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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.


C.I.A. Sends White House an Unclassified Email With Names of Some Employees — The list of partial names was provided in an effort to comply with an executive order to trim the federal work force. — The C.I.A. sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired …
Discussion:
NBC News, Raw Story, New Republic, Mediaite and CyberScoop
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White House Says Musk Will Police His Own Conflicts of Interest — The White House said Elon Musk, the billionaire leading President Donald Trump's government cost-cutting efforts, will determine if there are conflicts of interest between his work reviewing federal spending and his overlapping empire of six companies.
Discussion:
The Bulwark, Rolling Stone, The Contrarian, Fox Business, Breitbart and New Republic
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The 24-Hour Reality Check: Musk's Impossible Power Grab And America's Crisis — There are twenty-four hours in a day. This isn't a matter of political opinion or technological disruption—it's as immutable as the fact that two plus two equals four. No amount of genius, innovation …


Trump White House Moves to Allow for a Musk Takeover of Government IT — The Office of Personnel Management is trying to make it easier to put ideologues and cronies in key tech roles. — It's a rather wonky position in the US government: chief information officer. Most federal agencies and departments have one.
Discussion:
NBC News, FedScoop and Blaze Media, more at Techmeme »


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.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Algemeiner.com, Daily Mail, New York Times, Axios, Reuters, ABC7, Bloomberg and Politico
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Trump officials try to walk back president's comments on Gaza ‘takeover’ - live
Discussion:
NPR, Fox News, CNN, The Hill, BBC, Associated Press, Breitbart, New York Times, Raw Story, Blaze Media, Atlantic Council, ABC News, Agence France-Presse, israelhayom.com, RNS, DNyuz, Reuters, Human Events, Metro.co.uk, Algemeiner.com, The Independent, Politico, NJTODAY.NET, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Daily Mail and Semafor

Inside Trump's Hastily Written Proposal to ‘Own’ Gaza
Discussion:
Reuters, The Guardian, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, RNS, DNyuz, USA Today and Jewish Telegraphic Agency

How Trump arrived at his stunning idea to ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip
Discussion:
ABC News, Bloomberg, New York Times, The Independent, Daily Mail, IJR, Vanity Fair and Reuters

Trump's suggestion that US ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip is rejected by allies and adversaries alike
Discussion:
Axios, Washington Post, CBS News, New York Times, BBC, Fox News, PBS NewsHour, CNN, The Guardian, Hürriyet Daily News, DCReport.org, Al Jazeera, abc7NY, Frontpage Mag, The Japan Times, Financial Times, The Floridian, Raw Story, DNyuz, The National Interest, NPR, Townhall, Exposing the role …, Daily Kos, Foreign Policy, The American Spectator, Algemeiner.com, Politico, Fortune, MeidasTouch News, Los Angeles Times, New Republic, Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, The Daily Sceptic, Reuters, The Hill, Reason, Mediaite and Jewish Telegraphic Agency


Judge issues nationwide injunction blocking Trump's bid to end birthright citizenship — The judge heard arguments from lawyers for five pregnant undocumented women. — President Donald Trump speaks to the press after signing an executive order to create a US sovereign wealth fund …
Discussion:
New York Times, Axios, Forbes, Salon, The Hill, CNN, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Associated Press, Florida Phoenix, Reuters, Politico, Bloomberg, WUSA, UPI, Roll Call, Washington Examiner, Fox News and DNyuz
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Pam Bondi issued a flurry of orders on Day 1 as Trump's attorney general
Discussion:
Associated Press and Breitbart

Bondi Becomes Trump's Attorney General Amid DOJ Shake-Up
Discussion:
Washington Examiner

Trump Considers Labeling Migrants a Measles, Tuberculosis Risk
Discussion:
Lifeway Research


There Is No Going Back — Even if anyone had elected Elon Musk to anything, the past week would still be one of the most serious examples of executive branch malfeasance in American history. — Musk has seized hold of critical levers of power and authority within the federal government …
Discussion:
Marketplace and DNyuz
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Trump-Musk Purge Scandal at Treasury Takes Yet Another Unsettling Turn — In an effort to tamp down the outcry around Elon Musk's autocratic and illegal power grabs, the Treasury Department has sent a new letter to Congress that casts Musk's takeover of the agency in benign terms.
Discussion:
Techdirt, Fox Business, Raw Story, The Register, Military.com, Associated Press and CBS News


King Musk's Government Purge Hits a Snag — Before Elon Musk can exercise authoritarian power, he must purge the federal bureaucracy. But federal workers aren't playing ball. — Protesters gather outside the United States Office of Personal Management (OPM) headquarters, February 4, 2025, in Washington.
Discussion:
Sludge, PoliticusUSA, EsstN and Fortune


DOGE Aides Search Medicare Agency Payment Systems for Fraud — Elon Musk's allies have been on site at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offices this week — Representatives of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have been working at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services …
Discussion:
Federal News Network, TechCrunch, USA Today, The Hill, WPR, Forbes, Orlando Sentinel, Fox News, Bloomberg, Raw Story, The Post Millennial, Lawyers, Guns & Money, masslive.com and CBS News


NOAA Employees Told to Pause Work With ‘Foreign Nationals’ — An internal email obtained by WIRED shows that NOAA workers received orders to pause all “ALL INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS.” — A number of federal employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) …
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This DOGE Engineer Has Access to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — Sources tell WIRED that NOAA employees were ordered to give an engineer from Elon Musk's DOGE task force access to all of the agency's Google sites by the end of business Wednesday.
Discussion:
Axios, Mother Jones, E&E News, Washington Examiner, Raw Story and GovExec.com


DOGE Employees Ordered to Stop Using Slack While Agency Transitions to a Records System Not Subject to FOIA — Employees working for the agency now known as DOGE have been ordered to stop using Slack while government lawyers attempt to transition the agency to one that is not subject …
Discussion:
Can We Still Govern?


New Democratic bill targets Elon Musk — A veteran House Democrat is introducing new legislation to respond to billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk's overhaul of the federal government: Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) on Wednesday rolled out the Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy …
Discussion:
TechCrunch and Fortune
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List: Examples of Trump's Actions That Are Defying Legal Limits — Other presidents have occasionally claimed a constitutional right to bypass particular laws. But in the opening weeks of his second term, President Trump and his administration have opened the throttle on blowing through …
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Trump Brazenly Defies Laws in Escalating Executive Power Grab
Discussion:
The Daily Caller


Thousands protest Trump administration policies in cities across the US — A movement to protest the early actions of President Donald Trump's administration took off Wednesday, as thousands of demonstrators gathered outside a federal courthouse in Philadelphia and at state capitols in Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin and Indiana.
Discussion:
Associated Press, New Republic, USA Today, Breitbart, Fox News, ABC7, Oregon Capital Chronicle, WXIA-TV, Newsweek, Denver Post, WPR, WNYW-TV, Source New Mexico and WAGA-TV
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In photos: Thousands across the U.S. protest Trump and Musk's policies
Discussion:
New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Examiner, USA Today, ArkansasTimes, Florida Phoenix and The Daily Wire

Inside the Elon Musk-Jim Jordan ‘mind meld’ shaking up Capitol Hill
Discussion:
Twitchy


Judge weighs short-term block on Musk allies' ability to share Treasury records outside the department — A lawsuit alleges that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is compromising Treasury's payment system. — A federal judge on Wednesday declined to immediately block …
Discussion:
The Daily Wire
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Judge weighs interim ban on Elon Musk's DOGE accessing the financial data of millions of Americans
Discussion:
Reuters and Ars Technica


Senate's top appropriator says Elon Musk has gone too far — The Senate's top appropriator thinks Elon Musk has gone too far. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, is raising alarms about the influence that billionaire Elon Musk is wielding inside the Trump administration and across federal agencies.
Discussion:
Mediaite and OutsideTheBeltway
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The Real Reason Musk Is Mad at Us — ELON MUSK, OUR NEW UNELECTED OVERLORD, is mad at Bill Kristol. Very, very mad. And because this is the world we live in now, his hordes of online minions are mad, too. — Let me explain. This week, Elon has been amplifying several tweets alleging …


Two Dem lawmakers barge into House speaker's office in backlash against Musk — Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) barged into House Speaker Mike Johnson's office unscheduled on Wednesday and challenged him about Elon Musk's team gaining access to a sensitive payment system at the Treasury Department.
Discussion:
Axios, NewsNation, Raw Story and New Republic


Politico pays employees late; staffers believe Elon Musk's crackdown on government spending played a role — Politico has received at least $8.2 million from the US government — Politico staffers received their bi-weekly direct deposits late this week, irking staffers who believe Elon Musk's crackdown …
Discussion:
Politico, USA Today, HotAir, freebeacon.com, Human Events, Rolling Stone, The Gateway Pundit, Digby's Hullabaloo, Twitchy, Shore News Network and Breitbart
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Trump signs 'No Men in Women's Sports' executive order — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the “No Men in Women's Sports” executive order, fulfilling one of his major campaign promises of keeping biological men out of girls and women's sports. — Trump signed the executive order …
Discussion:
HotAir, NBC News, freebeacon.com, The Daily Signal, Twitchy, TMZ.com, New Republic and Tennessee Star
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Trump takes action to ban transgender women from women's sports
Discussion:
Politico, Vox, New York Times, Axios, Townhall, The Gateway Pundit, Roll Call, Breitbart, Daily Mail, Washington Blade, Metro.co.uk, WSVN-TV, Advocate, The Guardian, UPI, New York Daily News, Raw Story, New York Post, CBS News, The Independent, PinkNews, DNyuz, Associated Press and Washington Examiner


Elon Musk's Enemy, USAID, Was Investigating Starlink's Contracts in Ukraine — The agency was in the midst of a probe into the billionaire's equipment at the time of Musk's assault. … Since coming into power, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has barraged USAID …
Discussion:
NewsNation, Blaze Media, E&E News and The National Pulse


Cows Have Been Infected With a Second Form of Bird Flu — A new version of the virus is widespread in wild birds but had not previously been detected in cows. — Dairy cows in Nevada have been infected with a new form of bird flu that is distinct from the version that has been spreading through herds …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Associated Press, STAT, DNyuz, KLAS and Beyer


Trump-voting states have more to lose if Education Department dismantled … - States that voted for Trump last November, on average, use more federal funding in their education apportions than states that voted for former Vice President Harris. — “That dependence is, in large part …


L.A. Times Owner Has Financial Motivations for Boosting RFK Jr. — Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong's biotech firm is preparing three applications needing approval from the Food and Drug Administration. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies during a Senate HELP Committee hearing for his pending confirmation …
Discussion:
New Republic


‘60 Minutes’ publicly releases transcripts of interview at heart of its dispute with Trump — CBS' “60 Minutes” posted online Wednesday the unedited transcripts of its October interview with Kamala Harris that sparked a lawsuit by Donald Trump, saying that they proved its broadcast was not “doctored or deceitful.”


Elon Musk says DOGE will make ‘rapid safety upgrades’ to the air traffic control system following deadly plane crash — Amid a blitz across the federal government, DOGE is set to take on the FAA next. — Musk said that DOGE would “aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.”
Discussion:
Politico, The Hill, New Republic, WNYW-TV, DNyuz and The Post Millennial