Top Items:
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Trump Wins Big as Virginia Dems Won't Go Nuclear to Save 4 House Seats — Top Virginia Democrats have decided against exercising a controversial procedural end run around last week's state Supreme Court ruling that struck down their redistricting, which wiped away a gain of four House seats …
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New Republic:
Transcript: Trump Blurts Out Plot to Rig Midterms as Polls Turn Brutal — The following is a lightly edited transcript of the May 11 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.
Discussion:
The Contrarian and Townhall
Andy Craig / The UnPopulist:
The VRA Ruling Might Have Handed Republicans a Weapon to Attempt a Jan. 6-style Midterm Coup — An outlandish scenario to refuse to seat newly elected blue state representatives just became more plausible — Republicans have been throwing everything they can at the 2026 midterms …
Discussion:
Democracy Docket and Raw Story
Brian Beutler / Off Message:
Republican Judges Leave Democrats No Choice But To Escalate
Discussion:
Politico, Slate and NewsMax.com
Jonathan Martin / Politico:
Trump's Redistricting Push Could Cost Republicans More Than It Gains
Trump's Redistricting Push Could Cost Republicans More Than It Gains
Discussion:
The Bulwark, The Contrarian, Raw Story and Mediaite
Nick Corasaniti / New York Times:
Why Republicans Are Still Drawing House Maps, While Democrats Are Stuck
Why Republicans Are Still Drawing House Maps, While Democrats Are Stuck
Paul Waldman / Public Notice:
This is a crisis of democracy. What will Dems do about it?
This is a crisis of democracy. What will Dems do about it?
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, New York Post and twitchy.com
Jen Rice / Democracy Docket:
Supreme Court greenlights 11th-hour Alabama redistricting plan for 2026 election — The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has allowed Alabama to select a different map for this year's congressional elections in a stunning, last-minute move to interfere with another state primary election that has already begun.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, New York Post, CNN, The Guardian, RedState, Talking Points Memo and SCOTUSblog
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Associated Press:
Supreme Court halts order for Alabama to use US House map with 2 largely Black districts
Discussion:
CNN, The Hill, Reuters, NOTUS, Politico, Washington Post, CBS News, NBC News, The Daily Wire, Washington Times, Mississippi Free Press, The Gateway Pundit and GV Wire
Steve Vladeck / One First:
227. “We're All Trying to Find the Guy Who Did This”
Nancy Cordes / CBS News:
Trump says he aims to suspend gas tax “for a period of time” — Add CBS News on Google — Washington — President Trump said in a phone interview with CBS News Monday morning that he aims to suspend the federal gas tax “for a period of time.” — “I think it's a great idea,” the president said.
Discussion:
ABC News, Bloomberg, NOTUS, New York Post, Axios, KEYT-TV, PoliticusUSA, CNBC, Al Jazeera, MS NOW, Florida Politics, NewsMax.com, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, Chicago Sun Times, NBC News, WLTX-TV, WCSH, The Post Millennial, FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth, NPR, Deseret News, The Hill, RedState, New York Magazine, The Independent, Daily Kos, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Politico, Business Insider, Washington Times, New Republic, The Daily Wire, Straight Arrow News, Bangor Daily News, Mediaite and FOX 32 Chicago
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Bloomberg:
Trump Floats Temporary US Gas Tax Halt as Pump Prices Soar
Discussion:
The Independent, CBS News, NewsMax.com, U.S. Home, The Hill, WTTG-TV, New York Times, UPI and Fox News
Isaac Arnsdorf / Washington Post:
Trump seeks to pause federal gas tax as prices soar amid Iran conflict
Trump seeks to pause federal gas tax as prices soar amid Iran conflict
Discussion:
Vox, CBS News, New York Post, Washington Examiner, Algemeiner.com, Townhall, Reuters, Scripps News, The Hill and Axios
New York Times:
Reflecting Pool Repairs to Cost $13.1 Million. Trump Had Promised $1.8 Million. — The Interior Department added $6.2 million to the no-bid contract for repairs to the Lincoln Memorial pool late last week. — President Trump said that his handpicked contractor would charge only $1.8 million …
Discussion:
NBC News, The Hill, TCLF, NewsMax.com, The Daily Caller, The Architect's Newspaper, MS NOW, Washingtonian, CBS News, Daily Kos, Raw Story, The Independent, New Republic and Mediaite
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Dan Diamond / Washington Post:
Nonprofit sues to stop Trump's changes to Reflecting Pool, a historic site
Nonprofit sues to stop Trump's changes to Reflecting Pool, a historic site
Discussion:
NOTUS, CNN, WTTG-TV, Associated Press, twitchy.com, HuffPost, PBS NewsHour and Politico
The White House:
Nominations and Withdrawal Sent to the Senate — NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE: — Francis Brooke, of Virginia, to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. — Cameron Hamilton, of Virginia, to be Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Scripps News, The Hill, Bloomberg, Raw Story and Deseret News
New York Post:
Arcadia mayor Eileen Wang admits acting as Chinese spy, running fake news website with ex-lover in shocking plea deal — The former mayor of Arcadia resigned after admitting to acting as an illegal foreign agent of China in a federal plea deal unsealed on Monday.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Ace of Spades HQ and The Post Millennial
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Thomas Frank / Politico:
Trump picks Cameron Hamilton to run FEMA — The president nominated the man he fired as leader of the nation's disaster agency a year ago. — Cameron Hamilton testifies on Capitol Hill last year before he was fired as acting administrator of FEMA. President Donald Trump nominated him Monday to lead the agency again.
Discussion:
New York Times, Federal News Network, NewsMax.com and Raw Story
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Gabriela Aoun Angueira / Associated Press:
Trump nominates Cameron Hamilton to lead FEMA, a year after he was fired from the role
Trump nominates Cameron Hamilton to lead FEMA, a year after he was fired from the role
Discussion:
NOTUS and The Gateway Pundit
New York Times:
Kennedy Is Driving a Vast Inquiry Into Vaccines, Despite His New Silence on the Issue … Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said little publicly about vaccines in recent months, at the behest of a White House worried that his unpopular stance will hurt Republicans in November's midterm elections.
Liam Scott / Washington Post:
Many Americans think Trump assassination attempts were fake, survey finds — About 1 in 4 say the correspondents' dinner shooting was staged, the poll found, including roughly a third of Democrats, as conspiracy theories spread widely online. — Summary — About 1 in 4 Americans …
Discussion:
Newsbusters, Florida Politics, Ace of Spades HQ, The Independent, HotAir, Straight Arrow News, RedState, Raw Story, The Hill, Mediaite and Althouse
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Elena Moore / NPR:
New poll finds a majority of Americans unsure if attempts on Trump's life were real
New poll finds a majority of Americans unsure if attempts on Trump's life were real
Discussion:
The Hill, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and LifeNews.com
Wall Street Journal:
Trump's Complaints About Iran War Leaks Prompt Aggressive DOJ Investigations — President Trump privately complained to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about media leaks in the wake of the Iran war last month, according to administration officials familiar with the matter …
Discussion:
NewsMax.com, Raw Story and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »
New York Times:
Iran Defends Its Demands After Trump's Rejection — Iran defended its demands for a peace deal after President Trump called them “unacceptable.” Oil prices rose and stocks were flat amid no signs of an end to the war. — Here's the latest. — With President Trump and Iran's leadership at a deadlock …
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theRighting:
Traffic to Truth Social Soars 45% in April While Other News Websites Decline — Trump-Controlled Platform Vaults to #2 in Traffic for First Time Ever — Year-over-year (YOY) visits in April to the Trump-controlled Truth Social rose 45%, while almost every news website monitored by TheRighting experienced declines.
Gary Sernovitz / New York Times:
'Bill Cassidy Sold His Soul to the Devil, and He Didn't Get Anything for It' — On Saturday, we'll get some data on how yet another Trump Tragedy will end. Recent polls put Bill Cassidy, the senator from Louisiana, in third place heading into the first round of the Republican primary here.
Discussion:
Newsweek, Townhall and Lawyers, Guns & Money
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Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
People Want What They Want — 1. The People — Sarah had Tim on The Focus Group this weekend.
People Want What They Want — 1. The People — Sarah had Tim on The Focus Group this weekend.
Discussion:
The Atlantic
Brandi Buchman / HuffPost:
Trump Gets 3 ‘Fully Functional’ Arcade Games Erected At D.C. War Memorial — See scenes from Secret Handshake's games depicting FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the pope and others. — Secret Handshake, the group responsible for erecting statues around Washington …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, The Independent, MS NOW and Wired
Associated Press:
Survey work begins for contested Trump Triumphal Arch project in Washington — Workers began preliminary surveys and testing Monday of the proposed site of a Triumphal Arch sought by President Donald Trump, the latest step in plans for the contentious project in the nation's capital.
Andrew Solender / Axios:
Inside the wild fight to oust a top GOP Trump critic — The fight between Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and President Trump-backed rival Ed Gallrein is now the most expensive U.S. House primary in history — and it's one of the nastiest, too. … - One pro-Gallrein super PAC ad features …
Discussion:
NewsMax.com, Raw Story, HuffPost, Washington Examiner, Mediaite and The Daily Signal, more at Mediagazer »
Erica Orden / Politico:
Top federal prosecutor in New York committed misconduct, watchdog says … A request for comment left with Sarcone's office wasn't immediately returned. — Though the letter didn't disclose the conduct in question, a complaint by the watchdog organization, Campaign for Accountability …
Discussion:
All Rise News, The Intercept and Raw Story
Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:
Why Two Big Companies Just Cut Paid Family Leave — Deloitte and Zoom are among the employers reducing support for working parents, signaling a retreat from a “golden age of benefits.” — Not long ago, employers were competing over who could be most generous in providing family-friendly benefits …
Discussion:
UPI, MS NOW, Washington Examiner, Straight Arrow News and Washington Post
Steve Benen / MS NOW:
The problem(s) with the transportation secretary's tone-deaf reality series — Sean Duffy's return to reality programming isn't just a political mess, it also raises unavoidable ethical questions. — Just two weeks into Donald Trump's second term, Axios published a report noting …
Discussion:
Media Matters for America, Straight Arrow News, NBC News, Bloomberg and HuffPost, more at Mediagazer »
Aaron Pellish / Politico:
Trump nominates Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano to diplomatic posts … “I look forward to representing our nation abroad, strengthening the friendship between our two countries, and advancing the interests of the American people,” Mastriano said in a statement posted online.
Discussion:
NewsMax.com and The Gateway Pundit
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Clears Way for More Beef Imports, Aiming to Bring Down Record-High Prices — The administration is suspending tariff-rate quotas on all beef-exporting nations; beef prices have climbed steadily since Trump took office — The Trump administration is opening the way to import more steaks …
Discussion:
The Bulwark, Politico, NBC News, NOTUS, GV Wire, Bloomberg, NewsMax.com and Raw Story
Shannon Pettypiece / NBC News:
The families going hungry because of Trump's food stamp cuts — Under President Donald Trump's “big, beautiful bill,” food stamp applicants are fighting to prove eligibility and facing questions about birthday gifts sent over Zelle. A crisis in Arizona offers a warning for America.
Discussion:
New Republic and Al Jazeera
Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:
The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians … It's a simple proposition: Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape. — Supporters of Israel made that point after the brutal sexual assaults against Israeli women during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Discussion:
twitchy.com
The Atlantic:
Stephen Miller in Retreat — Just hours before Stephen Miller arrived at the Mar-a-Lago ballroom on New Year's Eve—where he would welcome 2026 by dancing next to the soon-to-be-defenestrated homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, as the 1990s cultural relic Vanilla Ice performed—he won a great, though ultimately fleeting, victory.
Discussion:
The Independent, New Republic, Raw Story, Adam Kinzinger and Mediaite
