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12:10 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 …
Reuters:
Musk's DOGE granted access to US Medicare and Medicaid systems  —  Representatives of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have been working at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services where they were granted access to agency systems and technology, CMS said on Wednesday.
NBC News:
Trump administration agrees to restrict DOGE access to Treasury Department payment systems  —  The agreement came in response to a lawsuit accusing Treasury of committing an “unlawful action” by giving private info to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Bloomberg:
Musk's Brazen Cost-Cutting Campaign Is Annoying GOP Senators, Treasury Staff
Discussion: Forbes, HuffPost and DNyuz
Joey Cappelletti / Associated Press:
Pro-Trump Arab American group changes its name after the president's Gaza ‘Riviera’ comments  —  A group that played a key role in Donald Trump's voter outreach to the Arab American community alongside his allies is rebranding itself after the president said that the U.S. would “take over” the Gaza Strip.
RELATED:
Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice:
Trump goes full colonialist  —  So much for the “non-interventionist mindset.” … 🌍 🪖 🗺️  —  Though he campaigned on keeping the United States out of foreign conflicts, Donald Trump has started his second term with a blizzard of bizarre, violent, and potentially disastrous expansionist threats.
Steven Erlanger / New York Times:
Trump's Gaza Plan Has Many Pitfalls, Hamas Among the Biggest
NPR:
Israel's defense minister tells the army to prepare to relocate Palestinians from Gaza
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 …
RELATED:
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
National Archives Workers Unsure If Marco Rubio Has Secretly Been Their Boss for Weeks  —  Wednesday night, ABC News reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio “has been the acting archivist” at the National Archives and Records Administration “since shortly after President Trump's inauguration.”
Discussion: Fox News
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
Democrats To Take Over Senate Floor All Night To Oppose White House Budget Office Nominee  —  “He's the architect of the dismantling of our federal government,” Sen. Brian Schatz, one of dozens taking part in a 30-hour talkathon, said of Russell Vought.  —  LOADING
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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: Blaze Media
RELATED:
John Herrman / New York Magazine:
The DOGE Rampage Is Also a Bailout for Elon Musk  —  The co-presidency comes with perks  —  Elon Musk's aggressive and secretive incursion into the core systems of the federal government really is as “unprecedented” as reporters, lawmakers, and lawsuits insist: The world's richest man …
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Slate:
Pam Bondi Instructs Trump DOJ to Criminally Investigate Companies That Do DEI  —  On Wednesday evening, newly installed Attorney General Pam Bondi sent staff in several divisions of the Department of Justice more than a dozen memos within a 15-minute span, laying out the agency's new policies …
Discussion: NCJA, NPR, CBS News and CNN
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.
Clay Calvert / American Enterprise Institute:
When Anti-Press Ascendancy Meets FCC Public Interest Regulation  —  Let's start with an understatement: President Donald Trump isn't happy with the way most American journalists are doing their jobs.  During a December press conference, he proclaimed “we have to straighten out the press.
Discussion: DNyuz, Mediaite and Washington Examiner
RELATED:
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Why CBS stands at the epicenter of Trump's assault on the media
Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
Trump: ‘60 Minutes’ should be ‘immediately terminated’ after Harris transcript release
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.
NBC News:
Trump administration evicts former Coast Guard leader from her house with 3 hours notice  —  Trump fired Linda Fagan, the first female Coast Guard commandant, on his second day in office.  A Trump official told her she had three hours to leave her house on Tuesday.
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
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.
Discussion: Eschaton
Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Trump announces task force to ‘eradicate anti-Christian bias’  —  President Trump announced plans Thursday to establish a task force and a presidential commission to protect Christians from religious discrimination.  —  Trump addressed the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. …
RELATED:
Aamer Madhani / Associated Press:
Trump tells prayer breakfast he wants to root out ‘anti-Christian bias’ and urges ‘bring God back’
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Blindsides Panama, Saying American Government Ships Will Get Free Canal Passage  —  No formal deal has been agreed to as President Trump threatens takeover  —  The U.S. and Panama issued dueling statements Wednesday over access to the Panama Canal, with the State Department saying …
RELATED:
CNN:
Panama denies State Department claim US government vessels can now transit canal for free
Ryan Goodman / Just Security:
The Senate's Dilemma: Kash Patel and the Purging of the FBI  —  In the days since Kash Patel's nomination hearing for F.B.I. director, a crisis of historic proportions has engulfed the Justice Department and the Bureau.  The idea of Patel leading the F.B.I. through this period …
Ryan Bort / Rolling Stone:
Trump and Musk Are Pushing an Absurd Lie About Government and the Media  —  No, the Biden administration was not paying Politico or other outlets to spread their agenda  —  Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Fox News, Republican lawmakers, and countless prominent right-wing commentators across social media …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Republican ire at USAID finds an unusual target: Politico
Ally Mutnick / Politico:
Democratic polling finds Elon Musk is unpopular  —  House Democrats have a plan to help them win back the working class: turn the world's richest person into their boogeyman.  They've set their sights on holding Elon Musk to account, by attempting to subpoena him and introducing legislation …
Discussion: Axios and Breitbart
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 …
Financial Times:
Tesla's sales plummet across Europe  —  Registrations in Germany fall 59% amid consumer backlash against Elon Musk's political activism  —  Sales of Tesla's electric vehicles have fallen sharply across many of its key European markets amid a consumer backlash against Elon Musk's interventions in the region's politics.
Discussion: Bloomberg
RELATED:
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 …
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: NJTODAY.NET
 
 
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 More Items: 
Hannah Harris Green / The Guardian:
US health department condemns private equity firms for role in declining healthcare access
Lauren Irwin / The Hill:
Murphy warns of risk to democracy: ‘Red-alert mode’
Zack Budryk / The Hill:
Appropriations Democrats press Zeldin on ‘illegal’ EPA grant freeze
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Exclusive: US FAA to slow arrivals at Reagan National Airport to reduce risks after crash
Moira Donegan / The Guardian:
It is Elon Musk who is now running the United States. Not Donald Trump
Paul Krugman:
RFK Jr. and the MAGA Death Trip
Anna North / Vox:
The Trump administration is already hurting trans kids
Discussion: PolitiFact, Denver Post and The Hill
 Earlier Items: 
Natalie Allison / Washington Post:
As Washington reels from Trump's first actions, his voters like what they see
Washington Post:
Trump moves to shutter environmental offices across the government
Discussion: The Hill and Wall Street Journal
Erik De La Garza / Raw Story:
‘My jaw dropped’: Ex-NSA workers stunned after museum covers names of women and minorities
Discussion: NPR
Wall Street Journal:
How Trump's Sweeping Expulsions Have Thrown the FBI Into Chaos
Discussion: USA Today and Bloomberg Law
Andrew Solender / Axios:
Democrats' phones bombarded with calls to “fight harder”
Sarah Longwell / The Bulwark:
The Real Reason Musk Is Mad at Us
Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo
 

 
From Techmeme:

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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