Top Items:
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:
Semafor, NPR, CNBC, Raw Story, Axios, The Hill, The Register, Talking Points Memo, New York Post, Mediaite, The Verge, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Washington Post, Forbes, The Independent, Notes on the Crises, Techdirt and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »
Axios:
Scoop: Trump orders key government agency to cancel all media contracts … - The discovery, made through a U.S. government spending database that has long been publicly available, triggered erroneous theories on X about the Biden administration “funding” anti-Trump media.
Discussion:
RedState, Fox News, Mediaite, ZeroHedge News, IJR, The Post Millennial and The Gateway Pundit, more at Mediagazer »
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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.
Discussion:
ZeroHedge News, Twitchy, DNyuz, The Hill and Dark Maga Returns, more at Mediagazer »
Liam Reilly / CNN:
White House says it will cancel $8 million in Politico subscriptions after a false right-wing conspiracy theory spreads
White House says it will cancel $8 million in Politico subscriptions after a false right-wing conspiracy theory spreads
Discussion:
CBS News, The Guardian, Fox News, New York Post, Townhall, Breitbart, Daily Mail, The Dispatch, Digby's Hullabaloo, KRDO, The Post Millennial, Daily Kos, Blaze Media, MeidasTouch News, Mediaite, The Independent, Raw Story, Louder With Crowder, Althouse, Crooks and Liars, ZeroHedge News, Status, The Daily Caller, One America News Network, HotAir, Washington Post, Shore News Network, Twitchy, The Gateway Pundit, RedState, New Republic and Axios
Zach Montague / New York Times:
Trump Administration Live Updates: Judge Delays Program Offering Federal Workers Incentives to Quit — Where Things Stand — Judge delays resignation plan: A federal judge in Massachusetts has stopped, at least temporarily, the Trump administration's effort to get federal employees …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Associated Press, CBS News, Forbes, Mediaite, DNyuz, The Verge, GovExec.com, Business Insider and Eschaton
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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.
Discussion:
Federal News Network, CNN, Washington Examiner, The 19th, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Fortune, UPI, FedSmith.com, USA Today, Associated Press, Raw Story, Daily Caller News Foundation, FedScoop, The Guardian, KRDO, Blaze Media, DNyuz, ZeroHedge News, The Gateway Pundit, The National Pulse, Bloomberg, documenting my thoughts …, Semafor, NBC News and Scripps News
Patrick Reis / Vox:
A setback for Elon Musk's plan to gut the federal workforce — The Logoff is a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. — Welcome to The Logoff. Today's edition is about a court order pushing …
Discussion:
NPR, ABC News, Reuters, NewsNation, Politico, The Independent, USA Today, Fox News, KRDO, The Daily Wire and MPR News
Holly Otterbein / Politico:
Musk aims to hobble federal workers ahead of ‘buyout’ deadline
Discussion:
Washington Post, CNN, CNBC, Forbes, Federal News Network, Blue Virginia, Townhall, Daily Kos, FedSmith.com, Associated Press, New Republic, Washingtonian and DNyuz
Andrew Prokop / Vox:
All the ways Elon Musk is breaking the law, explained by a law professor
All the ways Elon Musk is breaking the law, explained by a law professor
Discussion:
Rolling Stone and Reuters
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 …
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Wired:
The US Treasury Claimed DOGE Technologist Didn't Have ‘Write Access’ When He Actually Did — Sources tell WIRED that the ability of DOGE's Marko Elez to alter code controlling trillions in federal spending was rescinded days after US Treasury and White House officials said it didn't exist.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Post Millennial, New Republic and Beyer
New York Times:
Treasury Sought to Freeze Foreign Aid Payments, Emails Show
Discussion:
Bloomberg Law, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Heatmap News and Bloomberg
Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo:
America's Unions Sue DOGE, Launch the ‘Department of People Who Work for a Living’
America's Unions Sue DOGE, Launch the ‘Department of People Who Work for a Living’
Discussion:
Salon, Truthout, Washington Post, America's Unions, Politico, Daily Kos, E&E News, Axios, Business Insider and New York Times
ProPublica:
Elon Musk's Demolition Crew — On President Donald Trump's authority alone, Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has been unleashed on federal agencies. Employees from Musk's companies and those of his allies, as well as young staffers he's recruited, are wresting authority from career workers and commandeering computer systems.
Discussion:
Reuters, Rolling Stone, USA Today, Raw Story, Just Security, NJTODAY.NET and American Thinker
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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:
The Guardian and Raw Story
Joey McFadden / The Daily Beast:
Musk's DOGE Youngins Are Terrorizing Senior Gov Staffers
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.
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, Raw Story, Foreign Policy, Grabien and Blaze Media
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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.
Discussion:
Mediaite
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.
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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-...
Discussion:
ABC News, Reuters, Blaze Media and Washington Post
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Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Senate confirms Russell Vought to lead White House budget office
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, CBS News, New York Post, Twin Cities, Forbes, Fox News, Truthout, HuffPost and CNN
Garrett Haake / NBC News:
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 …
Discussion:
Washington Post, freebeacon.com, Fox News, Bloomberg, Associated Press, The Independent, Jewish Insider, Reuters, Raw Story, USA Today, The Gateway Pundit, NewsNation, IJR, The Guardian and New York Post
RELATED:
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.
Discussion:
Daily Mail, Mother Jones, Daily Kos, Forbes, Gizmodo, Raw Story and Axios, more at Techmeme »
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:
Raw Story and Baltimore Sun
Stephanie Nolen / New York Times:
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 …
Discussion:
The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and The Diplomat
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 …
Discussion:
Associated Press and Anglican Ink © 2025
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Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
Do Democrats Have a Plan? — Senator Brian Schatz on how the Party should be responding to Donald Trump's breakneck assault on the government. — Three weeks into office, President Trump has issued a slew of controversial executive orders, fired officials across government agencies …
Discussion:
Semafor, Mediaite, New York Magazine and HotAir
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:
404 Media, The Bulwark, Fox News and Washington Examiner, more at Mediagazer »
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.
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Times, Fox News, Minnesota Reformer, Law & Crime, The Gateway Pundit, Bloomberg and Chicago Sun Times
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:
CBS News, Washington Examiner and DNyuz
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.
Discussion:
Associated Press
Ashleigh Fields / The Hill:
Man pardoned in Jan. 6 case arrested on 2016 solicitation charge — Texas authorities arrested a Jan. 6 rioter recently pardoned by President Trump on Thursday for online solicitation of a minor. — The Harris County District Attorney's office said it took Andrew Taake into custody Thursday morning …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Sarah Fortinsky / The Hill:
Sotomayor hits presidential immunity decision in first public comments since new Trump admin — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday doubled down on her opposition to the presidential immunity decision last summer and expressed concern about public confidence in the high court.
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications
New York Times:
C.D.C. Posts, Then Deletes, Data on Bird Flu Spread Between Cats and People — The data, which appeared fleetingly online on Wednesday, confirmed transmission in two households. Scientists called on the agency to release the full report. — Cats that became infected with bird flu might …
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.
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 …
Discussion:
Raw Story, abc7NY, Lawyers, Guns & Money, New York Post, Daily Kos, The Post Millennial, Twitchy, Townhall, Hollywood Life and Washington Post
Timothy W. Ryback / The Atlantic:
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.



