Top Items:
Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:
Vought: Mass firings will begin ‘in a day or two’ — OMB chief Russ Vought told House Republicans on a private call Wednesday that the administration will start mass reduction in force moves, or firings, of federal workers “in a day or two,” according to four people granted anonymity to describe the call.
Discussion:
Federal News Network, Esquire, Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo, Forbes, Blaze Media, RedState, The Register and New York Times
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Jonathan Cohn / The Bulwark:
The Republican Shutdown Argument is a Giant Lie
Discussion:
CNN, MSNBC, New York Times and Associated Press
Robert Jimison / New York Times:
These Democrats Voted With Republicans Against a Shutdown
These Democrats Voted With Republicans Against a Shutdown
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Roll Call, Advocate, MSNBC, NRCC, OutsideTheBeltway, Daily Mail, ABC News, The Daily Signal, Washington Examiner, IJR and Mediaite
New York Times:
Government Shutdown: Democrats Did the Smart Thing
Government Shutdown: Democrats Did the Smart Thing
Discussion:
Vox, Sabato's Crystal Ball, emptywheel, NOTUS, NBC News, Politico, Fox News, Washington Post, U.S. Senator John Fetterman, Colorado Public Radio, Pensacola News Journal, Wall Street Journal, Orlando Sentinel, Washington Times, Washington Blade, HotAir, Townhall, One America News Network, France 24, New Jersey Online, Florida Politics, Tangle, NPR, LGBTQ Nation, Louder With Crowder, The Western Journal and The Atlantic
Gregory Svirnovskiy / Politico:
Vance says he'll talk Obamacare premiums with Schumer — but only with government open
Vance says he'll talk Obamacare premiums with Schumer — but only with government open
Discussion:
Associated Press, Vox, Washington Examiner, The Western Journal, NewsMax.com, Washington Times and The Wrap
Washington Post:
The health care debate behind the government shutdown
The health care debate behind the government shutdown
Discussion:
New York Times, U.S. Senator Andy Kim, Reason, NewsMax.com and Mercury News
NBC News:
Trump budget chief says firings are coming in ‘one to two’ days due to shutdown
Trump budget chief says firings are coming in ‘one to two’ days due to shutdown
Discussion:
NewsMax.com, New Republic, The Independent and The Hill
Aaron Pellish / Politico:
Trump targets states that voted for Harris in shutdown fight … New York-area lawmakers reacted with fury to the infrastructure cuts earlier Wednesday. — “Political revenge. Clearly outlined by Trump, time and again. He sees the U.S. as Blue and Red, and Blue states are enemies,” …
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Malcolm Ferguson / New Republic:
Trump Cuts Funding to 16 Blue States That Didn't Vote for Him — The Trump administration is yanking green energy and infrastructure funding away from blue states on day one of the Republican-led government shutdown. — “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left's climate agenda is being cancelled.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Scripps News and E&E News
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Trump administration cancels nearly $8 billion in climate funding to blue states: Vought
Matthew Haag / New York Times:
Trump Administration to Withhold $18 Billion for N.Y.C. Transit Projects
Trump Administration to Withhold $18 Billion for N.Y.C. Transit Projects
Discussion:
Politico, NOTUS, NBC News, CNBC, Gizmodo, Axios, Associated Press, Commercial Observer, Gothamist, Fortune, Washington Examiner, NPR, New Jersey Online, RedState, The Post Millennial, The Western Journal, Wall Street Journal, AM New York, The Independent, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, Roll Call, CBS News, Breitbart, The National Pulse, Washington Times, Mediaite, New York Sun, New Jersey Globe, The Hill, NewsMax.com and Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Kate Santaliz / Axios:
White House to begin firing federal workers within"day or two"
White House to begin firing federal workers within"day or two"
Discussion:
New York Times, The Hill, Quartz, The Parnas Perspective and NewsMax.com
Dave Jamieson / HuffPost:
Trump Admin Tells Furloughed Workers To Set OOO Message Blaming Democrats For Shutdown — One health department employee said the directions seemed to be “coercing” subordinates into political activity. — After the government shutdown began Wednesday morning, furloughed employees …
Discussion:
Raw Story
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Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
Federal Workers Are Being Told to Blame Democrats for the Shutdown — Workers at one agency were given unhinged, partisan language to use when setting out-of-office replies. — At 9:35am on Wednesday, the first morning of the US government shutdown, employees at the Small Business Administration …
Discussion:
HuffPost, Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Daily Signal, New York Times, New Republic and Mediaite
Reuters:
FBI cuts ties with Anti-Defamation League, FBI director says — The FBI said on Wednesday it had cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish group that tracks antisemitism, after Republicans criticized the group for including slain activist Charlie Kirk's organization in a glossary on extremism.
Discussion:
Not the Bee, The Western Journal, Israpundit and Fox News
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Rachel Wolf / Fox News:
Patel cuts ties Comey's FBI made with ADL as organization faces backlash for TPUSA criticism — 'That era is finished. This FBI formally rejects Comey's policies and any partnership with the ADL,' Patel said — EXCLUSIVE - FBI Director Kash Patel is cutting ties with the Anti-Defamation League …
Discussion:
Jewish Insider, HotAir, Breitbart, RedState, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, The Post Millennial, The National Pulse, Mediaite, Blaze Media and NewsMax.com
Aaron Pellish / Politico:
Kash Patel pulls the plug on ADL's FBI training on extremism
Kash Patel pulls the plug on ADL's FBI training on extremism
Discussion:
Raw Story
Andrew Egger / The Bulwark:
The Silence of the Generals — Well, here we go: The federal government has shut down. Senate Democrats have vowed to oppose any spending measure that doesn't restore some of the health care cuts of this summer's One Big Beautiful Bill Act; meanwhile, Republicans are refusing to negotiate point blank …
Discussion:
Common Dreams, Vox, How Things Work, The Nation and HuffPost
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Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:
Pete Hegseth Is Living the Dream — A man who retired as a major lectures hundreds of generals about the need to meet his standards. — In the end, it was mostly blither. When Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth announced a gathering of some 800 generals and admirals (with their senior enlisted advisers), rumors ran wild.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Lawyers, Guns & Money, NextDraft, MSNBC and Onward and Upward
Cathy Young / The UnPopulist:
Hegseth's Hatred of Americans Makes Him Unfit for Office but a Perfect Fit for Trump — The secretary is a Christian nationalist who wants to eliminate those who don't agree with his totalitarian vision — The speech delivered by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth yesterday at an extraordinary meeting …
Discussion:
The Atlantic and Washington Post
Slate:
There's a New Lawsuit Against “Kavanaugh Stops.” It's Absolutely Devastating. — Gregory Bovino, the officer in charge of roving immigration enforcement in American cities, admitted this week that his agents arrest people based on “how they look.” Asked by a WBEZ reporter to elaborate …
Associated Press:
Activists say Israeli navy has begun intercepting a Gaza-bound aid flotilla — Activists on board a flotilla of vessels sailing toward Gaza said late Wednesday that the Israeli navy had intercepted three of its boats as they approached the besieged Palestinian territory.
Keith Schneider / New York Times:
Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91 — Her discoveries in the 1960s about how chimpanzees behaved in the wild broke new ground and represented what was called “one of the Western world's great scientific achievements.”
Discussion:
ABC News, People, The Guardian, Washington Post, NPR, Fox News, Associated Press, Breitbart, Slate, The A.V. Club, WTOP News, El País, The Hill, The 19th, E&E News, CBS News, Gizmodo, Al Jazeera, Deseret News, Reuters, Daily Mail, UPI, Townhall, Variety, Rolling Stone, Mercury News, Deadline, France 24, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Caller, GB News, Times Now, TMZ.com and Page Six
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Trump's Rage at Zohran Just Backfired in a Surprisingly Revealing Way — The Democrats who are capturing media and public attention right now all share something in common. They are openly and urgently leveling with the American people about a singular basic reality: President Trump …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Quinnipiac University Poll:
Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro Hits 60% Job Approval, Leads Republicans In 2026, 2028 Matchups, Quinnipiac University Pennsylvania Poll Finds; Dems Sour On Fetterman While GOP Voters Approve Of Him — mail_outline — As Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro winds down his third year in office …
Discussion:
The Hill, Newsweek, The Daily Caller and New Jersey Online
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Ashleigh Fields / The Hill:
Fetterman disapproval hits 54 percent among Pennsylvania Democrats: Poll
Fetterman disapproval hits 54 percent among Pennsylvania Democrats: Poll
Discussion:
New Jersey Online and The Post Millennial
Washington Post:
White House fires much of the National Council on the Humanities — The White House appeared to fire all but four members of the National Council on the Humanities, an advisory board to the head of the government's grantmaking agency. — The White House on Wednesday abruptly terminated …
Discussion:
Reuters, NOTUS, The Hill and New York Times
President Donald J. Trump / The White House:
Assuring the Security of the State of Qatar — By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in recognition of the enduring alliance between the United States and the State of Qatar, it is hereby ordered: — Section 1. Policy.
Anastasia Tsioulcas / NPR:
Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech — On Wednesday, over 550 celebrities relaunched a group first organized during the post-World War II Red Scare: the Committee for the First Amendment. Their intent is to stand up in what they call a …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Fox News, Committee for the First …, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, The Hill and Deadline
Josh Christenson / New York Post:
Howard Lutnick tells ‘Pod Force One’ ex-neighbor Jeffrey Epstein showed off massage room, made creepy comment during townhouse tour — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in a notable break with the Department of Justice, claimed late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “the greatest blackmailer ever” …
Discussion:
The Hill, New Republic, Mediaite, Raw Story and New Jersey Online
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
OpenAI's Sora 2 Copyright Infringement Machine Features Nazi SpongeBobs and Criminal Pikachus — Within moments of opening OpenAI's new AI slop app Sora, I am watching Pikachu steal Poké Balls from a CVS. Then I am watching SpongeBob-as-Hitler give a speech about the “scourge of fish ruining Bikini Bottom.”
Discussion:
Yahoo News, Gizmodo, Reuters and Breitbart
Matthew Xiao / The Washington Free Beacon:
Democratic Virginia AG Nominee Convicted in 2022 After Driving 116 MPH at Midnight, Court Records Reveal — Jay Jones, who completed 1,000 hours of community service in lieu of jail time, is set to challenge Republican incumbent Jason Miyares on the ballot next month
Discussion:
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Fox News, The Daily Caller and RedState
Jennifer Jacobs / CBS News:
U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz isn't part of Trump's Cabinet, sources say — The post of United Nations ambassador isn't a Cabinet position, according to sources familiar with the matter, as President Trump signals the decreased importance of the U.N. to his administration.
Sean James / Mediaite:
Joe Rogan Defends Hegseth Address to Generals: ‘No More Identity Politics and B*llshit’ — Joe Rogan heartily approved of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's speech to top commanders and his proposed changes to the U.S. military, saying it was nice there would be “no more identify politics and b*llshit” infecting the armed forces.
Discussion:
The Hill, NewsNation, NewsMax.com, al.com and IJR
Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
MAGA can't expand its base — and Christian music tells us why — The songs from Charlie Kirk's memorial exposed a serious problem — Donald Trump's authoritarian aspirations face one major obstacle: He is not very popular. As counterintuitive as it may seem, political science shows …
Discussion:
Raw Story
ProPublica:
Trading on Tom Homan: Inside the Push to Cash in on the Trump Administration's Deportation Campaign — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. — The first time a Pennsylvania consultant …
Kori Schake / Foreign Policy:
Trump's Speech to Generals Was Incitement to Violence Against Americans — Military leaders' quiet professionalism offers hope amid a maelstrom. — Yesterday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth behaved reprehensibly.
Laura Esposito / The Daily Beast:
Construction on Trump's Ballroom Continues Amid Government Shutdown — PRIORITIES — Critics think the multimillion dollar White House renovation is a little out of touch. — Nothing will stop President Donald Trump's construction of a lavish new White House ballroom—not even a U.S. government shutdown.
Discussion:
Vanity Fair
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Experts now rate the U.S. as a “mixed” or “illiberal” democracy — The U.S. has never been a full democracy. By this I mean mainly that for most of our country's history, full voting and civil rights have been reserved for only a subset of the American people: only in 1920 did women gain the right to vote …
Discussion:
Bright Line Watch
Tyler Jett / Des Moines Register:
Des Moines superintendent did not receive the doctoral degree he frequently claimed … The superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools did not obtain a doctoral degree from a Maryland university, as he has claimed for many years. — Ian Roberts, who was arrested by U.S. Immigration …
Discussion:
Iowa Starting Line and HotAir
Brady Knox / Washington Examiner:
Hochul alleges DHS cut $187M from counterterrorism funding with ‘no discretion’ — Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) on Monday alleged that President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security cut $187 million from New York's counterterrorism funds with no explanation.
Discussion:
Governor Kathy Hochul, MSNBC, New York Post, NewsMax.com and Raw Story
Mark Sherman / Associated Press:
Supreme Court lets Lisa Cook remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Lisa Cook to remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now, declining to act on the Trump administration's effort to immediately remove her from the central bank.
Discussion:
NBC News, Esquire, New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Associated Press, CNBC, Bloomberg, PBS NewsHour, Roll Call, Mediaite, Washington Examiner, Quartz, The Independent, Fox News, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, NewsMax.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Axios, Al Jazeera, The Daily Signal, Politico, Daily Mail, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Daily Montanan, New York Sun, Townhall, CBS News, Lawyers, Guns & Money, New York Post, Washington Times, NPR, HotAir, SCOTUSblog, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, UPI, MSNBC, The Guardian and Democracy Docket
Zi-Ann Lum / Politico:
Whitmer warns Trump's tariffs risk handing China an edge … The Michigan governor used the speech hosted by the Empire Club of Canada to praise the U.S.-Canada relationship, entire American and Canadian communities bound by an integrated auto industry and anchored by tens of billions in cross-border investments.
Discussion:
Associated Press and Bridge Michigan
