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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 …
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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 …

Democrats push back after Musk says Trump agrees to close USAID and workers are kept out — Democrats have delivered a strong rebuke against the Trump administration's attempts to gut an agency that provides crucial aid overseas to fund education and fight starvation and disease …
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Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz puts a hold on Trump's State Department nominees — The move comes after Elon Musk said he and Trump would shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. — WASHINGTON — Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said Monday he's placing a “blanket hold” …
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Reuters

Trump Administration Closes USAID Headquarters
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Axios, NOTUS, ABC News, NBC News, Daily Mail, The Gateway Pundit, CBS News, Fox News and Bloomberg
Bloomberg:
Behind DOGE's Standoff at USAID: Desk Searches and Elon Musk Calling
Behind DOGE's Standoff at USAID: Desk Searches and Elon Musk Calling
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NBC News, CNN, CBS News, Reuters, Scripps News, Letters from an American, Axios, Associated Press, New York Post, DNyuz, The Post Millennial, Townhall and UPI
Andrew Perez / Rolling Stone:
Elon Musk Is Permanently Deleting Government Agencies
Elon Musk Is Permanently Deleting Government Agencies
Discussion:
Public, Reuters, Financial Times, New York Times, USA Today, Breitbart, DNyuz, CBS News, LewRockwell and Grabien, more at Techmeme »
Andrew Freedman / Axios:
Ending USAID climate programs could increase security risks
Ending USAID climate programs could increase security risks
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Truthout, more at Mediagazer »
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
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Daily Mail, New Republic, Baltimore Sun, Washington Examiner and Blaze Media
Eric Bazail-Eimil / Politico:
Rubio says he's acting head of embattled USAID
Rubio says he's acting head of embattled USAID
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Raw Story, HotAir, CNN, Fox News, New York Post, Tennessee Star, DNyuz, Twitchy, Blaze Media and The Guardian

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.
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Retail Dive, The Free Press, Breitbart, CNN, Associated Press and Baltimore Sun
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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.
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Politico, Reuters, Washington Examiner, NPR, The Contrarian, The Guardian, freebeacon.com, Global News, HotAir, Raw Story, CNN, Slate, WTTG-TV, Townhall, The Fucking News, Jacobin, CBS News, Fortune, The Post Millennial, USA Today, New Republic, Al Jazeera, Grabien and The Free Press

Trump backs down on Mexico tariffs after Mexican president pledges border troops
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
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New York Times, Bloomberg, CBS News, Raw Story, Baltimore Sun, Forbes, DNyuz and The Post Millennial
Bloomberg:
Trump Delays Mexico Tariffs by a Month After Sheinbaum Talk
Trump Delays Mexico Tariffs by a Month After Sheinbaum Talk
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New Republic, The Guardian, NBC News, New York Post, Adweek, BBC, Associated Press, Politico, One America News Network, WNYW-TV, UPI, Deadline, Breitbart, Fortune, The Texas Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Washington Examiner, Quartz, The Independent, Axios, Raw Story, Scripps News, Boston Herald, The Gateway Pundit, Semafor, Al Jazeera and The Verge
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell: Trump tariffs ‘will drive the cost of everything up’
McConnell: Trump tariffs ‘will drive the cost of everything up’
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Financial Times, CBS News, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, Digby's Hullabaloo, Business Insider and HuffPost
Associated Press:
Trump agrees to pause tariffs on Mexico, but import taxes still in place for Canada and China
Trump agrees to pause tariffs on Mexico, but import taxes still in place for Canada and China
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Politico, New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, New York Post, NPR, Fox News, Tangle, Townhall, Reason, Daily Kos, KSNT 27 News, Associated Press, Fox Business, RedState, CNBC, MPR News, Breitbart, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Kansas Reflector, CBS News, Quartz, WTOP News, DNyuz, Global News, Chicago Tribune, 19FortyFive, The Independent, The Daily Wire, The Message Box, NBC News, New York Daily News, E&E News, Instapundit and Bloomberg

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.
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Vox and DCMediaGroup, more at Techmeme »
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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:
New Republic, Raw Story and USA Today

Musk's superteam of former iPad babies — Read to the end for Plimbo … Many other government websites faced outages throughout the weekend as they scrambled to figure out exactly how to comply with the instructions being sent out by the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

DOJ Says Trump Administration Doesn't Have to Follow Court Order Halting Funding Freeze — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argued Monday that a federal court order blocking President Donald Trump's federal funding freeze doesn't halt the administration's efforts.
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New York Times, USA Today and Law & Crime
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‘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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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Bloomberg, The Verge, Fortune, MeidasTouch News, Robert Reich and Wall Street Journal
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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.
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TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, ABC News, The Hollywood Reporter, The Post Millennial and New Republic
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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 …
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Politico, NBC News, CNBC, Bloomberg Law, Roll Call, RedState, Fox Business and Common Dreams, more at Techmeme »
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Laurel Wamsley / NPR:
Treasury Secretary Bessent, tapped to run CFPB, orders staff to halt work
Treasury Secretary Bessent, tapped to run CFPB, orders staff to halt work
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Consumer Financial …, UPI, Wall Street Journal, Daily Kos and Bloomberg

Trump Advisers Weigh Plan to Dismantle Education Department — Administration officials are discussing executive order that could shut down key functions of the agency — Trump administration officials are weighing executive actions to dismantle the Education Department as part of the campaign …
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Reuters, ABC News, Washington Examiner, Scripps News and Townhall
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Rebecca Carballo / Politico:
Trump admin zeros in on school choice, dismantling DEI

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

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 …

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?
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Advocate

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 …
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Adweek, more at Mediagazer »

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 …
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MSNBC and DNyuz, more at Techmeme »

Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow preparing to enter US Senate race in Michigan, AP sources say — Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow is preparing to enter the Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat in the state, multiple people familiar with her plans confirmed on Monday.