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4:40 PM ET, August 26, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Furious Trump's Firing of Fed's Lisa Cook May Be About to Backfire  —  To execute his authoritarian takeover, President Donald Trump requires the devoted service of willing accomplices.  He needs loyalists in strategic positions who will bend or break the law to carry out his designs …
RELATED:
Paul Krugman:
In the Matter of Lisa Cook  —  Trump's attempt to fire a Fed governor is illegal.  Now we find out whether that matters.  —  Yesterday Donald Trump said that he had fired Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.  My wording is advisable: He “said” that he had fired her.
Jonathan Bernstein / Good Politics/Bad Politics:
Where We Are  —  After seven months of Trump.  —  I'll try to keep this simple:  —  (1) Donald Trump is acting as a dictator.  —  (2) He is fairly easily defeated time after time when people fight back.  —  (3) Far too few people are fighting back.  —  I think that's pretty much what I have.
Discussion: Talking Points Memo
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Fed responds to Trump effort to fire Lisa Cook, notes president needs ‘cause’
New York Times:
Trump Says He Is Firing Lisa Cook From Fed Board of Governors
Yan Zhuang / New York Times:
Lisa Cook Says She Will Not Step Down From the Fed Board
Nicholas Nehamas / New York Times:
DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk, Whistle-Blower Says  —  DOGE team members uploaded a database with the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans to a vulnerable cloud server, according to the agency's chief data officer.  —  Members of the Department …
RELATED:
Katie Bernard / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
A notorious Pennsylvania election denier now holds a top Homeland Security post for ‘elections integrity’  —  A prominent Pennsylvania election denier who led an unsuccessful effort to cancel the votes of hundreds of Pennsylvanians last year and has long been notorious for spreading inaccurate data …
RELATED:
Ali Swenson / Associated Press:   Researcher who has distorted voter data appointed to Homeland Security election integrity role
Associated Press:
Democratic governors look to derail Trump's plan to send National Guard to Chicago and other cities  —  JB Pritzker took a water taxi along the Chicago Riverwalk, past one of Donald Trump's famous downtown towers.  The gleaming and heavily trafficked tourist district was a deliberate backdrop …
RELATED:
Rachael Bade / Politico:
Trump Is Leaning in on Crime.  Democrats Need a Better Response — and Fast. … To many Washington insiders, President Trump's early August Beltway crime crackdown seemed like an opportunistic and hamhanded pivot after getting walloped for weeks over the Jeffrey Epstein affair.
Discussion: Harvard CAPS and The Guardian
Rolling Stone:
Dems' Messaging Nerds Urged Party Not to Talk About Trump's Military Takeover
Discussion: Eschaton
Sahil Kapur / NBC News:
Donald Trump says he wants to rebrand his ‘big, beautiful bill’
Janna Brancolini / The Daily Beast:
Republican Told to Take His 'Head Out of Trump's A**' in Town Hall Trainwreck  —  MIC DROP  —  Other constituents complained about the president's support for Russia and booed his mass-deportation policy.  —  Voters at a town hall meeting in Missouri demanded that their Republican congressman …
RELATED:
New Republic:   Transcript: Trump's Fury Erupts at Many Targets as Expert Fears Worsen
Carrie Johnson / NPR:
‘The most illegal search’: Judges push back against D.C. criminal charges  —  Veteran defense lawyers and law enforcement experts have been warning about the potential for overreach since the federal government muscled its way into policing decisions in the nation's capital nearly three weeks ago.
Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:
Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Maryland-based judges over handling of immigration cases  —  The Trump administration alleged that the court had no authority to issue a standing order that imposes an automatic, two-day pause in deportation cases.  —  WASHINGTON — A federal judge …
RELATED:
Shawn McCreesh / New York Times:
Donald Trump's Big Gay Government … The Washington Monument as seen from the Ned, a private club where many Trump officials socialize.Caroline Gutman for The New York Times  —  It was the last Wednesday in July, and many of Washington's top players were hanging out at the Ned, a private club around the corner from the White House.
Discussion: HotAir, Mediaite and Raw Story
Politico:
Trump to put Dan Scavino in charge of hiring at White House … Gor endeared himself to the president and his family for adopting a zero tolerance policy toward job-seekers who had been critical of Trump in the past, often scouring their social media posts and occasionally intervening to block hirings.
RELATED:
Dylan Scott / Vox:
America's leading physician groups are now openly defying RFK Jr.  —  For decades, the American public, the federal government, and the medical community have been nearly unanimous: Vaccines are important because they save lives.  Today, after years of escalating attacks, that consensus has irrevocably shattered.
Discussion: Mediaite and Breitbart
RELATED:
NOTUS:
RFK Jr. Says He's Identified the Cause of Rising Autism Rates. He Didn't Say What It Is.
Discussion: NewsMax.com and Mediaite
Steve Helling / Daily Mail:
Vanity Fair staff erupt in fury over proposed Melania Trump cover with foul-mouthed meltdown  —  Raging Vanity Fair employees have vowed to quit their jobs and work at a supermarket if First Lady Melania Trump is granted a spot on its cover.  —  'I will walk out the motherf***ing door …
Devlin Barrett / New York Times:
Jack Smith's Legal Team Fires Back Against Ethics Complaint  —  For months, the former special counsel has remained silent as the president and his advisers have publicly attacked him.  —  Lawyers for Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Donald J. Trump …
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Trump Pentagon weighing equity stakes in defense contractors like Lockheed, says Lutnick … Top officials at the Pentagon are “thinking about” whether the U.S. should acquire equity stakes in leading defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Exxon Held Secret Talks With Rosneft About Going Back to Russia  —  Resuming business in Russia would mark a dramatic rapprochement after Exxon's messy breakup with Moscow when Putin attacked Ukraine in 2022  —  After huddling with President Trump in Alaska, President Vladimir Putin told reporters Russia …
Ilya Somin / Reason:
Trump's Unconstitutional Plan to Penalize States that Allow Cashless Bail  —  President Trump recently issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to penalize jurisdictions that allow cashless bail, by withholding federal funds from them:
Moira Donegan / The Guardian:
The case against Kilmar Ábrego García is a study in sadistic absurdity  —  In its allegations against the Maryland man, the Trump administration is claiming authority over reality itself  —  In a way, you could think of the brief stint that Kilmar Ábrego García spent …
Discussion: CNN
KFF Health News:
Blue States That Sued Kept Most CDC Grants, While Red States Feel Brunt of Trump Clawbacks  —  The Trump administration's cuts to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of a state, according to a KFF Health News analysis.
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
A Teen Was Suicidal.  ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In. … A photograph of Adam Raine taken not long before his death.  His baby blanket, which his mother found in his bed, hangs over a corner.  Mark Abramson for The New York Times  —  When Adam Raine died in April at age 16, some of his friends did not initially believe it.
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Democrats lead the U.S. House generic ballot by 8; voters back fair maps and oppose Trump's tariffs  —  This article reports results from the August Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll.  You can read our previous poll releases here.  —  Summary of main poll findings:
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Judge orders Kari Lake to answer questions about Voice of America under oath  —  A senior federal judge ordered Trump administration official Kari Lake to submit to questioning under oath in ongoing litigation over her efforts to effectively dismantle Voice of America despite Congressional mandates that it be maintained.
Norman Ornstein / The Contrarian:
Our guardrails are failing us  —  But with discipline, Democrats can get the message out.  —  The military invasion of Washington, D.C.—with masked troops from several red states occupying the city, grabbing residents off the street and out of vehicles while hiding their identities …
Sophia Cai / Politico:
The foreigners working for DOGE … Federal hiring laws generally limit full-time government employment to U.S. citizens or nationals, with only narrow exceptions.  And while it's common for the GSA to employ foreign contractors, these three have been given similar access and authority as full …
Calum Marsh / New York Times:
100 Push-Ups and 50 Pull-Ups in Under 10 Minutes.  What Could Go Wrong?  —  Fitness experts caution against jumping into a difficult routine suggested by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pete Hegseth.  —  Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenged Pete Hegseth to a test of fitness in which each …
J.D. Wolf / MeidasTouch News:
Exclusive: Gloria Gaynor Donated Thousands to MAGA Republicans  —  Trump announced the “I Will Survive” singer will be honored at the Kennedy Center  —  Gloria Gaynor, renowned for her iconic anthem “I Will Survive,” has recently been named one of the 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees.
Discussion: LGBTQ Nation
Catie Edmondson / New York Times:
Purging ‘Equity’ Programs, G.O.P. Defunded Its Own Roads  —  When Republicans repealed a Biden-era “access and equity” grant program for transportation, they canceled funding for projects in some of their own districts.  —  When the Biden administration created a grant program three years ago …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Bloomberg:
New York Mayor Adams Running for Reelection ‘No Matter What’
Judy Kurtz / The Hill:
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announce engagement
April Rubin / Axios:
Trump seeks death penalty for D.C. murders
Politico:
Buzz grows for possible Padilla California governor's run
 Earlier Items: 
Nick Miroff / The Atlantic:
Fast Times at Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Ewan Palmer / The Daily Beast:
MAGA Candidate Torches the Quran in Deranged Flamethrower Ad
Discussion: Raw Story and The Independent
Miranda Devine / New York Post:
First lady Melania Trump will head effort to teach next generation about AI
Benjamin Wittes / The Bulwark:
The Bolton Raid Was Designed to Scare Us
Discussion: emptywheel and Mediaite
Jon Henley / The Guardian:
Old master painting looted by Nazis spotted in Argentinian property listing
Discussion: Forbes and New York Post
Robert Booth / The Guardian:
Can AIs suffer? Big tech and users grapple with one of most unsettling questions of our times
Discussion: Fortune
Nia-Malika Henderson / Bloomberg:
Young Voters Who Swung Right Are Already Regretting It
 

 
From Techmeme:

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

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The EU fines X €120M for breaching online content rules, the first fine under the DSA, citing issues like its deceptive blue checkmarks, after a two-year probe

Echo Wang / Reuters:
Meta acquires Limitless, which makes a pendant-style AI wearable that records and transcribes real-world conversations; Limitless has raised more than $33M

 
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