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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 …
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BBC, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, United States Senate Committee …, Fortune, UPI, The Federalist, OutsideTheBeltway, Axios, New Republic, ABC News, Reuters, RedState, CBS News and Bloomberg

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” …

Trump Administration Closes USAID Headquarters — Monday closure comes as Elon Musk and DOGE are pushing to get rid of foreign-assistance agency — WASHINGTON—The U.S. Agency for International Development closed its headquarters to agency personnel on Monday following moves …
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Axios, NOTUS, ABC News, NBC News, Daily Mail, The Gateway Pundit, CBS News, Fox News and Bloomberg

Behind DOGE's Standoff at USAID: Desk Searches and Elon Musk Calling
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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 »
Andrew Perez / Rolling Stone:
Elon Musk Is Permanently Deleting Government Agencies
Elon Musk Is Permanently Deleting Government Agencies
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New York Times, Public, Financial Times, DNyuz, USA Today, Breitbart, CBS News, LewRockwell, Grabien and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »
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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Blaze Media, Washington Examiner, Daily Mail, New Republic and Baltimore Sun

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, Baltimore Sun, Daily Mail, New York Post and Truthout
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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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Trump backs down on Mexico tariffs after Mexican president pledges border troops
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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 …
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The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Law & Crime, emptywheel, Mediaite and NBC News
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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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, CNN, Fox News, CBS News, Raw Story, New York Post, Baltimore Sun, RedState, Twitchy, Forbes, The Guardian, DNyuz and The Post Millennial
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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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, Business Insider, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Guardian and HuffPost

‘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

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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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.

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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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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The Verge, ABC News, Fortune, Robert Reich, The Lens, MeidasTouch News, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Financial Times and The Post Millennial
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‘Filled With Unmitigated Terror’
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Rolling Stone, Axios, Notes on the Crises and Bloomberg
Margaret Sullivan / American Crisis:
The split personality of Big Journalism in covering this nightmare

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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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 … and UPI

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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Law & Crime
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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 …
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Matthew Chapman / Raw Story:
‘Ripping up the contract’: Canadian premier scraps Musk business amid tariff fight
‘Ripping up the contract’: Canadian premier scraps Musk business amid tariff fight
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Business Insider, Global News, DNyuz, Quartz, The Verge, NBC News, New York Post and Bloomberg

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?

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 »

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 »

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.