Top Items:


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:


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 …


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 …
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, NBC News, Axios, Politico, Associated Press, NPR, New York Times, Reuters, DNyuz, Mashable, Forbes, Breitbart, USA Today, Daily Kos, Common Dreams, Hollywood Life, WNYW-TV, WUSA, WTOP News, MeidasTouch News, PinkNews, The Independent, The Daily Wire, The Daily Sceptic, Semafor, ABC News, Grabien, Saywhat Politics, Daily Mail and Oregonian


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” …
Discussion:
Reuters


Trump Administration Closes USAID Headquarters
Discussion:
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
Discussion:
CNN, NBC News, CBS News, Scripps News, Reuters, Letters from an American, DNyuz, Axios, Associated Press, New York Post, The Post Millennial, Townhall, UPI, The Independent and Politico

Musk: I'm Closing Entire Federal Agency Down Right Now
Discussion:
Blaze Media, Daily Mail, New Republic, Washington Examiner and Baltimore Sun

Elon Musk Is Permanently Deleting Government Agencies
Discussion:
New York Times, Public, Financial Times, DNyuz, USA Today, Breitbart, CBS News, LewRockwell, Grabien and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »

Ending USAID climate programs could increase security risks
Discussion:
Truthout, more at Mediagazer »


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.
Discussion:
Retail Dive, The Free Press, Breitbart, CNN, Associated Press, Baltimore Sun, Daily Mail and New York Post
RELATED:


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.
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Examiner, Reuters, NPR, The Contrarian, freebeacon.com, The Guardian, HotAir, Raw Story, Slate, CNN, WTTG-TV, Townhall, The Fucking News, Jacobin, Fortune, The Post Millennial, USA Today, New Republic, Al Jazeera, Grabien, The Free Press, The Independent and Bloomberg


Trump backs down on Mexico tariffs after Mexican president pledges border troops
Discussion:
ABC News, CNN, Washington Post, CBS News, Washington Examiner, Metro.co.uk, MeidasTouch News, USA Today, The Daily Caller, E&E News, The American Conservative, Blaze Media, Mediaite, Reason, Axios, NBC News and Fox News

More Dangerous than Watergate — In case you missed it—or if you don't subscribe to The Triad …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Law & Crime, emptywheel, Mediaite and NBC News

Trump Delays Mexico Tariffs by a Month After Sheinbaum Talk
Discussion:
New Republic, NBC News, The Guardian, Adweek, Politico, New York Post, Associated Press, One America News Network, BBC, UPI, Washington Examiner, Scripps News, Axios, Deadline, WNYW-TV, Breitbart, Fortune, The Texas Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Quartz, Boston Herald, The Independent, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Semafor, Al Jazeera and The Verge

Trump 2nd term live updates: Marco Rubio made acting administrator of USAID: Sources
Discussion:
New York Times, CNN, CBS News, Fox News, Raw Story, New York Post, Baltimore Sun, Twitchy, RedState, Forbes, The Guardian, DNyuz and The Post Millennial

Trump agrees to pause tariffs on Mexico, but import taxes still in place for Canada and China
Discussion:
Washington Post, New Republic, New York Post, NPR, Fox News, Tangle, Townhall, Reason, KSNT 27 News, Associated Press, Fox Business, RedState, Breitbart, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, MPR News, Politico, Kansas Reflector, WTOP News, DNyuz, Quartz, The Daily Wire, Global News, Chicago Tribune, 19FortyFive, The Message Box, NBC News, CBS News, New York Daily News, E&E News, Instapundit, Bloomberg and Newsday

McConnell: Trump tariffs ‘will drive the cost of everything up’
Discussion:
Financial Times, CBS News, Washington Examiner, Business Insider, The Guardian, Digby's Hullabaloo and HuffPost


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:
DNyuz and DCMediaGroup, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:


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.
Discussion:
New Republic, Raw Story and USA Today


‘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 …
RELATED:

Why are the Democrats so spineless? — No wonder the American public thinks of Democrats …
Discussion:
The Hill


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 …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Verge, Fortune, Robert Reich, MeidasTouch News and Wall Street Journal
RELATED:


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.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, ABC News, The Hollywood Reporter, The Post Millennial and New Republic
RELATED:


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 …
Discussion:
NBC News, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Law, Roll Call, RedState and Fox Business, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:

Treasury Secretary Bessent, tapped to run CFPB, orders staff to halt work
Discussion:
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.
Discussion:
Law & Crime
RELATED:


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:

‘Ripping up the contract’: Canadian premier scraps Musk business amid tariff fight
Discussion:
Business Insider, Global News, DNyuz, Quartz, The Verge, NBC News, New York Post and Bloomberg


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


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?


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 …
Discussion:
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.