It's Friday, February 7, 2025, and here are this week's top stories. But first, the big picture:

Themes for This Week

• Major government overhaul: The administration shut down an entire federal agency and has plans to dismantle more—all without the required Congressional oversight.
• Lack of transparency: A deliberate effort to spread misinformation is being used to justify drastic decisions and unchecked power grabs.
• Complacency—and in many cases, complicity— of lawmakers who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
• Disingenuous explanations: Misleading justifications for shocking and harmful policy decisions that will have long-term consequences for millions of people.
• Glimmers of hope: Courts are stepping in, issuing restraining orders against some of these decisions before they can take full effect. Meanwhile, millions of people on social media are mobilizing—sharing information, exposing lies, and flooding lawmakers with calls they cannot ignore.

THE BIG HEADLINE: USAID

The Trump administration has dismantled USAID—the federal agency responsible for providing humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and development assistance worldwide.

• Nearly 10,000 employees were abruptly laid off, leaving fewer than 300 staff members globally—including only eight to cover all of Asia and 12 for Africa. The administration claims that the remaining functions will be folded into the State Department, but it’s unclear how—or if—critical programs will continue.
• USAID accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget, making it an unlikely target for spending cuts—particularly since Musk and Trump initially claimed their motivation was fiscal responsibility.
• Musk then called USAID a "criminal" organization that was wasting taxpayer money and needed “to die.” While there’s always room for improvement in government agencies, the hasty and chaotic shutdown—driven by smears and outright lies—shocked many worldwide.

False Claims Pushed by the White House

Rather than providing legitimate evidence of mismanagement, the administration justified USAID’s closure using fabrications. Here are three examples:

1. USAID secretly paid Politico $8 million per year for favorable coverage of Biden.
   1. Reality: USAID spent $44,000 on Politico PRO, a policy research tool that numerous government agencies and businesses use. The entire federal government spent $8 million on this service—not just USAID.
2. USAID funneled over $80 million to Chelsea Clinton.
   1. Reality: USAID granted $18,000 to the Clinton Foundation, a worldwide nonprofit that provides humanitarian aid. The Clintons do not receive personal salaries from the foundation.
3. USAID paid millions to celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Ben Stiller to promote Ukraine.
   1. Reality: This claim was based on a fabricated video—likely Russian propaganda—circulated by White House officials. No such payments were made. (Newsweek)

MORE MISREPRESENTATIONS

Many of the accusations against USAID were actually about the State Department—not USAID. The White House deliberately blurred the distinction.

• Example: WH officials claimed USAID paid for sex changes in Guatemala.
  • Reality: USAID provided a grant to an organization that advocates for LGBTQ rights—not for medical procedures.
• Example: USAID allegedly spent $70,000 on a "DEI musical" in Ireland.
  • Reality: This was a State Department grant for a music festival at the U.S. Embassy in Ireland, promoting diversity and cultural exchange.

🔎 Fact-Check: Politifact

The Fallout: Food Aid Stalled, Farmers & Businesses Left in Limbo

Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) is the only Republican who has spoken out against USAID’s shutdown:

The World Food Programme estimated $340 million in U.S. food aid was idled at domestic ports by order of the Trump administration. In total, $566 million in U.S.-grown commodities designated for humanitarian purposes was locked down in warehouses throughout the world."

— (Kansas Reflector)

The economic fallout has also hit U.S. businesses that contracted with USAID—including American farmers, “which supply about 41 percent of the food aid that the agency, working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sends around the world each year, according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service. In 2020, the U.S. government bought $2.1 billion in food aid from American farmers.”(Washington Post)

“Shipping containers filled with lifesaving antibiotics and antimalarial drugs are stranded at the Port of Sudan. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, essential medicines are expiring due to power outages at cash-strapped contractors. Millions of pounds of U.S.-grown soybeans, meant for famine-stricken refugee camps, are being diverted to warehouses instead.”

(NBC News)

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES UNDER ATTACK

• Next Target: Trump is pushing to abolish the Department of Education, arguing that education policy should be left to the states.
• Democratic lawmakers who attempted to enter the DOE’s offices Friday to demand a meeting were physically blocked by security. They had sent an official request for an emergency meeting—when the agency failed to respond, they showed up in person. (The Hill)

• Musk is leading the charge to dismantle the CFPB, the only federal agency that protects Americans from predatory financial practices.
• The CFPB has secured $20 billion in relief for consumers—Musk and Trump want it gone. (Washington Post)

One of the most alarming developments is what’s happening inside the Department of Energy—an agency that oversees nuclear security, power grids, and other critical infrastructure.

• Musk, as head of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), has given low-level and inexperienced employees access to highly sensitive government systems.
• CNN reports that Energy Secretary Chris Wright granted a former SpaceX intern—who had no security clearance—access to the department’s IT system despite legal warnings against doing so.
• Cybersecurity experts are raising alarms, warning that unauthorized access to government systems could open the door to malware, cyberattacks, or breaches exposing the private data of millions of Americans.

🔎 Cybersecurity expert Richard Forno warns:

“As a 30-year cybersecurity veteran, I find the activities of DOGE thus far concerning. Its broad mandate across government, seemingly nonexistent oversight, and the apparent lack of operational competence of its employees have demonstrated that DOGE could create conditions that are ideal for cybersecurity or data privacy incidents that affect the entire nation.”

Cybersecurity and information technology, like any other business function, depend on employees trained specifically for their jobs. Just as you wouldn’t let someone only qualified in first aid to perform open heart surgery, technology professionals require a baseline set of credentialed education, training and experience to ensure that the most qualified people are on the job.

As a result, there’s probably no way of knowing if these changes make it easier for malware to be introduced into government systems, if sensitive data can be accessed without authorization, or if DOGE’s work is making government systems otherwise more unstable and more vulnerable.

If you don’t know what you’re doing in IT, really bad things can happen.

📖 Read Forno’s full analysis

The Treasury processes trillions of dollars in payments each year, including Social Security benefits, military salaries, and Medicare reimbursements.

• Federal labor unions sued DOGE, arguing that Musk’s team should not have access to the Treasury’s accounting system, which contains sensitive financial data for millions of Americans.
• A federal judge ruled that only two DOGE employees could have “read-only” access for now.
• However, one of those employees—Mark Elez—resigned after racist social media posts surfaced.

📌 Elez said:

• He wants to "normalize Indian hate.”
• He was "racist before it was cool.”

Despite this, Musk announced Friday that he’s bringing Elez back.

💬 Even Vice President J.D. Vance—whose wife is Indian and whose children are half-Indian—said he would support Elez’s return.

📖 Read more from Axios

• The White House is preparing to lay off thousands of federal health workers, including those at the FDA, CDC, and NIH.
• These agencies are responsible for drug approvals, pandemic preparedness, and medical research.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that layoffs could cripple these agencies—though the White House denies the plans.

📖 Read more from WSJ

• Upset that not enough people are being arrested for migrating illegally, Trump ordered ICE agents to arrest at least 1,200-1,400 undocumented immigrants per day.
• However, even ICE’s highest single-day total since Trump took office was just 1,100 arrests.
• On some days, arrests have dropped as low as 300, far below Trump’s demands.

In order to fulfill Trump’s Inauguration Day promise of “millions and millions” of deportations, the Trump administration would have to be deporting over 2,700 immigrants every day to reach one million in a year.⁠

📖 Read more from NBC

The Trump administration ordered the FBI to release the names of agents who investigated the January 6 insurrection.

• A group of FBI agents sued the administration, arguing that releasing their names would expose them to threats, harassment, and violence.
• A federal judge sided with the agents, blocking the White House from making the names public—for now.
• Musk has already used his access to other agencies to doxx federal employees, exposing them to online harassment.

“Anxiety within the bureau’s ranks has grown increasingly acute in the week since interim Justice Department leaders appointed by Trump have led a purge of top bureau executives and ordered a sweeping review of its 38,000-member workforce for agents and employees across the country who worked on Jan. 6 cases. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the FBI last week to identify 'the core team in Washington D.C.' responsible for investigating Jan. 6 cases. When the bureau’s acting leadership initially refused, Bove described that decision in a memo Wednesday as 'insubordination' and demanded the names of every agent or employee across the country who had touched Jan. 6 cases.

The employees 'pointed to the fact that Musk… has already gained access to other agencies and publicly named other government employees in social media posts, exposing them to a barrage of unwanted attention and online harassment… In their lawsuits, agents said they’re not just worried about being fired. They have maintained that pardoned Jan. 6 rioters could seek revenge on those who helped secure their charges or convictions.”

📖 Read more from the Washington Post

• To comply with a White House request, the CIA provided a list of all employees hired in the last two years.
• The agency only provided first names and last initials, but security experts warn that’s still enough for foreign intelligence services (like China and Russia) to identify them.
• Many of the employees on the list were young analysts and operatives focused on China, a major target for Chinese cyberattacks.

The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the new hires, who are still on probation — and thus easy to dismiss. It included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them.

The agency normally would prefer not to put these names in an unclassified system. Some former officials said they worried that the list could be passed on to a team of newly hired young software experts working with Elon Musk and his government efficiency team. If that happened, the names of the employees might be more easily targeted by China, Russia or other foreign intelligence services.

📖 Read more from the New York Times

• Trump wrote a letter calling for the removal of Democratic FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub.
• The FEC is an independent agency tasked with enforcing campaign finance laws.

Weintraub fired back, saying:

"There's a legal way to replace FEC commissioners—this isn't it."

📖 Read more from NPR

PUSH BACK

Courts Block Trump's "Deferred Resignation" Program

• The White House offered federal employees a “deferred resignation” plan, claiming it would exempt them from a new return-to-office mandate while still paying them until September.
• Critics, including Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), called the offer a ploy to purge the federal government of non-loyal employees—without Congressional authorization.
• A federal judge has temporarily blocked the plan, ruling it needs further legal review.

📖 Read more from AP

Public Outrage: Calls to Congress Overwhelm Voicemail System

• Concerned citizens are tying up Capitol phone lines with complaints about Trump’s actions.
• Congressional voicemail boxes are maxed out—each can hold about 1,000 messages, all of which must be logged by staff.
• If you want to contact your representative, try calling during off-hours or using online forms.

📖 Read more from AP

IN-DEPTH

Musk's Conflicts of Interest

The New York Times has outlined how Musk’s personal business interests are deeply entangled with government actions, which may explain his outsized role in reshaping federal agencies.

• Musk’s companies hold billions of dollars in government contracts, making him far from an objective decision-maker.
• His businesses—SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company, Starlink, and xAI—are under multiple federal investigations for violating regulatory laws designed to protect consumers, employees, and national security.
• One of the most serious concerns involves Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service. USAID was investigating allegations that Musk gave Russia access to Starlink to aid its war against Ukraine—an act that could have serious national security implications for the U.S.

“Through a review of court filings, regulatory dockets, and government contracting data, The New York Times has compiled an accounting of Mr. Musk’s multipronged business arrangements with the federal government, as well as the violations, fines, consent decrees, and other inquiries federal agencies have ordered against his companies. Together, they show a deep web of relationships: Instead of entering this new role as a neutral observer, Mr. Musk would be passing judgment on his own customers and regulators.”

📖 The New York Times

THE MIDDLE EAST

Trump’s Plan to Take Over Gaza

• During a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, Trump announced that the U.S. would take control of Gaza and forcibly expel its residents—a war crime.
• The Times reported that Trump sprang the plan on Netanyahu moments before the announcement, and even his own administration had not done basic feasibility planning.

📖 Read the NYT’s full breakdown

Netanyahu’s Cruel “Gift” to Trump

• Netanyahu gifted Trump a golden beeper encased in an olive tree—a symbolic insult referencing a deadly Israeli attack in Lebanon that killed 39 people – including children – when Israel detonated pagers used by Hezbollah fighters.
• The olive tree was likely a mocking reference to the destruction of Palestinian olive groves, a recurring Israeli tactic in occupied territories.

📖 Read more from The Independent

State Department Sends $6.7 Billion in Weapons to Israel

• The shipment includes:
  • 166 small-diameter bombs
  • 2,800 500-pound bombs
  • Thousands of guidance kits, fuses, and other bomb components
• Weapons deliveries will begin this year.

📖 Read more from AP

Lethal Gas Exposure from U.S. Bombs

• Israel has known for years that bunker-buster bombs release lethal carbon monoxide as a byproduct.
• This gas can asphyxiate people inside tunnels—even hundreds of meters away from the blast site.

Some of these strikes, which were the deadliest in the war and often used American bombs, are known to have killed Israeli hostages despite concerns raised ahead of time by military officers. Moreover, the lack of precise intelligence meant that in at least three major strikes, the army dropped several 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs that killed scores of civilians — part of a strategy known as 'tiling' — without succeeding in killing the intended target.

The investigation also reveals how Israel has known for years that the use of bunker-buster bombs releases the lethal gas carbon monoxide as a byproduct, which can kill people inside a tunnel through asphyxiation even at a distance of hundreds of meters from the strike location.

📖 Full Investigation from 972mag

Trump Sanctions International Criminal Court (ICC)

• Trump imposed sanctions on the ICC, including a travel ban and asset freeze against ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan.
• This comes after the ICC issued arrest warrants for:
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
  • Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
  • Two Hamas leaders (now deceased)
• The ICC prosecutes genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
• Trump’s sanctions are widely condemned, with dozens of countries warning that this move undermines the international rule of law.

📖 Read more from Reuters

HEADLINES

Massive Tax Cuts That Could Wreck the Economy

• Trump and Republican lawmakers are finalizing a tax reform plan that could slash federal revenue by $5.0 - $11.2 trillion over 10 years.
• The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget warns this would:
  • Shrink GDP by 1.3 - 3.0%
  • Explode the national debt, pushing it to 132% of GDP by 2035
  • Weaken Medicare and potentially Social Security trust funds

Trump and Musk claim that mass layoffs and agency cuts are meant to reduce spending, but their tax plan would skyrocket the national debt instead.

📖 Read more from CRFB

Trump Illegally Blocks EV Charging Program

• The Federal Highway Administration has ordered states to halt a $5 billion program to build electric vehicle charging stations—despite the fact that Congress already approved the funding.
• Legal experts say this is illegal, but the administration claims it is “reevaluating priorities.”

📖 Read more from The Hill

Trump Floats the Idea of Sending U.S. Citizens to Foreign Prisons

• Trump suggested sending convicted criminals—including U.S. citizens—to prisons in El Salvador.
• Hint: That would be blatantly illegal under U.S. and international law.
• Experts warn this proposal reflects his growing embrace of authoritarian-style governance.

📖 Read more from The New York Times

Guantanamo Bay Reopened for Migrants

• The first group of migrants detained by U.S. authorities has arrived at Guantanamo Bay, the infamous prison once used to detain 9/11 terror suspects.
• Trump plans to hold up to 30,000 people there—far exceeding the facility’s capacity.
• Human rights groups call this a horrifying violation of due process.

“Sending immigrants to Guantanamo is a profoundly cruel, costly move. It will cut people off from lawyers, family, and support systems, throwing them into a black hole so the U.S. government can continue to violate their human rights out of sight. Shut Gitmo down now and forever!”

- 📖 Amnesty International

📖 Read more from AP

Plastic Straws, Be Gone!

• Trump announced plans to reverse Biden’s phaseout of plastic straws, set to take effect in 2027.
• The debate over straws is a proxy battle over fossil fuels—90% of plastics are derived from fossil fuels, contributing to climate change.

📖 Read more from Politico

Biden’s Security Clearance Revoked

• Trump revoked Biden’s security clearance, meaning Biden will no longer receive the daily intelligence briefings traditionally provided to former presidents.
• Biden did the same to Trump after taking office, citing his “erratic” behavior.
• Trump claims he is simply following Biden’s precedent, although security experts say this move is purely retaliatory.

📖 Read more from NPR

The "Common Sense" Grift

Last week, Trump blamed DEI policies for a mid-air collision between a commercial plane and a military helicopter that killed nearly 70 people, claiming that it was "common sense."

“If institutions and experts are perceived as corrupt, the only truth we can trust is what we see with our own eyes. But does ‘common sense’ always lead us to truth? Research suggests that the more people rely on ‘common sense,’ the more likely they are to be wrong.”

🔗 Read the analysis