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1:50 PM ET, February 28, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
New York Times:
How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy  —  The operation was driven with a frenetic focus by the billionaire, who channeled his resentment of regulatory oversight into a drastic overhaul of government agencies.  —  On the last Friday of September 2023 …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Feds to start getting weekly emails asking what they did.  Bosses will see if it fits Trump goals.  —  The new strategy is in part meant to allow supervisors and agency heads to check whether employees' work fits into the Trump administration's goals and priorities, according to people familiar with it and records obtained by The Post.
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:   Two Good Reads.  —  There are two good, big feature pieces out from the Times and the Journal …
Jake Lahut / Wired:
Elon Musk's Takeover Is Being Aided by a Trumpworld Power Couple
Discussion: Raw Story
Wall Street Journal:   Inside DOGE's Clash With the Federal Workforce
Eileen Sullivan / New York Times:
Office Closures and Relocations Part of Trump's Plan for Large-Scale Layoffs
Discussion: USA Today
Meridith McGraw / Wall Street Journal:
Trump to Sign Executive Order Making English Official U.S. Language  —  The U.S. has never had a national language in its nearly 250-year history  —  WASHINGTON—President Trump is planning to sign an executive order that would for the first time make English the official language of the U.S., according to White House officials.
RELATED:
Michelle L. Price / Associated Press:
Trump to sign order Friday designating English as the official language of the US
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:   Trump to sign order making English the official U.S. language
Nick Corasaniti / New York Times:
Democratic National Committee Files Lawsuit Against Trump
Discussion: Business Insider
Isabella Cueto / STAT:
RFK Jr. moves to eliminate public comment on HHS decisions  —  In notice to Federal Register, health agency says public participation is not needed in many decisions  —  Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  —  Friday proposing to strip public participation from much of the business his department conducts.
Pamela Herd / Can We Still Govern?:
Trump's Assault on Social Security  —  Social Security is our biggest and most successful safety net program.  The annual $1.6 trillion in benefits constitutes 21% of federal spending and 40% of older adults' income.  It lifts more people out of poverty than any other government program.
RELATED:
Seth Borenstein / Associated Press:
Hundreds of weather forecasters fired in latest wave of DOGE cuts  —  Hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees on probationary status were fired Thursday, lawmakers and weather experts said.  Federal workers who were not let …
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Ed Morrissey / HotAir:
(Not) New: These Are Not the Epstein Files You're Looking For  —  One of the most important rules in politics is: Don't set expectations you can't meet.  But even before that, there's this: make sure you have the goods you claim before, y'know, making a big deal about releasing them.
RELATED:
US Department of Justice:
Attorney General Pamela Bondi Releases First Phase of Declassified Epstein Files
Rachel Treisman / NPR:
What to know about the Epstein files release, from redactions to ‘Rickrolling’
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Bezos' changes at ‘Washington Post’ lead to mass subscription cancellations — again  —  More than 75,000 digital subscribers to The Washington Post have cancelled since its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced on Wednesday that he would radically overhaul the paper's opinion pages …
William Vaillancourt / The Daily Beast:
Musk Makes Big Mistake While Trying to Smear CNN Legal Analyst Norm Eisen  —  CARELESS  —  The billionaire DOGE chief found a woman with the same last name as a lawyer he hates.  Cue the conspiracy.
Discussion: Electrek and emptywheel
ProPublica:
Speaker Mike Johnson Is Living in a D.C. House That Is the Center of a Pastor's Secretive Influence Campaign  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  In 2021, Steve Berger …
Discussion: Diane Ravitch's blog
Bloomberg:
Trump, Zelenskiy Devolve Into Bickering Before Deal Signing  — Ukrainian leader says deal not enough to ensure security  — Trump downplays security concerns, worries of future attacks  —  President Donald Trump's meeting Friday with Volodymyr Zelenskiy quickly devolved into a testy exchange …
RELATED:
BBC:
Trump tells Zelensky 'make a deal or we're out' in angry White House meeting
Barak Ravid / Axios:
Zelensky meets Trump for U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal signing
Hailey Fuchs / Politico:
AOC wants answers from DOJ after Trump officials threaten investigation  —  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pressing the Justice Department to reveal whether she — or her office — is under federal investigation.  In a letter to newly confirmed attorney general Pam Bondi …
Discussion: Washington Examiner and Axios
RELATED:
Steve Inskeep / NPR:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells NPR: ‘Everything feels increasingly like a scam’
Stephen Robinson / Public Notice:
MAGA's Orwellian notion of “free speech”  —  🗣️ 💬 📣 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.
Discussion: The Federalist
RELATED:
Garry Kasparov / The Atlantic:   The Putinization of America  —  Trump's deference to the Russian dictator has become full-blown imitation.
Andrew Egger / The Bulwark:
Democrats Are About to Eat Their Own  —  Expect a bizarre scene at the White House today, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is showing up to sign an agreement pledging some Ukrainian rare-mineral rights to the United States—theoretically in exchange for further U.S. opposition to Vladimir Putin engulfing his country.
Discussion: Off Message, The Hill and Vanity Fair
RELATED:
Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
Why Aren't We in the Streets?  —  On Trump the Almighty and his so-far quiescent capital.
Discussion: Althouse
Sahil Kapur / NBC News:
Republicans consider major budget change to obscure deficit impact of extending Trump's tax cuts  —  GOP leaders argue that extending Trump's expiring 2017 tax cuts shouldn't be treated as costing any money.  Democrats compare the tactic to nuking the 60-vote filibuster rule.
RELATED:
Bloomberg Law:
US Attorney Ed Martin Demotes Jan. 6 Case Supervisors  —  Washington's top federal prosecutor Ed Martin has demoted multiple senior supervisors involved in Jan. 6 insurrection cases to work in significantly reduced capacities.  —  The supervisors oversaw the office's work on federal crimes …
Discussion: New York Times and New York Post
RELATED:
Ashleigh Fields / The Hill:
Pardoned Jan. 6 protester: ‘The DOJ was not weaponized against me’
Discussion: Twitchy
Washington Post:
FBI takes up EPA probe amid pushback from judge, prosecutors  —  While career prosecutors in two U.S. attorney offices and a U.S. judge balked at a court-ordered freeze, Citibank has locked down billions without explanation  —  FBI agents this week questioned Environmental Protection Agency …
Discussion: IJR and Talking Points Memo
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Here's the real threat to ‘personal liberties and free markets’  —  The rapidly spreading authoritarianism coming from this administration threatens all of our freedoms.  —  Over the last 48 hours, I've been receiving from readers and friends the sort of notes one gets upon losing a loved one …
NBC News:
A top DOJ spokesperson says he is resigning due to a ‘hostile and toxic work environment’  —  Sarah Fitzpatrick  —  Michael Kosnar  —  Ken Dilanian and Rebecca Shabad  —  One of the Justice Department's highest-ranking spokespeople, Joshua Stueve, submitted a resignation letter today, citing a “hostile and toxic work environment.”
CNN:
Exclusive: US intel shows Russia and China are attempting to recruit disgruntled federal employees, sources say  —  Foreign adversaries including Russia and China have recently directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US federal employees working in national security …
ProPublica:
A Study of Mint Plants.  A Device to Stop Bleeding.  This Is the Scientific Research Ted Cruz Calls “Woke.”  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  A few months ago …
Stephanie Nolen / New York Times:
U.S. Terminates Funding for Polio, H.I.V., Malaria and Nutrition Programs Around the World  —  Here are some of the 5,800 contracts the Trump administration formally canceled this week in a wave of terse emails.  —  Starting Wednesday afternoon, a wave of emails went out from the State Department …
Discussion: The Guardian, Al Jazeera and Politico
New York Times:
The MAGA War on Speech  —  In 1791, the nation's founders ratified the First Amendment to the Constitution.  It would come to offer protections in the new nation essentially never seen before: the right to ask things of and to criticize the government; to express opinions, popular or not …
Discussion: Instapundit
Joe Gould / Politico:
Trump taps hard-liner Hung Cao for Navy No. 2 role  —  The former congressional candidate has called for a military of alpha males and females willing “to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds.”  —  President Donald Trump has nominated Hung Cao for Navy undersecretary …
Rebecca Crosby / Popular Information:
BREAKING: SEC halts fraud prosecution of Chinese national who sent Trump millions  —  In December, Popular Information reported that Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial (WLF), a new venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family.
William Shoki / New York Times:
Elon Musk Is South African.  It Explains a Lot.  —  Elon Musk is everywhere.  —  He is firing federal employees, gaining access to important government data, popping into the Oval Office, appearing on Fox News alongside President Trump and even attending a White House cabinet meeting.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Emily Chamlee-Wright / Persuasion:
What Erratic Government Does to a Country
Discussion: New York Times
Reuters:
Exclusive: Israel lobbies US to keep Russian bases in a ‘weak’ Syria, sources say
Joe Kovac / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
USAID cancels large contracts of Georgia peanut butter supplier
Discussion: Raw Story
Jason Leopold / Bloomberg:
The Story Behind FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's Role in Project 2025
 Earlier Items: 
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Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
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Noah Shachtman / New York Times:
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Garrett M. Graff / Doomsday Scenario:
Patel, Ratcliffe Set Up U.S. for a National Catastrophe
Paul Krugman:
Chaos Is Bad for Business
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
'He's Full Of S**t': Pediatrician In Congress Blames RFK Jr. For Child's Death From Measles
Angela Yang / NBC News:
Some people online are planning an ‘economic blackout’ Friday. What does that mean?