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9:30 AM ET, February 25, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
New York Times:
Trump Administration Highlights: Personnel Officials Say Musk's Directive Is ‘Voluntary’  —  Where Things Stand  — Musk's ultimatum: Federal personnel officials walked back Elon Musk's demand that government workers justify their jobs in an email or face termination, saying that his request had been “voluntary.”
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Trump administration tells agencies they can ignore Musk order on email reply  —  The Office of Personnel Management told HR officials that employees wouldn't be let go for not replying to an email asking what they did last week.  —  The Trump administration has told federal agency leaders …
Rolling Stone:
Elon's Email Demand Is Being Met With ‘Very Rude’ Flood of Spam
NBC News:
Federal workers and agencies push back against Elon Musk's email ultimatum
Allan Smith / NBC News:
HHS warns employees that responses to Elon Musk's email may ‘be read by malign foreign actors’
James Liddell / The Independent:
Elon Musk makes an admission about the productivity email his group sent to federal workers
Abbie VanSickle / New York Times:
Government Watchdog Moves to Protect Probationary Federal Workers  —  Hampton Dellinger, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, recommended pausing the mass firings of some probationary federal employees.  —  A government watchdog lawyer whose dismissal by President Trump has been stalled …
Discussion: USA Today
RELATED:
Paul Blumenthal / HuffPost:   Government Oversight Agency Rules Elon Musk's Mass Firings Are Illegal
Politico:
Government funding deal ‘very close’ as negotiations hinge on Trump power struggle  —  The fight over curbing President Donald Trump's ability to freeze cash is now the make-or-break dispute as leading lawmakers close in on a deal to avert a government shutdown next month.
Discussion: E&E News and The Hill
RELATED:
Annie Karni / New York Times:
Stefanik's Confirmation Is on Ice as Republicans Guard Their Scant Majority  —  The congresswoman from New York is in line to be confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.  But first, her colleagues need her vote to pass their embattled budget plan.
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
RED ALERT: Now Is the Moment, Folks
Discussion: Bread & Circus
Seb Starcevic / Politico:
EU offers its own ‘win-win’ minerals deal to Ukraine  —  “The added value Europe offers is that we will never demand a deal that's not mutually beneficial,” top official Stéphane Séjourné says.  —  The European Union offered its own agreement on “critical materials” …
RELATED:
Anita Powell / Voice of America:
Trump hosts French leader to discuss Ukraine endgame
Farnaz Fassihi / New York Times:
U.S. Clashes With European Allies at the U.N. Over Ukraine
Washington Post:
It's crunch time for Mike Johnson and the GOP's ‘big, beautiful bill’  —  The House speaker is set to put a budget resolution up for a floor vote on Tuesday but is facing a potential revolt from swing-district Republicans.  —  Republicans' push to enact President Donald Trump's tax …
RELATED:
Politico:
House Republicans scramble for Plan B on Medicaid cuts
Discussion: Forbes, CBS News and Raw Story
Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
Trump's New Deputy F.B.I. Director Has It Out for the ‘Scumbag Commie Libs’  —  When a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts last year, the conservative podcaster Dan Bongino made a veiled threat on social media.  “The irony about this for the scumbag commie libs …
RELATED:
NBC News:
FBI agents express shock and dismay over naming of right-wing podcaster to No. 2 post
Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Hill
David Gilbert / Wired:
How Dan Bongino Went From Infowars to FBI Deputy Director
Politico:
Trump allies circulate mass deportation plan calling for ‘processing camps’ and a private citizen ‘army’  —  The group, led by Blackwater veteran Erik Prince, has close Trump ties.  —  A group of prominent military contractors, including former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince …
Discussion: Mediaite
RELATED:
Jack Blanchard / Politico:
Playbook: Prayers for Mike Johnson
Discussion: Punchbowl News and The Hill
Jonathan Shorman / Kansas City Star:
Rep. Mark Alford tells fired KC federal workers ‘God has a plan’ at hostile town hall  —  Ariel Mollhagen couldn't hear what U.S. Rep. Mark Alford was saying but she didn't really need to.  The crowd's reaction told the story.  —  During an extraordinarily heated town hall on Monday …
Discussion: The Independent, Mediaite and Raw Story
Josh Christenson / New York Post:
Hackers play AI video of Trump kissing Elon Musk's feet on cafeteria screens at HUD headquarters: ‘LONG LIVE THE REAL KING’  —  Cyberpunks breached a television at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Monday morning, broadcasting a stomach-turning AI video of President Trump caressing …
RELATED:
Brett Samuels / The Hill:
AI video of Trump kissing Musk's feet plays on TVs in HUD building
Matt Bai / Washington Post:
The blinding contempt of the DOGE bros
Katherine Eban / Vanity Fair:
America's Food Safety Is Now in the Hands of Don Jr.'s Hunting Buddy  —  As federal health agencies are gutted with abandon, a Florida attorney with a history of hunting with the president's son has been put in charge of food safety at the FDA, overseeing the nation's food supply, infant formula, and more.
Cuneyt Dil / Axios:
Trump could take control of D.C.'s police force.  He's tried before … - If the White House believes that “special conditions of an emergency nature exist,” the president “may direct” the mayor to provide MPD forces for “federal purposes,” per D.C.'s Home Rule Act.
Discussion: U.S. Constitution.net
Ryan J. Foley / Associated Press:
Nearly 40% of contracts canceled by Musk's DOGE are expected to produce no savings  —  Nearly 40% of the federal contracts that President Donald Trump's administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren't expected to save the government any money, the administration's own data shows.
Robert Unanue:
Goya Foods CEO, Bob Unanue, Announces Next Chapter  —  50-Year Food Industry Veteran Releases Statement After Being Left in “Limbo” by the Company's Board  —  Today, Robert “Bob” Unanue, with over 20 years as President & CEO of Goya Foods, is releasing a statement about his status …
Zach Everson / Forbes:
CEO Devin Nunes Made $47 Million While Truth Social Parent Company Reported $401 Million In Losses In 2024  —  Devin Nunes earned $47 million in total compensation as CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group last year, although he won't be able to get his hands on all of it until March 2027 …
Kaye Thornbrugh / Coeur d'Alene Press:
Coeur d'Alene prosecutors dismiss citation against woman dragged from town hall, city revokes security company's business license  —  COEUR d'ALENE — City prosecutors will dismiss a misdemeanor battery citation issued to the Post Falls woman who plainclothes private security guards dragged …
Discussion: New Republic and KGW-TV
Berkeley Lovelace Jr / NBC News:
FDA rehires staff to its medical devices division after mass layoffs  —  Around 180 FDA medical device workers were laid off this month by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.  —  The Trump administration is reinstating some employees in the Food and Drug Administration's medical devices division …
Discussion: Forbes, Associated Press and STAT
RELATED:
Christina Jewett / New York Times:   F.D.A. Reinstates Fired Medical Device, Food and Legal Staffers
Ellen Mitchell / The Hill:
VA axes another 1,400 employees  —  The Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday fired another 1,400 employees amid outcry over a lack of transparency from the agency after 1,000 workers were axed earlier this month.  —  The VA said the individuals dismissed were “non-mission critical” …
Alan Feuer / New York Times:
Judge Questions Constitutionality of Musk's Cost-Cutting Operation  —  The judge expressed concern over the unresolved issues about who is in charge of Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, if it is not Mr. Musk, as the White House has claimed.
Fintan O'Toole / The Irish Times:
The idiot wind now howling through the US offers Ireland a transformative windfall  —  Fintan O'Toole: Trump is complaining that we pick America's pocket.  Fair enough - we should instead pick America's brains  —  America's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity.
Popular Information:
How to buy your way out of a federal lawsuit  —  On June 6, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against Coinbase, a crypto trading platform, alleging that the company was operating as an unregistered securities broker.  The failure to register, according to the SEC …
Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
“Slavery produced a genuine affection between the races”: Hegseth's church foretold “DEI” firings  —  Defense secretary's contempt for Black military leaders has roots in his religion's defense of white supremacy  —  Donald Trump's administration is barely bothering to pretend that the firings …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Chris Stirewalt / The Hill:
Will the working-class GOP really cut health insurance?
Lisa Needham / Public Notice:
How Trump's lawyers are trying to make him a king
Dan Pfeiffer / The Message Box:
How to Make the GOP Pay a Price for DOGE
Adam Wren / Politico:
DOGE was Ramaswamy's first big government gig. You wouldn't know it as he kicks off his Ohio bid.
New York Times:
Paramount and Trump Seek Mediator for CBS News Lawsuit
Brooke Harrington / New York Times:
Trust Was Once an American Superpower
Discussion: New Republic
Bernie Becker / Politico:
Acting IRS commissioner to retire amid agency disruptions
Discussion: New York Times
 Earlier Items: 
Seb Starcevic / Politico:
Dan Crenshaw appears to threaten Tucker Carlson in hot mic moment
Bloomberg:
Musk Seeks to Use Starlink Terminals in US Airspace System
Josh Fiallo / The Daily Beast:
DeSantis Trashes MAGA Lawmaker Trump Endorsed Over His Wife
CNN:
Federal judge declines to temporarily restore AP's full access to White House
Hailey Fuchs / Politico:
Jordan uses first subpoena of new Congress to target Biden admin
Discussion: Twitchy, Townhall and The Federalist
Madison Pauly / Mother Jones:
LGBTQ Federal Workers Brace for a McCarthyist Purge
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
U.S. votes against U.N. resolution condemning Russia for Ukraine war
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Despite Google's guardrails, Veo 3 users are generating realistic clips of news, disasters, and fictional events, some with dialogue not included in the prompt

Politico:
A look at California's revamped Google journalism deal after Gov. Newsom dialed back state support and Google dropped its 2025 contribution from $15M to $10M

Abram Brown / The Information:
A look at The Technology Brothers Podcast Network, a daily tech news talk show that has captured the attention of Silicon Valley's investors and founders

 
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