts to enforce moped laws resulted mostly in food delivery drivers' immediate release.  But ICE has joined in, and now, drivers are being detained.  —  A growing number of delivery drivers …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Dylan Byers / Puck:
archive.today  —  Greetings from Los Angeles and welcome back to In the Room.  I spent a fair amount of
The Hill:
Missouri adult dies after brain-eating amoeba infection: Officials
Discussion: KSDK-TV
New York Times:
‘Trump Is a Master at Creating Uncertainty’: 3 Experts Try to Make Sense of the Economy
The Siren:
EXCLUSIVE: Gavin Newsom on Trump, Gerrymandering, Fighting Back, & more
Discussion: The Hill and Mediaite
Steve Vladeck / One First:
Bonus 173: The Election of 1864  —  At the lowest moment of his presidency (if not the Civil War) …
Mark Hertling / The Bulwark:
Putin Always Breaks His Word. Why Would This Time Be Different?
Reuters:
Putin prepared to meet Zelenskiy but legitimacy an issue, Lavrov says
Discussion: The US Sun and Mediaite
 Earlier Items: 
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Elon Musk must face lawsuit claiming he ran illegal $1 million election lottery
Discussion: Bloomberg and The Independent
Daniel Barnes / Politico:
The potential next target of Trump's bid to control DC: Local courts
Michael Scherer / The Atlantic:
‘Make McCarthy Great Again’
Discussion: The Hill
Levin Stamm / Bloomberg:
Countries Are Strategizing How to Please Trump
 

 
From Techmeme:

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple says general counsel Kate Adams and policy chief Lisa Jackson will retire, and Jennifer Newstead, Meta's former chief legal officer, will replace Adams

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta is considering deep budget cuts to its metaverse efforts in 2026, potentially as high as 30% and most likely including layoffs as early as January

Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Two studies suggest AI chatbots can shift political views more effectively than TV campaign ads, especially by presenting many claims, regardless of accuracy

 
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