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.

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.

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-...

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

Trump administration sues Chicago, state of Illinois over sanctuary laws — and vows more lawsuits to come  —  The Trump administration has filed suit against the State of Illinois, Cook County and the City of Chicago, arguing their sanctuary laws “interfere” with Immigration …

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

Dozens of Clinical Trials Have Been Frozen in Response to Trump's USAID Order  —  The stop-work order on U.S.A.I.D.-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care.  —  Asanda Zondi received a startling phone call …

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 …

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.

‘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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

Second strain of bird flu found in Nevada dairy cows  —  Dairy cows in Nevada have been infected with a new strain of bird flu virus different from the one circulating in other herds throughout the past year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.  —  The strain found …