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2:45 PM ET, February 28, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Washington Post:
Trump-Zelensky meeting cut short after contentious Oval Office exchange  —  The Ukrainian leader came to Washington to prevent Trump from abandoning Kyiv in favor of Moscow three years into Russia's war on his country, but was met with vocal anger from the American president.
RELATED:
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
BBC:
Trump tells Zelensky 'make a deal or we're out' in angry White House meeting  —  Summary  — Donald Trump tells Volodymyr Zelensky “make a deal or we're out” during an angry meeting at the White House - watch their exchanges back at the top of this page  — The US president tells …
Washington Post:
Trump cancels news conference with Zelensky after contentious Oval Office meeting  —  President Donald Trump on Friday canceled a planned news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after a contentious meeting in the White House.  During the meeting, Trump …
Bloomberg:
Trump, Zelenskiy Shouting Match Shelves Deal on Ukraine Minerals  —  Plans to sign a critical minerals deal between the US and Ukraine were scrapped after Donald Trump's meeting Friday with Volodymyr Zelenskiy quickly devolved into a fiery exchange over the Ukrainian leader's doubts …
Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing / Politico:
Russian state media briefly enters Oval Office during Zelenskyy meeting
Patsy Widakuswara / Reuters:
Trump-Zelenskyy White House meeting on mineral deal devolves into shouting match
Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
Why Aren't We in the Streets?  —  On Trump the Almighty and his so-far quiescent capital.
Discussion: Althouse
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
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:
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Two Good Reads.  —  There are two good, big feature pieces out from the Times and the Journal …
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Jake Lahut / Wired:
Elon Musk's Takeover Is Being Aided by a Trumpworld Power Couple
Discussion: Raw Story
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 …
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 …
Discussion: RedState
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:
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.
Discussion: Law Dork
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 …
RELATED:
Politico:
DOJ demotes top prosecutors of Jan. 6 defendants, Trump allies  —  The veteran lawyers who were reassigned include those who prosecuted Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro and leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.  —  The Justice Department has demoted some of the most senior federal prosecutors …
RELATED:
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:
Rachel Treisman / NPR:
What to know about the Epstein files release, from redactions to ‘Rickrolling’
US Department of Justice:
Attorney General Pamela Bondi Releases First Phase of Declassified Epstein Files
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: emptywheel and Electrek
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 …
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.
RELATED:
Garry Kasparov / The Atlantic:   The Putinization of America  —  Trump's deference to the Russian dictator has become full-blown imitation.
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.
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:
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 …
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 …
RELATED:
Steve Inskeep / NPR:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells NPR: ‘Everything feels increasingly like a scam’
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:
Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats  —  Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: ‘Putin is on the inside now’  — Don't let a billionaire's algorithm control what you read.
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: E&E News, IJR and Talking Points Memo
Tara Palmeri / Puck:
A Biden Family Insider Tells All  —  Michael LaRosa, longtime press secretary for first lady Jill Biden, opens up about how aides hid the president from the press and ignored bad polls, as well as the “cover-up” allegations at the center of the great 2024 blame game.
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: 
Kanishka Singh / Reuters:
US launches ‘end DEI’ portal for public complaints about diversity in schools
Adam Bonica / On Data and Democracy:
The DOGE Purge: Empirical Evidence of Politically Motivated Firings
Emily Chamlee-Wright / Persuasion:
What Erratic Government Does to a Country
Discussion: New York Times
Joe Kovac / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
USAID cancels large contracts of Georgia peanut butter supplier
Discussion: Raw Story
NBC News:
A top DOJ spokesperson says he is resigning due to a ‘hostile and toxic work environment’
 Earlier Items: 
Jason Leopold / Bloomberg:
The Story Behind FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's Role in Project 2025
ProPublica:
A Study of Mint Plants. A Device to Stop Bleeding. This Is the Scientific Research Ted Cruz Calls “Woke.”
Noah Shachtman / New York Times:
Dead Athletes. Empty Stands. Why Are We Paying Billions to Keep This Sport Alive?
Garrett M. Graff / Doomsday Scenario:
Patel, Ratcliffe Set Up U.S. for a National Catastrophe
New York Times:
The MAGA War on Speech
Discussion: Instapundit
 

 
From Techmeme:

CNBC:
OpenAI closes a $40B funding round, the most ever raised by a private tech company, at a $300B post-money valuation; SoftBank led the round with $30B

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
OpenAI's new GPT-4o-powered image generator is now available to all users; Sam Altman last week mentioned a limit of three images per day for free-tier users

Ian King / Bloomberg:
At the Intel Vision conference, CEO Lip-Bu Tan says Intel plans to spin off non-core assets, create new products including custom semiconductors, and more
 
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