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Donald J. Trump White House 2nd Term Page 5
Story by Evann Gastaldo

Sources say the FBI, under the direction of the Trump administration, is moving to criminalize organizations that received Biden-era climate grants. In court filings Wednesday, Citibank said that the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Treasury Department requested that the accounts of some nonprofits and state government agencies be frozen, a move that the bank made last month. Three of the nonprofits are now suing the bank, asking for the funds to be released, TechCrunch reports. Citibank said in its filings that the federal government told it that the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, through which the grants were given out, was the subject of an "ongoing criminal investigation," MSNBC reports.
Story by Jonathan Wright

Donald Trump‘s pick for Director of the FBI, Kash Patel, is already laying plans to criminalize “left-wing activist groups” like Habitat for Humanity, revoking the grants received under the Biden administration and designating their harmless activities as “conspiracy to defraud the United States.”

Trump has made no secret of his intention to wage a war against activist groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter, and now that the entire administrative branch has turned into his little playground, with loyalists being appointed to head different bureaus and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency methodically removing any potential opposition to the MAGA agendas within the federal workforce, it’s safe to say that it will only be a matter of time before all these plans are enacted with force.

While many of them fall a little bit short of the nightmarish, dystopian scenarios laid out in Project 2025, of which many Trump aides and advisors are lead contributors, what has been taking place in the country over the past month under the umbrella of the law is nothing short of an unconstitutional push to turn the administrative branch into an authoritarian echo chamber, where Trump’s is the only voice of reason, backed by corporate tycoons like Elon Musk and their enormous wealth and influence.
Story by Joe Brennan

Elon Musk, the unelected head of the Department of Government Efficieny, is coming under fire from all sides after his slash-and-burn tactics on federal government departments are being met with huge concern from those who know just how much the American people rely on their services.

As the South African cuts your family’s medical care and retirement money, Musk claims to be writing all this down for the public to see. The DOGE website says it keeps an open and transparent record of all the cuts, but still some think that the numbers should be taken with a pinch of salt the size of, let’s say, Greenland.

Recently, it was found that Musk’s purported $8 billion saving was in fact a ‘typo’. The real number was $8 million: a difference in magnitude of 1,000. A multitude errors are constantly being spotted by many in the world of finance and business, and one professor has had his say on the murky situation being led by the son of an emerald mine owner.
Story by Joe Sommerlad

Donald Trump’s Oval Office attack on Ukraine’s president last month appeared to mark a very public realignment of America’s sympathies - away from Europe and towards Russia in a manner that few could have imagined during the Cold War years.

The Republican Party, now dominated by Trump’s “America First” MAGA movement, once considered the former Soviet Union “the evil empire” under Ronald Reagan and relished its collapse.

Today, the GOP stands accused of parroting Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric and some even refuse to admit the plain fact that Moscow began the war by invading its neighbor.

The White House itself has even been branded “an arm of the Kremlin” by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a dramatic about-turn just weeks into the luxury real estate mogul’s second presidency.

“Every single day, you hear from the national security adviser, from the president of the United States, from his entire national security team, Kremlin talking points,” Murphy told CNN’s State of the Union in the wake of the Zelensky episode.

Perhaps even more damning was the assessment of Putin’s own spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who said with a grin on state television: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.”

With hindsight, the break with Zelensky – which was swiftly followed by the White House cutting off all American aid to Ukraine and demanding a public apology in exchange for peace negotiations on Trump’s terms – was a culmination, not a sudden new development.

This president has consistently celebrated authoritarians like Putin, Xi Jinping of China, Viktor Orban of Hungary and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un as “tough” and “smart”, recognising their shared taste for power and similarly transactional approach to international relations. But it is the Russian leader who has cast the longest shadow over Trump’s political project.
Trump America’s first dictator

Ted Johnson

Donald Trump once again lashed out at the media, calling CNN and MSNBC “corrupt” and “illegal” for reporting negatively about him.

Trump’s attacks on the media are nothing new, but his choice of venue is: The Justice Department, where, in his campaign-like speech before prosecutors, he also attacked political opponents and called for some to be sent to prison.

“I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat party, and in my opinion, they are really corrupt and they are illegal,” Trump said, again using his nickname for MSNBC.
The president and his allies accuse South Africa of discriminating against and killing white people, and warn that it could happen in America if attempts to promote diversity aren’t stopped.
By John Eligon

To hear President Trump and some of his closest supporters tell it, South Africa is a terrible place for white people. They face discrimination, are sidelined from jobs and live under the constant threat of violence or having their land stolen by a corrupt, Black-led government that has left the country in disarray.

The data tell a different story. Although white people make up 7 percent of the country’s population, they own at least half of South Africa’s land. Police statistics do not show that they are any more vulnerable to violent crime than other people. And white South Africans are far better off than Black people on virtually every marker of the economic scale.

Yet Mr. Trump and his allies have pushed their own narrative of South Africa to press an argument at home: If the United States doesn’t clamp down on attempts to promote diversity, America will become a hotbed of dysfunction and anti-white discrimination.

“It plays into the fears of white people in America and elsewhere: ‘We whites are threatened,’” Max du Preez, a white South African writer and historian, said of Mr. Trump’s description of his country.
Opinion by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY

President Donald Trump has made it clear he will do everything in his power to fight antisemitism.

In a Jan. 30 executive order promising to “Combat Anti-Semitism,” he swore to take “unprecedented steps to marshal all Federal resources to combat the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and in our streets since October 7, 2023” and to “investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”

Trump also said, “My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”

You’d think a best friend might take a moment to look over his shoulder and notice the unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, standing behind him. The one who has gotten in hot water for doing a salute that looked rather Nazi-esque, for making jokes about various infamous Nazis and, most recently, for sharing a post on social media that said: “Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.”
Story by MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three former Environmental Protection Agency leaders sounded an alarm Friday, saying rollbacks proposed by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin endanger the lives of millions of Americans and abandon the agency's dual mission to protect the environment and human health.

Zeldin said Wednesday he plans to roll back 31 key environmental rules on everything from clean air to clean water and climate change. Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy called Zeldin's announcement "the most disastrous day in EPA history.''

The warning by McCarthy, who served under two Democratic administrations, was echoed by two former EPA heads who served under Republican presidents.

Zeldin's comprehensive plan to undo decades-old regulations was nothing short of a “catastrophe” and “represents the abandonment of a long history” of EPA actions to protect the environment, said William K. Reilly, who led the agency under President George H.W. Bush and played a key role in amending the Clean Air Act in 1990.

“What this administration is doing is endangering all of our lives — ours, our children, our grandchildren," added Christine Todd Whitman, who led EPA under President George W. Bush. “We all deserve to have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. If there’s an endangerment finding to be found anywhere, it should be found on this administration because what they’re doing is so contrary to what the Environmental Protection Agency is about.''
Story by Gregory Korte and Erik Larson

(Bloomberg) -- A staffer for the Department of Government Efficiency violated Treasury Department policies when he sent a spreadsheet containing personal information to two other people in the Trump administration, a federal official revealed in a court filing Friday.

That DOGE staffer was Marko Elez, who left his job tracking Treasury payments after social media posts linking him to racist beliefs surfaced online. He has since been rehired by DOGE at the Social Security Administration.

The details about the data exchange come out of a forensic analysis Treasury conducted as part of a lawsuit brought by New York and other state attorneys general attempting to halt President Donald Trump’s efficiency initiative from accessing sensitive payment information about US taxpayers, contractors, employees and beneficiaries.

The violation raises concerns about the data security practices of DOGE’s work at the Treasury Department and other agencies as it digs into sensitive government databases. A federal filing earlier this week noted that any disruptions to the Treasury payments systems “could have catastrophic consequences,” including risking federal default on obligations or jeopardizing social support payments to millions of Americans.

The forensic analysis was conducted after the government revealed in an earlier court filing that Elez had briefly had read-write access to the payments data, when the court had previously been advised that his access was read-only. The analysis found that Elez did not make any changes to the payment data.
Story by Alex Horton, Missy Ryan, Dan Lamothe

The United States launched a “decisive and powerful” attack on Houthi militants in Yemen, President Donald Trump said Saturday, an escalation against the Iranian-backed group that for months has besieged commercial maritime traffic in the Red Sea.

U.S. warships and jets launched attacks across Yemen, targeting radars, air defense sites and drone launch points, a defense official said. The operation is the beginning of a campaign targeting Houthi military capabilities, the official said, following attacks against merchant ships and U.S. forces in the region.
Story by Conor Murray, Forbes Staff

Topline
President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered the U.S. military to conduct airstrikes targeting the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, the most notable military action of his second term thus far, while threatening Iran to cease its support for the Houthis or else face retaliation.

Key Facts
The United States launched air and naval strikes targeting dozens of Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen on Saturday, including radars, air defenses and missile and drone systems, unnamed U.S. officials told the New York Times.

Trump said in a Saturday afternoon post on Truth Social he directed the strikes in response to the Houthis’ “unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism,” likely referring to the group attacking ships in the Red Sea—a crucial trading route—that have ties to the United States, United Kingdom or Israel, though the group has also indiscriminately targeted ships.
Trump and the GOP are Whitewashing the history of Black, Hispanic and female veterans from American history

Story by Brandon Drenon - BBC News, Washington DC

Arlington National Cemetery has scrubbed from its website information and educational materials about the history of black and female service members.

Some of the content unpublished from the site was on veterans who had received the nation's highest military recognition, the Medal of Honor, according to military news site Task & Purpose.

The content removal is part of a larger effort by the President Donald Trump to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices in the military and throughout the federal government.

Approximately 400,000 veterans are buried in the Army-run cemetery, which was established after the US Civil War at the home of the South's general, Robert E. Lee.

On the cemetery's website, internal links that directed users to webpages with information about the "Notable Graves" of dozens of black, Hispanic and female veterans were gone on Friday.

The pages contained short biographies about veterans such as Gen Colin L Powell, the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which is the highest rank in the military after the president.

They also told the life stories of members of the Tuskegee Airmen , the country's first black military airmen.
Story by ROB GILLIES

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked Defense Minister Bill Blair to review the purchase of America’s F-35 fighter jet to see if there are other options “given the changing environment," a spokesman for Blair said Saturday.

Defense ministry press secretary Laurent de Casanove said the contract to purchase U.S. military contractor Lockheed Martin's F-35 currently remains in place and Canada has made a legal commitment of funds for the first 16 aircraft. Canada agreed to buy 88 F-35’s two years ago.

Carney, who was sworn in on Friday, has asked Blair to work with the military “to determine if the F-35 contract, as it stands, is the best investment for Canada, and if there are other options that could better meet Canada’s needs," de Casanove said.

“To be clear, the F-35 contract has not been canceled, but we need to do our homework given the changing environment, and make sure that the contract in its current form is in the best interests of Canadians and the Canadian Armed Forces,” de Casanove said.
Story by Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

The Trump administration Saturday invoked a sweeping wartime authority, which has been used only three times before, to speed up the deportations of migrants affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

The little-known 18th-century law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, gives the president tremendous authority to target and remove undocumented immigrants. The law is designed to be invoked if the US is at war with another country, or a foreign nation has invaded the US or threatened to do so. For that reason, legal experts have argued it would face an uphill battle in court.

International travelers concerned about President Donald Trump’s trade policies and bellicose rhetoric have been canceling trips to the United States, depriving the U.S. tourism industry of billions of dollars at a time when the economy has started to appear wobbly.

Canadians are skipping trips to Disney World and music festivals. Europeans are eschewing U.S. national parks, and Chinese travelers are vacationing in Australia instead.

International travel to the United States is expected to slide by 5 percent this year, contributing to a $64 billion shortfall for the travel industry, according to Tourism Economics. The research firm had originally forecast a 9 percent increase in foreign travel, but revised its estimate late last month to reflect “polarizing Trump Administration policies and rhetoric.”

“There’s been a dramatic shift in our outlook,” said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics. “You’re looking at a much weaker economic engine than what otherwise would’ve been, not just because of tariffs, but the rhetoric and condescending tone around it.”

The number of overseas visitors to the United States fell 2.4 percent in February from a year earlier, government data shows, with the biggest drops in travelers from Africa (down 9 percent), Asia (7 percent) and Central America (6 percent). Meanwhile, travel from China — a frequent target of the president’s ire — is down 11 percent.
Story by Emma Richter For Dailymail.Com

Donald Trump blasted a news outlet for being 'sick degenerates' after a bombshell story came out about Steve Witkoff, the US Special Envoy to the Middle East, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The president hit out at Sky News on Truth Social Saturday after the outlet claimed that Putin kept Witkoff waiting for hours before their meeting on Thursday to discuss the ongoing war with Ukraine.

Witkoff left Russia on Friday without a deal on the ceasefire Ukraine has agreed to, and according to Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennet with Sky News, their talk 'felt like a classic Putin power play.'

'But after arriving around lunchtime on Thursday, he was left twiddling his thumbs for at least eight hours before being called into the Kremlin,' the article read, adding that the Russian leader 'was apparently too busy meeting someone else' that day - Belarusian leader Aleksander Lukashenko.

'We don't know for sure if the timing of Mr Lukashenko's visit was deliberate, but it certainly didn't feel like a coincidence.

'Instead, it felt like a classic Putin power play,' the outlet added.
The strikes differ from the Biden administration's, Waltz told "This Week."
By Quinn Scanlan

The U.S. airstrikes that bombarded Yemen on Saturday targeted and "took out" multiple leaders of the Iranian-backed Houthis, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said Sunday.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Waltz argued to co-anchor Martha Raddatz that these latest strikes differ from the countless strikes the Biden administration launched against the rebel group, which the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

"These were not kind of pinprick, back and forth -- what ultimately proved to be feckless attacks," Waltz said. "This was an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out. And the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible."
The US raids come after Trump warned that ‘hell will rain down’ if Houthis attacked ships in the Red Sea.
Aljazeera

US fighter jets have carried out a series of air raids across Yemen, killing at least 32 people after President Donald Trump warned the Houthi group not to attack ships passing through the Red Sea.

According to the latest statistics from the Houthi-run Health Ministry, at least 101 have been injured in the US air raids, said Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Al Attab reporting from Sanaa.

The US raids, the most significant military action since Trump’s return to power in January, came after Yemen’s Houthis threatened to resume raids on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s blockade on Gaza.

The US attacks, which began on Saturday and continued into the early hours of Sunday, on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, as well as areas in Saada and al-Bayda killed 32 people and wounded 101, according to the ministry of health.

Earlier, spokesperson for the ministry of health Anis al-Asbahi said that most of the casualties were “children and women”.

The victims in Saada included four children and a woman. According to Yemeni media, US forces also launched attacks in the provinces of Hajjah, Marib, Dhamar, and Taiz.
Trump had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport five Venezuelans, but order halted by judge
Maanvi Singh and Maya Yang

Donald Trump has invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport five Venezuelan nationals from the US.

The White House issued a presidential proclamation on Saturday targeting Venezuelan members of the gang Tren de Aragua, saying: “Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”

Civil liberties organizations have accused Trump of invoking the 1798 act unlawfully during peacetime to accelerate mass deportations and sidestep immigration law.

Hours later, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s administration from using the act to carry out its intended deportations of the Venezuelans.

The US district judge James Boasberg of the federal district court in Washington DC agreed on Saturday to issue a temporary restraining order that prevents the Venezuelans’ deportation for 14 days.

“Given the exigent circumstances that it [the court] has been made aware of this morning, it has determined that an immediate Order is warranted to maintain the status quo until a hearing can be set,” Boasberg wrote in his order.
Trump was not being a ‘bit sarcastic’ when he promised to end Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours he lied

By MICHELLE L. PRICE

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he was “being a little bit sarcastic” when he repeatedly claimed as a candidate that he would have the Russia-Ukraine war solved within 24 hours — and even before he even took office.

Trump was asked about the vow he repeatedly made on the campaign trail during an interview for the “Full Measure” television program as his administration is still trying to broker a solution 54 days into his second term.

“Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that,” Trump said in a clip released ahead of the episode airing Sunday. “What I really mean is I’d like to get it settled and, I’ll, I think, I think I’ll be successful.”

It was a rare admission from Trump, who has a long record of making exaggerated claims.

Trump said at a CNN town hall in May 2023, “They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours.”
Story by Ray Sanchez, CNN

In the days after immigration officers detained a pro-Palestinian activist on campus, the head of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School has been inundated with inquiries from students seeking answers to basic questions.

“I have been individually counseling students on whether or not they should travel abroad, on whether or not they should be posting on social media, on whether or not they can and should participate in a demonstration,” said Elora Mukherjee, a law school professor and clinic director.

“Activities that were taken for granted just a week ago are now questions that students are asking: Should I do this? Should I do that? What are the risks?”

Last weekend’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian refugee whose green card was revoked over his involvement in demonstrations at Columbia University, is having a chilling effect on college campuses across America, where students say they’re being forced to think carefully before exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech.

“This case sets a terrifying precedent for all students, particularly international students, particularly those on visas and green cards, but I think students in general should be horrified,” said Zaid, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of retribution. “What precedent are we setting for this entire nation, and for our First Amendment, if Khalil is deported, and who will be the next group targeted?”
The Conversation

After winning the 2024 election, President Donald Trump said on Nov. 30 that his new FBI director would be Kash Patel, a controversial lawyer and former Trump aide known for backing right-wing conspiracies.

Patel officially replaced FBI Director Christopher Wray, a 2017 Trump appointee, on Feb. 20, 2025.

By law, FBI directors serve a 10-year term to avoid White House political interference. Wray was in his eighth year. Patel stands outside the norm of FBI directors over the past century. They have generally been apolitical and independent investigators, upholding the rule of law. Patel’s own words, however, appear to contradict this.

Patel has supported Trump’s 2024 campaign vow to use federal power to “root out” political opponents.

“We’re going to come after you whether it’s criminally or civilly,” Patel said in December 2023. Patel’s 2023 book, “Government Gangsters,” includes a list of top-ranking government officials, which Democrats say is an enemies list.
Story by Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams

U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign-like speech at the Department of Justice on Friday sparked a fresh wave of alarm over the Republican's attacks on his critics, disrespect for the rule of law, and plans for his second term.

Trump—who was convicted of 34 felonies in New York before returning to the White House—slammed his perceived opponents as "scum" and "thugs," called efforts to hold him accountable for alleged criminal activity "bull----," and declared: "We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We will expose... their egregious crimes and severe misconduct."

Trump's appearance with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and props promoting drug enforcement displayed his intent to remake the federal judiciary and fueled speculation that he will appoint Florida-based District Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed the classified documents case against him, to the nation's Supreme Court.

"Some of the most hallowed halls of justice in America were disgraced by the president of the United States, who has inappropriately installed his personal lawyers and other loyalists into leadership roles at the Department of Justice," said Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program and an adviser at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

"This reinforces what we knew: The independence of the department has been compromised. During his remarks, the president sought to undermine faith in our judicial system, attacked lawyers who support due process and the rule of law, and made it clear that he expects the attorney general and other leaders to use the full force and resources of the Justice Department to roll back our civil and human rights, target his enemies, and operationalize a worldview that perpetuates white supremacy," she said. "The anti-immigrant rhetoric that both he and the attorney general used was reprehensible and unacceptable."
Story by Avery Lotz

A federal judge on Sunday ordered the Trump administration to respond to allegations that U.S. immigration enforcement "willfully disobeyed" an order halting the deportation of a Rhode Island doctor.

The big picture: Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who according to court documents is a citizen of Lebanon who holds an H-1B visa, was detained last week upon her arrival at a Boston airport.

How it happened: In an order on Friday evening in response to a petition from Alawieh's cousin, federal Judge Leo T. Sorokin mandated 48 hours' notice before Alawieh could be deported.

But Alawieh was nonetheless placed on a flight to Paris, where she was detained as of Saturday.

It's unclear how much time elapsed between the order coming down and that flight departing, but attorneys representing Alawieh's cousin, Yara Chehab, alleged in a court filing that the government had received "actual notice" and "willfully disobeyed" the court's order. Alawieh was expected to fly to Lebanon on Sunday, per the filing.

The Trump administration has not said why Alawieh was detained, or why she was removed from the country despite the order. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment, while the State Department said it could not comment on individual cases.
Story by Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams

"DOGE is a disaster of incompetence."

That's how one political scientist responded to Saturday reporting about a Washington state man fighting for his Social Security benefits as U.S. President Donald Trump and the head of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), billionaire Elon Musk, attack the federal bureaucracy, including the agency that administers payements to seniors like Leonard "Ned" Johnson.

Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat shared the story of 82-year-old Johnson. In February, his wife received a notification from their bank that the Social Security Administration (SSA) requested a return for benefits paid out after the supposed death of her husband. She figured it was a scam—as Johnson was alive—but the request was real and $5,201 was pulled from their account.

As Westneat detailed, after making multiple calls to SSA, during which Johnson was "put on hold and then eventually disconnected," and securing an appointment that was ultimately rescheduled for next week, "he went to the office on the ninth floor of the Henry Jackson Federal Building downtown," one of several sites across the United States that DOGE wants to shut down.
Story by Maya Yang

The US defense department webpage celebrating an army general who served in the Vietnam war and was awarded the country’s highest military decoration has been removed and the letters “DEI” added to the site’s address.

On Saturday, US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage led to a “404” error message. The URL was also changed, with the word “medal” changed to “deimedal”.
Story by Kelly Rissman

Eight months after Donald Trump publicly distanced himself from Project 2025, the conservative blueprint appears to have influenced Trump’s early decisions — a reality that one of the authors says was “beyond his wildest dreams.”

The 900-plus-page policy book details how a second Trump administration could overhaul the federal government as America knew it, like dismantling departments, expanding his executive authority, putting an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, and purging the federal workforce and replacing them with political appointees.

On the campaign trail, Democrats warned about the dangers of Project 2025 while Trump repeatedly distanced himself from it. “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it,” he wrote on Truth Social last July.

Later that month, Paul Dans, a lawyer and chief architect of Project 2025, resigned. Now, he says he has no hard feelings and is thrilled that the second Trump administration appears to be following the controversial blueprint.

“It’s actually way beyond my wildest dreams,” Dans told Politico, when asked if Trump was diverging from his vision. “It’s not going to be the easiest road to hoe going forward. The deep state is going to get its breath back. But the way that they’ve been able to move and upset the orthodoxy, and at the same time really capture the imagination of the people, I think portends a great four years.”
Story by Camilla Schick

The Trump administration and Israel approached the governments of Sudan and Somalia, and have also been interested in Syria, as potential places to resettle Palestinians from Gaza, according to three sources familiar with the effort.

The idea of Palestinian resettlement in another country is one of several options the Trump team is chewing over as part of the U.S. president's larger goal of ending Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza and rebuilding the devastated Palestinian enclave.

"Nobody is expelling any Palestinians," President Trump said Wednesday, when the Irish Prime Minister was asked during the two leaders' Oval Office meeting by a Voice of America reporter about the president's controversial remarks in February when he suggested taking ownership of Gaza to rebuild it.

Mr. Trump made the remarks during a Feb. 4 press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying Gaza could be the "Riviera of the Middle East."

" We should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this, and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction," Mr. Trump said.

A combination of Israeli and U.S. officials communicated to Sudan and Somalia, two diplomatic sources confirmed to CBS News. Senior far-right Israeli government officials have already been calling for Palestinians to migrate from the enclave. Mr. Trump's remarks have only emboldened Israel to reach out to other countries to explore opportunities for Palestinian resettlement, one source said.
International Boycott Movement Targets US Goods As Trump Policies Draw Backlash

Countries worldwide are rejecting American products in response to Trump administration policies. European car buyers are abandoning Tesla while Canadian apps help shoppers avoid US goods.
Thomas Mackintosh & Merlyn Thomas BBC News

US President Donald Trump has signed an order to strip back federally funded news organisation Voice of America, accusing it of being "anti-Trump" and "radical".

A White House statement said the order would "ensure taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda", and included quotes from politicians and right-wing media criticising the broadcaster.

VOA, still primarily a radio service, was set up during World War Two to counter Nazi propaganda. It is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Mike Abramowitz, VOA's director, said he and virtually his entire staff of 1,300 people had been put on paid leave.

Abramowitz said that the order left VOA unable to carry out its "vital mission... especially critical today, when America's adversaries, like Iran, China, and Russia, are sinking billions of dollars into creating false narratives to discredit the United States".

The National Press Club, a leading representative group for US journalists, said the order "undermines America's long-standing commitment to a free and independent press".

It added: "If an entire newsroom can be sidelined overnight, what does that say about the state of press freedom?

"An entire institution is being dismantled piece by piece. This isn't just a staffing decision - it's a fundamental shift that endangers the future of independent journalism at VOA."

The president's order targets VOA's parent company US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which also funds non-profit entities such as Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, which were originally set up to counter communism.
Story by Chris Perez

A federal judge has denied a request by the Trump administration for a stay on an order he issued last week — declaring the president’s firing of tens of thousands of probationary employees over the past two months as “unlawful” and choosing to reinstate the workers — in what he now fears could be a lost cause due to efforts by the government to “stonewall” him.

“A stay would further injure plaintiffs because reinstatement becomes more difficult with every passing day,” U.S. District Judge William Alsup, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote on Saturday in an order denying the motion to stay from Trump’s Justice Department. “Terminated probationers are moving on with their lives, as they must,” Alsup said. “Fewer will be available to redress the harms suffered by the organizational plaintiffs tomorrow than there are today. And, the government has wholly failed to argue there is any other way to avoid the irreparable injuries flowing from the unlawful terminations except to reinstate the employees.”

On Thursday, Alsup tore into the Trump administration for its mass firings of probationary employees — calling it a “sad day” when the government would terminate “good” workers supposedly on the basis of performance knowing “good and well that’s a lie,” the judge said as he ordered agencies to “immediately” rehire those who have been booted.
Story by Pablo R. Suanzes

He claims that the pardons were signed with an automatic pen by advisors without the knowledge or approval of the former president and therefore "have no value or validity".

The story couldn't be more surreal, convoluted, and concerning. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated early Sunday morning, right after landing in Washington from spending the weekend at his Florida residence playing golf, that the pardons signed by Joe Biden in his final days in office are "null" and "have no value or validity." But if a statement of such magnitude with enormous consequences wasn't enough, what is most striking is the argumentation: Trump claims that these decrees were signed by an automated machine (Autopen) controlled by Biden's advisors, who according to his theory may not have been aware of it or "approved them."

Trump's statement on his Truth Social account doesn't stop there but concludes with thinly veiled threats against the members of Congress who investigated him. On Thanksgiving, Biden announced an unconditional pardon for his son Hunter, just before the court that had convicted him for tax issues and lying to obtain a weapon was to sentence him. But in January, on the brink of leaving the White House, he went further. First, he pardoned high officials like Anthony Fauci, the face of pandemic measures, and the congressmen who investigated Trump for the assault by his supporters on the Capitol, fearing reprisals against them after years of pressure and threats. And in the final hours in power, he extended the controversial pardon to his own siblings and in-laws.
Story by Melissa Koenig For Dailymail.Com

Donald Trump declared his predecessor's last-minute pardons 'void, vacant and of no further force or effect' as he warned that members of the House committee investigating the January 6 riots can now face prosecution. Trump claimed late Sunday night that because Joe Biden used an autopen the pardons cannot be enforced and even made the stunning suggestion they were signed without the former president's knowledge.

Trump 'voids' Biden's pardons after ex president to investigate Fauci
'The Pardons that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs and many others are hereby declared VOID, VACANT AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,' he posted on his Truth Social page. 'In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!' Trump claimed. 'The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them and the people that did may have committed a crime. 'Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level,' Trump wrote.

Biden had issued preemptive pardons for all nine members of the January 6 Committee - including panel Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson and former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney. 'The fact is they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden,' Trump claimed on Sunday. Trump has repeatedly hit out at the House committee investigating the Capitol riots as comprising 'Radical Left Democrats and a few horrible RINO Republicans.'
Story by Adam Nichols

A deep dive investigation by the New York Times has exposed the extent to which the Trump administration — and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — has slashed a top-secret nuclear agency.

Internal documents seen by the Times show more than 130 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration took the government's offer of a buyout. Another 27 were caught in mass firings that have swept through the federal workforce.

Among them are people who handled transportation of nuclear materials, built nuclear submarine reactors and oversaw safety standards at a plant that makes nuclear warheads.

In just six weeks, the Times reported, the agency, “has lost a huge cadre of scientists, engineers, safety experts, project officers, accountants and lawyers — all in the midst of its most ambitious endeavors in a generation.

“ … Engaged in top-secret work, tucked away in the Energy Department, the agency typically stays below the public radar. But it has emerged as a headline example of how the Trump administration’s cuts, touted as a cure-all for supposed government extravagance and corruption, are threatening the muscle and bone of operations that involve national security or other missions at the very heart of the federal government’s responsibilities.”
Opinion by Mohamad Bazzi

It’s no secret that Donald Trump loves to golf, especially at his own resorts. But Trump’s habit is costing US taxpayers tens of millions of dollars – even as he decries fraud and claims to slash waste in federal spending.

Since he took office, Trump has fired tens of thousands of federal workers and tried to shut down agencies, part of his effort to unilaterally dismantle the government. He has also made seven trips to Florida and the golf courses he owns there.

This weekend, Trump made his seventh visit to Florida and his sixth to his waterfront mansion and private club at Mar-a-Lago since his inauguration on 20 January. As Richard Luscombe noted in the Guardian last week, Trump’s frequent trips to his own properties not only cost taxpayer funds, but they benefit him directly – his businesses have charged the US government to house Secret Service agents and other White House staff. In other words, American taxpayers pay the Trump Organization for the right to protect Trump and his family.

During Trump’s first term, his properties had a history of overcharging the Secret Service, by as much as 300% beyond the authorized government hotel rates, according to a report issued by Democrats in Congress last year. The report found that the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service as much as $1,815 a room per night to stay at the Trump International hotel in Washington DC – billing the US government significantly more than the hotel did for “rooms rented by the Qatari royal family and Chinese business interests”.
Story by Ellie Abraham

US president Donald Trump’s latest claim on social media takes aim at his “enemies” pardoned by his predecessor Joe Biden, suggesting the pardons are invalid.

At the end of his term, Biden used his right as the U.S. president to grant preemptive pardons at the 11th hour to members of Congress who investigated the deadly January 6 attacks on the Capitol, during which Trump supporters stormed the building.

Biden’s pardons were granted to members of the January 6 committee over fears that Trump would attempt to seek revenge on them when he came into office – and it seems those fears were valid.

In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump claimed the pardons were “void, vacant and of no further effect” because, he claimed, they were allegedly signed with an autopen – a device that replicates a signature. Autopens have been used by many presidents and officials in the past to sign large numbers of documents.

Trump said that January 6 committee members would now be “subject to investigation at the highest level”. Without evidence to support it, Trump has repeatedly made the claim that the committee “destroyed” evidence related to the insurrection.

The president has once again seized on the claim repeated by conservatives that Biden was mentally unfit, claiming that the then-president didn’t know he was signing them.
Story by Joe Sommerlad

Donald Trump’s Oval Office attack on Ukraine’s president last month appeared to mark a very public realignment of America’s sympathies - away from Europe and towards Russia in a manner that few could have imagined during the Cold War years.

The Republican Party, now dominated by Trump’s “America First” MAGA movement, once considered the former Soviet Union “the evil empire” under Ronald Reagan and relished its collapse.

Today, the GOP stands accused of parroting Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric and some even refuse to admit the plain fact that Moscow began the war by invading its neighbor.

The White House itself has even been branded “an arm of the Kremlin” by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a dramatic about-turn just weeks into the luxury real estate mogul’s second presidency.

“Every single day, you hear from the national security adviser, from the president of the United States, from his entire national security team, Kremlin talking points,” Murphy told CNN’s State of the Union in the wake of the Zelensky episode.

Perhaps even more damning was the assessment of Putin’s own spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who said with a grin on state television: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.”

With hindsight, the break with Zelensky – which was swiftly followed by the White House cutting off all American aid to Ukraine and demanding a public apology in exchange for peace negotiations on Trump’s terms – was a culmination, not a sudden new development.

This president has consistently celebrated authoritarians like Putin, Xi Jinping of China, Viktor Orban of Hungary and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un as “tough” and “smart”, recognising their shared taste for power and similarly transactional approach to international relations. But it is the Russian leader who has cast the longest shadow over Trump’s political project.
Marc Caputo

The Trump administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn't apply, two senior officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The administration's decision to defy a federal judge's order is exceedingly rare and highly controversial.

"Court order defied. First of many as I've been warning and start of true constitutional crisis," national security attorney Mark S. Zaid, a Trump critic, wrote on X, adding that Trump could ultimately get impeached.
The White House welcomes that fight. "This is headed to the Supreme Court. And we're going to win," a senior White House official told Axios.
A second administration official said Trump was not defying the judge whose ruling came too late for the planes to change course: "Very important that people understand we are not actively defying court orders."

State of play: Trump's advisers contend U.S. District Judge James Boasberg overstepped his authority by issuing an order that blocked the president from deporting about 250 alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1789.

The war-time law gives the executive extreme immense power to deport noncitizens without a judicial hearing. But it has been little-used, particularly in peacetime.
"It's the showdown that was always going to happen between the two branches of government," a senior White House official said. "And it seemed that this was pretty clean. You have Venezuelan gang members ... These are bad guys, as the president would say."

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson join Morning Joe to discuss the new book 'Abundance,' which explains how to successfully govern in the 21st Century.
Story by Steve Benen

Midway through Barack Obama’s third year as president, Congress approved a controversial measure related to national security, with just 15 minutes to spare before certain surveillance powers were set to expire. The president, however, was in France when the bill cleared Capitol Hill.

In generations past, this might’ve posed a logistical challenge, but thanks to modern technology, White House officials weren’t concerned: Obama authorized use of the presidential “autopen” to sign the legislation into law. Some House Republicans weren’t pleased, but the administration pointed to a Justice Department guidance, written for George W. Bush, on the legal permissibility of the tool.

In the years that followed, discussion about the use of autopens has largely evaporated, though late last week, it apparently made a comeback: During remarks at the Justice Department on Friday, Donald Trump questioned Joe Biden’s use of the tool, saying that measures signed by his Democratic predecessor might not be “valid.”

Two days later, the Republican incumbent posted an item to his social media platform, suggesting that it was the autopen, and not Biden himself, who served as president for four years.
Story by Maurie Backman

All across the country, protests have been forming in front of Tesla showrooms. But it’s not that Americans have an issue with the idea of an electric vehicle. Rather, the problem is Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk.

Ever since Musk was appointed to run President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he and his team have been on a tear, poking their noses into a wide range of agencies and firing federal employees in short order.

Not surprisingly, Americans are unhappy, and they've responded by not only protesting outside of Tesla stores, but taking things to the extreme by vandalizing Tesla vehicles. And if this trend continues, it could become problematic for Tesla owners — not to mention the company itself.

Why Tesla vehicles are being targeted
On March 10, CNN reported that a wave of Tesla vandalism was sweeping the country, with police investigating a series of attacks on the automaker's showrooms, vehicles and charging stations.

In Seattle, authorities believe a Tesla that was found ablaze in the Northgate neighborhood was "intentionally set." And while most of the protests have been peaceful to date, the fear is that things could escalate.
Story by Gabrielle Olya

No one likes taxes — especially President Donald Trump. If he has his way, income taxes will become a thing of the past, with tariffs making up that revenue.

“Donald Trump announced the ‘External Revenue Service,’ and his goal is very simple — to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox News.

While paying less in taxes might be music to your ears, if you’re a member of the middle class, the reality might not be so rosy. Here’s why tariffs could cause financial strain for middle-class earners.

Higher Prices on Consumer Goods
Trump’s tariffs are likely to lead to higher prices on many everyday essentials and big-ticket purchases.

“The Trump administration rollout of tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada will create economic inefficiencies, which will raise prices,” said Thomas J. Cryan, tax attorney and author of “Disrupting Taxes.”
Story by Sarah Hooper

At the feet of the Statue of Liberty, an inscription reads: ‘Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’

Now, 140 years after the famous green lady was given to America from France, a lawmaker has suggested it’s time the US gives it back.

MEP Raphaël Glucksmann said: ‘We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: “Give us back the Statue of Liberty.”
Story by Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy, ProPublica, and Le Van for ProPublica

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

In mid-February, Trump administration leaders received a desperate warning from their diplomats posted in Vietnam, one of the most important American partners in Asia.

Workers were in the middle of cleaning up the site of an enormous chemical spill, the Bien Hoa air base, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly halted all foreign aid funding. The shutdown left exposed open pits of soil contaminated with dioxin, the deadly byproduct of Agent Orange, which the American military sprayed across large swaths of the country during the Vietnam War. After Rubio’s orders to stop work, the cleanup crews were forced to abandon the site, and, for weeks, all that was covering the contaminated dirt were tarps, which at one point blew off in the wind.

And even more pressing, the officials warned in a Feb. 14 letter obtained by ProPublica, Vietnam is on the verge of its rainy season, when torrential downpours are common. With enough rain, they said, soil contaminated with dioxin could flood into nearby communities, poisoning their food supplies.
Story by Joe Lancaster

So far, President Donald Trump's second term in office has been characterized by antagonism to allied nations. In just two months, Trump has shown hostility to the NATO defense alliance while gleefully pursuing a trade war against Canada and Mexico by imposing double-digit tariffs on the two largest purchasers of U.S. goods for specious reasons only to then agree to a pause, before repeating the cycle all over again.

One side effect of Trump's brash, undiplomatic attitude is that some allied nations may back out of purchasing F-35 fighter jets from the U.S., the latest indignity in a program that has infamously become a years-long boondoggle.

"The F-35 Lightning II aircraft (F-35) is the Department of Defense's (DOD) most ambitious and costly weapon system and its most advanced fighter aircraft," according to an April 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). "However, DOD's projected costs for sustaining the F-35 continue to increase while planned use of the aircraft declines." While the DOD plans to keep the jet in service through 2088, it estimates the cost to do so at $2 trillion.

The department has little to show for the exorbitant price tag. "DOD plans to fly the F-35 less than originally estimated, partly because of reliability issues with the aircraft," GAO found. "The F-35's ability to perform its mission has also trended downward over the past 5 years."
Story by Maya Yang

The US defense department webpage celebrating a Black Medal of Honor recipient that was removed and had the letters “DEI” added to the site’s address has been restored – and the letters scrubbed – after an outcry.

On Saturday, the Guardian reported that US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage led to a “404” error message – and that the URL had been changed, with the word “medal” changed to “deimedal”.

Rogers, who died in 1990, served in the Vietnam war, where he was wounded three times while leading the defense of a base. Then president Richard Nixon awarded him the Medal of Honor, the country’s highest military honor, in 1970, making him the highest-ranking African American to receive it, according to the West Virginia military hall of fame.
Story by Erkki Forster

Stephen Miller threw a veritable hissy fit on Fox News Monday after a host questioned whether Donald Trump’s invocation of wartime authority to deport migrants would hold up legally.

During an interview with The Story host Martha MacCallum on Monday, Miller was asked about MSNBC pundit Andrew Weissmann’s argument that the president should not be allowed to invoke an 18th-century law to deport migrants because it was intended for wartime use. Instead of addressing the point, Miller launched into a tirade.

“First of all, Andrew Weissmann is an absolute moron,” Miller fumed. “He is a moron, and he is a fool, and he’s a degenerate. Andrew Weissmann has devoted his career to putting innocent Americans in jail, taking away their civil liberties.”

Forgetting the original question, Miller fixated on Weissmann’s record as a former prosecutor who worked on Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Story by Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday revoked secret service protection for former president Joe Biden's children Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden.

"Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time, all paid for by the United States Taxpayer," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Story by VANESSA GERA

Ivan Hansen, a retired Danish police officer, loaded up his basket at the supermarket, carefully checking each product to avoid buying anything made in the United States. No more Coca-Cola, no more California Zinfandel wine or almonds.

The 67-year-old said it's the only way he knows to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's policies. He's furious about Trump's threat to seize the Danish territory of Greenland, but it's not just that. There are also the threats to take control of the Panama Canal and Gaza. And Trump's relationship with Elon Musk, who has far-right ties and made what many interpreted as a straight-armed Nazi salute.

On his recent shopping trip, Hansen returned home with dates from Iran. It shocked him to realize that he now perceives the United States as a greater threat than Iran.

“Trump really looks like a bully who tries in every way to intimidate, threaten others to get his way," he told The Associated Press. “I will fight against that kind of thing.”

A growing boycott movement across Europe
Hansen is just one supporter of a growing movement across Europe and Canada to boycott U.S. products. People are joining Facebook groups where they exchange ideas about how to avoid U.S. products and find alternatives. Feelings are especially strong across the Nordic region — and very possibly strongest in Denmark given Trump's threats to seize Greenland.
Opinion by Klaus Marre

Just two months into Donald Trump’s second term, we have reached a milestone in US politics: For the first time in US history, we must assume that nothing that comes out of the mouths of anybody associated with this administration is true*.

Nothing!

It might not be an outright lie in every case. Sometimes, it could just be spin or deception. But it’s rarely going to be the unvarnished truth.

Well, when the National Hurricane Center (if it still exists then) announces in the summer that a massive storm is about to slam into Florida, that might be true. Then again, Trump has already created his alternate reality when it comes to that, so who knows?

When it comes to the president, dishonesty is obviously nothing new. He is the most prolific liar in the history of politics. By now, he has probably lied more to the American people than all other presidents combined.

And, of course, there were plenty of officials in his first administration who lied. However, there were also still a lot of people left whom you could trust to be at least reasonably truthful.

That is no longer the case.

This time around, Trump specifically chose people for all key positions who are loyal to him, and you can’t be loyal to Trump while also speaking the truth.
Story by Morgan Music

Elon Musk agreed with an X post stating Hitler was hated because he "murdered millions of people," just days after he shared a post that said public sector workers, not Hitler, were responsible for murdering millions of people.

On Friday, Musk shared a post that claimed, "Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn't murder millions of people. Their public sector workers did." The statement was widely criticized as historical revisionism, with many accusing Musk of minimizing the personal responsibility of authoritarian leaders for their regimes' atrocities.

By Monday, Musk responded to a Twitter user condemning people for forgetting why Hitler was a villain. "We didn't hate Hitler because he made a stiff arm salute, we hated him because he murdered millions of people and tried to eradicate an entire race." Musk replied: "Exactly."

While contradictory to Musk's indictment of public sector workers, the comment echoed Musk's own previous comments. During a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan mentioned allegations of Nazism that have intensified since Musk performed what many considered a "Heil Hitler" salute during President Donald Trump's inauguration.
Story by Brad Reed

Technologist Waldo Jaquith, who has a lengthy history working in information technology for the federal government across multiple presidential administrations, is warning about a new scheme being hatched by billionaire Elon Musk.

Specifically, Jaquith responded to a report in the New York Times that Musk has been integrating his Starlink satellite system into the White House.

According to the Times, "the Starlink system is now said to be routed through a White House data center, with existing fiber cables, miles from the complex."
Jennifer Bowers Bahney

Chief Justice John Roberts issued a statement regarding President Donald Trump's desire to impeach the judge who ordered the administration to recall planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador.

As CNN's Paula Reid reported, "This is a huge deal. Here you have Chief Justice John Roberts appearing to push back on statements President Trump made earlier today, suggesting that Judge James Boasberg, who, of course, temporarily blocked deportations by the Trump administration or at least tried to, should be impeached."
Daniel Hampton

Tech billionaire and vocal Trump supporter Elon Musk has talked regularly with Russian President Vladimir Putin for at least two years, according to a new report.

Several current and former officials for the U.S., Europe and Russia told The Wall Street Journal Musk has discussed personal topics, business and geopolitical issues, with Putin at one point asking Musk to avoid activating his Starlink satellites and providing internet service over Taiwan.

The report revealed that in 2022, the world's richest man was under public and private pressure from the Kremlin.
Story by Carl Gibson

One top official in the Social Security Administration (SSA) just acknowledged in a memo that President Donald Trump's plans for one of its offices could make it harder for some people to receive their benefits.

According to Judd Legum's Popular information newsletter, the memo by acting SSA deputy commissioner Doris Diaz details how additional efforts to curb fraudulent payments could impact elderly people who are lacking in digital literacy. Diaz explained that the agency's new "internet identity proofing" for claims made "over the phone" are likely to create significant roadblocks for beneficiaries.

Under the new internet identity proofing process, beneficiaries making claims over the phone (which Popular Information estimates make up 40% of all Social security claims) would be asked to verify their identity online. But because many beneficiaries are elderly and don't have internet access, this would require beneficiaries to visit a Social Security office in-person in order to verify their identity.

In one section of the memo, Diaz predicted this influx of in-person visits would cause "service disruption," "operational strain" and "budget shortfalls." She estimated that the number of in-person visitors to Social Security offices would number between 75,000 to 80,000 per week. This is on top of the administration already slashing jobs at the agency, making it more difficult for the employees who are left to process claims in a timely manner.
Story by Lauren Aratani

More pages honoring diversity in US military history have been removed from defense department websites as the Pentagon undergoes what appears to be a purge of content that it considered to be related to diversity, equity and inclusion – or DEI.

Among those pages was one celebrating Ira Hayes, one of the Marines famously pictured raising the American flag at Iwo Jima in 1945, according to The Washington Post. Hayes, a Native American, was praised in the page as an example of the “contributions and sacrifices Native Americans have made to the United States, not just in the military, but in all walks of life”.

Likewise, articles about the Native American code talkers in the second world war appear to have been removed from military websites, with an error page being shown in place of the pages. Internet archive websites show some of the pages were still up in early March before being taken down. The removal of the pages was first reported by Axios.

Native Americans helped the US send messages in the first and second world wars in secret using their tribal language. The use of the Choctaw language in the first world war was so successful that Germany and Japan sent students to the US after the war to study Native American languages.

In the second world war, the military enlisted Navajo to communicate messages in their language, which is known to be one of the hardest languages to learn. To further encrypt messages, the Native American code talkers encoded the language with word substitutions. More than 400 Navajo were part of the code talkers program during the war.
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