New Social Security chief was being investigated when Musk team tapped him  —  Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office, was suspected of sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk's U.S. DOGE Service.  Now he's the acting Social Security commissioner.

Trump's Own Pollster Just Hit Him with Very Bad News—and a Warning  —  As you watch President Donald Trump and Elon Musk recklessly attempt to destroy the federal government like a pair of toddlers picking legs off a spider, it seems as if Republicans have decided public opinion no longer constrains them in the least.

U.S. Pressing Tough Demands in Revised Deal for Ukraine's Minerals  —  The Trump administration appears to be insisting that Ukraine relinquish half of its revenues from natural resource extraction, with no security guarantee in exchange.  —  Ukraine on Saturday was seriously considering …

DOGE shared its receipts — and some of them don't match  —  “Everyone is very well-aware they're repeating the wrong numbers,” said one manager at a company on DOGE's list of cuts.  —  Elon Musk promised to deliver a “maximally transparent” government efficiency program.

Musk says all federal employees need to explain their work immediately — or be let go  —  Federal employees received an email Saturday afternoon, and gave them a deadline of Monday night.  —  All federal government employees will have to share what they've been working on in the last week or face dismissal, Elon Musk said Saturday.

Musk's cost-cutting team is laying off workers at the auto safety agency overseeing his car company  —  Elon Musk's cost-cutting team is eliminating jobs at the vehicle safety agency that oversees Tesla and has launched investigations into deadly crashes involving his company's cars.

Trump's Firing of Gen. Charles Q. Brown May Have Roots in George Floyd Protests  —  A four-minute video appears to have been a turning point for the president and Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the ousted Joint Chiefs chairman.  —  For the second time, the killing of George Floyd by a police officer …

Measles Outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico Sicken Nearly 100 People  —  Texas reported 90 cases this week, while New Mexico reported nine.  A majority of the cases have been in a Texas county where vaccination rates have lagged behind the rest of the state.  —  Outbreaks of measles in parts …

The Great Resegregation  —  The nostalgia behind the slogan “Make America great again” has always provoked the obvious questions of just when America was great, and for whom.  Early in the second Trump administration, we are getting the answer.  —  In August, speaking with someone he believed …

Kristi Noem Says $200 Million DHS Ad Campaign Thanking Trump Was His Idea  —  Trump's Homeland Security Secretary said he instructed her to make ads that “thank me for closing the border”  —  NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — The Department of Homeland Security has budgeted up to $200 million …

February 21, 2025  —  In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having difficulty speaking.  Musk brandished a chainsaw like that Argentina's president Javier Milei used to symbolize the drastic cuts he intended …

Federal prisons prep to move trans inmates as early as next week  —  The Bureau of Prisons is pushing ahead with plans to move transgender inmates out of prisons that align with their gender identity and into facilities corresponding to their sex at birth.  The moves could happen as early as next week …

Pope Francis is in critical condition after long respiratory crisis, requiring oxygen at high flow  —  Pope Francis was in critical condition Saturday after he suffered a long asthmatic respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen, the Vatican said.

CDC Shutters PRAMS Program on Maternal and Infant Health  —  The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) is a federal data collection system, run out of CDC, “designed to identify groups of women and infants at high risk for health problems, to monitor changes in health status …

Recording reveals new details on controversial DOGE employee  —  Less than three years before Elon Musk tapped him to take part in a sweeping overhaul of the US government, Edward Coristine, then 17, was the subject of a heated dispute between two executives at the Arizona-based cybersecurity firm where he was an intern.

Why Civ-Mil People Are Freaking Out?  —  Trump bravely waited until Friday night to purge the top level of the US military.  Why are people freaking out?  We knew this was going to happen.  Trump promised this before the election, and the selection of Hegseth, a misogynist and racist …

They Worked to Prevent Death.  The Trump Administration Fired Them.  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  Every day, they tackled complex issues with life-or-death stakes:

Alarm as bird flu now ‘endemic in cows’ while Trump cuts staff and funding  —  Experts say current US outbreak is unlikely to end without intervention with further mutation of virus likely  —  A newer variant of H5N1 bird flu has spilled over into dairy cows separately in Nevada and Arizona …

Who is Dan Caine, Trump's pick as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?  —  Caine, a three-star general whom Trump has praised since at least 2019, helped lead an operation in Iraq against the Islamic State during Trump's first term.  —  President Donald Trump on Friday …

NBC Settles Defamation Lawsuit With Georgia Doctor Whom Rachel Maddow Dubbed the ‘Uterus Collector,’ Avoiding High Stakes Trial  —  NBC's top anchors made ‘verifiably false’ statements about a doctor they accused of performing ‘mass hysterectomies’ on female inmates at ICE facility, a federal judge ruled last year

Trump's lawsuit barred by the First Amendment, pollster's team argues  —  Lawyers for Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer, who was sued after the election, call Donald Trump's claims frivolous and liken it to suing a meteorologist for a wrong weather forecast.  —  Lawyers for J. Ann Selzer …