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10:10 PM ET, February 21, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Associated Press:
Trump fires chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  —  President Donald Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.
RELATED:
New York Times:
Trump Fires Joint Chiefs Chairman Amid Flurry of Dismissals at Pentagon  —  The decision to fire Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star fighter pilot, upends a tradition in which the Joint Chiefs chairman traditionally remains in place as administrations change.
Breaking Defense:
Hegseth fires Navy top officer, Air Force No. 2  —  The firings of Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Gen. James Slife follows tonight's removal of Gen. CQ Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  —  WASHINGTON — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth today announced he was removing Adm. Lisa Franchetti …
Discussion: UPI
John Ismay / New York Times:
Hegseth Fires Navy's Top Officer
Nancy A. Youssef / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Fires the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Discussion: Instapundit
Joe Rennison / New York Times:
Stock Market Sees Biggest Declines of Trump's Presidency So Far  —  Fueling a 1.7 percent decline on Friday was an unexpected drop in the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index, as Americans worried about stubborn inflation.  —  Stocks slumped on Friday, with the S&P 500 wiping …
RELATED:
David Bauder / Associated Press:
AP sues 3 Trump administration officials, citing freedom of speech  —  The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists.
Hannah Knowles / Washington Post:
Back in their districts, GOP lawmakers get an earful on DOGE and Musk  —  Town halls from Wisconsin to Oregon grew testy this week as concerned voters showed up to vent  —  ROSWELL, Georgia — The crowd packed into City Hall and filled an overflow room with one question, above all …
RELATED:
NBC News:
At town halls, Republicans feel the heat from Trump and Musk's firing and cutting spree
Washington Post:
Acting ICE director removed amid White House pressure to boost arrests  —  Caleb Vitello, a veteran ICE official, will be reassigned in latest agency shakeup.  —  The Trump administration has removed the top official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement one month into his tenure …
RELATED:
Julia Ainsley / NBC News:
Trump administration reassigning acting ICE director
Discussion: New York Post, Grabien and The Hill
Sophia Cai / Politico:
‘Precision is the priority’?  Trump administration pauses some mass firings  —  One White House official says there is now a reluctance to fire veterans.  —  After a chaotic first wave of mass firings, Trump administration officials say they are slowing the pace of gutting certain agencies …
RELATED:
Dan Lamothe / Washington Post:
Pentagon to fire 5,400 civilian employees in ‘initial’ purge
Erin Doherty / Axios:
French leader cancels CPAC speech after Bannon's apparent Nazi salute … - Bannon did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.  — A CPAC representative did not respond to a request for comment Friday. … - “As a result, I have taken the immediate decision to cancel …
RELATED:
Reuters:
Exclusive: US could cut Ukraine's access to Starlink internet services over minerals, say sources  —  U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine's critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country's access to Elon Musk's vital Starlink satellite internet system …
NBC News:
Ex-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio arrested on assault charge outside U.S. Capitol  —  Tarrio was released from prison last month after President Donald Trump cut short his 22 year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Malcolm Ferguson / New Republic:
Trump's Firing Spree at FAA Was Even More Terrible Than He Admitted  —  The Trump administration's Federal Aviation Administration firings are much worse than they initially let on.  —  Politico has reported that the 130 terminated FAA workers last month included critical employees who directly …
RELATED:
Rolling Stone:   Trump and Elon's ‘Pointless Bloodbath’ at the FAA Is Even Worse Than You Think
Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:
Supreme Court maintains pause on Trump bid to immediately fire watchdog agency head  —  The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, weighs in on a case involving the new Trump administration for the first time.  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday for now prevented President Donald …
Discussion: Reuters, UPI, Chicago Tribune, NPR and Raw Story
RELATED:
Nina Golgowski / HuffPost:
‘See You In Court’: Maine Gov. Goes Head-To-Head With Trump Over Trans Athlete Ban  —  Democrat Janet Mills had a heated exchange with Trump after he threatened to withhold federal funds to states that don't obey his executive order.  —  LOADING  —  Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) …
RELATED:
NOTUS:
Immigration Activists Hope the Courts Will Stall Trump's TPS Orders Again  —  The Trump administration is ending temporary protected status for Haitians early, but activists plan to fight back.  — Copy  —  Immigrant rights activists are preparing to fight in court against the Trump …
Charlie Mahtesian / Politico:
The political education of Elon Musk  —  THE WIDE STATE — Elon Musk's move-fast-and-break-things ethos has served him well so far in his efforts to demolish the federal bureaucracy.  —  But now comes the moment the billionaire leading President Donald Trump's DOGE initiative may not be prepared for …
Discussion: Reason, The Nation and WOAI
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Musk's blitzkrieg is unnerving many of Trump's senior advisers
Discussion: Raw Story
Frank Bowman / Slate:
Trump Issued Perhaps His Most Terrifying Executive Order on Tuesday  —  Over the past month, many have warned that President Donald Trump is trying to make himself king or dictator.  Trump's defenders wave off such warnings as hysterical hyperbole.  The past week has shown that they are very much not.
Kiley Koscinski / 90.5 WESA:
The University of Pittsburgh pauses its Ph.D. admissions process amid research funding uncertainty  —  Amid uncertainty about frozen research aid from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Pittsburgh has put its Ph.D. admissions on ice.  The school confirmed Friday …
Ali Bianco / Politico:
Richard Grenell: There will be conditions on Los Angeles fire aid  —  The Trump administration special envoy said the White House is talking about what the conditions will be.  —  President Donald Trump's special envoy Richard Grenell said there will be strings attached to California wildfire aid.
Isabel van Brugen / The Daily Beast:
Former Intelligence Officer Claims KGB Recruited Trump  —  A former Soviet intelligence officer has alleged that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 and given the codename “Krasnov.”  Alnur Mussayev, 71, a former head of intelligence in Kazakhstan and before that a Soviet KGB officer …
Discussion: Byline Times
Isabella Crowley / The Observer:
Rep. Cliff Bentz fields questions at emotional Union County town hall  —  LA GRANDE — Oregon's U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz tried to make it through his usual routine Wednesday, Feb. 19, at his town hall in La Grande.  But the crowd was not having it.  —  Residents from Union County …
Michelle Lewis / Electrek:
Trump to shut down all 8,000 EV charging ports at federal govt buildings  —  The Trump administration is shutting down EV chargers at all federal government buildings and is also expected to sell off the General Services Administration's (GSA) newly bought EVs.
Discussion: Gizmodo and The Verge
Christina Jewett / New York Times:
F.D.A. Firings Decimated Teams Reviewing A.I. and Food Safety  —  Staff units evaluating high-tech surgical robots and insulin-delivery systems were gutted by Trump layoffs even though industry fees, not taxpayers, financed the employee salaries.  —  In recent years, the Food …
Discussion: Reuters and The Independent
Politico:
Europe targets homegrown nuclear deterrent as Trump sides with Putin  —  Germany's Merz says Britain and France may need to “share” their nuclear weapons as America can't be relied on to defend NATO.  —  Europe's politicians are openly discussing how they could tackle the threat …
Discussion: Foreign Policy
David Gardner / The Daily Beast:
Melania Trump's Astonishing Verdict on Her Husband Revealed  —  A bombshell new book makes some startling new revelations about Donald Trump's bizarre marriage to Melania.  “She f—ing hates him,” a “Mar-a-Lago patio confidant” of Trump and his family told Michael Wolff.
Discussion: The Guardian and Raw Story
Politico:
MAGA takes aim at the Republican hawks  —  Trump loyalists are sending a message to the GOP's foreign policy traditionalists.  —  Top allies of President Donald Trump are in an escalating clash with the Republican Party's once-powerful defense hawks, viewing them as key obstacles standing …
Joe Anuta / Politico:
Eric Adams sues Trump over missing $80M  —  In a surprise move, federal officials clawed back funds approved by Congress for immigrant services.  —  NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams filed a lawsuit Friday against President Donald Trump and others in his administration over $80 million …
William Kristol / The Bulwark:
Inside DOGE's Dumbest Cut Yet  —  Andrew had meant to spend yesterday soaking in the sights and sounds at CPAC, but found himself tied up reporting our lead story below.  So he missed Vice President JD Vance's culture-war ruminations, Steve Bannon's calls for a third Trump term in 2028 …
Amy Maxmen / KFF Health News:
Texas Measles Outbreak Nears 100 Cases, Raising Concerns About Undetected Spread  —  Some private schools have shut down because of a rapidly escalating measles outbreak in West Texas.  Local health departments are overstretched, pausing other important work as they race to limit the spread of this highly contagious virus.
Haley Chi-Sing / Fox News:
Bondi says Epstein client list ‘sitting on my desk right now,’ and is reviewing JFK, MLK files  —  Bondi herself advocated for the release of the Epstein list in 2024  —  U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday said the Jeffrey Epstein client list is “sitting on my desk right now” …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Associated Press:
Judge largely blocks Trump's executive orders ending federal support for DEI programs
Politico:
House, Senate GOP to begin undoing Biden regulations
Discussion: NPR, RedState, UPI and E&E News
Hansi Lo Wang / NPR:
Census Bureau stopped work on data for protecting trans rights, former director says
Rachel Uranga / Los Angeles Times:
Trump administration reinstates funds for lawyers representing 26,000 children in immigration court
Benjamin Mueller / New York Times:
Trump Administration Stalls Scientific Research Despite Court Ruling
Discussion: Forbes
Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
With No Buy-in From Egypt or Jordan, Trump Appears to Back Away From His Gaza Plan
Discussion: Roll Call
Paresh Dave / Wired:
DOGE Put Him in the Treasury Department. His Company Has Federal Contracts Worth Millions
 Earlier Items: 
David Gardner / The Daily Beast:
Donald Trump Shades Musk: ‘What the F*** Is Wrong With Him?’
Discussion: Raw Story and New Republic
Zoë Richards / NBC News:
Judge gives go ahead for Trump administration to gut USAID's workforce
Jeremy Konyndyk / New York Times:
‘We Are Seeing Complete Destruction’: The Damage Done by the U.S.A.I.D. Freeze
Discussion: The Hill and Reuters
Daily Kos:
New York Times caught passing off GOP flack as average Black voter
Elie Mystal / The Nation:
This Executive Order Reveals the Trump-Musk Endgame
Zeynep Tufekci / New York Times:
Here Are the Digital Clues to What Musk Is Really Up To
Discussion: The Atlantic
Sarah Jeong / The Verge:
I cannot describe how strange Elon Musk's CPAC appearance was
 

 
From Techmeme:

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta is considering deep budget cuts to its metaverse efforts in 2026, potentially as high as 30% and most likely including layoffs as early as January

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple says general counsel Kate Adams and policy chief Lisa Jackson will retire, and Jennifer Newstead, Meta's former chief legal officer, will replace Adams

Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Two studies suggest AI chatbots can shift political views more effectively than TV campaign ads, especially by presenting many claims, regardless of accuracy

 
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