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7:05 PM ET, May 19, 2026

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 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.
Ryan J. Reilly / NBC News:
DOJ official told GOP ally that big payouts were coming for Jan. 6 defendants  —  Months before the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund was announced, Ed Martin predicted Capitol rioters would get millions, even if it took until 2028, two people told NBC News.
Discussion: MS NOW, HuffPost and Newsbusters
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.”
Alex Rogers / Financial Times:
Donald Trump and sons to be ‘forever’ exempt from tax audits  —  Justice department deal comes day after government set up $1.8bn fund to pay president's allies hit by alleged ‘lawfare’  —  US tax authorities will be barred from pursuing claims against Donald Trump, his eldest sons …
Discussion: Associated Press, Raw Story and Reason
Rebecca Beitsch / The Hill:
Senators put Blanche on defense over $1.776B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
Paul Krugman:
The Looting of America  —  So the Trump administration is creating a $1.776 billion slush fund …
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Amber Phillips / Washington Post:
Trump's extraordinary $1.8 billion legal fund to his allies
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Josephine Walker / Axios:
DOJ settlement prevents future tax investigations of Trump
Discussion: Forbes
Ben Johansen / Politico:
Trump defends ballroom after Senate funding setback
Torrie Herrington / NOTUS:
IRS ‘Forever Barred’ From Investigating Trump After DOJ Expands Settlement
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:
Stephen Groves / Associated Press:
Senate advances bill aimed at ending Iran war as Cassidy, after primary loss, flips to support it  —  The Senate advanced legislation Tuesday that seeks to force President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iran war, as a growing number of Republicans defied the president's wishes.
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!
Lauren McGaughy / New York Times:
A Single Donation Could Upend the G.O.P. Primary for Texas Attorney General
Discussion: NewsMax.com
Kate Riga / Talking Points Memo:
Trump Finally Endorses Paxton over Cornyn in Texas Senate Primary
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 …
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
Patrick McNeil / nomination notes:
Eight Democrats vote to confirm a lifetime judge who wouldn't say Biden won in 2020  —  The Senate on Tuesday afternoon voted (52-38) to confirm the nomination of Sheria Clarke to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.  Eight Democrats voted in favor of confirmation.
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:
Tamara Keith / NPR:
These men voted for President Trump. They have very different views of how he's doing
Discussion: Raw Story and Bloomberg
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Vance defends stock-trading spree in Trump financial filings: ‘Come on, man’ … Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump against a question about the heavy stock trading on display in the president's latest financial disclosures, which revealed transactions totaling hundreds …
RELATED:
Reuters:
Vance says ‘a lot of progress’ made in Iran talks
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 …
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 …
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.
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: Bloomberg and Newsweek
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% …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Jo Ingles / The Statehouse News Bureau:
LaRose cast provisional primary ballot when his overseas ballot didn't get to Ohio in time
Discussion: Raw Story
Hudson Crozier / The Daily Caller:
China-Linked Group's Socialist ‘Liberation Centers’ Coming To A Town Near You
Discussion: RedState
Jen Rice / Democracy Docket:
Hakeem Jeffries: At least 7 blue states could redistrict by 2028
 Earlier Items: 
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
Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
NAACP calls for college sports boycott in states targeting Black voting power
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times:
Xi Jinping told Donald Trump that Putin might ‘regret’ invasion of Ukraine
 

 
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+

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
Cybersecurity companies say hackers are exploiting vulnerable WordPress versions to take over websites; WordPress patched two critical security flaws last week
 
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