“President Donald Trump has elevated DOGE to the center of his domestic agenda, channeling significant political capital into defending it, and its architect Elon Musk, from critics in Congress — and his own Cabinet,” Politico reports.

“But ahead of his joint address to Congress on Tuesday, a dozen of the president’s allies, Trump-aligned GOP strategists and former administration officials are warning that Trump going all-in on the Muskian effort is a risky gamble that threatens to overshadow his more popular, and politically crucial, economic and legislative priorities.”

A new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll finds Donald Trump’s job approval remains underwater, with 49% disapproving and 45% approving of his record so far.

However, the poll also found a growing sense from the public that the country is headed in the right direction: 45% of Americans believe so, up 10 points from December and now at the second-highest point of the last 15 years. 

“A senior career official at the U.S. Agency for International Development was placed on leave Sunday on the same day he disseminated a detailed memo to staff describing the U.S. government’s ‘failure’ to provide lifesaving assistance around the world because of actions by President Donald Trump’s political appointees,” the Washington Post reports.

ProPublica: The Trump administration said these aid programs saved lives. It canceled them anyway.

Stephen Marche: “The takeover of the Kennedy Center may seem like an afterthought in the furious drama of President Donald Trump’s first month in office. The abandonment of the transatlantic alliance, proposals to annex territory on multiple continents, the evisceration of national institutions, and overt claims to kingship are such eye-popping departures from precedent that the leadership of a somewhat stuffy, self-consciously elite performing-arts venue seems negligible by comparison.”

“But Trump’s peculiar preoccupation with the Kennedy Center is symptomatic of a profound change in the nature of American power since his inauguration: America is undergoing a cultural revolution. ‘This is going to be great television,’ Trump said at the end of Friday’s stormy session with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It may as well be the motto of his administration.”