Top Items:

Democratic Senator Says He Will Stall Trump Nominees Until USAID Is Back — Schatz said he would hold up Trump's diplomatic confirmations — WASHINGTON—Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) said he would place a “blanket hold” on all of President Trump's State Department nominees until …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Politico, Washington Examiner, Reuters, RedState, Raw Story, The Status Kuo, OutsideTheBeltway, The Gateway Pundit, Al Jazeera, UnHerd, The Guardian, Digby's Hullabaloo and Eschaton
RELATED:

USAID workers at Washington HQ told to stay home on Monday in unexpected, early-morning email — The main office of the US Agency for International Development in Washington was unexpectedly closed Monday and workers were emailed shortly after midnight that they should not come in …

USAID staffers told to stay out of Washington headquarters after Musk said Trump agreed to close it — Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency's Washington headquarters on Monday, according to a notice distributed to them …
Discussion:
NBC News, Politico, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters, Fox News, USA Today, Breitbart, DNyuz, Associated Press, Daily Kos, Forbes, Common Dreams, WNYW-TV, WUSA, MeidasTouch News, PinkNews, The Independent, The Daily Wire, The Daily Sceptic, The Post Millennial, CBS News, ABC News, Semafor, Saywhat Politics, Grabien and Daily Mail

The Twitter Files Playbook Comes For The US Government — Remember the Twitter Files? That carefully orchestrated “exposé” where incredibly gullible hand-picked journalists were given selective access to internal documents to manufacture misleading outrage about Twitter's content moderation?

Behind DOGE's Standoff at USAID: Desk Searches and Elon Musk Calling — Young staffers from Musk's government-efficiency initiative gained access to sensitive information to cap a weeklong effort that puts the aid agency's fate in question. — With the headquarters of the US Agency …
Discussion:
CNN, NBC News, CBS News, Scripps News, Reuters, Letters from an American, Axios, DNyuz, New York Post, Associated Press, Townhall, UPI, Politico and The Independent

Trump Administration Closes USAID Headquarters
Discussion:
Axios, NOTUS, ABC News, NBC News, Daily Mail, The Gateway Pundit, Fox News and Bloomberg
Matt Young / The Daily Beast:
Musk: I'm Closing Entire Federal Agency Down Right Now
Musk: I'm Closing Entire Federal Agency Down Right Now
Discussion:
Blaze Media, Washington Examiner, New Republic, Daily Mail and Baltimore Sun
Andrew Perez / Rolling Stone:
Elon Musk Is Permanently Deleting Government Agencies
Elon Musk Is Permanently Deleting Government Agencies
Discussion:
New York Times, Public, Financial Times, DNyuz, USA Today and LewRockwell, more at Techmeme »

White House: Mexico is ‘serious’, Canada appears to have ‘misunderstood’ Trump's executive order — The White House said on Monday it has noticed that Mexico is “serious” about President Donald Trump's executive order on tariffs but Canada has “misunderstood” it.
Discussion:
Retail Dive, The Free Press, Breitbart, CNN, Associated Press, Baltimore Sun, Daily Mail, Truthout and New York Post
RELATED:

Live Updates: Mexico Reaches Deal With U.S. to Delay Trump Tariffs — President Trump said he would pause tariffs on Mexico for a month, but levies on Canada and China were still set to take effect on Tuesday. U.S. shares fell at the opening bell, following drops in Asian and European markets, amid fears of a trade war.
Discussion:
Reuters, NPR, The Contrarian, HotAir, freebeacon.com, Raw Story, Slate, Kansas Reflector, WTTG-TV, The Fucking News, CNN, Fortune, Al Jazeera, New Republic, The Free Press, Grabien and The Independent
William Kristol / The Bulwark:
More Dangerous than Watergate — In case you missed it—or if you don't subscribe to The Triad …
More Dangerous than Watergate — In case you missed it—or if you don't subscribe to The Triad …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Law & Crime, emptywheel, Mediaite and NBC News
David Edwards / Raw Story:
Trump backs down on Mexico tariffs after Mexican president pledges border troops
Trump backs down on Mexico tariffs after Mexican president pledges border troops
Discussion:
ABC News, Washington Examiner, CNN, Washington Post, CBS News, USA Today, Breitbart, E&E News, The Daily Caller, The American Conservative, Blaze Media, Mediaite, Reason, Axios, NBC News and Fox News
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell: Trump tariffs ‘will drive the cost of everything up’
McConnell: Trump tariffs ‘will drive the cost of everything up’
Discussion:
Financial Times, CBS News, Washington Examiner, Business Insider, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Guardian and HuffPost
Kevin Shalvey / ABC News:
Trump 2nd term live updates: Marco Rubio made acting administrator of USAID: Sources
Trump 2nd term live updates: Marco Rubio made acting administrator of USAID: Sources
Associated Press:
Trump and Trudeau speak and plan to do so again before tariffs start on Tuesday
Trump and Trudeau speak and plan to do so again before tariffs start on Tuesday
Discussion:
Washington Post, Politico, New Republic, Fox News, Tangle, The Guardian, New York Post, NPR, MeidasTouch News, Washington Examiner, Fox Business, Breitbart, Al Jazeera, MPR News, RedState, WTOP News, DNyuz, The Daily Wire, The Fucking News, Townhall, Global News, Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, E&E News, Daily Mail, The Message Box, NBC News, CBS News, New York Daily News, USA Today, The Post Millennial, Instapundit and Bloomberg
New York Times:
Markets Tumble as Trump Tariffs Loom
Markets Tumble as Trump Tariffs Loom
Discussion:
The Guardian, Al Jazeera, CNN, American Greatness, DNyuz, Daily Mail, Associated Press, The Dispatch, New Republic, Politico, MPR News, Variety, HuffPost, E&E News and Kyodo News+
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
Follow the Money — Hey guys, I'm sending out Monday's Triad on Sunday night for reasons that will be clear when you read it.
Follow the Money — Hey guys, I'm sending out Monday's Triad on Sunday night for reasons that will be clear when you read it.
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog
Lingling Wei / Wall Street Journal:
Beijing Prepares Its Opening Bid to Talk Trade With Trump
Beijing Prepares Its Opening Bid to Talk Trade With Trump
Discussion:
New York Times, Asia Times, Townhall, The Daily Signal, New York Post, 19FortyFive, Fortune, Bloomberg and Reuters

‘Trump will screw up’: Schumer plots the Democratic comeback — Chuck Schumer's advice for Democrats staring at a long two or more years out of power: Just wait. — “Trump will screw up,” he told Semafor in an interview. — The Senate minority leader and his 47-member caucus finally got …
RELATED:

Primary Every Democrat — I spent almost a decade covering the United States Senate. So, believe me when I tell you that I do not want to be a United States senator. Imagine having a job where your mere existence in the role is a symbol of democratic backsliding, where your leaders torture …
Discussion:
Punchbowl News
Moira Donegan / The Guardian:
Why are the Democrats so spineless? — No wonder the American public thinks of Democrats …
Why are the Democrats so spineless? — No wonder the American public thinks of Democrats …
Discussion:
The Hill

Warren Questions Bessent Over Musk Access to Treasury Payment System — In a letter to the Treasury secretary, the Democratic senator warned against meddling with a system that processes trillions of dollars of transactions. — Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sent a letter …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Verge, Fortune, Mother Jones, Robert Reich, MeidasTouch News and Wall Street Journal
RELATED:
Margaret Sullivan / American Crisis:
The split personality of Big Journalism in covering this nightmare
Notes on the Crises:
Elon Musk Wants to Get Operational Control of the Treasury's Payment System. This Could Not Possibly Be More Dangerous
Elon Musk Wants to Get Operational Control of the Treasury's Payment System. This Could Not Possibly Be More Dangerous
Discussion:
Paul Krugman, Baltimore Sun, The Guardian and The Lens

I'm a Federal Worker. Elon Musk's Government Data Heist Is the Entire Ballgame. — On Friday night, reports emerged that Elon Musk's aides had tussled with Office of Personnel Management and Treasury staffers while demanding access to troves of information about federal employees.
Discussion:
DCMediaGroup
RELATED:

Musk associates given unfettered access to private data of government employees — Several of Elon Musk's associates installed at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have received unprecedented access to federal human resources databases containing sensitive personal information for millions of federal employees.
Discussion:
Raw Story, USA Today and GovExec.com

Trump orders creation of US sovereign wealth fund, says it could buy TikTok — U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ordering the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments to create a sovereign wealth fund and said it may purchase TikTok. — “We're going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, ABC News, CBS News, The Post Millennial and New Republic
RELATED:

Ford ‘ripping up’ Ontario's $100M contract with Elon Musk's Starlink in wake of U.S. tariffs — Musk part of President Donald Trump's team that wants to destroy families, Ford says — Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is “ripping up” Ontario's nearly $100 million contract …
RELATED:

‘Ripping up the contract’: Canadian premier scraps Musk business amid tariff fight
Discussion:
Global News, DNyuz, Quartz, The Verge, NBC News, New York Post, Bloomberg and Saywhat Politics

CFPB halts work after Trump appoints Bessent as acting head — The consumer watchdog agency was formed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Elon Musk wants to “delete” it. — President Donald Trump on Monday appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the acting director …
Discussion:
NPR, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Law, Roll Call, RedState and Fox Business

Trump plans to invoke obscure 18th century wartime law in bid for mass deportations — President Donald Trump is set to test the limits of his immigration crackdown by invoking a wartime law to deport immigrants alleged to be gang members without court hearings, a broad authority …
Discussion:
Reuters and The Independent

Exclusive: Trump's meme coin made nearly $100 million in trading fees, as small traders lost money — Entities behind President Donald Trump's crypto coin have accumulated close to $100 million in trading fees in less than two weeks, according to estimates from three blockchain analysis firms …
Discussion:
MSNBC and DNyuz, more at Techmeme »

N.Y. Attorney General Warns Hospitals Against Canceling Transgender Care — A White House executive order last week threatened to pull federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care. But not providing the care could violate state law, Letitia James said in a letter on Monday.
Discussion:
The Guardian and WTOP News

No, Elon: It Isn't Illegal To Boycott X — While news cycles in the first Donald Trump presidency were dominated by Trump's erratic social media pretense, news cycles during Trump 2.0 seem so far to be dominated by the erratic social media titan Elon Musk. The X CEO and leader …
Discussion:
Adweek, more at Mediagazer »