Top Items:
The Atlantic:
The Government's Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified … Elon musk's unceasing attempts to access the data and information systems of the federal government range so widely, and are so unprecedented and unpredictable, that government computing experts believe the effort has spun out of control.
Discussion:
Foreign Affairs, The Verge, Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo, Musk Watch, Roll Call, MeidasTouch News, NPR and Washington Post
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Washington Post:
Treasury installs ally of Musk's DOGE as head of payment system — The move follows the ousting of a career official who rebuffed attempts to use the payment system to stop federal spending. — The Treasury Department will make an ally of billionaire Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service the head …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Bloomberg, New Republic and New York Times
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— Sources tell WIRED that the ability of DOGE's Marko Elez to alter code controlling trillions in federal spending was rescinded days after US Treasury and White House officials said it didn't exist.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:
Rolling Stone, Gizmodo, Forbes, New Republic, PinkNews, Diplomatic,, Talking Points Memo, Techdirt, New York Post, The Post Millennial, CNBC, The Verge, Beyer, Daily Kos and CNN
Shelby Talcott / Semafor:
DOGE follows longtime Musk pattern — and turns attention to Social Security Administration
DOGE follows longtime Musk pattern — and turns attention to Social Security Administration
Discussion:
Axios, HuffPost, New York Times, Reuters, DNyuz, Politico, NBC News and ABC News, more at Techmeme »
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Vance tells Musk that DOGE staffer who resigned after posting racist tweets should be rehired … Vice President JD Vance on Friday called for the rehiring of a DOGE staffer who resigned from a sensitive Trump administration post over the exposure of tweets advocating for racism and eugenics.
Discussion:
Scripps News, NBC News, Fox News, OutsideTheBeltway, The Root, The Independent, Daily Kos, driftglass, KRDO, Axios and Gizmodo
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Isaac Schorr / Mediaite:
Elon Musk Demands Firing of ‘Disgusting and Cruel’ WSJ Reporter Who Uncovered DOGE Employee's Racist Tweets — Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), suggested that The Wall Street Journal reporter responsible for uncovering …
Discussion:
HuffPost, New York Times, Raw Story, Fortune, Deadline, Townhall, Truthout, The Independent, Forbes, Breitbart, Crooks and Liars, Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Time:
Inside Elon Musk's War on Washington — The standoff at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue was not much of a spectacle. … The agency's staff refused. No guns were drawn. No punches thrown. Nobody involved the police. But in these early days of the Trump Administration …
Discussion:
New York Times, The Hill, Daily Mail, KRDO, Washington Post and Healthcare Dive
Ken Klippenstein:
Taking DOGE to Court Is a Doomed Strategy
Discussion:
emptywheel, Semafor, ABC News and The Register
Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
New Time cover features Musk behind Resolute Desk
Annie Porter / Slate:
I Work in the Office Carrying Out the Government Purge. Here's What I Want You to Know. — We're as freaked out and angry as everyone else. — I'm a career civil servant at the federal government's Office of Personnel Management, and I'm sorry. Normally, the only time anyone hears …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Steady and Raw Story
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Newsweek:
DOGE Emails Went Out to Federal Judges by Mistake — One of the people who received an email from allies of — was a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit aimed at blocking these messages. — “I, like probably every other judge in the country, also received the [Office of Personnel Management] …
Discussion:
ProPublica, The National Interest, WUSA, Axios, ZeroHedge News, NJTODAY.NET and CBS News
Scott Pilutik / Slate:
Why Elon Musk's Buyout Offer “Reads Like a Scam” — Elon Musk's “Fork in the Road” email offering 2.3 million federal civil servants a “deferred resignation” through September set off a number of legal questions this country has never been forced to consider, and they're finally making their way to federal court.
Discussion:
E&E News, New York Times, New Republic, WTOP News, CNN, CBS News, Breitbart, Associated Press, Bloomberg, WSVN-TV, The Gateway Pundit and Politico
Gordon Brown / The Guardian:
Be clear about what Trump and Musk's aid axe will do: people will face terror and starve, many will die — The decimation of USAid is already having a terrible effect in some of the poorest places on the planet. It damages America: it will harm us all — An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or above could not have caused more carnage.
Discussion:
New York Times
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NBC News:
How Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid
Discussion:
The Atlantic, New Republic, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Fox News, more at Mediagazer »
Samantha Power / New York Times:
I Ran U.S.A.I.D. Killing It Is a Win for Autocrats Everywhere.
I Ran U.S.A.I.D. Killing It Is a Win for Autocrats Everywhere.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, The 19th, Althouse, Washington Examiner, Politico and The Gateway Pundit
Juan Carlos Lara / KQED:
FCC Investigates SF Radio Station for ICE Reporting, Sparking Press Freedom Fears — The Federal Communications Commission is investigating San Francisco-based KCBS for its coverage of immigration enforcement actions in San José last month, sparking concerns from press freedom advocates …
Discussion:
Blaze Media, KRON4, The San Francisco Standard, Fox News, DNyuz, Techdirt and Newsbusters
Matthew Continetti / freebeacon.com:
Trump's Youth Revolution — Column: How America's oldest president became a Gen Z icon — News alert: Washington Post journalists are panicked that some DOGE employees previously worked at Elon Musk's private-sector companies and “are in their early 20s.” — The horror.
Discussion:
American Thinker
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Reese Gorman / NOTUS:
GOP Lawmakers Are Already Annoyed by Trump's Chaotic Governing Style
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Raw Story, New Republic, ABC News and CBS News
German Lopez / New York Times:
A Constitutional Crisis? — We're covering an imbalance of power in the government.
A Constitutional Crisis? — We're covering an imbalance of power in the government.
Discussion:
Unfogged
Reuters:
Staffer with Elon Musk's DOGE amplified white supremacists online — One of the people working with billionaire Elon Musk in his efforts to overhaul the U.S. government is a Berkeley-educated computer scientist who has boosted white supremacists and misogynists online.
Andrew Solender / Axios:
Scoop: Jeffries' centrists press him to let them vote for GOP bills … - The discussion, according to one House Democrat who was present, centered on giving centrist and swing-district Democrats “flexibility to take certain votes.” … - Said another member who was at the meeting …
Discussion:
NOTUS
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Rachel Wolf / Fox News:
Democrats try to enter Department of Education amid outrage over possible DOGE cuts — As they surrounded a man in front of Department of Education door, lawmakers repeatedly insisted that they had the right to enter the building — Thirty House Democrats on Friday morning attempted …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Daily Mail, Blaze Media, IJR, The Post Millennial, The Daily Caller, The Hill and Common Dreams
RELATED:
Andrew Solender / Axios:
A fourth federal agency locks its doors to Democratic lawmakers
A fourth federal agency locks its doors to Democratic lawmakers
Discussion:
NOTUS, New York Post, Reason and WGN-TV
Zack Budryk / The Hill:
Transportation Department suspends $5 billion EV charger program — The Federal Highway Administration (FHA) on Thursday announced the suspension of a Biden-era electric vehicle (EV) charging network, the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to gut its predecessors' energy and environmental moves.
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James Bikales / Politico:
Trump administration moves to suspend national EV charger rollout
Trump administration moves to suspend national EV charger rollout
Discussion:
The Guardian, Wired, The Verge, ZeroHedge News, Washington Examiner, Washington State Standard, Electrek, Heatmap News and Fox Business
Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users' encrypted accounts — Secret order requires blanket access to protected cloud backups around the world, which if implemented would undermine Apple's privacy pledge to its users. — Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create …
Discussion:
The Verge, Bloomberg, The Register, Gizmodo, Computerworld, Instapundit, Digital Trends, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch and BGR, more at Techmeme »
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
How to Win the USAID Fight — First up: Sarah and I argued about everything on the Secret pod today. The show is here. — Second: An update on yesterday's story about the confusion surrounding Trump's (maybe?) firing the head of the National Archives. There had been conflicting reports …
Discussion:
DNyuz
Peter Zimonjic / CBC News:
Trudeau tells business leaders at economic summit Trump's 51st state threat ‘is a real thing’ — PM meeting business leaders, unions to discuss fortifying Canada's trade in face of Trump's tariff threat — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told business leaders at the Canada-U.S. Economic Summit …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, New York Times and Exposing the role …
Michael Sainato / The Guardian:
‘Constitutional emergency’: senior US Democrat demands inquiry into Musk's government blitz — Exclusive: Bobby Scott sounds alarm over ‘void of oversight’ as Doge accesses sensitive data within US agencies — Elon Musk's blitz through the US federal government has triggered a …
Discussion:
Nextgov/FCW and Democracy Docket
Rolling Stone:
Dem Overseeing ‘Digital Assets’ to Hold Luxury Retreat With Crypto Kingpin — Ruben Gallego, Arizona's new senator, is set to hold a fundraising weekend with Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen and blogger Matt Yglesias — Freshman Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego was recently named …
Discussion:
Gizmodo and New York Times
Public Notice:
The “cognitively irresponsible” presidency — “It's a giveaway that a leader is an authoritarian,” Jen Mercieca tells us. — ∙ Paid … 🗣️ 🎤 🤯 — The volume of BS that Donald Trump blasts into the public sphere on a daily basis is flabbergasting.
Ezra Klein / New York Times:
What Elon Musk Wants — This is an edited transcript of an episode of “The Ezra Klein Show.” You can listen to the conversation by following or subscribing to the show on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
Andrea Long Chu / New York Magazine:
Goodbye, Pamela Paul … Goodbye, Pamela Paul! You hardly knew us. — The controversial columnist is exiting the New York Times “Opinion” section this spring as part of a wave of job cuts. In 2022, after a decade of editing the Book Review, Paul joined “Opinion,” where she quickly gained …
CBS News:
Trump considering allowing sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel — President Trump is considering allowing Japan's Nippon Steel to complete its $14.1 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, according to multiple sources. — Approval of the transaction isn't definite, and Mr. Trump has not made a final decision, sources say.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, CNBC, UPI, Kyodo News+, Fox Business and The Japan Times
Politico:
Trump considering Blagojevich for ambassador to Serbia — The former governor of Illinois, whose corruption conviction sentence Trump commuted, chaired a group called Serbians for Trump in the 2024 election. — President Donald Trump is considering nominating former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Derrick Bryson Taylor / New York Times:
Ye Takes Back Apology and Calls Himself a Nazi in Social Media Rant — The rapper praised Hitler and took back an apology he made in 2023 for his past antisemitic remarks. — Ye, the rapper and designer formerly known as Kanye West, took back the apology he made in 2023 …
Discussion:
Billboard, One America News Network, Variety, PinkNews, Rolling Stone, The Forward and Just Jared
Russell Contreras / Axios:
Exclusive: Jewish groups rebuke Trump on immigration, Musk moves … - The groups emphasize that legitimate policy debates and disagreements are fine — and note that there are disputes among the letter's signees — but say Trump's recent actions go far beyond that.
Discussion:
Sun-Sentinel
Makena Kelly / Wired:
DOGE Builds ‘Firewall’ Between Musk's Team and Legacy USDS Workers — “As far as I can tell, they're hiding,” one USDS employee said about the DOGE team. — The Department of Government Efficiency has built a “firewall” separating Elon Musk's team from the 200 or so legacy workers employed …
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Business Insider, The Verge and Washington Examiner
CNN:
‘Treated like criminals’: Shackling of Indians aboard 40-hour migrant flight sparks new outrage against Trump — New Delhi CNN — US officials kept around 100 deported Indian migrants in shackles for their 40-hour flight home, including during bathroom breaks, in the latest incident …
Discussion:
Al Jazeera, CBS News, New York Times and DNyuz
Reuters:
Exclusive: Zelenskiy says 'Let's do a deal', offering Trump mineral partnership, seeking security — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals during an interview with Reuters on Friday …
Discussion:
Al Jazeera
Amy Maxmen / KFF Health News:
Measles Outbreak Mounts Among Children in One of Texas' Least Vaccinated Counties — A measles outbreak is growing in a Texas county with dangerously low vaccination rates. — USE OUR CONTENT — In late January, two school-age children from Gaines County were hospitalized with measles.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
Trump Tax Priorities Total $5 to $11 Trillion — In a closed-door meeting with House Leadership today President Trump reportedly outlined his tax priorities. According to press reports, they included extending the expiring pieces of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA); …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Kos, Fortune, Econbrowser, Axios and Breitbart
