Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
1:30 PM ET, February 3, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Alexander Ward / Wall Street Journal:
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 …
RELATED:
Associated Press:
USAID staffers told to stay out of Washington headquarters after Musk said Trump agreed to close it  —  Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency's Washington headquarters on Monday, according to a notice distributed to them …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
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?
Discussion: Wired, more at Techmeme »
Wall Street Journal:
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 …
Andrew Perez / Rolling Stone:
Elon Musk Is Permanently Deleting Government Agencies
David Ingram / NBC News:
Elon Musk says he and Trump are shutting down USAID
NBC News:
USAID security leaders removed after refusing Elon Musk's DOGE employees access to secure systems
Reuters:
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.
RELATED:
New York Times:
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.
Brian Mann / NPR:
Trump used fentanyl to justify tariffs, but the crisis was already easing  —  President Trump says illegal street fentanyl is one of the main justifications for sweeping trade tariffs he plans to impose against Canada, China and Mexico on Tuesday.  A statement issued by the White House describes …
Bloomberg:
Trump Delays Mexico Tariffs by a Month After Talk With Sheinbaum  — Mexico to send 10,000 national guard to border as part of deal  — Mexican peso rallies after Sheinbaum, Trump announce delay … President Donald Trump agreed to delay 25% tariffs against Mexico for one month …
David Edwards / Raw Story:
Trump backs down on Mexico tariffs after Mexican president pledges border troops  —  President Donald Trump agreed to temporarily back down on a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo reportedly agreed to send troops to the U.S. border.
New York Times:
Markets Tumble as Trump Tariffs Loom
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
Follow the Money  —  Hey guys, I'm sending out Monday's Triad on Sunday night for reasons that will be clear when you read it.
Associated Press:
Trump and Trudeau speak and plan to do so again before tariffs start on Tuesday
Pia Singh / CNBC:
Dow futures drop more than 450 points after Trump hits U.S. trading partners with tariffs: Live updates
Burgess Everett / Semafor:
‘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 …
Discussion: The Hill and RedState
RELATED:
Meredith Shiner / New Republic:
Primary Every Democrat  —  I spent almost a decade covering the United States Senate.  So, believe me when I tell you that I do not want to be a United States senator.  Imagine having a job where your mere existence in the role is a symbol of democratic backsliding, where your leaders torture …
Sarah Fortinsky / The Hill:
Former Biden spokesperson: Trump doesn't want Democrats to talk about promise to lower prices
Discussion: Fox News
Nicholas Wu / Politico:
Hakeem Jeffries wants funding freeze ‘choked off’ in spending deal
Discussion: Axios and RedState
Moira Donegan / The Guardian:   Why are the Democrats so spineless?  —  No wonder the American public thinks of Democrats …
Denise Cana / Slate:
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.
Discussion: DCMediaGroup
RELATED:
Caleb Ecarma / Popular Information:
Musk associates given unfettered access to private data of government employees
Discussion: USA Today
John Zangas / DCMediaGroup:   Federal Workers Block Doors of Admin Building Over Elon Musk Data Breach
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
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 …
RELATED:
Margaret Sullivan / American Crisis:
The split personality of Big Journalism in covering this nightmare  —  On Friday, three reporters at the Washington Post broke a huge story.  It might have sounded like some kind of bureaucratic development inside the federal government, but it was much more important than that.
Bloomberg:
Musk Says DOGE Halting Treasury Payments to US Contractors
Rochelle Raveendran / CBC News:
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 …
RELATED:
Matthew Chapman / Raw Story:
‘Ripping up the contract’: Canadian premier scraps Musk business amid tariff fight
Reuters:
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
Joseph Goldstein / New York Times:
N.Y. Attorney General Warns Hospitals Against Canceling Transgender Care  —  A White House executive order last week threatened to pull federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care.  But not providing the care could violate state law, Letitia James said in a letter on Monday.
Discussion: The Guardian
Christopher Ingraham / Minnesota Reformer:
Senator's ‘flatly unconstitutional’ proposal would lock in Republican control of chamber for years  —  A Republican senator is proposing an amendment to the state Constitution that would radically alter the structure of the Senate and effectively lock in Republican control of the chamber for the foreseeable future.
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 1:30 PM ET, February 3, 2025.

View the current page or another snapshot:


Page version:
 
 Who's Hiring in Media? 
 
Add your company here
 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Mary B. McCord / Just Security:
From Pardons to Purges: Pressing Questions that Bondi and Patel Must Answer Now
Megan Messerly / Politico:
US to again withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, stop UNRWA funding
Discussion: Washington Examiner
Natasha Korecki / NBC News:
Democratic senators say they have ‘grave concerns’ over RFK Jr.'s potential financial conflicts
Discussion: UPI
Jennifer Jacobs / CBS News:
Some GOP officials say Trump administration's federal workers buyout program is illegal
Discussion: FedSmith.com
Jordain Carney / Politico:
Lindsey Graham and the Freedom Caucus join forces
Discussion: Washington Examiner and Raw Story
 Earlier Items: 
Abrahm Lustgarten / New York Times:
The New Evidence Climate Change Will Upend American Homeownership
Reuters:
Exclusive: Trump's meme coin made nearly $100 million in trading fees, as small traders lost money
Discussion: DNyuz, more at Techmeme »
Joshua Keating / Vox:
Are America's four main adversaries really in cahoots?
Lisa Needham / Public Notice:
Trump's mobster media shakedowns
Los Angeles Times:
Thousands rally in downtown Los Angeles, shut down 101 Freeway to protest Trump's immigration policies
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Andrew Trunsky / New York Times:
A profile of Natalie Winters, a Steve Bannon protégée, War Room reporter, and Piers Morgan Uncensored contributor, who now has a White House press pass

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Less than a week before A Minecraft Movie had a $160M+ opening weekend in the US and Canada, experts projected ~$65M, following four high profile misses in 2024

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Jack Dorsey says “delete all IP law” in an X post and Musk says “I agree”; Dorsey says current models “take way too much” from creators and “only rent-seek”

 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page