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4:50 PM ET, February 6, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
CNN:
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 …
RELATED:
New York Times:
Treasury Sought to Freeze Foreign Aid Payments, Emails Show  —  Trump administration appointees and allies of Elon Musk wanted to use the Treasury's sensitive payment system to block payments.  —  In the days after President Trump took office, as Elon Musk's team began pressing for access …
Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Bloomberg
NBC News:
Trump administration agrees to restrict DOGE access to Treasury Department payment systems
Bloomberg:
Musk's Brazen Cost-Cutting Campaign Is Annoying GOP Senators, Treasury Staff
Discussion: Raw Story, HuffPost and Forbes
Reuters:
Musk's DOGE granted access to US Medicare and Medicaid systems
Bloomberg Law:
Musk's Treasury Incursion Puts Entire Financial System at Risk
Discussion: Washington Examiner and Roll Call
Katherine Long / Wall Street Journal:
Exclusive |  DOGE Staffer Resigns Over Racist Posts  —  A staffer for Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency whose access to U.S. Treasury payment systems was approved by a federal judge on Thursday has links to a deleted social-media account that advocated for racism and eugenics.
Discussion: Forbes and Notes on the Crises
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Musk's DOGE agents access sensitive personnel data, alarming security officials  —  The highly restricted data includes personally identifiable information for millions of federal employees maintained by the Office of Personnel Management.
Discussion: Raw Story, Business Insider and Reuters
Joey McFadden / The Daily Beast:   Musk's DOGE Youngins Are Terrorizing Senior Gov Staffers
Melissa Quinn / CBS News:
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.
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Holly Otterbein / Politico:
Musk aims to hobble federal workers ahead of ‘buyout’ deadline  —  Countless staffers in the government are now grappling with what to do.  —  Elon Musk has declared war on the bureaucracy.  And as a Thursday deadline nears for federal employees to take a “buyout,” he is looking to demoralize and wear down his enemy.
Associated Press:
Federal workers debate the legitimacy of financial incentives to quit as the deadline nears
Daily Kos:
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-...
RELATED:
Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Trump announces task force to ‘eradicate anti-Christian bias’
The Guardian:
Aspiring autocrats like Trump are always more dangerous the second time in office
Discussion: ABC7
Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice:
Trump goes full colonialist
David Gutman / The Seattle Times:
Judge in Seattle accuses Trump of trying to change the Constitution  —  A federal judge in Seattle has once again blocked the Trump administration's attempt to rescind birthright citizenship — the guarantee embedded in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that every person born in the U.S. is an American citizen.
RELATED:
Garrett Haake / NBC News:
Trump to sign an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court
ABC News:
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 …
Discussion: Washington Examiner
RELATED:
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
National Archives Workers Unsure If Marco Rubio Has Secretly Been Their Boss for Weeks
Washington Post:
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.
Wired:
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.
Daniel Wu / Washington Post:
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.
Sigal Samuel / Vox:
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 …
RELATED:
Associated Press:   What is ‘ordo amoris?’ Vice President JD Vance invokes this medieval Catholic concept
The Guardian:
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 …
RELATED:
New York Post:
Trump administration sues Chicago, state of Illinois over sanctuary laws — and vows more lawsuits to come
Chris Geidner / Law Dork:
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 …
RELATED:
Andrew Goudsward / Reuters:
Trump administration disbands task force targeting Russian oligarchs  —  The U.S. Justice Department under President Donald Trump is disbanding an effort started after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin.
Politico:
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.
Wall Street Journal:
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 …
Discussion: Baltimore Sun
Dara Kerr / The Guardian:
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.
Juliet Macur / New York Times:
N.C.A.A., Following Trump's Order, Excludes Transgender Athletes From Women's Sports  —  The decision, effective immediately, came a day after President Trump signed an order barring transgender girls and women from playing in women's sports at federally funded educational institutions.
Dan Froomkin / Press Watch:
‘Trump Brazenly Defies Laws’ is not an A17 story  —  Donald Trump has repeatedly and flagrantly broken the law since reassuming the presidency.  But the national media - whose mission is ostensibly to hold the powerful accountable - is treating it like the new normal.
Discussion: New York Times
Noam Scheiber / New York Times:
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 …
Discussion: HotAir
Akayla Gardner / Bloomberg:
Trump Will Seek to End Carried Interest, Expand SALT in Tax Bill  — White House unveils additions to tax priorities as talks begin  — Trump seeks to end tax breaks for billionaire sports owners  —  President Donald Trump outlined his tax priorities in a meeting with Republican lawmakers …
Alec MacGillis / ProPublica:
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 …
Discussion: Washington Post and NJTODAY.NET
Niraj Chokshi / New York Times:
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 …
Discussion: Washington Examiner and DNyuz
Bloomberg:
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 …
Jose Pagliery / NOTUS:
Trump's DOJ Is Struggling to Commit to Keeping FBI Agents' Names Private  —  The agents fear political retaliation not only from the Trump administration — but also from the pardoned Jan. 6 rioters.  — Copy  —  Justice Department lawyers in court on Thursday would not make a simple promise …
Discussion: Reuters, UPI, NPR and Law & Crime
 
 
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 More Items: 
Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech / The Hill:
Maternal death rates fall as disparities widen: CDC
Nathaniel Weixel / The Hill:
Second strain of bird flu found in Nevada dairy cows
Stephanie Nolen / New York Times:
Dozens of Clinical Trials Have Been Frozen in Response to Trump's USAID Order
Discussion: The Diplomat
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Trump administration demands lists of low-performing federal workers
Sam Stein / The Bulwark:
Trump and Musk Are Strangling the Government
Axios:
Netanyahu told U.S. officials war could end if Hamas leaders go into exile: sources
Discussion: Fox News and israelhayom.com
Liam Reilly / CNN:
White House says it will cancel $8 million in Politico subscriptions after a false right-wing conspiracy theory spreads
 Earlier Items: 
Timothy W. Ryback / The Atlantic:
The Oligarchs Who Came to Regret Supporting Hitler
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Why CBS stands at the epicenter of Trump's assault on the media
 

 
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Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Netflix agrees to acquire WBD's studios and streaming business in an $82.7B cash-and-stock deal, including debt, to close after WBD splits in two in Q3 2026

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The EU fines X €120M for breaching online content rules, the first fine under the DSA, citing issues like its deceptive blue checkmarks, after a two-year probe

New York Times:
The New York Times sues Perplexity, claiming the AI startup violated its copyrights and kept using its content despite repeated demands over the past 18 months
 
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