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11:45 AM ET, February 6, 2025

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 Top Items: 
New York Times:
Treasury Sought to Freeze Foreign Aid Payments, Emails Show  —  Trump administration appointees and allies of Elon Musk wanted to use the Treasury's sensitive payment system to block payments.  —  In the days after President Trump took office, as Elon Musk's team began pressing for access …
RELATED:
Reuters:
Musk's DOGE granted access to US Medicare and Medicaid systems  —  Representatives of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have been working at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services where they were granted access to agency systems and technology, CMS said on Wednesday.
NBC News:
Trump administration agrees to restrict DOGE access to Treasury Department payment systems  —  The agreement came in response to a lawsuit accusing Treasury of committing an “unlawful action” by giving private info to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Bloomberg:
Musk's Brazen Cost-Cutting Campaign Is Annoying GOP Senators, Treasury Staff
Discussion: Forbes, HuffPost and DNyuz
Joey Cappelletti / Associated Press:
Pro-Trump Arab American group changes its name after the president's Gaza ‘Riviera’ comments  —  A group that played a key role in Donald Trump's voter outreach to the Arab American community alongside his allies is rebranding itself after the president said that the U.S. would “take over” the Gaza Strip.
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Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice:
Trump goes full colonialist  —  So much for the “non-interventionist mindset.” … 🌍 🪖 🗺️  —  Though he campaigned on keeping the United States out of foreign conflicts, Donald Trump has started his second term with a blizzard of bizarre, violent, and potentially disastrous expansionist threats.
Chantal Da Silva / NBC News:
Trump defends Gaza proposal, says territory would be ‘turned over’ to U.S. by Israel  —  “No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed,” the president added.  —  President Donald Trump doubled down on controversial plans for the Gaza Strip on Thursday, saying the Palestinian enclave would be …
Steven Erlanger / New York Times:
Trump's Gaza Plan Has Many Pitfalls, Hamas Among the Biggest  —  President Trump's proposal to “own” Gaza and transfer its population elsewhere has stirred condemnation and sarcasm, but it is an opening bid and could disrupt a tired diplomatic paradigm.  —  President Trump took the world aback …
NPR:
Israel's defense minister tells the army to prepare to relocate Palestinians from Gaza
ABC News:
Rubio acting director of the National Archives  —  In addition to being the Secretary of State and the acting director of USAID, Marco Rubio is also the acting archivist of the United States, according to a high-level official.  —  Per the official, Rubio has been the acting archivist since shortly …
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Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
National Archives Workers Unsure If Marco Rubio Has Secretly Been Their Boss for Weeks  —  Wednesday night, ABC News reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio “has been the acting archivist” at the National Archives and Records Administration “since shortly after President Trump's inauguration.”
Discussion: Fox News
Daniel Wu / Washington Post:
Gutting USAID threatens billions of dollars for U.S. farms, businesses  —  U.S. businesses that sold goods and services to USAID are in limbo, including American farms dealing in rice, wheat and soybeans purchased as food aid.
Discussion: Blaze Media
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Emily Wilkins / CNBC:
Trump's tax cuts are ‘stuck in the mud’ as Republicans split over spending … President Donald Trump's agenda is hitting speed bumps on Capitol Hill, as Republican infighting over spending levels threatens to halt a massive package of tax cuts, energy policy, healthcare and border security funds.
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Slate:
Pam Bondi Instructs Trump DOJ to Criminally Investigate Companies That Do DEI  —  On Wednesday evening, newly installed Attorney General Pam Bondi sent staff in several divisions of the Department of Justice more than a dozen memos within a 15-minute span, laying out the agency's new policies …
Discussion: NCJA, NPR, CBS News and CNN
NBC News:
Trump administration evicts former Coast Guard leader from her house with 3 hours notice  —  Trump fired Linda Fagan, the first female Coast Guard commandant, on his second day in office.  A Trump official told her she had three hours to leave her house on Tuesday.
Wired:
DOGE Teen Owns ‘Tesla.Sexy LLC’ and Worked at Startup That Has Hired Convicted Hackers  —  Experts question whether Edward Coristine, a DOGE staffer who has gone by “Big Balls” online, would pass the background check typically required for access to sensitive US government systems.
Andrew Solender / Axios:
Democrats' phones bombarded with calls to “fight harder” … - Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Axios: “What I think we need to do more is: Put the onus on Republicans, so that the calls that we're getting are directed toward Republicans.”  — “There has definitely been some tension …
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Lauren Irwin / The Hill:   Musk a ‘coward’ if he won't testify before Congress: House Democrat
Politico:
‘Blow this place up’: Frustrated Democrats want the Senate to fight harder
Washington Post:
Musk's DOGE agents access sensitive personnel data, alarming security officials  —  The highly restricted data includes personally identifiable information for millions of federal employees maintained by the Office of Personnel Management.
Holly Otterbein / Politico:
Musk aims to hobble federal workers ahead of ‘buyout’ deadline  —  Countless staffers in the government are now grappling with what to do.  —  Elon Musk has declared war on the bureaucracy.  And as a Thursday deadline nears for federal employees to take a “buyout,” he is looking to demoralize and wear down his enemy.
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Dara Kerr / The Guardian:
US immigration is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations  —  Thousands of press releases about decade-old enforcement actions topped search results, all updated with a timestamp from after Trump's inauguration  —  News of mass immigration arrests has swept across the US over the past couple of weeks.
Discussion: Eschaton
Clay Calvert / American Enterprise Institute:
When Anti-Press Ascendancy Meets FCC Public Interest Regulation  —  Let's start with an understatement: President Donald Trump isn't happy with the way most American journalists are doing their jobs.  During a December press conference, he proclaimed “we have to straighten out the press.
Discussion: DNyuz, Mediaite and Washington Examiner
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David Folkenflik / NPR:
Why CBS stands at the epicenter of Trump's assault on the media
Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Trump announces task force to ‘eradicate anti-Christian bias’  —  President Trump announced plans Thursday to establish a task force and a presidential commission to protect Christians from religious discrimination.  —  Trump addressed the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. …
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Aamer Madhani / Associated Press:
Trump tells prayer breakfast he wants to root out ‘anti-Christian bias’ and urges ‘bring God back’
Sigal Samuel / Vox:
JD Vance accidentally directed us to a crucial moral question  —  Just ignore the godawful reading of Christianity he used to get there. … Theology isn't usually part of the job description for America's vice president, but that's not stopping JD Vance from giving it a try just a couple of weeks into his new position.
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Blindsides Panama, Saying American Government Ships Will Get Free Canal Passage  —  No formal deal has been agreed to as President Trump threatens takeover  —  The U.S. and Panama issued dueling statements Wednesday over access to the Panama Canal, with the State Department saying …
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CNN:
Panama denies State Department claim US government vessels can now transit canal for free
Ryan Goodman / Just Security:
The Senate's Dilemma: Kash Patel and the Purging of the FBI  —  In the days since Kash Patel's nomination hearing for F.B.I. director, a crisis of historic proportions has engulfed the Justice Department and the Bureau.  The idea of Patel leading the F.B.I. through this period …
Ryan Bort / Rolling Stone:
Trump and Musk Are Pushing an Absurd Lie About Government and the Media  —  No, the Biden administration was not paying Politico or other outlets to spread their agenda  —  Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Fox News, Republican lawmakers, and countless prominent right-wing commentators across social media …
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Washington Post:
Republican ire at USAID finds an unusual target: Politico
Noam Scheiber / New York Times:
Trump's Attacks on DEI Get Approval From Some in the Left Wing  —  Many Democrats and activists are rallying to defend diversity programs, but others say they distract from deeper efforts to address inequality.  —  A few days after President Trump issued an order urging the private sector to end …
Ally Mutnick / Politico:
Democratic polling finds Elon Musk is unpopular  —  House Democrats have a plan to help them win back the working class: turn the world's richest person into their boogeyman.  They've set their sights on holding Elon Musk to account, by attempting to subpoena him and introducing legislation …
Discussion: Axios and Breitbart
Financial Times:
Tesla's sales plummet across Europe  —  Registrations in Germany fall 59% amid consumer backlash against Elon Musk's political activism  —  Sales of Tesla's electric vehicles have fallen sharply across many of its key European markets amid a consumer backlash against Elon Musk's interventions in the region's politics.
Discussion: Bloomberg
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 More Items: 
Zack Budryk / The Hill:
Appropriations Democrats press Zeldin on ‘illegal’ EPA grant freeze
Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
Trump: ‘60 Minutes’ should be ‘immediately terminated’ after Harris transcript release
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Exclusive: US FAA to slow arrivals at Reagan National Airport to reduce risks after crash
Paul Krugman:
RFK Jr. and the MAGA Death Trip
Anna North / Vox:
The Trump administration is already hurting trans kids
Discussion: PolitiFact, Denver Post and The Hill
New York Times:
Trump Administration Prioritizes High-Birthrate Areas for Transportation Funds
Alec MacGillis / ProPublica:
Memory-Holing Jan. 6: What Happens When You Try to Make History Vanish?
Discussion: NJTODAY.NET
 Earlier Items: 
Natalie Allison / Washington Post:
As Washington reels from Trump's first actions, his voters like what they see
Washington Post:
Trump moves to shutter environmental offices across the government
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Erik De La Garza / Raw Story:
‘My jaw dropped’: Ex-NSA workers stunned after museum covers names of women and minorities
Discussion: NPR
Sarah Longwell / The Bulwark:
The Real Reason Musk Is Mad at Us
Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Ziff Davis' Everyday Health acquires women-focused newsletter company theSkimm, whose co-CEOs will stay on with no plans to lay off any of its 75 staffers

Variety:
Q&A with Netflix's Ted Sarandos on his 25-year anniversary at Netflix, his cameo on Apple TV+ series The Studio, competing with suppliers like Disney, and more

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
David Novak, co-founder of Yum Brands, has been named chairman of the new company that will be formed by Comcast's NBCUniversal spinoff

 
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