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
RELATED:
Robert Reich:
The end of law? — He is the most lawless president in American history.
Discussion:
Vox, No More Mister Nice Blog and NBC News
Jonathan Chait / The Atlantic:
Trump Signals He Might Ignore the Courts
Trump Signals He Might Ignore the Courts
Discussion:
New York Times, The Contrarian and The Daily Wire
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:
Reuters, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News and The Independent
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Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:
Trump says Palestinians wouldn't be allowed back into Gaza under his plan
Discussion:
The Guardian, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Raw Story, Fox News and Mediaite
STAT:
22 states sue to block Trump administration cuts to NIH research payments — Attorneys general seek court order to halt 15% cap on research overhead costs — Attorneys general representing 22 states sued the Trump administration on Monday, asking a federal judge to temporarily block …
Discussion:
Fox News, HuffPost, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Journal Sentinel, Inside Higher Ed, ZeroHedge News and al.com
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Erin Schumaker / Politico:
States sue Trump administration over health research grant cuts
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Missouri Independent, The Democracy Labs, The Bulwark and Letters from an American
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, Axios, The Guardian, The National Pulse, New Jersey Online and Raw Story
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 …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
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, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, New Republic, Axios, Fox Business, Reuters, Alternet.org and The Gateway Pundit, more at Techmeme »
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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 …
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Trump administration seeks urgent end of ‘impermissible’ court order blocking access to Treasury systems — The order blocked DOGE access to a critical government payment mechanism. — The Trump administration is making an urgent push to end a court order barring top officials' access …
Discussion:
New Republic, Roll Call, The Daily Wire, ZeroHedge News and Raw Story
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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:
Raw Story
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Trump 2.0 Heralds an Aggressive Flexing of Power — President Trump's early moves to slash the federal government and expand American territory represent significant ideological swings from his first term. — For all of the shock and awe of President Trump's first weeks back in office, much of it should come as little surprise.
Discussion:
Alternet.org
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Schumer warns of ‘Trump shutdown,’ lays out 4-pronged plan for Democrats
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senate Democrats launch portal for whistleblowers in Trump administration
Senate Democrats launch portal for whistleblowers in Trump administration
Discussion:
Reuters, Washington Examiner, UPI, CBS News, RedState, PoliticusUSA and MeidasTouch News
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 …
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 Jersey Online
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Nicole Narea / Vox:
Trump's Guantánamo plan is an old idea — with an ugly history — President Donald Trump is looking to vastly expand immigrant detention in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. — Trump hopes to eventually detain up to 30,000 immigrants at Guantánamo, which would require …
Discussion:
Alternet.org, Fox News, The Independent and PolitiFact
RELATED:
Jon Queally / Common Dreams:
'He's Building a Concentration Camp': Fears Grow as Images Emerge of Offshore Prison at Gitmo
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:
Washington Examiner, Reuters, NPR, The Independent, Associated Press, JURIST, The Gateway Pundit, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Axios
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 …
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.
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Judge says Trump administration violating order to lift spending freeze — The judge ordered the administration to “immediately restore frozen funding.” — A federal judge says the Trump administration has been violating his order to resume funding federal grants that the White House attempted …
Discussion:
CBS News, Reuters, Business Insider and The Status Kuo
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 …
Margaret Hartmann / New York Magazine:
Trump Mocks Taylor Swift for Super Bowl Boos, Can't Help But Lie — Donald Trump has a well-documented passion for lying. He lies about big things (like whether he won the 2020 election) and totally insignificant things (like his Time magazine obsession).
Discussion:
New York Post, The Hill, HuffPost, Mercury News, Plain Dealer, Fox News, The Daily Wire, New Republic, New Jersey Online, IJR, Mediaite, TMZ.com, The Daily Caller, Metro.co.uk, Forbes, Raw Story, PinkNews, New York Daily News, Daily Mail, Breitbart, Rolling Stone, Variety, Deadline, al.com, Associated Press, CBS News, USA Today, The Gateway Pundit, San Diego Union-Tribune, Cosmopolitan, 6abc and Page Six
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Jeff Mason / Reuters:
Trump attends Super Bowl with a complicated NFL relationship
Trump attends Super Bowl with a complicated NFL relationship
Discussion:
USA Today, Washington Post, Daily Mail, Raw Story, IJR, New York Times and New Jersey Online
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 …
CNBC:
Trump to pause enforcement of law banning bribery of foreign officials … - CNBC Councils — CNBC on Peacock — Join the CNBC Panel — Supply Chain Values — Select Shopping — Ad Choices — News Tips — Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Discussion:
Bloomberg
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 …
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 Independent, The Guardian and Reuters
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 and NPR
