Tag Archives: DOGE

MSNBC: Musk’s influence won’t fade just because he says he’s pulling back on political spending

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He’s still the world’s richest person, he still has a relationship with the world’s most powerful man, and he can still do a lot more damage.

Not too long ago, Musk was working to position himself as the kingmaker of the Republican Party. Members of Congress were terrified of his money and influence — and the possibility of a primary challenge. For now, that fear may be over, or at least diminished, but don’t underestimate the damage that Musk has done and will continue to do behind the scenes.

While Musk’s efforts to eliminate waste and fraud in the federal government have been nothing short of a disaster, he has still managed to bank some big wins during the first few months of the Trump administration — at least for himself.

As NBC News reports, Musk’s “regulatory problems have started to fade into the past.” At the Agriculture Department, Trump fired the person who had been investigating Musk’s company Neuralink. At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, DOGE cuts have potentially hobbled regulators’ ability to enforce the law against Tesla and X. Trump’s Justice Department has also dropped a case against Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX.

Musk also appears to have succeeded in using his clout and government access to get his companies more business. His ventures are set to rake in billions in new government contracts.

So, while Musk says he is taking a step back from political spending, that does not mean we’ve seen the last of his influence in government. It’s too late for that. He’s still the world’s richest man, he still has a relationship with the world’s most powerful man, and he can still do a lot more damage.

Charlie Sykes: Musk’s influence won’t fade just because he says he’s pulling back on political spending
He’s still the world’s richest person, he still has a relationship with the world’s most powerful man, and he can still do a lot more damage.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/elon-musk-political-spending-trump-influence-rcna208261

Associated Press: Trump administration asks Supreme Court to block watchdog access to DOGE documents

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The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to block court orders requiring Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency to turn over documents about its operations to a government watchdog group.

The Justice Department’s latest emergency appeal to the high court concerns whether DOGE, which has been central to President Donald Trump’s push to remake the government, is a federal agency that is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The administration argues DOGE is merely a presidential advisory body that is exempt from requests for documents under FOIA.

The administration wants the justices to freeze orders that would force DOGE to turn over documents to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and have acting DOGE administrator Amy Gleason answer questions under oath within the next three weeks. CREW sued in February, claiming that DOGE “wields shockingly broad power” with no transparency about its actions.

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to block watchdog access to DOGE documents
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to block court orders requiring Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to turn over documents about its operations to a government watchdog group.

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-doge-freedom-information-records-trump-14a1773b42ddad1e3367a39750a84bef

Independent: Furious Democrats call for investigation into Musk’s bid to help build Trump’s ‘$500 billion’ Golden Dome project

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Forty-two members of the opposition write to Pentagon’s Inspector General to raise conflict of interest concerns over SpaceX’s potential involvement in anti-missile project

A group of 42 Democrats has written to the Pentagon’s Inspector General demanding an investigation after it was reported that Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, could win a lucrative contract to help build President Donald Trump’s new “Golden Dome” anti-missile defense system.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Tammy Duckworth have responded by expressing their concerns in a letter to acting Pentagon Inspector General Steven A Stebbins, demanding transparency about the bidding process.

“Mr Musk’s formal or informal participation in any process to award a government contract raises serious conflict of interest concerns, including the possibility that SpaceX is a top contender for the Golden Dome contract because of Mr Musk’s position in the government,” they wrote.

The project, inspired by Israel’s “Iron Dome”, was announced by President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House on Tuesday. The president promised it would be “fully operational” before he leaves office in January 2029 and capable of intercepting rockets, “even if they are launched from space.”

The independent Congressional Budget Office has warned that the project could cost as much as $524bn and take 20 years to build. Trump dismissed that estimate, putting the price tag closer to $175bn and insisting it could be completed in just three years, beginning with a $25bn grant to kickstart the development. That effort will be steered by Space Force General Michael Guetlein and “the brightest minds” in Silicon Valley, he said without naming the former DOGE leader.

I smell a crooked deal in the works, with the “winning” bidder already selected.

Democrats call for investigation into Elon Musk’s Golden Dome bid
Forty-two members of the opposition write to Pentagon’s Inspector General to raise conflict of interest concerns over SpaceX’s potential involvement in anti-missile project

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-golden-dome-trump-democrats-b2755109.html

Moneywise: MTG’s $1T fraud claim debunked by experts

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In a digital post dripping with outrage, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene echoed the claims made by [F’]Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, alleging widespread fraud within the Social Security system.

“Our own government just blindly sends checks to anyone and everyone whether citizen, non-citizen, dead or alive,” Greene said in a recent post on X, formerly Twitter. “We must end this malpractice and outright waste, fraud, and abuse. This is the mission of DOGE.”

Why does Georgia keep electing this brainless piece of sh*t?

MTG’s $1T fraud claim debunked by experts
Is she just dead wrong?′

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/mtg-warns-the-us-government-just-blindly-sends-checks-to-anyone-whether-dead-or-alive-citizen-or-non-citizen-here-s-her-solution-to-save-1-trillion-of-waste-fraud-and-abuse/ar-AA1F3gGq

Politico: ‘Glaring red flag’: Treasury DOGE team discloses bank stock holdings

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The Trump administration official overseeing the Treasury Department’s massive financial operations reported owning stock in many of the large banks and companies that do business with the department, according to disclosures obtained by POLITICO.

Tom Krause, who is also the lead official for Treasury’s DOGE team, reported hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of shares in a wide range of financial companies, including those that provide services to the unit Krause oversees.

He and two other Treasury DOGE team members — Todd Newnam and Linda Whitridge— also reported owning shares of Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, which has lobbied heavily against IRS Direct File, a program targeted for elimination by Elon Musk and DOGE.

&c.

Who cares about a little conflict of interest when you’re working for the Grifter-in-Chief?

‘Glaring red flag’: Treasury DOGE team reveals bank holdings
Several former Treasury officials and government ethics experts said the disclosures raise ethics concerns.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/14/treasury-doge-disclosures-bank-stocks-00347972

The Register: DOGE worker’s old creds found exposed in infostealer malware dumps

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Developer and journalist Micah Lee reported last Thursday that he found a whopping 51 data breach records and four infostealer log dumps associated with DOGE employee Kyle Schutt on data breach tracking service Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) – which is unnerving as Schutt has access to sensitive government data at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

As Lee pointed out, 51 breach records on HIBP is a lot, but excusable because while Schutt’s info was found in records associated with a 2013 Adobe breach, the 2016 LinkedIn breach, and Gravatar’s 2020 breach, none of those incidents involved Schutt’s personal machines.

What is attributable to a lapse of security hygiene, however, are the four infostealer logs that link to Schutt. Such logs contain usernames and passwords stolen by infostealer malware, suggesting one or more of Schutt’s computers were compromised at some point.

DOGE worker’s old creds found in malware data dumps
Infosec in brief: PLUS: Celsius scammer sent to slammer; Death-by-hacking victim warns you’re never safe; and more

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/12/doge_cyber_experts_creds_found

MSNBC: Trump is finally getting his parade — and it’s only going to cost taxpayers tens of millions

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President Donald Trump is finally nearing the fulfillment of a dream that he’s had since his first term in office: a lavish military parade that proceeds through the streets of Washington.

NBC News reports the parade will be “to commemorate Flag Day,” and will also mark the Army’s 250th birthday on June 14. As it happens, that’s also the president’s birthday, though Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that the “big, beautiful” parade is “not necessarily” about his birthday. But, he said, “It’s a very important day.”

Regardless of the exact significance of the date, Trump throwing a party for himself with jets and tanks parading down Constitution Avenue will be a wasteful, infrastructure-destroying display of jingoism with authoritarian undertones, as well as a pithy summary of Trump’s presidential vision. That Trump is succeeding in staging this ceremony in his second term instead of his first also seems apropos, given how his second term so far has been defined by more baldly despotic stunts and policies.

In 2018, Trump was bowled over by Bastille Day celebrations during a visit to France. “It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen,” Trump told reporters after the event. “It was two hours on the button, and it was military might.” He also said to French President Emmanuel Macron: “We’re going to have to try to top it.”

Trump is finally getting his parade — and it’s only going to cost taxpayers tens of millions
Trump’s military parade could cost up to $45 million, but for Trump it’s worth it for the imperial symbolism.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-is-finally-getting-his-parade-and-it-s-only-going-to-cost-taxpayers-tens-of-millions/ar-AA1EBAai

Washington Post: U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk’s Starlink, cables show

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Some countries have turned to the satellite internet firm in conjunction with trade talks, State Department staffers wrote. The U.S. has a strategic interest in countering Chinese internet providers, but Musk’s role complicates the picture.

Corruption at its finest!

Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on goods from the tiny African nation of Lesotho, the country’s communications regulator held a meeting with representatives of Starlink.

The satellite business, owned by billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, had been seeking access to customers in Lesotho. But it was not until Trump unveiled the tariffs and called for negotiations over trade deals that leaders of the country of roughly 2 million people awarded Musk’s firm the nation’s first-ever satellite internet service license, slated to last for 10 years.

The decision drew a mention in an internal State Department memo obtained by The Washington Post, which states: “As the government of Lesotho negotiates a trade deal with the United States, it hopes that licensing Starlink demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.”

Lesotho is far from the only country that has decided to assist Musk’s firm while trying to fend off U.S. tariffs. The company reached distribution deals with two providers in India in March and has won at least partial accommodations with Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam, although this is probably not a comprehensive count.

Hopefully there will be some prosecutions after the 2028 elections!

U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk’s Starlink, cables show
Some countries have turned to the satellite internet firm in preparation for trade talks, State Department staffers wrote. The U.S. has a strategic interest in countering Chinese internet providers, but Musk’s role complicates the picture.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/05/07/elon-musk-starlink-trump-tariffs

The Atlantic: DOGE Was Bad. Schedule F Will Be Worse.

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In the waning days of the first Trump administration, the White House announced a plan to convert an estimated 50,000 government employees to a status similar to political appointees—meaning that they would become “at will” hires who serve purely at the president’s pleasure. Schedule F, as this plan was known, was never implemented then and was revoked immediately under Joe Biden’s presidency. But now the policy is back, formally resurrected by executive order on April 18. If this new-look Schedule F survives the inevitable court challenges, it will mark a major step forward in a MAGA quest laid out by J. D. Vance in 2021 to “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state,” and “replace them with our people.”

DOGE Was Bad. Schedule F Will Be Worse.
An executive order will convert 50,000 government employees into de facto political appointees who serve only at the president’s pleasure.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/doge-was-bad-schedule-f-will-be-worse/ar-AA1DLhQ7

New York Times: Pressuring Migrants to ‘Self-Deport,’ White House Moves to Cancel Social Security Numbers

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By placing migrants in Social Security’s “death master file,” the Trump administration is seeking to cut off their access to credit cards, bank accounts and other financial services.

People who have been here LEGALLY may soon discover that they are “dead”.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed into the country under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Now, the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with six people familiar with the plans.

The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits.

The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security’s “death master file,” which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/us/politics/migrants-deport-social-security-doge.html