Independent: Elon Musk’s ‘efficiency’ team is quietly building a vast immigration tracking database

Musk’s team is using the highly sensitive data it has gathered to build a “master database” at the Department of Homeland Security that could be used to “track and surveil” undocumented immigrants, WIRED reported last week.

….

“The Trump-Musk Administration is infiltrating agencies and weaponizing the information they steal to target and attack America’s immigrant communities,” Connolly said. “DOGE’s dystopian demand for the sensitive, personal data of millions of Americans and immigrants is alarming, especially as this Administration abducts and disappears people off our streets without due process — including immigrants with legal status — and in light of President Trump’s chilling admission that he plans to target American citizens, or ‘home growns,’ next.”

Gabe Lezra, policy and advocacy director at State Democracy Defenders Action, told The Independent that what’s happening “should horrify every American.”

“The Trump–Musk regime sold DOGE to the American people as a way to cut costs and streamline government. What they actually created was Big Brother,” Lezra said. “This isn’t just about giving bad actors in our own government access to deeply personal data – like your party registration, charitable givings, medical history, citizenship status, and financial records. It’s also because we cannot have confidence that DOGE can keep this database safe–particularly because malicious foreign actors will immediately make this database their number one target,” he added.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/elon-musk-s-efficiency-team-is-quietly-building-a-vast-immigration-tracking-database/ar-AA1DFinZ

New York Times: In Marin County, There’s Trouble in Teslaville

Tesla’s sleek electric vehicles used to be a status symbol in liberal Mill Valley, Calif. Now, they are despised by many — including those who drive them.

In the parking lots of Mill Valley, Calif., mysterious index cards have surfaced on the windshields of Tesla Model Xs and Model 3s.

“Stop Elon,” they urge in teal script. “Dump your Tesla.”

A few years ago, buying a Tesla in Mill Valley meant that you had money, but were not overly showy. It meant you were a progressive environmentalist who had style.

It meant you belonged.

Ten miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, tucked into the lush, green hills of Marin County, Mill Valley is an idyllic place to live — for those who are wealthy and liberal.

And for years, Teslas were “the Ferrari for the Patagonia-wearing crowd,” said Nathan Ballard, a political consultant who lives in Mill Valley and owns a black Tesla Model S.

But the sleek electric cars have come to mean something else entirely for Mill Valley residents since the presidential election.

https://archive.is/m8yJY

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

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.”

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

Telegraph: Trump’s attempt to upend the global order has already been defeated

America has emerged from the trade war as an international laughing stock

Characterised by screeching handbrake turns, made-up policy on the hoof and mixed-messaging on steroids, it’s been another week of chaos in Washington.

If anyone knows what on Earth it is that the US is trying to achieve on trade, and much else besides, then I’d like to hear from them, because having come to the US capital in the hope of garnering some insights, I’m none the wiser.

What’s now increasingly obvious, however, is that Trump is in ragged retreat; he’s compromising all over the shop, such that if the plan was to upend the established global order, one can almost definitely say that, beyond the rhetoric, it is already over.

Rank lack of professionalism and organisation has defined the endeavour all along, and now it’s coming apart at the seams. Sensing an administration on the run, no one is any longer hurrying to do a trade deal with the US. From Britain to Canada and beyond, getting the right deal rather than a quick one has become the new mantra.

Trump has in the meantime made himself – and the US – into an international laughing stock, never mind the damage that policy uncertainty is inflicting on the global economy. You’d be forgiven for thinking that chaos is itself the policy goal.

Repeatedly forced to row back on its demands and aspirations, the White House has been left looking back-footed and ridiculous.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/26/trumps-attempt-to-upend-the-global-order-defeated

Mediaite: Trump Defends Pardoning One of His Political Donors – Who Was Represented by Pam Bondi’s Brother

President Donald Trump defended his pardon of Trevor Milton, the disgraced former CEO of the electric truck manufacturer Nikola.

In December 2023, Milton was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of defrauding investors. He had been free pending appeal.

“Milton’s scheme targeted individual, non-professional investors — so-called “retail investors” — by making false and misleading statements directly to the investing public through social media and television, print, and podcast interviews,” the Department of Justice said shortly after he was sentenced.

During the case, Milton retained Brad Bondi, the brother of longtime Trump ally Pam Bondi, who is now U.S. Attorney General. Milton was also represented by Marc Mukasey, who has represented the Trump Organization.

Milton and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a pro-Trump reelection fund the month before November’s election.

Just another shade of corruption … it’s all Trump does and he does it well!

Is $1.8 million a fair price for a pardon?

Daily Mail: China Mocks Trump With AI

JD Vance is declared ‘the eyeliner man’ as furious China unleashes meme warfare on US

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14646871/JD-Vance-eyeliner-man-Trump-dictator-China-meme-warfare.html

‘I’ll Hook You up to a F*****g Polygraph!’ Hegseth Reportedly ERUPTED at Joint Chiefs Chairman He Suspected of Leaking To the Press

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth went off on the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff amid a search for a leaker at the Pentagon, according to a report published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.

The paper said Hegseth was “rattled” after word got out last month that the Pentagon was set to brief Elon Musk on China, where the Tesla CEO has three factories. President Donald Trump denied the report the next day. However, Axios later reported that Trump had canceled the briefing while asking, “What the fuck is Elon doing here?”

During his search for the leaker, Hegseth erupted at Admiral Christopher Grady, who was then the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

“I’ll hook you up to a f——-g polygraph!” Hegseth shouted at the admiral, the Journal reported, according to two people familiar with the interaction. The secretary demanded proof that Grady was not the source of the Musk leak. Grady was never polygraphed. Hegseth reportedly threatened others with a polygraph test, including Lt. Gen. Doug Sims, the Joint Chiefs director.

The lowlife former O-3 is trying to terrorize the generals!

Would somebody please put Hegseth back in his sandbox and paddle his impudent ass? Thank you!

Polygraph Threats, Leaks and Infighting: The Chaos Inside Hegseth’s Pentagon

Defense secretary has chastised top military officers and staffers as he seeks to quiet a storm he helped create.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied discussing sensitive military information with his wife and others in the Signal app.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was rattled.

Word had leaked that he was planning a classified briefing for Elon Musk on China, a revelation that infuriated President Trump and raised alarms inside the Pentagon given Musk’s business ties to Beijing.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/pete-hegseth-pentagon-fired-aides-cfa9e0d5

Musk Watch: Musk-owned company says it qualifies for federal contracts reserved for small businesses

Trump’s crony & billionaire F’Elon Musk isn’t above looting the treasury by pretending to be a “small” business:

Musk founded Boring in 2017 as a subsidiary of SpaceX. Its raison d’être was rectifying Southern California gridlock via a subterranean transportation network, though it has failed in that regard. In 2018, Musk spun off Boring, making it a privately held company that has largely served to promote his car manufacturer, Tesla. Through the gravity of its founder, carefully staged photo ops, and alleged environmental and labor violations, Boring has maintained media interest throughout its eight years of existence. But it remains the least distinguished of Musk’s companies. It has struggled to generate revenue despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising.

The company, which is based near Austin, Texas, has built just a few miles of commercial tunnels, all of which are located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its failure to generate substantive business could explain why it would seek federal funding from a White House that has proven to be partial to Musk’s business interests. A senior Trump adviser, Musk also leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the White House’s austerity and parapolitical initiative. Steve Davis, the president of the Boring Company, is reportedly in charge of DOGE’s day-to-day operations.

https://www.muskwatch.com/p/musk-owned-company-says-it-qualifies

Financial Times: Vance’s trolling audition to be Trump’s heir

The many contradictions of the vice-president should not distract from his ambition

It was inevitable that memes about JD Vance would surface the moment Pope Francis passed away. “It’s good to see you in better health,” the US vice-president told the pope on Sunday. The pontiff died on Monday.

As Donald Trump’s chief attack dog — though not yet his heir apparent — Vance is a prime target of ridicule on liberal social media. But he is also a master troller himself. Vance knows that the surest path to Maga hearts and Trump’s approval is to enrage liberals. The question is whether he means anything by it.

And this:

The answer is unclear. Vance has gone from being a never-Trumper who saw Trump as “America’s Hitler” to an arch-Trumper who sees his boss as part of God’s plan. That is as dramatic a political conversion as can happen. Rather than search for an intellectual key, Vance’s shift can be put down to ambition. The better question is whether there are any limits to his ambition. Judging by his performance so far, the answer is not really.

What this last paragraph indicates is that we can’t trust J.D. Dunce to be the person that he pretends to be. He’s an opportunist, a weasel, pure and simple!

https://archive.is/fyhWg