Top Items:
Punchbowl News:
5/13/26☀️ AM: … On issue after issue, both in Washington and in state capitals around the country, Republicans are giving Trump the stiff arm. They're ignoring his policy demands and overlooking his diatribes, even as they continue pledging allegiance to Trump politically.
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Hans Nichols / Axios:
Republicans are sweating about the White House ballroom project … But it is in doubt. … - GOP senators were unmoved by a line-item lobbying effort from Secret Service director Sean Curran in a closed-door lunch on Tuesday, first reported by Axios. — “One of the biggest concerns …
Discussion:
Politico, Staff Stories, HuffPost, Washington Examiner and The Hill
Politico:
Why Republicans can't get traction on affordability legislation … The scale of the political challenges facing Republicans were further underscored Tuesday with the administration's latest cost estimate for the Iran war surpassing $29 billion and a brutal inflation report showing gas …
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Hill, Punchbowl News, Axios and Bloomberg
New York Times:
Justice Dept. Officials Consider Settling Trump Suit Against I.R.S. — One of the settlement terms under review is for the I.R.S. to drop any audits of the president, his family members and businesses. — The Justice Department is holding internal discussions about settling President Trump's lawsuit …
Discussion:
Esquire, Techdirt, Talking Points Memo and Lawyers, Guns & Money
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Rachel Dobkin / Yahoo News:
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Wholesale inflation jumps 6% in April on annual basis, biggest increase since 2022 … Wholesale prices in April posted their highest annual increase in more than three years, signaling more nettlesome inflation as pipeline costs intensify. — The producer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.4% …
Discussion:
Reuters, UPI, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, The American Conservative, The Independent and Breitbart
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Zachary Basu / Axios:
Trump's five-alarm economy — President Trump flew to Beijing on Tuesday under some of the darkest economic clouds of his political career, leaving behind a country reeling from the cost of everyday life. … The inflation crisis that doomed his predecessor suggests he may not recover.
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
10,000 rulings: The courts' overwhelming rebuke of Trump's ICE policies … Trump's unprecedented detention policy, which is almost certainly headed to the Supreme Court, infuriated lower courts in ways no other modern issue has. It ruptured the relationship between the Justice Department and the judiciary …
Discussion:
Slate
Aaron Pellish / Politico:
GOP scores another gerrymandering victory with Missouri Supreme Court win … It's the latest in a series of redistricting victories won by Republicans through the courts. The Supreme Court ruled last month to weaken the Voting Rights Act, clearing the way for several Republican-controlled states …
Discussion:
Compact, The Post Millennial, NOTUS, RedState and Democracy Docket
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Ben Kamisar / NBC News:
Louisiana GOP lawmakers advance map eliminating one Democratic House district
Discussion:
New York Times, IJR, This Week in Statehouse Action, WVUE-TV, WWL-TV and Fox News
Carlie Kollath Wells / Axios:
Louisiana advances congressional map with reduced Black representation
Louisiana advances congressional map with reduced Black representation
Discussion:
The Hill, Democracy Docket, One America News Network, Verite News New Orleans, MS NOW, Los Angeles Times and Raw Story
Ana Swanson / New York Times:
Trump's Shrinking Ambitions on China — The president came into office planning harsher trade moves on China than on the rest of the world. Here's why he's had to scale them back. — When President Trump campaigned in 2024, he promised a trade agenda that would hit China harder …
Discussion:
Axios, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Asia Times, Telegraph, CSIS, Semafor, Washington Examiner, Washington Post and NPR
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Joshua Keating / Vox:
Trump's China policy is nearly the exact opposite of what everyone expected
Discussion:
Politico, Bloomberg, NewsMax.com, Al Jazeera, Forbes, Foreign Affairs, Washington Times and The Spectator, more at Techmeme »
Washington Post:
Facing headwinds at home, Trump signals eagerness to make deals at China summit
Facing headwinds at home, Trump signals eagerness to make deals at China summit
Discussion:
Bloomberg, USA Today, Council on Foreign Relations, KEYT-TV, Reuters, Fox News, Scripps News, Politico, The Hill, Washington Examiner and American Greatness
Jasmine Wright / NOTUS:
'America's Boss Is Coming': Trump Gets a Lavish Welcome to China
'America's Boss Is Coming': Trump Gets a Lavish Welcome to China
Discussion:
New York Post, New York Times, CNBC, The Hill, Associated Press, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, The Guardian and Forbes
Camille Mumford / Emerson Polling:
California 2026 Poll: Becerra Continues to Surge, Steyer and Hilton Compete for Second Spot — Home Polls California 2026 Poll: Becerra Continues to Surge, Steyer and Hilton Compete for Second Spot — Bass leads primary for LA Mayor with 30% support; Pratt and Raman trail
Discussion:
New York Post, Washington Examiner, The Hill, KTLA and Breitbart
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:
The biggest story in the country, today and always, is that the president of the United States is mentally unwell. — Over the course of three hours last night, he posted on social media fifty-five times. Those posts accused a number of those Trump considers his personal enemies …
Discussion:
Straight Arrow News and Raw Story
Tom Nichols / The Atlantic:
The Trump Counterterrorism Strategy Is a Dangerous Joke — The policy is unfocused, run by amateurs, and concerned more with the president's many grievances than the security of the United States. — Last week, the Trump administration released the official 2026 United States Counterterrorism Strategy.
Discussion:
Raw Story and War on the Rocks
Erin Cox / Washington Post:
Takeaways from the Nebraska election where a winner plans to quit — Democrats knew they couldn't unseat a GOP senator, so they backed an independent and fielded a candidate who promised to drop out if she won. Then it got complicated. — Summary — The long-shot path to unseating …
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Wall Street Journal:
Watchdog Probes Kristi Noem's Warehouse Purchases for ICE Detention Centers — The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is investigating a $38 billion program championed by Noem — WASHINGTON—The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has launched a probe …
Discussion:
New York Post, NewsMax.com, The Independent and Raw Story
Fox News:
Vance-led task force cuts off $1.4B from home health, hospice providers suspected of fraud — EXCLUSIVE: Vice President JD Vance's anti-fraud task force has withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers nationwide, following a wave of suspensions enacted …
Discussion:
STAT, New York Post, Associated Press, RedState, Mississippi Free Press, The Daily Signal, NewsMax.com, Newsweek and The Floridian
RELATED:
Kate Santaliz / Axios:
Scoop: Rep. Edwards aide feared retaliation over unwanted attention — Rep. Chuck Edwards told a 20-something female staffer it was “disappointing to feel something that used to be easy has gotten complicated” after she did not want to have dinner with him in May of 2025, according to a text exchange reviewed by Axios.
Discussion:
CNN
Wall Street Journal:
The Late-Night Truth Social Storms That Offer a Window Into the President's Mind — A WSJ analysis of thousands of posts found that the president uses the social-media platform to spread conspiracy theories and attack his adversaries — WASHINGTON—Monday was a typical day for President Trump.
Discussion:
MS NOW, Washington Post, Raw Story, Election Law Blog and Mediaite
Liz Dye / Public Notice:
FCC's Brendan Carr picks a fight with The View ... PN is supported by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️ — 📡 Subscribe to PN 📡 — With so many cartoon villains in the Trump administration, it's hard for an upstart evildoer to break through the news cycle.
Discussion:
New York Sun
Max Tani / Semafor:
CBS' Tony Dokoupil to broadcast from Taiwan after failing to get China visa in time — The Scoop — CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil will broadcast from Taipei this week after failing to obtain a visa to China in time, a stumble in the network's efforts to play a leading role in this week's dominant global story.
John Vandiver / Stars & Stripes:
Austria scrambles fighters to intercept US Air Force aircraft twice in 2 days — STUTTGART, Germany — Austria scrambled fighter planes on back-to back days to intercept U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft traveling through its airspace, the country's defense ministry said this week.
Discussion:
The War Zone
Julie K. Brown / The Epstein Files:
Why I (Still) Don't Believe Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself Part 3 — A so-called “suicide” note had been buried for seven years — Seven years ago, in a federal prison in Manhattan, a place so insidious that the rats crawl in bed with the inmates, a bodybuilder accused of torturing …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Oliver Milman / The Guardian:
‘Irresponsible’: backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan — Facility would require more power than entire state uses and suck up vast amount of water in drought-stricken area — A plan to create one of the world's largest datacenters, a gargantuan project spanning …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars and Deseret News
Emily Hallas / Washington Examiner:
Concerns about sexual violence in Israel-Gaza conflict renewed amid NYT controversy — Accusations that Israel has fomented a culture of sexual violence against Palestinians triggered intense controversy this week, deepening the divide between the Jewish nation and its critics.
Washington Post:
White House to host 9-hour prayer festival focused on Christian roots of U.S. — Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio and Mike Johnson will speak at the event, which centers on the idea that the founders wanted the U.S. to be explicitly Christian. — Summary — The Trump administration is hosting …
Discussion:
The Guardian, LGBTQ Nation, NewsMax.com and RNS
Megan Janetsky / Associated Press:
Mexico's Sheinbaum denies reports of CIA operations there — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday denied a CNN report that the CIA was carrying out deadly operations in Mexican territory, accusing the U.S.-based news organization of attempting to “hurt the government and the people of Mexico.”
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, CNN, El País, Al Jazeera, New York Times, Breitbart and Semafor
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Rich Danker, RFK Jr.'s Top Spokesman, Resigns in Protest Over New Vaping Policy — In a letter to President Trump, the spokesman, Rich Danker, said allowing the sale of flavored e-cigarettes would enhance their appeal to children. — The chief spokesman for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resigned …
Discussion:
New Jersey Office …, The American Conservative, Axios, New Republic, Raw Story, Townhall, Forbes, Mediaite and UPI
Steve Beynon / ABC News:
Army cuts training as service is short billions of dollars — The Army faces a shortfall of between $4-$6 billion, one official said. — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth prepares to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the FY2027 budget request on Capitol Hill, May 12, 2026 in Washington.
Discussion:
NewsMax.com, Raw Story and Breaking Defense
Jen Fifield / ProPublica:
A Noncitizen Says She Was Told She Could Vote. Then Customs Detained Her at the Airport and Threatened to Deport Her. — The case, which hasn't previously been reported, marks a new escalation in the Trump administration's efforts to find and prosecute instances of noncitizen voting, despite evidence that it is rare.

