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11:50 AM ET, February 14, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov Website  —  The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database that can be edited by anyone, according to two separate people who found the vulnerability and shared it with 404 Media.
Politico:
Senior Republican senator ‘puzzled’ and ‘disturbed’ by Hegseth's Ukraine remarks  —  Live coverage from Munich: POLITICO is on the ground at the Munich Security Conference, where we're having conversations with top officials, lawmakers and experts at our POLITICO Pub.  Follow our exclusive coverage here.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Vance Wields Threat of Sanctions, Military Action to Push Putin Into Ukraine Deal  —  In interview with The Wall Street Journal, vice president says Ukraine must have ‘sovereign independence’  —  PARIS—Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. would hit Moscow with sanctions …
Isabel van Brugen / The Daily Beast:
VP Slaps Down Hegseth by Threatening Putin With U.S. Troops  —  Vice President JD Vance issued a stark warning to Russia, threatening the potential deployment of U.S. troops to Ukraine—a move that directly undercut Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who was forced into an embarrassing reversal on his earlier remarks.
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Hegseth stands by Ukraine comments as GOP senator slams “rookie mistake” … - “I don't know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Armed Services Committee, told Politico.
Financial Times:
Europe must respond to Trump ‘electroshock’, says Macron
Discussion: Politico and The National Interest
Sylvia Westall / Bloomberg:
Putin Assembles Team of Heavyweights to Negotiate Ukraine Deal
New York Times:
How the Justice Dept. Helped Sink Its Own Case Against Eric Adams  —  A top Trump appointee guided Mr. Adams's legal team as they crafted an argument for dismissing corruption charges against the mayor of America's largest city.  —  President Trump had just taken office when lawyers …
RELATED:
The Bulwark:
Fool Me Twice, I'll Make You FBI Director  —  Plus: Going along to get along in a time of democratic decline.  —  Roses are red,  —  The Bulwark is rad—  As we've always said:  —  Orange Man Bad.  —  We hope you have a happy Valentine's Day, if you're into that sort of thing.
Discussion: Civil Discourse …
Jonah E. Bromwich / New York Times:
Live Updates: Upheaval Over Adams Case Spreads as Calls for His Resignation Grow
Michael Rothfeld / New York Times:
Danielle Sassoon's Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Annotated
Reuters:
Trump DOJ's order to drop Eric Adams case sparks mass resignations
New York Times:
Trump Official's Demand in Adams Case Forces Justice Dept. Showdown
Discussion: RedState
Mike Allen / Axios:
Trump's split screen: Orchestration amid chaos
Discussion: New York Times
The Hill:
Republicans put health care cuts front and center to advance agenda  —  House Republicans are putting cuts to Medicaid at the top of their list of budget cuts to help pay for their wide-ranging agenda that spans tax cuts, energy production and border security.
RELATED:
Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:
Sweeping safety-net cuts have GOP centrists questioning Johnson's budget
Discussion: Washington Examiner and CNN
Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:   House GOP budget still not final
Addy Baird / Salt Lake Tribune:
Nazi flags can fly in Utah schools, but not pride flags, GOP lawmaker says  —  A new bill would allow for Nazi and Confederate flags to be displayed in some instances in Utah schools and government buildings, but pride flags would be banned.  —  An ongoing fight in Utah to ban pride flags …
New York Times:
Read the Resignation Letter From Hagan Scotten  —  Hagan Scotten, an assistant U.S. attorney, wrote to Emil Bove, acting deputy attorney general, refusing to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams. … Around the New York Region  —  A look at life, culture, politics and more in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice:
The AP provides a model of effective press resistance  —  🧭 🗺️ 🌎 With corporate outlets obeying in advance, supporting independent political media is more important right now than ever.  Public Notice is possible thanks to paid subscribers.
Julia Love / Bloomberg:
The Undocumented Workers Who Helped Build Elon Musk's Texas Gigafactory  —  Tesla and SpaceX both relied on their labor while Musk advocated for a border crackdown.  —  Cristy was in her early 50s when she took a job with a cleaning subcontractor on a construction project …
Meg Tirrell / CNN:
Louisiana Department of Health says it will no longer promote mass vaccination  —  The Louisiana Department of Health will no longer promote mass vaccination, the state's surgeon general, Dr. Ralph Abraham, told state health workers Thursday.  —  “The State of Louisiana and LDH …
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
This Small Rust-Belt City Holds the Secret to Democrats' Latino Woes  —  During the final, frenzied week of the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both made campaign stops in a place whose significance in the election had largely been overlooked by observers: Reading …
Discussion: Raw Story
RELATED:
New York Times:
Trump Officials Escalate Layoffs, Targeting Most of 200,000 Workers on Probation
Jason Leopold / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk's DOGE Targets FOIA Requests at Agency Under its Purview  —  The government efficiency group also wants to be notified when there's any attempt at oversight from Congress, inspectors general, even the Government Accountability Office. … Valentine's Day aside …
New York Times:
Billionaire Airbnb Co-Founder Is Said to Take Role in Musk's Government Initiative  —  Joe Gebbia is a board member at Tesla and is close to Elon Musk, the company's C.E.O.  —  One of Elon Musk's closest friends, a billionaire co-founder of Airbnb, is taking a role in President Trump's administration …
Discussion: The Independent
Rolling Stone:
DOGE's ‘Nerd Army’ Is Breaking the Government by Threatening to Snitch to Elon  —  “I can't believe this is how they're blowing up the Constitution,” says a federal official on the receiving end of DOGE threats  —  Every regime's enforcement mechanisms rely on threats and politicized intimidation.
Wall Street Journal:
How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory Into a Cash Bonanza  —  First lady's documentary deal with Amazon, president's legal settlements and other transactions near $80 million so far; Trump library a major beneficiary  —  | Illustrations by Alexandra Citrin-Safadi/WSJ
William Vaillancourt / The Daily Beast:
RFK Jr.: I'm Already Planning a Purge of the Health Department  —  The newly confirmed health secretary told Fox News he has a “generic list” in his head.
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Trump insults McConnell over RFK Jr. vote, casts doubts on polio diagnosis
Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
Trump Wants to Destroy All Academia, Not Just the Woke Parts  —  In 2021, JD Vance gave a speech to the National Conservatism Conference, a gathering of Trumpist thinkers and politicians, titled “The Universities Are the Enemy.”  It contained the usual complaints about critical race theory …
Eric Levitz / Vox:
How Democrats should respond to Trump's war on DEI  —  Donald Trump did not campaign on a promise to end the Pentagon's celebration of Black History Month.  Nor did the Republican air advertisements pledging to remove displays honoring nonwhite and female scientists from the National Science Foundation.
Discussion: al.com
Washington Post:
Kennedy Center staff describe climate of fear as events drop from calendar  —  Issa Rae became the first major artist to publicly cancel an upcoming show at the center after President Trump took over its board and leadership.  —  The fallout from President Donald Trump's takeover …
New York Times:
Don't Be Fooled, ‘Trump Is a Weak President’  —  Trump lacks the skill to govern in the way the founders intended.  —  How much is President Trump testing the Constitution?  And what are the other branches of government doing about it?  This week on “Matter of Opinion,” …
Dan Lamothe / Washington Post:
Hegseth team invites far-right activist Jack Posobiec on overseas trip  —  The offer triggered alarm among Pentagon officials concerned about the military being dragged into partisan warfare.
Washington Post:
Trump administration directs agency heads to fire most probationary staff  —  Terminations should happen within two days, according to four people familiar with internal conversations.  —  The Trump administration has directed agency heads to fire most trial period and probationary staff within two days …
Quinta Jurecic / The Atlantic:
The Opposition Is Already Growing  —  And they've already started to slow down certain Trump efforts.  —  During his first term in office, Donald Trump loved to complain about judges on social media.  Reliably, whenever his agenda was held up in court or his allies faced legal consequences …
Discussion: New Republic and Vanity Fair
New York Times:
Russian Drone Damages Radiation Shield at Chernobyl, Ukraine Says  —  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called the damage “significant” but said there were no signs of radiation leaks.  A Kremlin spokesman denied that Russia had carried out the strike.
New York Times:
TikTok Returns to Apple and Google App Stores  —  The popular social media app was removed to comply with a new law that banned it in the United States.  President Trump has paused enforcement of the ban.  —  Apple and Google restored TikTok to their U.S. app stores on Thursday evening …
NPS.gov:
“By the time of Stonewall...we had 50 to 60 gay groups in the country.  A year later...1500.”  —  Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal.  The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.
Hans Nichols / Axios:
Scoop: FTC chair endorses Trump's ability to fire commissioners … - It will alarm progressive activists and Democratic lawmakers who are concerned that Trump wants to purge independent agencies like the FTC and the National Labor Relations Board. … - He is seizing on a letter sent …
Discussion: JURIST, Reuters and CNN
 
 
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 More Items: 
Reuters:
Trump closed a loophole for low-cost imports ‒ until all hell broke loose
Discussion: The Federalist
The Guardian:
European leaders scared of voters and failing to defend democracy, Vance tells security summit - Europe live
Discussion: Politico, Euractiv, Reuters and Semafor
Tom Phillips / The Guardian:
‘A human rights disaster’: immigrants sent into Guantánamo black hole despite no proof of crime
Discussion: Migrant Insider
Reuters:
Inside Trump's immigration crackdown as net widens
Discussion: Axios and ABC News
Bloomberg:
‘A Lot of Chaos’: Companies Try to Make Sense of Working With Trump
Kris Van Cleave / CBS News:
Senator demands answers on possible federal $400M Tesla Cybertruck deal
Joe Davidson / Washington Post:
Fed unions take lead in resistance to Trump's presidential power grab
Discussion: Raw Story
Rachel Cohen / Vox:
Elon Musk is using the anti-teacher playbook against the entire civil workforce
 Earlier Items: 
Michael Crowley / New York Times:
Judge Orders Trump Administration to Resume Foreign Aid Spending
New York Times:
No Tubman, No Rainbows: Defense Schools Prepared for Hegseth's Wife
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue
The White House:
Establishing the President's Make America Healthy Again Commission
New York Times:
Read Danielle Sassoon's Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi