“Elon Musk threatened to suspend federal workers who haven’t returned to in-office work by this week, the latest demand of government employees from the billionaire running President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting effort,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Musk: “Those who ignored President Trump’s executive order to return to work have now received over a month’s warning. Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.”
“It’s getting even a little excessive for me.”
— White nationalist Nick Fuentes, reacting to Steve Bannon Nazi-like salute at CPAC.
DOGE staffer Edward “Big Balls” Coristine is the grandson of KGB agent Valery Martynov, who was executed by the Soviets for spying for the United States, Jacob Silverman reports.
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Rival Democratic factions are coalescing around the potency of an anti-billionaire messaging, Puck reports.
However, they don’t agree on much more, such as the roots of Democrats’ losses in last year’s elections.
“Democrats are anxious to rebuild their party on the heels of President Trump’s victory in November. But they have a major problem as they try to refashion their brand: The money isn’t there,” The Hill reports.
“Democratic donors — from bundlers to small dollar donors — say they are still angry about the election results and uninspired by anything their side has put forward since then.”
Said one major donor: “I’ll be blunt here: The Democratic Party is fucking terrible. Plain and simple. In fact, it doesn’t get much worse.”
Garrett Graff: “The 117-year-old Federal Bureau of Investigation, long heralded as the nation’s premier national law enforcement agency — an avowedly nonpartisan, independent investigator that for decades has pursued gangsters, mafioso, Nazis, terrorists, spies, cybercriminals, and corrupt politicians without fear, favor or political malice — died over the weekend.”
“While the institution’s independence had been on life support since January 30th, when the bureau’s top career agents were purged in an unprecedented move and the Justice Department announced it wanted the identities of thousands of agents and personnel who contributed to the investigation of the attempted insurrection on January 6th, the final cause of death was the avarice and cowardliness of 51 Republican senators who voted to confirm Kash Patel as its ninth director.”
“Columbia University has hired President Trump’s former secretary of state to teach diplomacy, decision-making and organizational leadership, starting in March,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily barred the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing troves of sensitive personal data from federal agencies, The Hill reports.
Washington Post: “Like many of Trump’s ideas, it is difficult to pinpoint where exactly he got the inspiration. Television host Stephen Colbert had made it a bit of political satire nearly 15 years earlier. A Democratic lawmaker in Mississippi had filed legislation to rename the coast off his state in 2012, also as a joke. Conservative voices for months had been promoting it as a way to showcase American pride and dominance.”
“But it was Trump, weeks before taking office, who ultimately decided to add the renaming to his Day 1 agenda, elevating a liberal joke turned conservative meme into an Oval Office action that has come to symbolize the tenor of his new presidency.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Republicans in the upper chamber have successfully approved 18 of the 22 Cabinet positions, Fox News reports.
“Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso’s office pointed out that former President Barack Obama had only 17 Cabinet officials confirmed by February 19, 2009, during his first term, meaning that Trump outpaced him…”
“His office noted that 18 Cabinet nominees were not confirmed for Obama in 2009 until he had been in office for 36 days, citing official congressional records. Biden did not see 18 Cabinet nominees confirmed for 57 days.”
“The Republican State Leadership Committee, a GOP spending group dedicated to winning state-level races across the country, is committing $2 million in advertising spending to help Republicans retake the Wisconsin supreme court majority,” National Review reports.
Republicans and Democrats are further apart on views of Israel than they’ve ever been, a new Gallup Poll finds.
Whereas 83% of Republicans hold favorable views of Israel, only 33% of Democrats feel the same — a record gap.
Punchbowl News: “It’s getting into crunch time for funding the government. There are just 18 days until federal agencies – already under extraordinary pressure thanks to the DOGE initiative – run out of money. GOP and Democratic appropriators don’t have a topline spending deal yet.”
“As we’ve told you repeatedly, Democrats are insisting on restrictions on President Donald Trump’s authority to spend funds as Congress mandates. Republicans say they’re not interested in limiting what Trump can do.”
Paul Krugman: “It has always been a mistake to trust anyone promising to run the government like a business. Businesses and government agencies have very different objectives, and even genuinely great business leaders often have terrible ideas about policy…”
“Which brings me to DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency — which acts like a federal agency although, legally, it isn’t; which is run by Elon Musk but claims that he isn’t in charge; and claims to have already saved taxpayers $55 billion, but has presented no evidence to back that claim.”
“What DOGE did do last week was present a list of claimed savings from canceled contracts. The total savings claimed didn’t come anywhere near $55 billion, but never mind. Several news organizations, including Bloomberg, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have gone through that DOGE list, and found that it’s a steaming pile of, um, DOGEshit.”
“As the Republican National Committee was gearing up for its convention in Milwaukee, it was also quietly dealing with a serious security breach of its internal communications by hackers with ties to the Chinese government,“ the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In early July, Microsoft reached out to top party officials to inform them that the hackers had for months had access to the RNC email system.”
“Many Americans are pinching pennies, exhausted by high prices and stubborn inflation. The well-off are spending with abandon,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The top 10% of earners—households making about $250,000 a year or more—are splurging on everything from vacations to designer handbags, buoyed by big gains in stocks, real estate and other assets.”
“Those consumers now account for 49.7% of all spending, a record in data going back to 1989, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Three decades ago, they accounted for about 36%.”
Washington Post: “The speed and energy with which the president has moved to remake Washington’s role in the world has been most visible in his approach to the war between Russia and Ukraine. He has embraced Russia’s strength and blasted the smaller country, falsely accusing President Volodymyr Zelensky of starting a conflict that began with a Russian invasion. He has insulted U.S. allies in Europe, who for decades have relied on the United States to check Russian power.”
“The result, diplomats and analysts say, has been to cede influence to Moscow. But that might just be the beginning. At worst, Trump’s strategy could embolden other global powers, notably China, to adopt more bellicose policies toward their neighbors, they say — the opposite of what some of his allies say needs to be the focus of U.S. foreign policy.”
New York Times: “After three years of grinding warfare and isolation by the West, a world of new possibilities has opened up for Mr. Putin with a change of power in Washington.”
“Gone are the statements from the East Room of the White House about the United States standing up to bullies, supporting democracy over autocracy and ensuring freedom will prevail.”
“Gone, too, is Washington’s united front against Russia with its European allies, many of whom have begun to wonder if the new American administration will protect them against a revanchist Moscow, or even keep troops in Europe at all.”
Washington Post: 3 years after Russia’s invasion, Ukraine-U.S. politics has shifted.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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