Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash  —  The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision …

Musk's DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS  —  The unusual request would put sensitive data about millions of American taxpayers in the hands of Trump political appointees.  —  Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service is seeking access to a heavily-guarded Internal Revenue Service system …

Trump Voters Splinter Over His Rapid Shake-Up of Washington  —  Some core supporters love his no-holds-barred approach, but several swing voters are taken aback at his early moves

Vance's real warning to Europe  —  Europeans need to reduce their dangerous dependence on an adversarial America  —  When JD Vance took the stage at the Munich Security Conference last week, he issued a stern warning.  The US vice-president told the assembled politicians and diplomats …

Trump administration pressures Romania to lift restrictions on Tate brothers  —  Tristan and Andrew Tate have been charged with sexual misconduct, organised crime and money laundering  —  The Trump administration has pressured Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions …

Elon Musk's X blocks links to Signal, the encrypted messaging service  —  Signal has been a primary method of communication for federal workers looking to blow the whistle on DOGE.  —  Elon Musk's social media platform, X, is currently banning links to “Signal.me,” a URL used by the encrypted messaging service Signal.

‘This is a coup’: Trump and Musk's purge is cutting more than costs, say experts  —  In slashing staff and disabling entire agencies the administration is lacerating the structures of US democracy  —  Donald Trump and Elon Musk's radical drive to slash billions of dollars in annual federal spending …

Elon Musk ridiculed a blind person on X. Then a mob went to work.  —  Musk's unparalleled online reach on X has given him a powerful tool to attack individuals who criticize DOGE.  —  Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette works at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group focused on reducing bureaucratic waste.

Washington Post backs out of ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad order  —  The Washington Post this week backed out of a “Fire Elon Musk” advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.  —  The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement …

In botched DEI purge, OSHA trashes workplace safety guidelines  —  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered the digital and physical destruction of 18 publications on workplace safety practices, according to an internal February 7 email obtained by Popular Information.

The Marco Rubio Guide to Survival is Not Working Well  —  The secretary of State is taking positions that were once anathema and sounding very Trumpy online.  —  It is becoming increasingly clear that Marco Rubio is secretary of State in name only.  —  Since taking over Foggy Bottom …

Mike Pence emerges as one of the few Republicans willing to challenge Trump 2.0  —  His group spent nearly $1 million on ads opposing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump's pick to lead the nation's health agencies.  He's delivering speeches urging the president to stand with longstanding foreign allies …

Trump has already weaponized the Department of Education  —  He vowed to kill it.  What he's doing to it instead is even worse. … 🤔 📚 🎒  —  During the 2024 election, Donald Trump made no secret of his plan to close the Department of Education (DOE).

Jan. 6 Rioters Argue Pardons Apply to Charges Including Murder Plot, Child Porn  —  Defendants argue that Trump pardons should absolve them of additional crimes, some discovered during investigations of the Capitol riot

Musk and Trump Are Cutting Popular Programs.  That's Deliberate.  —  One particularly sadistic aspect of Elon Musk's and Donald Trump's rampage through our government is that they're cutting programs that are popular.  To some observers, that might seem like bad politics, in line with the juvenile …

An Opposition Worthy Of Its Name  —  We should all have realistic expectations, but Democrats could absolutely do better.  Here's how.  —  ∙ Paid  —  Since my last newsletter:  — The Justice Department nearly collapsed under the strain of one of the biggest acts of public corruption in U.S. history.

How the Woke Right Replaced the Woke Left  —  The hypocrisy of Trump's language wars  —  One of the defining features of the social-justice orthodoxy that swept through American culture between roughly the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 to Hamas's assault on Israel in 2023 was the policing of language.