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5:35 PM ET, May 19, 2026

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Justice Department expands Trump settlement to cover his tax audits … The waiver specifically encompasses “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement, which was Monday.  —  Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed the addendum, dated Tuesday.
RELATED:
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Trump's Angry Jan. 6 Tirade Accidentally Hands Dems Midterm Weapon  —  Now that Donald Trump has created his very own political slush fund with $1.8 billion in taxpayer money to hand out to allies, the very least that Democrats can do right now is this: Do everything possible to force Republicans to vote on it—over and over again.
New York Times:
I.R.S. Prohibited From Pursuing Audits of Trump and His Family  —  As part of the Justice Department's compensation fund deal, officials vowed not to pursue any matters, including those involving President Trump's tax returns, that are pending.  —  The Justice Department on Tuesday expanded …
Andrew Duehren / New York Times:
The I.R.S. Thought It Could Fight Trump's Lawsuit, but It Struck a Deal Anyway  —  Officials wrote a memo outlining ways to challenge President Trump's suit against the Internal Revenue Service.  The administration is instead creating an “anti-weaponization” fund.
Politico:
Trump's $1.8 billion ‘lawfare’ fund is making Republicans nervous … “There is no level below which these folks will not go,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I) said in an interview.  “It is just disgusting, having come off Law Enforcement Week, to have set up a slush fund to pay off people who attack police officers.”
Fatima Hussein / Associated Press:
US government agrees to drop tax claims against Trump in broadening of IRS lawsuit settlement  —  The U.S. government will permanently drop tax claims against President Donald Trump, according to a settlement document that is part of a deal to resolve Trump's $10 billion lawsuit …
Paul Krugman:
The Looting of America  —  So the Trump administration is creating a $1.776 billion slush fund — 1776, get it? — to pay off victims of “lawfare and weaponization.”  Just to be clear, if you're a U.S. taxpayer, this action means that almost $1.8 billion of your money will be handed …
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Rebecca Beitsch / The Hill:
Senators put Blanche on defense over $1.776B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
Josephine Walker / Axios:
DOJ settlement prevents future tax investigations of Trump
Discussion: American Greatness
Torrie Herrington / NOTUS:
IRS ‘Forever Barred’ From Investigating Trump After DOJ Expands Settlement
Andrew Duehren / New York Times:
Top Treasury Lawyer Resigns After Creation of ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’
Scott MacFarlane Reports:
“DAY AHEAD” - Senators Launch Probes of Justice Dept after Trump Establishes Fund for Convicted Criminals
Discussion: New Republic
New York Times:
Republican Senators Are Livid at Trump's Endorsement of Paxton  —  News that President Trump had snubbed Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the four-term incumbent, was met with shock, anger and fear that the G.O.P. could lose his seat.  —  Republican senators reacted angrily on Tuesday …
RELATED:
Gabby Birenbaum / The Texas Tribune:
Trump endorses Ken Paxton in Senate GOP runoff  —  The development, coming partway through early voting, is a searing blow for John Cornyn, who finished first in the March runoff but was unable to convince Trump to endorse him.  —  TAKE OUR CONTENT — PLEASE!
Kate Riga / Talking Points Memo:
Trump Finally Endorses Paxton over Cornyn in Texas Senate Primary
Nia Prater / New York Magazine:
What We Know About the Motives of the San Diego Mosque Shooters  —  A California community has been left reeling after a pair of teenage gunmen opened fire at the San Diego Islamic Center Monday morning, killing three people in an attack that is currently being investigated as a hate crime.
RELATED:
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Five dead, including two teenage suspects, at San Diego mosque shooting  —  A security guard at the Islamic Center of San Diego was among those killed outside the building on Monday morning, police said  —  The San Diego Union-Tribune, TERI FIGUEROA |  The San Diego Union-Tribune and CALEB LUNETTA |
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Independents and 2024 non-voters have swung back left  —  The big story in the new NYT/Siena poll isn't Trump's 37% approval (although that's very bad) — it's a 24-point swing among persuadable voters  —  I received six emails from major news outlets on Monday asking me to comment …
Discussion: MS NOW
RELATED:
Patrick McNeil / nomination notes:
Eight Democrats vote to confirm a lifetime judge who wouldn't say Biden won in 2020
Discussion: Deseret News
Tamara Keith / NPR:
These men voted for President Trump. They have very different views of how he's doing
Discussion: Bloomberg and Raw Story
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Search as you know it is over  —  The era of the “ten blue links” is officially over.  —  Google unveiled on Tuesday an AI-powered overhaul of Search centered around a reimagined “intelligent search box” — what the company describes as the biggest change to this entry point …
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I.  —  Steven Rosenbaum, author of “The Future of Truth,” said he had started his own investigation after The New York Times asked about the fake quotes.  —  The author of a nonfiction book about the effects of artificial intelligence …
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times:
Xi Jinping told Donald Trump that Putin might ‘regret’ invasion of Ukraine  —  US president also suggested they should co-operate with Russian leader against the International Criminal Court  —  Xi Jinping told Donald Trump during their talks last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin might end …
RELATED:
US Department of Justice:
Four of the World's Largest Container Manufacturing Companies and Seven of Their Executives Indicted for a Global Conspiracy Affecting Billions of Dollars of Commerce  —  For Immediate Release  —  Seven Chinese executives and four of the world's largest shipping container manufacturing companies …
Discussion: NewsMax.com
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
DOJ Unveils Price-Fixing Charges in Shipping Container Case
Discussion: CBS News
Fox News:
Unearthed posts show Dem Senate hopeful praising vulgar graffiti, making crude porta potty admission  —  GOP strategist calls the yearslong trail of posts a ‘character issue’ ahead of a potential race against Susan Collins  —  Editor's note: This story contains graphic language.
Dan Diamond / Washington Post:
Trump shows off White House ballroom construction as funding stalls in Congress  —  The president offered journalists the closest look yet at the construction project, where photographers captured images of the work in progress and Trump touted security measures.  —  Summary
RELATED:
John Towfighi / CNN:
30-year US Treasury yield hits highest level in 19 years  —  Investing The Middle East Interest rates  —  A bond rout is deepening as inflation fears take hold of the Treasury market, threatening to raise borrowing costs across the US economy.  —  The 30-year US Treasury yield just hit 5.2% …
Discussion: Bloomberg, Breitbart, NewsMax.com, UPI and CNBC
New York Times:
G.O.P. Supporters Back Trump, but a Third Seek a New Direction for the Party  —  While President Trump remains overwhelmingly popular within the Republican coalition, a New York Times/Siena poll found, a sizable share wants the party's next nominee to take a different approach.
RELATED:
Nate Cohn / New York Times:
A Generational Fracture Emerges for Republicans Over Foreign Policy
Discussion: Raw Story
Reuters:
Exclusive: US plans to shrink forces available to NATO during crises, sources say  —  The Trump administration is planning to tell NATO allies this week that it will shrink the pool of military capabilities that the U.S. would have available to assist the alliance's European nations in a major crisis …
Discussion: Newsweek and Bloomberg
Juliette Kayyem / The Atlantic:
San Diego's Tragic Lesson About Terrorism  —  The attack on an Islamic center exemplified a danger that the Trump administration would rather ignore.  —  Yesterday in California, the physical world and the world of free-floating grievance and ideological bluster met once again …
New York Times:
Trump's Special Envoy to Greenland Receives a Cold Welcome From Locals  —  After President Trump's threats to seize the island, Gov. Jeff Landry's offers of MAGA hats and chocolate chip cookies fall flat.  —  President Trump's special envoy to Greenland, Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana …
Associated Press:
Federal agents can't make arrests in N.Y. immigration courts, judge rules  —  The decision halts a Trump administration practice that enabled agents to take into custody individuals who follow requirements to appear before immigration judges.  —  Federal agents can no longer …
New York Times:
Manager at Trump's N.J. Golf Club Helped Plan Reflecting Pool Repairs  —  David Schutzenhofer, a Trump Organization employee, reached out to one of the vendors the government later hired for the iconic site near the Lincoln Memorial, documents show.  —  The general manager of President Trump's golf club …
Discussion: The Independent and New Republic
Jen Rice / Democracy Docket:
Hakeem Jeffries: At least 7 blue states could redistrict by 2028  —  President Donald Trump's national redistricting war is far from over, but Democrats are ready to redraw congressional maps in seven more states ahead of the 2028 election, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday.
Discussion: Washington Examiner
 
 
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 More Items: 
Reuters:
Vance says ‘a lot of progress’ made in Iran talks
Sarah N. Lynch / CBS News:
Federal prosecutors open new criminal probe into Maduro, sources say
Katie Drummond / Wired:
Tom Steyer Wants to Save California From Billionaires. But Also Doesn't Want Them to Leave
Discussion: Robert Reich and Los Angeles Times
 Earlier Items: 
Lauren McGaughy / New York Times:
A Single Donation Could Upend the G.O.P. Primary for Texas Attorney General
Discussion: NewsMax.com and The Texas Tribune
Gwynne Hogan / The City:
Immigrant Detained in Court a Day After Judge Barred Most ICE Arrests
Discussion: Mercury News
Samantha Michaels / Mother Jones:
Memphis Is “Under Full-Blown Occupation” by ICE. Here's Why You May Not Know That.
Discussion: Reason
Courtney Tanner / Salt Lake Tribune:
After Sharon McMahon controversy, Utah colleges must now vote on commencement speakers
 

 
From Techmeme:

Matthew Sparkes / New Scientist:
Levent Alpöge, a mathematician who works at Anthropic, says he was able to disprove the 87-year-old Jacobian conjecture with the help of Fable 5

Katie Tarasov / CNBC:
AMD plans to ship Helios, its first rack-scale AI system to rival Nvidia, later in 2026 to Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and others; Helios costs an estimated $5M+

Edward Targett / The Stack:
Hugging Face says it used GLM-5.2 hosted on its infrastructure to run a breach forensic analysis, after US frontier model safety guardrails blocked its requests

 
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