This week marked the conclusion of six weeks under the Trump Administration, and the weaponization efforts show no signs of slowing. President Trump, alongside Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, is relentlessly pushing the limits of our checks and balances to unprecedented extremes and behaving like an authoritarian dictator threatening our democratic allies. Together, they continue their assault on the media, dismantling of key federal agencies, and manipulation of the Department of Justice all while benefiting Musk’s companies.
Trump, Musk, and their administration have made it clear that they are intent on eroding the democratic safeguards against unchecked executive power, pushing their agenda forward at any cost.
Here are some of the lowlights of the Trump Administration’s weaponization of government this week:
Trump Administration Attacks The Legitimacy Of The Courts
Politico: Judge Warns Trump Administration To Comply With Court Order On Foreign Aid Payments. A federal judge expressed frustration Tuesday that the Trump administration appears to be ignoring his two-week-old order to unfreeze billions of dollars for foreign assistance grants and contracts, prompting him to set a short deadline for the State Department to begin paying out funds and to explain its recalcitrance.
New York Times: Trump Administration Stalls Scientific Research Despite Court Ruling. The Trump administration has blocked key parts of the federal government’s apparatus for funding biomedical research, effectively halting progress on much of the country’s future work on illnesses like cancer and addiction despite a federal judge’s order to release grant money.
- MSNBC: Several Republicans Push Impeachment Bids Against Judges Who’ve Stood In Trump’s Way
- New York Times: Justice Dept. Nominees Suggest Some Court Orders Can Be Ignored
- NBC: Justice Department Tells Judges It Can’t Comply With Court-Ordered Deadline To Release Frozen Aid Funding
Trump Administration Attacks The Press
Politico: White House Seizes Control Of Press Pool, Will Decide Which Outlets Cover Events With President. The White House announced on Tuesday that the administration — not an independent group of journalists — will determine which outlets have access to the president as part of a pool allowed into the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One and into other meetings and events that cannot accommodate the full press corps.
The decision comes a day after the administration won a temporary ruling allowing it to bar the Associated Press from pooled events, in retaliation for the news wire’s decision to resist President Donald Trump’s demand that it rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
- HuffPost: White House Kicks Out HuffPost Reporter From Press Pool
Trump Administration Weaponizes The Department Of Justice
Trump Loyalists Continue to Take Over DOJ Positions of Power
New York Times: Right-Wing Commentator Named F.B.I. Deputy Director. Mr. Trump, making the announcement on his social media site, said the newly installed F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, had named [Dan] Bongino to the No. 2 post at the country’s most powerful law enforcement agency. The role of deputy director does not require Senate confirmation, meaning two steadfast Trump loyalists will effectively be at the uppermost reaches of an agency known for its tradition of independence.
Bloomberg: Warner, Who Said CIA Stole Election, Now Leads DOJ Civil Rights. The Justice Department has inserted Mac Warner, who last year espoused false claims that the CIA stole Trump’s 2020 presidential victory with the FBI’s help, to run the civil rights division, replacing an ousted career official who’s started reporting to the new sanctuary cities office.
- Ken Klippenstein: Trump’s New FBI Director Vows “World’s Largest Manhunt”
- Washington Post: In Podcasts, D.C. U.S. Attorney Discussed Investigating Trump Foes
Trump Administration Drops Investigations Into Political Allies
New York Times: Trump Takes Aim at Law Firm Aiding Jack Smith. The memo is a breathtaking escalation of Mr. Trump’s effort to employ the vast powers of the presidency against Mr. Smith and the team of prosecutors and federal law enforcement officials who worked for him, extending that campaign to those who have provided Mr. Smith pro bono legal representation.
According to a disclosure filed with the Justice Department shortly before resigning as special counsel ahead of Mr. Trump’s return to office, Mr. Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor, said that he had received $140,000 worth of free legal advice from Covington to help him prepare for investigations and legal action by Mr. Trump’s allies.
- New York Times: Justice Dept. Takes Broad View of Trump’s Jan. 6 Pardons
- Associated Press: Justice Department Abandoning Cases Alleging Discriminatory Police and Firefighter Hiring
Trump Administration Attacks Federal Agencies
Trump Administration Ousts Top Career Agency Officials
Washington Post: Acting ICE Director Removed Amid White House Pressure To Boost Arrests. The Trump administration has removed the top official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement one month into his tenure, as White House officials have become increasingly frustrated that the agency isn’t arresting immigrants fast enough to satisfy the president’s deportation goals.
- NextGov: Top Social Security Deputies Leave Amid Rumored Staff Cuts
Trump Administration Continues Plans to Dismantle Agencies
Newsweek: Full List of Social Security Offices Closing After DOGE Cuts. Recent federal initiatives from President Donald Trump and his administration have led to the closure of multiple Social Security offices, raising concerns about the accessibility of services for beneficiaries nationwide.
- Washington Post: IRS To Close More Than 120 Offices With Taxpayer Assistance Centers
- Associated Press: Kids’ disability rights cases stalled as Trump began to overhaul Education Department
Trump Administration Cuts Agency Contracts
Associated Press: Trump Administration Says It’s Cutting 90% Of USAID Foreign Aid Contracts. The Trump administration said it is eliminating more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad.
The cuts detailed by the administration would leave few surviving USAID projects for advocates to try to save in what are ongoing court battles with the administration.
- NOTUS: DOGE Cut Education Research Contracts. Congress Is Still Catching Up.
- Talking Points Memo: DOGE Cites ‘DEI,’ LinkedIn Profiles It Doesn’t Like In Killing Off HUD Contracts
Trump Administration Continues Federal Worker Layoffs
Washington Post: DOGE Barrels Toward A Fresh Round Of Firings, The Most Widespread Yet. Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is barreling toward a fresh round of firings, preparing to strike entire categories of jobs from the federal workforce as it escalates the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the bureaucracy.
- HuffPost: Trump Orders Federal Agencies To Submit Plans For ‘Large-Scale’ Firings, Per Memo
- CNN: Pentagon Announces It Plans To Fire 5-8% Of Civilian Workforce
- Stat: Mass Layoffs Leave Federal Employees With Disabilities In The Lurch
- Politico: Musk Threatens Federal Employees Still Working From Home With Administrative Leave
- The Hill: VA Axes Another 1,400 Employees
- Associated Press: How Trump’s Mass Layoffs Raise The Risk Of Wildfires In The US West, According To Fired Workers
- Bloomberg: Trump Job Cuts Threaten Safety At National Parks, Workers Say
- New York Times: F.D.A. Firings Decimated Teams Reviewing A.I. And Food Safety
- Associated Press: The Trump Administration Is Putting USAID Staffers On Leave Worldwide And Firing At Least 1,600
Wall Street Journal: Musk Says Federal Workers Must Detail ‘What They Got Done’—or Risk Losing Job. Elon Musk said Saturday that federal employees must detail their accomplishments at work or risk losing their jobs, the latest move by the Trump administration to overhaul the government that prompted confusion among the workforce.
- Washington Post: Government Agencies Are Giving Conflicting Guidance On Elon Musk Email
Trump Administration Continues to Benefit Elon Musk’s Companies
CNN: Musk’s Starlink Gets FAA Contract, Raising New Conflict of Interest Concerns. The Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to use SpaceX’s Starlink internet system to upgrade the information technology networks it uses to manage US airspace, raising new concerns about conflicts of interest for CEO Elon Musk in one of his other roles, that of recommending funding cuts at federal agencies, including the FAA.
- Reuters: US Could Cut Ukraine’s Access To Starlink Internet Services Over Minerals, Say Sources
- Reuters: Vietnam Paves Way For Musk’s Starlink, Seen As “Olive Branch” Amid US Tariff Threats
- Bloomberg: Musk Begins Testing His Starlink Terminals in US Airspace System
- Washington Post: FAA Targeting Verizon Contract In Favor Of Musk’s Starlink, Sources Say
NPR: A New Document Undercuts Trump Admin’s Denials About $00 Million Tesla Deal. The controversy started in a very Washington way: as a line item in a government spreadsheet buried on the State Department’s website. It appeared as if the State Department was taking steps to award Elon Musk’s Tesla a $400 million government contract to buy armored electric vehicles to securely transport diplomats. The move to set in motion a lucrative contract to a company controlled by a high-profile ally of President Trump seemed so bold it surprised even longtime observers of the norm-busting president.
- Associated Press: Musk’s Cost-Cutting Team Is Laying Off Workers At The Auto Safety Agency Overseeing His Car Company
More Key Headlines:
MSNBC: Trump tells Maine’s Democratic governor, ‘We are the federal law’
New York Times: In Trump’s Alternate Reality, Lies and Distortions Drive Change
New York Times: At CPAC, Trump Revels in Political Payback
Washington Post: ‘Embarrassing,’ ‘cruel,’ ‘absurd,’ ‘extortion’: GOP moderates find voices on Trump
New York Times: U.S. Economy Shows Signs of Strain From Trump’s Tariffs and Spending Cuts
UNTIL NEXT WEEK…