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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Jonathan Martin / Politico:
Trump's Redistricting Push Could Cost Republicans More Than It Gains … Last week was the best one President Donald Trump has had in months. — Trump reminded Republicans who's boss by ousting Indiana lawmakers who defied his redistricting demands, saw Democrats' attempt to gerrymander Virginia blocked …
Discussion:
The Bulwark, The Contrarian, Raw Story and Mediaite
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.
Steve Vladeck / One First:
227. “We're All Trying to Find the Guy Who Did This” — With both its ruling in Callais and its behavior before and since, the Supreme Court has not only accelerated the race to the redistricting bottom; it has placed itself *squarely* in the middle of it. — Welcome back to “One First …
Brian Beutler / Off Message:
Republican Judges Leave Democrats No Choice But To Escalate — They've officially joined Trump's effort to rig the midterm. And if that's not enough to move Democrats off the fence, the fight to save democracy may already be lost. — ∙ Paid — I had this piece mostly completed on Thursday.
Paul Waldman / Public Notice:
This is a crisis of democracy. What will Dems do about it?
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money and twitchy.com
Justin Papp / CNBC:
Redistricting war isn't over, Democrats say as Jeffries calls a meeting this week
Redistricting war isn't over, Democrats say as Jeffries calls a meeting this week
Discussion:
Democracy Docket, RedState, Townhall, NewsMax.com and The Gateway Pundit
Riley Rogerson / Politico:
Jeffries guarantees Democratic House win in midterms despite ‘undemocratic’ rulings
Jeffries guarantees Democratic House win in midterms despite ‘undemocratic’ rulings
Discussion:
The Hill
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:
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Isaac Arnsdorf / Washington Post:
Trump seeks to pause federal gas tax as prices soar amid Iran conflict
Discussion:
Scripps News, The Hill, Washington Examiner, CBS News, Townhall, Algemeiner.com, Reuters and Axios
Politico:
Trump casts doubt on teetering ceasefire
Trump casts doubt on teetering ceasefire
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Hill and Washington Examiner
New York Times:
Cost of Reflecting Pool Repairs Nearly Doubles, Trump Administration Says — A no-bid contract for repairs to the Lincoln Memorial pool now costs $13.1 million, far more than the $1.8 million Mr. Trump initially said it would. — President Trump said that his handpicked contractor …
Discussion:
NBC News, TCLF, The Independent, New Republic, CBS News and Mediaite
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Dan Diamond / Washington Post:
Nonprofit sues to stop Trump's changes to Reflecting Pool, a historic site — President Donald Trump wants to resurface the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool by July 4. A D.C.-area foundation claims he failed to get federal reviews. — Summary — A Washington-area nonprofit Monday asked …
Discussion:
HuffPost
Zach Schonfeld / The Hill:
Lawsuit filed over Trump's Reflecting Pool renovations
Lawsuit filed over Trump's Reflecting Pool renovations
Discussion:
Associated Press, Washington Examiner, Politico, Reuters, twitchy.com, UPI, KEYT-TV, The Gateway Pundit and MS NOW
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 …
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Matt Gertz / Media Matters for America:
The Great American Road Trip takes the Fox cabinet through the looking glass
The Great American Road Trip takes the Fox cabinet through the looking glass
Discussion:
Bloomberg and ABC News, more at Mediagazer »
NBC News:
Trump is growing impatient as Cuban regime clings to power — U.S. officials believe the regime could fall by the end of the year, but that timeline isn't fast enough for the president, sources say. The White House says Cuba has rejected humanitarian and economic assistance to stabilize.
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Wall Street Journal:
Trump Clears Way for More Beef Imports, Aiming to Bring Down Record-High Prices
Discussion:
Bloomberg and NewsMax.com
Lalee Ibssa / ABC News:
Trump sounds off SCOTUS justices he appointed over tariff ruling
Trump sounds off SCOTUS justices he appointed over tariff ruling
Discussion:
HuffPost, Raw Story, Townhall, MS NOW, Truthout, New Republic, MeidasTouch, The Independent, Blaze Media, Fox News, The Hill, NewsMax.com, Mediaite and The Floridian
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 …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, Fox News, Raw Story, Mediaite, IJR, CBS News, The Daily Wire, Council on Foreign Relations and UPI
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Barak Ravid / Axios:
Trump weighs military action against Iran with ceasefire “on life support”
Trump weighs military action against Iran with ceasefire “on life support”
Discussion:
Jewish Insider, Raw Story, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Asia Times, The Independent and Al Jazeera
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:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, Newsweek and Townhall
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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
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:
New Republic, Raw Story and Mediaite
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:
Al Jazeera
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:
HotAir, Straight Arrow News, RedState, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Raw Story, The Independent and Althouse
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.
David McAfee / Raw Story:
Trump official rages at legendary basketball star: ‘What a selfish move’ — A Donald Trump admin official took the time Sunday night to chastise one of the greatest basketball legends in history. — It all started with a video posted by LA Mayor Karen Bass, who is currently in a fight …
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, IJR, Fox News and LGBTQ Nation
Politico:
Here's how Trump's meeting with Xi could spark a crisis over Taiwan … The diplomat, like others, was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic issue. — U.S. policy on Taiwan has long been to acknowledge it as distinct from the People's Republic of China, which claims the island …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, Associated Press, GZERO, Al Jazeera, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NewsMax.com, Human Events and Los Angeles Times
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Damien Cave / New York Times:
What Middle Powers Fear About the Trump-Xi Summit
What Middle Powers Fear About the Trump-Xi Summit
Discussion:
CBS News, UPI and Al Jazeera
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:
Washington Examiner, MS NOW, Straight Arrow News and Washington Post
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.
Washington Post:
In turf battle over AI, U.S. spy agencies vie for more sway than Commerce — As the White House grapples with cybersecurity threats from advanced artificial intelligence models, national security officials want more sway in AI regulation. — Summary — As President Donald Trump prepares …
Discussion:
NewsMax.com
Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
An FCC Commissioner Tells Disney the Agency Is on a Campaign to Censor It — In letter to Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, Commissioner Anna Gomez criticizes agency for trying to curtail press freedom — ABC has been a victim of a “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control” …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Los Angeles Times, MS NOW, NewsMax.com, Deadline, New Republic, GV Wire and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

