Top Items:
Lisa Needham / Public Notice:
Trump and his lawyers embrace the logic of dictatorship — And they're not even trying to hide it at this point. … 🗣️ 🎤 🤯 — Donald Trump is busy seizing power through executive orders and letting Elon Musk and his gang of racist DOGE bros run amok through America's government agencies.
Discussion:
Reuters and The Contrarian
RELATED:
Robert Reich:
The end of law? — He is the most lawless president in American history. — He's allowed Musk's rats unfettered access to the Treasury's payments system. Banned birthright citizenship. Refused to spend money appropriated by Congress. Closed U.S. AID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau …
Discussion:
Vox, No More Mister Nice Blog and NBC News
Jonathan Chait / The Atlantic:
Trump Signals He Might Ignore the Courts
Discussion:
New York Times, The Contrarian and The Daily Wire
New York Times:
Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew, Janet Yellen: DOGE Is a Threat to U.S. Democracy. — When we had the honor of being sworn in as the 70th, 71st, 75th, 76th and 78th secretaries of the Treasury, we took an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution.
Discussion:
CNBC, The Hill, Mediaite, The Guardian, New Jersey Online, The National Pulse and Raw Story
RELATED:
Avery Lotz / Axios:
Former Treasury Secretaries sound alarm over DOGE access
Former Treasury Secretaries sound alarm over DOGE access
Discussion:
The Hill and The Guardian
Zeke Miller / Associated Press:
Live updates: Trump says Palestinians won't have right to return to Gaza under his plan for the territory — President Donald Trump said Palestinians in Gaza would not have a right to return under his plan for U.S. “ownership” of the war-torn territory, contradicting other officials …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Reuters, Axios, Fox News, New York Daily News and The Independent
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
DOGE-Backed Halt at CFPB Comes Amid Musk's Plans for ‘X’ Digital Wallet — Government-efficiency team's initial ‘read-only’ access expanded quickly to encompass closely guarded data, internal emails say — In another weekend takeover of a federal agency's operations …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Axios, Fox Business, Washington Post, Reuters, Alternet.org and The Gateway Pundit, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Caleb Ecarma / Musk Watch:
Musk associates granted access to confidential info about X's competitors — With Elon Musk's social media platform X poised to launch a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment services, Musk's associates have been granted access to confidential information about X's competitors …
Washington Post:
What is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and why is it a Trump target?
Discussion:
New Jersey Online, Wall Street Journal, UPI, UnHerd, CBS News and The Daily Wire
Megan Lebowitz / NBC News:
Union sues Russell Vought over DOGE access to CFPB, attempts to shutter bureau
Union sues Russell Vought over DOGE access to CFPB, attempts to shutter bureau
Discussion:
CBS News, HuffPost, MeidasTouch News, New Republic, Mediaite, CNBC and The Gateway Pundit
Judd Legum / Popular Information:
The NSA's “Big Delete” — Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) is planning a “Big Delete” of websites and internal network content that contain any of 27 banned words, including “privilege,” “bias,” and “inclusion.” The “Big Delete,” according to an NSA source and internal correspondence reviewed …
Reuters:
Trump says US may have less debt than thought because of fraud — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said the United States may carry less debt than thought and said it could be because of fraud related to debt payments. — Trump made his comments to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
Discussion:
Fox Business and Mediaite
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Trump Suggests Musk Effort at Treasury Found Irregularities
Discussion:
The Hill, JURIST, Fortune, ABC7 and ZeroHedge News
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Trump Says Some Treasury Notes May Not Be Real
Trump Says Some Treasury Notes May Not Be Real
Discussion:
USA Today, Fortune, Associated Press, Daily Mail and The Gateway Pundit
Wall Street Journal:
For CEOs and Bankers, the Trump Euphoria Is Fading Fast — Deals market gets curtailed by uncertainty delivered in president's first weeks — It took less than a month for the second Trump administration to cool the enthusiasm of chief executives and dealmakers.
Washington Post:
Farmers on the hook for millions after Trump freezes USDA funds — The White House had repeatedly said the funding freeze would not impact benefits that go directly to individuals. — Farmers report missing millions of dollars of funding they were promised by the U.S. Agriculture Department …
Discussion:
Oklahoma Energy Today and Raw Story
Travis Gettys / Raw Story:
‘Mark my words’: George Conway predicts alarming showdown that could ‘end’ U.S. democracy — George Conway predicted that Donald Trump would engage in a constitutional showdown that could spell the end of U.S. democracy. — Vice President J.D. Vance argued Sunday that federal courts …
New Republic:
Musk's Threats Suddenly Darken as Trump Legal Losses Trigger MAGA Fury — Rage is mounting among President Donald Trump's allies over the losses that Trump's agenda has suffered in court, which are clearly becoming a serious obstacle to him. It's gotten so bad that Elon Musk shared a tweet …
Discussion:
New York Times
RELATED:
Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
“'Women' is a banned word”: Trump uses trans panic to strip rights from all women — Under the guise of “protecting women,” the military, schools and labs are forced to take women's safety away — In a country where 1 out of 6 women have experienced rape or attempted rape …
emptywheel:
Rule of Law: Don't Obey in Advance, But Also Don't Give Up in Advance — For some time, we've all been assuming that Trump will defy court orders reining in his assault on the government. And then, in the wake of Judge Paul Engelmayer's order enjoining Scott Bessent from altering Treasury's payment system …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner and Twitchy
RELATED:
Jack Detsch / Politico:
Trump fires boards of U.S. military service academies — The president said that schools like West Point had been invaded by so-called “woke” ideology. — President Donald Trump on Monday said he had ordered the firings of the boards of visitors for all of the U.S. military's service academies …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, New York Post, Defense One, Townhall, Blaze Media, Raw Story and The Post Millennial
Jeff Mason / Reuters:
Trump attends Super Bowl with a complicated NFL relationship — Greeted with a mix of cheers and boos, U.S. President Donald Trump attended the Super Bowl on Sunday, the first sitting president to do so in person, despite a complicated relationship with the National Football League …
Discussion:
USA Today, Washington Post, Daily Mail, Raw Story, IJR, New York Times and New Jersey Online
RELATED:
Margaret Hartmann / New York Magazine:
Trump Mocks Taylor Swift for Super Bowl Boos, Can't Help But Lie
Trump Mocks Taylor Swift for Super Bowl Boos, Can't Help But Lie
Discussion:
HuffPost, New York Post, Mercury News, Plain Dealer, Fox News, New Jersey Online, The Daily Wire, New Republic, Mediaite, TMZ.com, The Daily Caller, Metro.co.uk, Forbes, Raw Story, PinkNews, Daily Mail, Breitbart, Rolling Stone, Deadline, al.com, Variety, Associated Press, USA Today, CBS News, The Gateway Pundit, San Diego Union-Tribune, Cosmopolitan, 6abc and Page Six
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Trump's power to fire executive branch officials will be tested in another lawsuit — Hampton Dellinger, who led an ethics enforcement office, said his firing is illegal. — A federal ethics enforcer swept up in a spree of firings President Donald Trump carried out Friday night is suing to get his job back.
Discussion:
Associated Press
Wall Street Journal:
DHS Seeks to Deputize IRS Officers to Help With Deportation Effort — Tax-collecting agency has thousands of special agents in its criminal-investigation division — WASHINGTON—The Department of Homeland Security has asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to deputize some law-enforcement workers …
Sherrilyn Ifill / Sherrilyn's Newsletter:
Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? — This past weekend a federal district court in Massachusetts issued a nationwide injunction ordering Elon Musk and his team of young tech supremacists to stop accessing payment and other systems at the Department of Treasury …
Maurício Alencar / The Daily Beast:
Kanye West Shutters X Account After Elon Musk Clamps Down on His Posts — Kanye West deactivated his Twitter account after days of posting antisemitic, misogynist and racist content which even forced so-called free speech advocate Elon Musk to take action.The X owner revealed that the rapper's account …
Discussion:
The Hill, Forbes, Page Six, Rolling Stone, The Root, Variety, TMZ.com, Daily Mail, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Consequence and Deadline
Jon Queally / Common Dreams:
'He's Building a Concentration Camp': Fears Grow as Images Emerge of Offshore Prison at Gitmo — Fears are growing that the offshore U.S. detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are an ominous sign of what President Donald Trump has in store as he further disregards the rule …
Discussion:
The Independent
RELATED:
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Court Blocks U.S. From Sending 3 Venezuelan Migrants to Guantánamo
Court Blocks U.S. From Sending 3 Venezuelan Migrants to Guantánamo
Discussion:
Alternet.org, Reuters, The Independent, JURIST, The Gateway Pundit, Associated Press, Fox News, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Axios and PolitiFact
Paul Krugman:
Sabotaging the Pax Americana — Trump and Musk are making us distrusted, friendless and weak — Elon Musk — with Donald Trump's acquiescence, but clearly Musk was calling the shots — has effectively destroyed USAID, the aid agency that was, aside from its humanitarian role, a major pillar of US foreign policy.
Discussion:
Hackwhackers and Raw Story
April Rubin / Axios:
Russia-U.S. relations “balancing on the brink of a breakup,” Kremlin warns … - Russian authorities will not end the war until Putin's terms outlined last year are met, which include Ukraine dropping its NATO ambitions and withdrawing troops from Russian-controlled regions.
Discussion:
NBC News, The Guardian, Reuters, Al Jazeera and Bloomberg

