Favorite Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” spent the first month of the second Trump presidency ransacking federal agencies — and racking up more than a dozen lawsuits challenging its structure, operations, and power. In response, both Musk and President Donald Trump attacked judges that dare to apply legal scrutiny to DOGE and flirted with…
Favorite The “Department of Government Efficiency” claimed to have saved the American taxpayer nearly $232 million by canceling an IT contract for the Social Security Administration. They were only off by about $231 million. In fact, the government cut only $560,000, a paltry savings generated by yet another Trump administration anti-trans attack: the elimination of…
Favorite Elon Musk speaks with Donald Trump and reporters in the White House Oval Office on Feb 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images With the backing of President Donald Trump, Elon Musk has embarked on an unconstitutional rampage against the federal government. The world’s wealthiest man is trying…
Favorite There’s a pesky fact for congressional Democrats crying foul about Elon Musk’s hostile takeover of the U.S. government: Many of them took campaign cash from a Musk company PAC. The SpaceX political action committee doled out more than half a million dollars to Democrats during the last campaign cycle — including thousands that flowed…
Favorite Hours before Tulsi Gabbard appeared for a combative hearing on her nomination as director of national intelligence on Thursday, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden gave some public advice to the woman who once pushed for his pardon. “Tulsi Gabbard will be required to disown all prior support for whistleblowers as a condition of confirmation today.…
Favorite Tulsi Gabbard’s support for pardoning Edward Snowden made her one of Donald Trump’s more intriguing picks when she was nominated for director of national intelligence. It has also made her one of his most vulnerable. Gabbard is set to face pointed questioning from Republican supporters of government spying powers at her confirmation hearing Thursday,…
Favorite Proton, the company behind the eponymous email provider Proton Mail, has won itself a loyal fanbase of dissidents, investigative journalists, and others skeptical of the prying eyes of government or Big Tech. Headquartered in Switzerland, the service describes itself as “a neutral and safe haven for your personal data, committed to defending your freedom.”…
Favorite When Tulsi Gabbard filed ethics paperwork to serve as Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, she promised to sell her holdings of bitcoin, Cronos, Ethereum, and Solana cryptocurrencies. For decades, such pledges have been a routine part of the standard government hiring process. Congress passed a law in 1962 criminalizing conflicts of interest, and…
Favorite A case that started a decade ago with a New York City man’s arrest at John F. Kennedy Airport for allegedly trying to join a Pakistani terrorist group has now dealt a setback to government spying powers. In a decision that could feed into a looming fight over government surveillance, a federal court ruled…
Favorite CIA director nominee John Ratcliffe has drawn objections over his role in declassifying intelligence that could have helped Donald Trump during the 2020 election, and for slow-walking the release of a report on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. What has gone overlooked as Ratcliffe speeds toward a Thursday confirmation vote, however, are…
