“Tesla’s name was removed from a State Department document that listed planned vehicle purchases after the existence of the list was reported late Wednesday,” the New York Times reports.

“The potential award raised questions about why the government was giving a lucrative contract to the company, which is led by Elon Musk, one of President Trump’s most important advisers.”

“President Donald Trump is taking aim at federal offices that investigate government malfeasance and protect workers from retribution, summarily firing and replacing five top ethics officials this week in an apparent attempt to consolidate his power over the sprawling federal bureaucracy,” the Washington Post reports.

“The firings were met with widespread condemnation from former officials and good-government advocates, who called them an ominous indication of how Trump intends to flout the normal guardrails — and, in some cases, federal law — that constrain public officials.”

“Trump has pledged to root out government waste, fraud and abuse, but advocates noted that he is systematically eliminating many of the internal mechanisms already tasked with doing that work.”

President Trump’s administration is divided on the approach to passing his agenda: one bill or two, Politico reports.

Vice President Vance and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller favor the two-bill approach, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent advocates for the one-bill approach.

Punchbowl News: The risks and opportunities for Republicans on the budget resolution.

“Tesla, whose chief executive, Elon Musk, has been advising President Trump on how to cut government spending, is likely to receive a lucrative contract to supply armored versions of its Cybertruck pickup to the State Department,” the New York Times reports.

“The department’s procurement forecast for 2025, which details purchases the agency expects to make, includes $400 million for armored Tesla vehicles. The document does not specify which Tesla model, but the electric Cybertruck, which has a body of high-strength stainless steel, would be the most suitable vehicle.”

Aaron Blake: “They keep saying they’ve uncovered fraud. But when pressed for evidence, they don’t seem to have much or any.”

“They instead often point to programs that might sound wasteful to some but were congressionally authorized. They have also repeatedly pointed to things that have been known about for years, acting as if they had just uncovered them.”

“That doesn’t mean there isn’t fraud; a large bureaucracy like the government is prone to it. It’s just that they seem to be using very nonspecific and unsubstantiated allegations of fraud to justify a massive overhaul of specific government agencies.”

Axios: “Trump, first in business and then politics, and Musk, first in business and now politics, are feeding off each other’s natural instincts to do, say and operate by their own new rules.”

“These instincts made them rich, famous and impervious to traditional rules, norms and even laws. Their success makes dissuasion by others futile, administration officials tell us.”

“Trump and Musk view masculinity quite similarly: tough-guy language, macho actions, irreverent, crude — and often unmoved by emotionalism, empathy or restraint.”

“Billionaire Elon Musk’s team has initiated sweeping layoffs of federal employees, as the Trump administration races to shrink the government’s civilian workforce,” the Washington Post reports.

“An official with the Office of Personnel Management, which is now run by Musk allies, emailed staff Wednesday morning stating that widespread layoffs — known as ‘reductions in force’ — have begun and are already overwhelming the small agency that functions as a human resources department for the government.”

New York Times: Legal roadblocks slow Trump’s removal of federal employees.

“The Trump administration is rapidly delivering wins to American companies by rolling back regulations, pausing investigations and retreating from lawsuits accusing employers of discrimination,” the New York Times reports.

“A combination of firings, stop-work orders and litigation pauses has hobbled regulators like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

“About 75,000 federal employees signed up for a voluntary resignation program inspired by President Donald Trump’s billionaire efficiency czar — falling short of the numbers the White House hoped for and increasing the likelihood of deeper mass firings,” Bloomberg reports.

“That total, confirmed by a source familiar with the data, makes up about 3% of the 2.4 million civilian federal workforce. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had previously set the goal at 5% to 10%.”

“Mass firings have begun at federal agencies, with terminations of probationary employees underway at the Department of Education and the Small Business Administration,“ CNN reports.

“The mass firings mark the first from the Trump administration as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency aims to dramatically shrink the federal workforce. Until now, federal employees across all government agencies had only been placed on paid administrative leave.”

“A federal judge allowed the Trump administration to move forward with its buyout offer that encourages federal workers to voluntarily resign, rejecting an attempt by labor unions to pause a program meant to shrink the government workforce,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“More than 2 million federal workers will have to keep waiting for clarity over President Donald Trump’s controversial ‘deferred resignation’ plan after a federal judge heard arguments Monday about the program’s legality without issuing an immediate ruling about its future,” Politico reports.

“During an hour-long hearing, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole gave few hints about his views on the program, which purports to allow federal workers to resign immediately but remain on the federal payroll through September.”

The Kennedy Center’s board voted unanimously to elect President Trump to be its new chair Wednesday afternoon, as the president reshapes the center’s governing body and performances, moving away from what he views as “woke culture,” CBS News reports.

“Eight federal watchdogs, abruptly fired last month by President Donald Trump, are suing to get their jobs back, saying Trump broke the law by failing to give Congress a 30-day heads up and concrete explanation for the dismissals,” Politico reports.

“A 2022 federal law requires Trump to notify Congress 30 days before he terminates an inspector general and to provide detailed reasons. Trump has bristled at constraints on his authority to manage the executive branch, embracing the most muscular version of presidential power and daring the courts to keep him in check.”

Washington Post: Ousted federal watchdogs sue Trump, saying they were fired illegally.

“President Donald Trump’s Small Business Administration told probationary staff members it had mistakenly sent them termination notices, and then informed some of them the next day that they were fired after all,” Bloomberg reports.

“We are moving fast, so we will make mistakes, but we’ll also fix the mistakes very quickly.”

— Elon Musk, quoted by Axios, on his government efficiency efforts.

“The billionaire Elon Musk said in an extraordinary Oval Office appearance on Tuesday that he was providing maximum transparency in his government cost-cutting initiative, but offered no evidence for his sweeping claims that the federal bureaucracy had been corrupted by cheats and officials who had approved money for ‘fraudsters,’” the New York Times reports.

“Answering questions from the media for the first time since his arrival in Washington to run the Department of Government Efficiency, Mr. Musk stood next to the Resolute Desk and asserted that his work was in the interest of the public and democracy. President Trump sat behind the desk, chiming in with approval as he let the world’s richest man expound for roughly 30 minutes on the rationale for the drastic overhaul of the federal bureaucracy.”

CNN: Musk shows why he’s such a powerful ally for Trump and would be an even more menacing enemy.