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7:40 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.
Michael R. Strain / National Review:
The Senate Must Preserve Fed Independence  —  President Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve Board governor Lisa Cook is dangerous and a threat to long-term prosperity.  The Senate needs to be watching carefully, being sure to only confirm future Fed governors who are perceived to be independent of the president.
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Trump Again Escalates Power Grabs in Bid to Fire Fed Member  —  President Trump claimed he has cause to remove a member of the independent board who has not obeyed his demands to vote for lower interest rates.  —  President Trump's bid to fire a member of the Federal Reserve board …
Wall Street Journal:
‘Uncharted Waters’: Trump's Attempt to Take Charge of the Fed
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Trump says he'll have a Fed ‘majority’ soon to push rates lower after firing Cook
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:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
DOGE uploaded live copy of Social Security database to ‘vulnerable’ cloud server, says whistleblower  —  A top Social Security Administration official turned whistleblower says members of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uploaded hundreds of millions …
Doug Bock Clark / ProPublica:
She Pushed to Overturn Trump's Loss in the 2020 Election.  Now She'll Help Oversee U.S. Election Security.  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  Heather Honey, a high-profile denier …
RELATED:
Ali Swenson / Associated Press:
Researcher who has distorted voter data appointed to Homeland Security election integrity role  —  A conservative election researcher whose faulty findings on voter data were cited by President Donald Trump as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss has been appointed to an election integrity role …
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 …
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 …
RELATED:
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:
Quinta Jurecic / The Atlantic:
Trump Loses a Lawyer—And Much More
Discussion: Raw Story and Deseret News
Ry Rivard / Politico:
Trump's clash with the courts is delaying trials in New Jersey and could drag on for months
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
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:
Associated Press:
Democratic governors look to derail Trump's plan to send National Guard to Chicago and other cities
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.
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:
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.
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:
John McCormick / Wall Street Journal:
Democrats' Deep Divide on Gaza, Israel Boils Over at Party Meeting  —  Democratic National Committee debates issue that threatens midterm election unity  —  MINNEAPOLIS—A debate Tuesday at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting exposed a growing rift over U.S. policy toward Israel …
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
Trump Has Forced Out Nearly 10% Of The Federal Workforce  —  “We're seeing the arson of our government,” warned Max Stier of Partnership for Public Service, which has been tracking people's lost jobs since January.  —  WASHINGTON - More than 199,000 federal workers have left their jobs …
Theodore Schleifer / New York Times:
Gates Foundation Quietly Cuts Ties With Firm Linked to Democrats  —  Officials made no mention of politics in cutting ties with a network of nonprofit funds, but Bill Gates has made other moves to insulate the charity from political pressures.  —  America's largest charitable foundation …
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.
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Appeals court says Pa. mail ballots can't be thrown out over misdated envelopes  —  The ruling is the latest episode in an ongoing legal saga about whether to count such ballots in a crucial swing state … “Because of the Commonwealth's date requirement, an inadvertent typographical error …
Nick Miroff / The Atlantic:
Fast Times at Immigration and Customs Enforcement  —  In a video produced by the Department of Homeland Security this month, two tricked-out ICE vehicles roll around on the National Mall to “Toes” by rapper DaBaby: “My heart so cold I think I'm done with ice (uh, brr) / Said if I leave her, she gon' die / Well ... you done with life.”
Stephanie Ramirez / WTTG-TV:
National Guard members activated for DC federal takeover seen picking-up trash  — National Guard members were seen picking up trash near the White House Tuesday morning.  — Officials say it's part of a broader beautification mission tied to the federal “D.C. Takeover.”
Rolling Stone:
Dems' Messaging Nerds Urged Party Not to Talk About Trump's Military Takeover  —  Are Trump's military campaigns in blue cities a “distraction,” or what matters?  —  Donald Trump is waging a fascist takeover of the United States, siccing the Justice Department on his political enemies …
Discussion: Eschaton
Sam Ogozalek / Politico:
Duffy moving FAA staff out of headquarters near the Mall … The move is sure to raise some eyebrows, though it's hardly Duffy's first try at shaking up the way the FAA operates.  In the opening days of President Donald Trump's second term, Duffy touted Elon Musk's cost-cutting DOGE squad …
Discussion: Bloomberg
Eric Bazail-Eimil / Politico:
Trump administration restores ‘neighborhood checks’ for citizenship applicants after 30-year hiatus … The change is the latest move by the Trump administration to add requirements or steps to the legal immigration process.  In recent months, the administration has reduced the amount …
Discussion: CBS News and Newsweek
The Big Picture:
Trump Is The Bogeyman The Right Always Warned Us About  —  We have never had a political figure in our history so brazenly prone to projection as Donald Trump.  —  As a thin-skinned schoolyard bully, Trump regularly shouts, “I know you are but what am I!?” at his political enemies.
Michael Hill / Associated Press:
Judge rejects Cuomo's attempt to make texts in harassment lawsuit public as he runs for NYC mayor  —  A judge rejected former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's attempt to prolong a taxpayer-funded court battle with a woman who accused him of sexual assault, saying it wasn't in the public's interest …
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
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 …
Discussion: Raw Story
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:
August 25, 2025  —  This morning, President Donald J. Trump talked to reporters as he signed several executive orders in the Oval Office.  Trump sat behind the Resolute Desk as he has been doing lately, seeming to put its bulk between him and the reporters.
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
Washington Post:
Trump wants expanded death penalty, longer control over police in D.C.  —  Call for greater use of capital punishment is likely to draw fierce political and legal pushback.  —  President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he wants to see the death penalty imposed on every person convicted of murder in D.C. …
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
 
 
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 More Items: 
Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
How Former Biden Officials Defend Their Gaza Policy
Discussion: RNS and Responsible Statecraft
Filip Timotija / The Hill:
Karl Rove warns crime is a ‘big problem’ for Democrats
Discussion: Mediaite
Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
Trump officials discussing ownership stakes in defense firms, Lutnick says
Gordon Ebanks / CNN:
Canceled wind project puts thousands of jobs at risk
Sophia Cai / Politico:
The foreigners working for DOGE
Discussion: Nextgov/FCW
 Earlier Items: 
Politico:
Buzz grows for possible Padilla California governor's run
Norman Ornstein / The Contrarian:
Our guardrails are failing us
Benjamin Wittes / The Bulwark:
The Bolton Raid Was Designed to Scare Us
Discussion: emptywheel and Mediaite
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
 

 
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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