“If you’re going to criticize the socialist Mamdani for wanting to own grocery stores, you better criticize Republicans who want a share of Intel, of Nvidia, or U.S. Steel. Owning even part of the means of production is a step toward socialism. It’s a bad idea and a dangerous precedent.”

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), on X.

“Department of Education employees furloughed this week discovered their email accounts had been manipulated while they were out of office to include partisan talking points that blamed a government shutdown on Democrats,” NBC News reports.

“Five employees who spoke with NBC News and provided copies of their out-of-office messages said the wording was altered from how they originally had composed them.”

Said one: “None of us consented to this. And it’s written in the first-person, as if I’m the one conveying this message, and I’m not. I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it’s ethical or legal. I think it violates the Hatch Act.”

“Senior federal officials have quietly counseled several agencies against firing employees while the government is shut down — as President Donald Trump has suggested he will — warning the strategy may violate appropriations law,” the Washington Post reports.

“The officials cautioned that firings — known as RIFs, or reductions in force — could be vulnerable to legal challenges under statutes labor unions cited this week in a lawsuit seeking to block threatened mass layoffs.”

“Nonprofit groups with disparate missions are banding together in an alliance aimed at protecting one another if they become targets of President Donald Trump’s ire,” NBC News reports.

“Referring to the effort colloquially as a kind of ‘NATO for nonprofits,’ the groups plan to rally behind an embattled nonprofit by offering strategic and legal support, issuing supportive statements and loaning staff who would help keep it afloat until the crisis passes.”

“Just as the NATO military alliance views an attack on one member state as an attack on all, the network of nonprofits would serve as a bulwark against Trump administration actions that disrupt the work of groups that are providing lawful services and exercising free speech.”