Elon Musk Lackeys Have Taken Over the Office of Personnel Management  —  Sources tell WIRED that the OPM's top layers of management now include individuals linked to xAI, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and Palantir.  One expert found the takeover reminiscent of Stalin.

“Trump is trying to collapse our economy”: War on “woke” revealed as a war on all Americans  —  Christian nationalists behind the spending shutdown aim to punish everyone, not just imaginary Marxists  —  Initially, the most striking detail in the White House Office of Management and Budget memo …

Throw Biden under the bus  —  Sleepy Joe landed us in this mess with bad, selfish decisions  —  When Joe Biden stepped aside in favor of Kamala Harris, the overwhelming majority of Democrats praised him for the decision and painted an overall flattering portrait of Biden's presidency and his career.

‘Written by children’: Critics slam New York Times' glowing coverage of Trump official  —  White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt received glowing coverage from the New York Times for her press briefing debut despite delivering a performance that other observers have described as an “embarrassment.”

RFK Jr. is in the hot seat  —  Donald Trump's attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, who represented the president during his first impeachment trial, was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning in a party-line, 12-10 vote.  The former Florida attorney general is expected to be confirmed on the Senate floor.

Which Federal Programs Are Under Scrutiny?  The Budget Office Named 2,600 of Them.  —  A Trump administration memo sent to U.S. federal agencies Monday night ordered temporary freezes in funding for programs across the government.  It caused widespread confusion among agency officials …

OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us  —  The narrative that OpenAI, Microsoft, and freshly minted White House “AI czar” David Sacks are now pushing to explain why DeepSeek was able to create a large language model that outpaces OpenAI's while spending orders …

Iowa Democrats flip Senate seat in special election to cut into Republican majority  —  Iowa Democrats have flipped a state Senate seat vacated earlier this year by Chris Cournoyer, who resigned to become the state's new lieutenant governor.  —  Democrat Mike Zimmer has defeated Republican Kate Whittington …

Trump hires new lawyers to appeal his hush money conviction  —  The lawyers will replace Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who represented Trump during the trial last spring.  —  NEW YORK — President Donald Trump has hired the elite white-shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to appeal his criminal conviction in the Manhattan hush money case.

DOJ moves to drop prosecution of former Trump co-defendants in classified documents case  —  The request offered no explanation for the Justice Department's decision to abandon the case against the two Trump allies.  —  The Justice Department on Wednesday moved to drop its effort …

Trump revokes temporary protected status for 600,000 Venezuelans  —  New DHS secretary Kristi Noem ends extension that allows people to stay if they cannot return safely to home country  —  The Trump administration has revoked an extension of deportation protections that the previous Biden …

SCOOP: RFK Jr. Secretly Recorded Second Wife During Divorce and Acknowledged Being “Polygamous”  —  One recording might have violated state law.  It was part of a messy saga that ended with her suicide.  —  In the early 2010s, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went through a contentious divorce with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy.

Florida Republican introduces bill to add Trump to Mount Rushmore  —  Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) introduced a bill Tuesday seeking to add President Trump's face to the Mount Rushmore monument.  —  “His remarkable accomplishments for our country and the success he will continue …

Trump DOJ appointee in DC lashes out after flurry of ‘personally insulting’ leaks in his first week  —  The acting top federal prosecutor in Washington under President Donald Trump is furious about recent leaks to the press and also specifically directed staff to scrutinize a former official's work …

Rubio backtracks on near-total foreign aid freeze, issues humanitarian waiver  —  The secretary of state, in a memo, approved the continuance of potentially billions of dollars in “life-saving humanitarian assistance.”  Many aid groups are still unsure what that means or whether they are allowed to continue work.

Ted Cruz Leads Republican Charge to Defund Consumer-Protection Agency  —  CFPB was created by Democrats in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis  —  WASHINGTON—Republicans, riding high from their election sweep of the House, Senate and White House, are again pushing to hobble …

Trump's chaos governance failed once.  He's trying it again.  —  He's breaking eggs while ignoring their price. … ✈️ ⛈️ 🚁  —  Pundits spent the past week expressing wonderment at how Donald Trump has lumbered back into the White House with a massive show of dominance and power.

Trump Signs Order Restricting Gender-Affirming Treatments for Minors  —  The directive built on a string of recent actions to roll back federal protections and services for transgender people.  —  President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday taking steps to end gender-affirming medical treatments …

DeSantis plans to veto Florida immigration bill passed by GOP Legislature  —  The veto decision represents further decay of the quickly deteriorating relationship between the governor and Legislature.  —  TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis said he will veto a sweeping illegal immigration …

Governor Leaves Indiana's Predominantly Black University Out of Budget  —  Martin University had a short-lived burst of state funding.  But those funds disappeared in Governor Mike Braun's budget proposal, unveiled on the heels of an anti-DEI executive order.  One lawmaker calls it racist.

House Democrat: Colleagues need to focus on ‘reestablishing our own credibility’  —  Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) sent a message to his colleagues in the Democratic Party, urging them to focus on “reestablishing our own credibility” and to revert from solely “bashing” what President Trump's administration does in response.