Musk associates sought to use critical Treasury payment system to shut down USAID spending, emails show  —  Four days after Donald Trump's inauguration, Elon Musk's top lieutenants at the Treasury Department asked its acting secretary, a career civil servant, to immediately shut off …

Deadline for Trump's federal worker buyout proposal temporarily blocked by judge  —  Washington — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Office of Personnel Management's deadline for federal employees to accept the Trump administration's “deferred resignation” offer.

Elon Musk's DOGE is feeding sensitive federal data into AI to target cuts  —  At the Department of Education, the tech billionaire's team has turned to artificial intelligence to hunt for potential spending cuts —  part of a broader plan to deploy the technology across the federal government.

Trump to sign an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court  —  The order will include financial sanctions and visa restrictions against ICC officials found to have assisted in ICC investigations of U.S. citizens or allies.  —  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday …

Trump taps televangelist kook to run new White House ‘faith’ office  —  Christian nationalism is in full swing after Donald Trump's Thursday announcement of a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias,” as well as a new White House Faith Office led by right-...

Rubio acting director of the National Archives  —  In addition to being the Secretary of State and the acting director of USAID, Marco Rubio is also the acting archivist of the United States, according to a high-level official.  —  Per the official, Rubio has been the acting archivist since shortly …

Trump team considers housing detained migrants in container offices  —  The Scoop  —  The Trump administration is in talks with a private shipping-container company to provide temporary space to house and process thousands of migrants slated for deportation, according to people familiar with the matter.

Gutting USAID threatens billions of dollars for U.S. farms, businesses  —  U.S. businesses that sold goods and services to USAID are in limbo, including American farms dealing in rice, wheat and soybeans purchased as food aid.

DOGE Teen Owns ‘Tesla.Sexy LLC’ and Worked at Startup That Has Hired Convicted Hackers  —  Experts question whether Edward Coristine, a DOGE staffer who has gone by “Big Balls” online, would pass the background check typically required for access to sensitive US government systems.

A.G. Pam Bondi says Trump sets DOJ policy, all DOJ lawyers are “his lawyers”  —  Shortly after being sworn into office on Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi went from the Oval Office to the Justice Department to do President Donald Trump's bidding.  —  Immediately issuing a series of orders …

DoJ sues Chicago claiming city impedes Trump's immigration policies  —  Justice department also sues state of Illinois, seeking a court order sweeping aside sanctuary laws  —  The US Department of Justice (DoJ) sued the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago on Thursday …

JD Vance accidentally directed us to a crucial moral question  —  Theology isn't usually part of the job description for America's vice president, but that's not stopping JD Vance from giving it a try just a couple of weeks into his new position.  —  In a Fox News segment on immigration …

White House Preparing Order to Cut Thousands of Federal Health Workers  —  The executive order could come as soon as next week, if the Trump administration goes ahead with plans  —  The White House is working on an executive order to fire thousands of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services workers …

US immigration is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations  —  Thousands of press releases about decade-old enforcement actions topped search results, all updated with a timestamp from after Trump's inauguration  —  News of mass immigration arrests has swept across the US over the past couple of weeks.

White House says it will cancel $8 million in Politico subscriptions after a false right-wing conspiracy theory spreads  —  White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, responding Wednesday to a question about a right-wing conspiracy theory, announced that the federal government would cancel $8 million worth of Politico subscriptions.

Why CBS stands at the epicenter of Trump's assault on the media  —  The television news magazine 60 Minutes — the most storied and profitable show in the history of CBS News — currently finds itself as the avatar of President Trump's onslaught against the media in the courts and the court of public opinion.

Memory-Holing Jan. 6: What Happens When You Try to Make History Vanish?  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  On Jan. 10, the U.S. Department of Justice released a 123-page report …

Trump's Attacks on DEI Get Approval From Some in the Left Wing  —  Many Democrats and activists are rallying to defend diversity programs, but others say they distract from deeper efforts to address inequality.  —  A few days after President Trump issued an order urging the private sector to end …

Fed Closes Climate Program, Ending Stress-Test Burden for Banks  — US central bank initiated the pilot program two years ago  — Decision impacts lenders, including JPMorgan and Citigroup  —  The Federal Reserve has ended its program that required the biggest US banks to submit data …

Airline Pilots in the DC Plane Crash Acted as Expected, Experts Say  —  The pilots of the American Airlines regional jet in the Washington airport collision acted as expected, aviation safety experts and other pilots said.  —  Just after 8:43 p.m. on Jan. 29, an air traffic controller …

Note to Our Readers  —  POLITICO has been the subject of debate on X this week.  Some of it has been misinformed, and some of it has been flat-out false.  Let's set the record straight.  —  POLITICO has been the subject of debate on X this week.  Some of it has been misinformed, and some of it has been flat-out false.

The Oligarchs Who Came to Regret Supporting Hitler  —  They helped him in pursuit of profit.  Many ended up in concentration camps.  —  he was among the richest men in the world.  He made his first fortune in heavy industry.  He made his second as a media mogul.