Top Items:
New York Times:
Trump Friend Asked ICE to Detain the Mother of His Child — Last year, Paolo Zampolli, the former modeling agent who famously introduced Donald and Melania Trump, asked the administration for a favor. — Megan Twohey — Zampolli was in a custody battle with his Brazilian ex-girlfriend over their son.
New Republic:
Transcript: Trump War Takes Dark Turn as Leaks Unnerve Dems: “Madness” — The following is a lightly edited transcript of the March 20 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here. — Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
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Megan Mineiro / New York Times:
Deferring to Trump, G.O.P. Lawmakers Resist a Public Accounting on Iran — Nearly three weeks into a war that polls show is unpopular, top Republicans have yet to call administration officials to testify about it, arguing that hearings would put divisions on display.
Discussion:
Wonkette
Matt Gertz / Media Matters for America:
Prime-time Fox shows gave less than a minute of airtime to the Pentagon's $200 billion Iran funding request — RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ROB SAVILLO, HARRISON RAY & TYLER MONROE — Fox News isn't bothering to sell the staggering cost of the ill-conceived war President Donald Trump launched against Iran.
New Republic:
Trump War Takes Darker Turn as Leaked Plans Unnerve Experts: “Madness”
Discussion:
Reason, Reuters, Washington Examiner and Bloomberg
Dan De Luce / NBC News:
U.S. intelligence chiefs' testimony is out of sync with Trump's talking points
Discussion:
NewsMax.com and Vanity Fair
Joshua Keating / Vox:
Here's how Iran could become a “forever war”
Discussion:
Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Washington Times and The Atlantic
Molly Taft / Wired:
Iran War Puts Global Energy Markets on the Brink of a Worst-Case Scenario — “This will be so, so, so, so, so bad,” one analyst says. — The war in Iran reached a new extreme this week, as both Israel and Iran launched strikes on oil and gas production and export facilities.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Lawyers, Guns & Money, NewsMax.com and Washington Post
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Ryan Cooper / American Prospect:
Ol' Donny Trump Has Really Stepped in It This Time — If there is a core feature of the phenomenon of Donald Trump, it's impunity. This has less to do with Trump's personal intelligence or ability than with luck—in the early 2000s, his largely fake business empire was on the verge of collapse …
Discussion:
Agence France-Presse
Andrew Egger / The Bulwark:
Trump Is Getting Drilled, Baby, Drilled — There has always been a chasm between the actual MAGA voters and the MAGA intelligentsia that purports to speak for them, but it has rarely been as visible as it is this week. Many of the leading lights of the literate right have been pulling their hair out …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Military and Veteran …, WDEF-TV, Modern Diplomacy and gCaptain
Falyn Stempler / AOL:
FEMA disaster chief claims he is able to teleport: ‘I landed in a ditch by a baptist church’ — Resurfaced comments made by Gregg Phillips, the head of FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery, have sparked concern about the new leader's competency and mental state.
Discussion:
El País, Eschaton, Associated Press and Election Law Blog
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CNN:
A top FEMA official has history of violent rhetoric and said he once teleported to Waffle House — Federal agencies Fighting disinformation Election security Media — As millions of Americans braced for a series of brutal storms this winter, the senior official in charge …
Discussion:
Mediaite
Nikki McCann Ramirez / Rolling Stone:
Top Disaster Response Official Claims He Teleported to a Waffle House — FEMA's Gregg Phillips says he has experienced multiple “scary” episodes of sudden teleportation — Far-right activist turned high-ranking FEMA official Gregg Phillips has a problem.
Discussion:
CNN
Aaron Pellish / Politico:
Trump leverages Army-Navy game to ramp up pressure on broadcasters … The order appears to grant Carr the bandwidth to revoke licenses for any broadcasters who schedule a college football game “in a manner that directly conflicts with the Army-Navy Game,” which has been broadcast on CBS since 1996.
Discussion:
The White House, New York Post, NewsMax.com, Deadline, The US Sun, Not the Bee, Washington Times, The Gateway Pundit and Raw Story
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Axios:
Trump mulls risky Kharg Island takeover to force Iran to open strait — The Trump administration is considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran's Kharg Island to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, four sources with knowledge of the issue tell Axios. … In the meantime, global energy prices are surging.
Discussion:
Media Matters for America, Townhall, New York Times, Wide World of News, HotAir, NewsMax.com, Politico, The Hill and NPR
New York Times:
U.S. Prosecutors Investigate Colombia's President, a Onetime Trump Foe — The Justice Department is examining whether President Gustavo Petro of Colombia has ties to drug traffickers. — President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, who has had a volatile relationship with President Trump …
Discussion:
GZERO, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The National Pulse, WTOP News, Raw Story and New Republic
Washington Post:
CBS News will end radio service as Weiss struggles to right ship — The troubled network is eliminating its century-old CBS News Radio division and laying off more staff. — CBS News will end its nearly century-old radio service, CBS News Radio, and cut more jobs amid a rocky turnaround effort under …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Google Search is now using AI to replace headlines — We're seeing Verge headlines rewritten by Google AI. … Since roughly the turn of the millennium, Google Search has been the bedrock of the web. People loved Google's trustworthy “10 blue links” search experience and its unspoken promise …
Discussion:
Breitbart, more at Mediagazer »
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. War Planes and Helicopters Kick Off Battle to Reopen Hormuz — Effort takes on new urgency nearly three weeks into the war with Iran as oil prices soar
Discussion:
Euronews, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Semafor
RELATED:
Eric Schmitt / New York Times:
U.S. Military Ramps Up to Clear Strait of Hormuz
Discussion:
Air & Space Forces Magazine and New York Post
Politico:
Putin offers to stop sharing intel with Iran if US cuts off Ukraine — Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to the U.S. under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran, such as the precise coordinates of U.S. military assets in the Middle East, if Washington ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia.
Discussion:
The Kyiv Independent and Semafor
USA Today:
Mayor Mamdani, Sen. Warren: Everyone benefits from universal childcare — Universal childcare is the kind of investment Wall Street would tout: Every dollar spent on early childhood care can return as much as $13. It restores the workforce. It's basic infrastructure. — The two of us live very different lives.
Amy Yurkanin / ProPublica:
She Was in Labor at a Florida Hospital. Then She Was in Zoom Court for Refusing a C-Section. — A virtual court hearing from a pregnant mother's hospital bed shows what forced medical treatment can look like. — It's difficult to put yourself in the place of Cherise Doyley …
Paul Krugman:
Scenes from the Death of the Pax Americana — No real post today. I don't have it in me. Just a few scenes from the accelerating collapse in America's reputation and influence. — Item: The Danish Broadcasting Corporation, roughly speaking Denmark's equivalent of the BBC …
Discussion:
Bloomberg
Andrew Solender / Axios:
“He needs to go”: Dems rage over Fetterman's DHS vote — Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is under heavy fire from fellow Democrats for casting the deciding vote to advance Sen. Markwayne Mullin's (R-Okla.) nomination for DHS Secretary, with some openly calling for his ouster.
Reuters:
US to deploy thousands of additional troops to the Middle East, officials say — The United States military is deploying thousands of additional Marines and sailors to the Middle East, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday. — The deployments of the USS Boxer, along …
Discussion:
The Hill, WNYW-TV, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth, NewsMax.com and Straight Arrow News
Associated Press:
Feds move to dismiss charges against officers accused of falsifying warrant in Breonna Taylor raid — Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to dismiss the charges against two Louisville officers accused of falsifying the warrant that led police to raid Breonna Taylor's apartment the night she was killed six years ago.
Stacy Cowley / New York Times:
Record Number of Student Loan Borrowers Are in Delinquency and Default — Recently released data from the Education Department showed that by the end of last year, 7.7 million borrowers had defaulted on $181 billion in federal student loans. — A record number of borrowers have fallen far behind …
Discussion:
GovExec.com, U.S. Department of Education, NewsMax.com, The Hill, Associated Press, Forbes, CT Mirror, ABC News, Washington Times, KVIA-TV, Federal News Network, NPR, WKZO, Bloomberg, The Daily Signal and IN DEBT
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:
After yesterday's revelation that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is blocking the release of a memo related to a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and 14 co-conspirators, Attorney General Pam Bondi added more evidence to the idea that the DOJ is engaged …
Discussion:
Semafor, The Guardian, Scripps News, MS NOW, Mediaite, Grabien, RedState, The Gateway Pundit, New Republic, KEYT-TV and ABC News
Shifra Dayak / NOTUS:
The Trump Administration Is Turning the U.S. Census on Its Head — The changes could cloud the government's understanding of what the United States population looks like and the resources it needs. — Copy — The 2030 U.S. census is poised to look very different than the one released in 2020.
Washington Post:
Inside the Trump administration's campaign to counter content bans in Europe — The United States has banned some European researchers from entering the country and dismantled federal programs intended to fight foreign disinformation campaigns. — In early 2025, aides to Vice President JD Vance ordered …
ProPublica:
As Trump Demands Voter Data, This Fiercely Independent Red State Says No — States were on notice from the U.S. Department of Justice that if they didn't fall in line, the federal government would force them into compliance. — It wasn't President Donald Trump's administration applying pressure.
Discussion:
US Department of Justice and USA Today
Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:
House GOP leaders punt controversial FISA vote to April — House GOP leaders are punting a reauthorization vote for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that they had hoped to hold next week until mid-April, with a GOP hard-liner revolt over warrantless surveillance threatening to tank the legislation …
Discussion:
NOTUS and Washington Times
Tim Balk / New York Times:
In Reversal, Trump Restores Support for House Republican Who Opposed Tariffs — President Trump reinstated his endorsement of Representative Jeff Hurd of Colorado, just weeks after pulling it back. — President Trump on Friday reversed himself and re-endorsed Representative Jeff Hurd …
Discussion:
The Hill, NOTUS, Politico, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, Colorado Politics, Raw Story and American Thinker
Reuters:
Switzerland halts weapons exports to US due to Iran war, citing neutrality — Switzerland on Friday said it would not issue licences for companies to export weapons to the United States due to the ongoing attacks on Iran, citing the country's neutrality. — “The export of war materiel …
Discussion:
news.admin.ch, Truthout, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, New Republic and Middle East Monitor
NBC News:
U.S. strikes alleged drug boat in eastern Pacific Ocean, leaving 3 survivors — The attack on the alleged drug boat is believed to be the second such strike to be conducted during the ongoing war with Iran. — The U.S. military conducted another strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean …
Discussion:
The Hill, Fox News and New York Times
Tom Schaller / Public Notice:
House Republicans are heading for the exits — PN is supported by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️ — 📜 Subscribe to PN 📜 — Earlier this month, four more Republicans announced their pending retirements from the House of Representatives: Darrell Issa …
Associated Press:
Judge rules US government overreached with transgender health care declaration — A federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon.
ProPublica:
The Number of Families Being Held at Dilley Detention Center Has Plummeted — The number of parents and children booked into the country's only immigrant family detention center, in Dilley, Texas, plummeted in February by more than 75% compared with a month earlier, according to Immigration …
Discussion:
New York Times, Slate and HuffPost
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Thousands have swooned over this MAGA dream girl. She's made with AI. … The beautiful Army blonde Jessica Foster has posed with an F-22 Raptor fighter jet, donned camouflage in the desert and walked a tarmac with President Donald Trump on the first day of the strikes on Iran.
Discussion:
The Independent
NPR:
An immigration court few have heard of is quietly shaping policy behind the scenes — The Trump administration has reshaped a lesser-known corner of the Justice Department to set immigration policy and escalate mass detentions and deportations. — An administrative court known as the Board …
Discussion:
CBS News
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