Top Items:
NBC News:
Trump administration will offer all 2 million federal workers a buyout to resign — An email is set to go out to federal workers beginning Tuesday. — President Donald Trump's administration is set to offer every single federal worker the chance to take a “deferred resignation” …
Discussion:
Drezner's World, Washington Post, Semafor, The Guardian, ClearanceJobs, Alternet.org, Raw Story, HotAir, IJR, Twitchy, The Bulwark, The Independent, E&E News, Washington Examiner and The Post Millennial
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Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
Elon Musk Lackeys Have Taken Over the Office of Personnel Management — Sources tell WIRED that the OPM's top layers of management now include individuals linked to xAI, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and Palantir. One expert found the takeover reminiscent of Stalin.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, Raw Story and The Bulwark, more at Techmeme »
Axios:
Scoop: Trump offering buyouts to all federal workers, source says … We're five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office. That is unacceptable," a senior administration official tells Axios.
Discussion:
American Prospect, CNN, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Mediaite, Fortune, Alternet.org, Daily Mail, Defense One, GovExec.com, The Hill, RedState, Wall Street Journal, New York Post and NOTUS, more at Techmeme »
Don Moynihan / Can We Still Govern?:
Compelling Mass Civil Servant Resignations Will Create Chaos — Elon Musk's role at Twitter represents a Rorschach test for how people think he will fare in restructuring government. For fans, he was able to cut the majority of the employees, and the site continued to run more or less as before.
Discussion:
Townhall, ABC News and ClearanceJobs
Associated Press:
Trump offering federal workers buyouts with about 8 months' pay in effort to shrink government
Zoë Schiffer / Wired:
Elon Musk Is Running the Twitter Playbook on the Federal Government
Elon Musk Is Running the Twitter Playbook on the Federal Government
Discussion:
New York Times, Washingtonian, Ken Klippenstein, Twitchy, Daily Mail, FedScoop, Mediaite, Scripps News and New Republic
Matthew Yglesias / Slow Boring:
Throw Biden under the bus — Sleepy Joe landed us in this mess with bad, selfish decisions — When Joe Biden stepped aside in favor of Kamala Harris, the overwhelming majority of Democrats praised him for the decision and painted an overall flattering portrait of Biden's presidency and his career.
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Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
‘A 5 Alarm F-ing Fire’: Trump's Federal Funding Freeze Is Jolting Some Dems Into Fight Mode
Erik De La Garza / Raw Story:
Trump is holding hospitals ‘hostage’ in brazen ‘power grab’: AOC
Trump is holding hospitals ‘hostage’ in brazen ‘power grab’: AOC
Discussion:
Twitchy, New Republic and CBS News
Washington Post:
Trump moves to fire members of EEOC and NLRB, breaking with precedent
Trump moves to fire members of EEOC and NLRB, breaking with precedent
Discussion:
RedState, HuffPost, TheGrio, Talking Points Memo, GovExec.com and NPR
Shane Goldmacher / New York Times:
Powerless, Democrats Debate Just How Deep in the Wilderness They Are
Luke Broadwater / New York Times:
Trump's ‘Flood the Zone’ Strategy Leaves Opponents Gasping in Outrage
Trump's ‘Flood the Zone’ Strategy Leaves Opponents Gasping in Outrage
Discussion:
Rolling Stone and Raw Story
Axios:
Democrats bite back against Trump's purges and freezes
Democrats bite back against Trump's purges and freezes
Discussion:
PoliticusUSA, HuffPost, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Hill and Roll Call
Daniel Hampton / Raw Story:
‘Insane’: Legal experts blast Trump's ‘unbelievable’ new firings as ‘attack on the EEOC’
‘Insane’: Legal experts blast Trump's ‘unbelievable’ new firings as ‘attack on the EEOC’
Discussion:
New York Times, Bloomberg Law, Associated Press and U.S. Equal Employment …
Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
“Trump is trying to collapse our economy”: War on “woke” revealed as a war on all Americans — Christian nationalists behind the spending shutdown aim to punish everyone, not just imaginary Marxists — Initially, the most striking detail in the White House Office of Management and Budget memo …
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Zack Beauchamp / Vox:
Trump is already acting like a king — Late on Monday night, the Trump administration sent out a stunning memo suspending all federal grants. Chaos followed, with everything from veteran's charities facing financial ruin to reports of Medicaid portals shutting down across the country.
Discussion:
Axios, Reason, The Lever, Good Politics/Bad Politics, The Dispatch, Esquire, Los Angeles Times and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Popular Information:
New Trump memo claims authority to ignore Congress
New Trump memo claims authority to ignore Congress
Discussion:
Associated Press, New York Times, USA Today, Al Jazeera, Rolling Stone, Politico, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Civil Discourse …, NBC News, Capitol News Illinois, HuffPost, CBS News, Daily Mail, Axios, Business Insider, Bloomberg, FOX 32 Chicago, New Republic, The 19th, MeidasTouch News, Reuters, New York Magazine, VTDigger and One America News Network
The White House:
Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation — By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: — Section 1. Policy and Purpose. Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming …
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New York Times:
Trump's Order on Transgender Troops Will Likely Ban Their Service, Again — In an executive order issued Monday night, the president said transgender service members “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary” for the military. — Hours after President Trump signed …
Zach Montague / New York Times:
Trump Signs Order Restricting Gender-Affirming Treatments for Minors
Trump Signs Order Restricting Gender-Affirming Treatments for Minors
Discussion:
Axios, Associated Press, Bloomberg and Roll Call
Politico:
How Trump's orbit used blunt force to squeeze Hegseth through — The aggressive posture, inspired by Trump, meant going after not only Democrats, the media and Hegseth's accusers — but also their own party. — Pete Hegseth seemed well on his way to becoming Trump's next Defense secretary …
Discussion:
Louder With Crowder and The Gateway Pundit
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Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
RFK Jr., Trump's Pick for Health Secretary, Faces First Senate Confirmation Hearing
Daniel Payne / Politico:
RFK Jr.'s confirmation battle has turned politics upside down
RFK Jr.'s confirmation battle has turned politics upside down
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Hill, CBS News, Washington Examiner, Fox News, NOTUS, ABC News, Daily Caller News Foundation, The Atlantic, Mediaite, Associated Press, NPR and CNN
Fox News:
Pentagon pulling Gen. Milley's security detail and clearance ‘immediately,’ may face demotion in retirement — EXCLUSIVE: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will announce he is “immediately pulling” retired Gen. Mark Milley's personal security detail and security clearance, multiple senior administration officials tell Fox News.
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Anna Kutz / The Hill:
Lara Trump: Caroline Kennedy's comments on RFK Jr. ‘disgusting’ — Caroline Kennedy lambastes RFK Jr. in letter to senators — She calls cousin a ‘predator’ who lacks relevant experience — Lara Trump: Comments are ‘part of that political game’ — Lara Trump responded …
Discussion:
New York Times, New Jersey Online, NPR, The Guardian, IJR, Washington Post, ABC News, NBC News, FOX 13 Tampa Bay, The Independent, Fox News, Daily Kos, Associated Press, Metro.co.uk, Washington Examiner, Fortune, Mediaite, Rolling Stone, Deadline, New York Daily News, Scripps News, Alternet.org, New York Magazine, CBS News, Axios, Forbes, New York Post, The Hollywood Reporter and USA Today
David Corn / Mother Jones:
SCOOP: RFK Jr. Secretly Recorded Second Wife During Divorce and Acknowledged Being “Polygamous” — One recording might have violated state law. It was part of a messy saga that ended with her suicide. — In the early 2010s, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went through a contentious divorce with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy.
Apoorva Mandavilli / New York Times:
State Department Permits Distribution of H.I.V. Medications to Resume — for Now — Experts fear a resurgence of infections in low-income countries if the ban were to continue. The waiver remains in place, while officials review foreign aid programs. — The Trump administration …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, World Health Organization, STAT, Inside Medicine, Roll Call and Alternet.org
RELATED:
Brianne Pfannenstiel / Des Moines Register:
Iowa Democrats flip Senate seat in special election to cut into Republican majority — Iowa Democrats have flipped a state Senate seat vacated earlier this year by Chris Cournoyer, who resigned to become the state's new lieutenant governor. — Democrat Mike Zimmer has defeated Republican Kate Whittington …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, WQAD-TV and Iowa Starting Line
Financial Times:
OpenAI says it has evidence China's DeepSeek used its model to train competitor — White House AI tsar David Sacks raises possibility of alleged intellectual property theft — OpenAI says it has found evidence that Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek used the US company's proprietary models …
Discussion:
Forbes, Fortune, New York Post, Tom's Hardware, Benzinga, Bloomberg, BGR, The Verge, TechCrunch, Fox News, Associated Press, Semafor, Fox Business, The Diplomat, Washington Post, Mashable, Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, Rolling Stone, Quartz, The Hill and Futurism, more at Techmeme »
Punchbowl News:
The best commute to Washington belongs to Jim Justice — Most days before the Senate starts its day, a privately-owned Cessna Citation V jet lands at Washington Reagan National Airport. — And most evenings, after the chamber is done with its business, the same jet takes off for Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg, W.Va.
Politico:
‘It was leaked to us:’ Army in chaos over Trump orders — Confusion around the new administration's spending freezes and executive orders has caused disarray inside the Pentagon. — The Army rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump's executive orders this week, sparking so much confusion …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Defense One, SpaceNews, Alternet.org, WVEC and Breaking Defense
Julia Ainsley / NBC News:
Trump administration may pull money from TSA, Coast Guard to help ICE afford costly deportations — The average cost to ICE to deport a single person during the Biden administration was about $10,500, sources told NBC News. — Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the principal agency tasked …
Reuters:
Americans sour on some of Trump's early moves, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds — Americans have a dim view of some of President Donald Trump's early barrage of executive orders, including his attempt to do away with so-called birthright citizenship and his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Discussion:
The Hill, Protect Our Care, Baltimore Sun and Carolina Journal
Daniel Barnes / NBC News:
D.C. federal judge temporarily blocks Trump plan to pause federal aid spending — The order from Judge Loren AliKhan runs through next Monday, when further arguments in the case are scheduled. — Trump administration freezes nearly all federal grants and loans
Discussion:
The Guardian, CNBC, Politico, Nashville Banner, Missouri Independent, Maryland Matters, KTVU-TV, Axios, Mercury News, WVEC, Alternet.org, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Rolling Stone, WUSA, Daily Mail, RedState, Fox Business, VINnews, The News-Herald, Business Insider, Associated Press, The Hill, Fox News, Idaho Capital Sun, New Republic, Al Jazeera, GovExec.com, Arizona Mirror, Chalkbeat and Baltimore Sun
Rachel Ulatowski / The Mary Sue:
'Biden's Book Ban Hoax': Department of Education claims book bans are a ‘hoax’ and dismisses all complaints — The fear that book bans would worsen under Donald Trump's presidency has become a reality. The Department of Education announced it is dismissing book ban complaints as a hoax …
CNN:
Trump DOJ appointee in DC lashes out after flurry of ‘personally insulting’ leaks in his first week — The acting top federal prosecutor in Washington under President Donald Trump is furious about recent leaks to the press and also specifically directed staff to scrutinize a former official's work …
Discussion:
Mediaite
Paul Krugman / The Contrarian:
Departing the New York Times — As many people reading this know, last month I retired from my position as an opinion writer at the New York Times—a job I had done for 25 years. Despite the encomiums issued by the Times, it was not a happy departure. If you check out my Substack …
Discussion:
Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »
STAT:
STAT+: Private emails show RFK Jr. making false claims about Covid-19 shots, linking vaccines to autism — On the eve of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation hearings, his physician niece has shared a trove of private emails in the hopes of derailing his nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Discussion:
New York Post
David R. Lurie / Public Notice:
Trump's chaos governance failed once. He's trying it again. — He's breaking eggs while ignoring their price. … ✈️ ⛈️ 🚁 — Pundits spent the past week expressing wonderment at how Donald Trump has lumbered back into the White House with a massive show of dominance and power.
Discussion:
WisPolitics
