News

Summary

Federal employees face confusion amid Elon Musk's 48-hour deadline to report five recent accomplishments by 11:59 p.m. EST Monday or risk termination.

Musk’s unusual demand has faced resistance from several key U.S. agencies led by the president’s loyalists — including the FBI, State Department, Homeland Security and the Pentagon — which instructed their employees over the weekend not to comply.

Lawmakers in both parties said that Musk’s mandate may be illegal, while unions are threatening to sue.

Musk falsely accuses low productivity and alleged fraud without evidence, fueling debate and uncertainty across the government workforce already suffering extensive layoffs during Trump’s second term.

Summary

Trump has appointed conservative podcaster Dan Bongino as deputy FBI director, despite his lack of FBI experience.

Bongino, a former Secret Service and police officer, is a staunch Trump ally who promotes election fraud claims and attacks political opponents, once saying, “My life is all about owning the libs now.”

His appointment follows the confirmation of FBI Director Kash Patel, another Trump loyalist. Critics worry their leadership could politicize the agency.

Bongino’s role does not require Senate approval, and Trump announced he will step away from his podcast.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250224124404/https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/king-donald-i-accelerates-white-nationalist-purge-of-military-leaders

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250222063915/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/21/sam-nordquist-transgender-new-york-murder-arrests/79418182007/

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250224123503/https://coloradosun.com/2025/02/20/jury-verdict-christian-class-guilty-andrew-buen/

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250224123046/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jan-6-defendant-victim-fears-safety-after-pardons/

Archived at https://archive.is/UkWJW

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250224123452/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mom-sam-nordquist-transgender-man-tortured-killed-new-york-slams-polic-rcna192864

Archived at https://archive.is/NOcbr

Archived at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/21/panama-costa-rica-migrants-trump/

The Trump administration will fire 2,000 United States Agency for International Development employees and place thousands more on leave Sunday after a judge ruled President Donald Trump has the authority to make cuts at the agency.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250224124328/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/condemned-south-carolina-man-chooses-die-firing-squad-rcna193209

Summary

New York City sued the Trump administration to recover $80 million in FEMA funds initially allocated for immigrant services but later rescinded.

Mayor Eric Adams, facing federal corruption charges, claims the city is owed the money after spending $7 billion on migrant aid.

This legal action marks a shift in Adams' relationship with Trump.

The DOJ recently moved to drop its case against Adams in exchange for his cooperation on immigration policies, prompting multiple prosecutor resignations.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250224123314/https://nysfocus.com/2025/02/22/prison-strike-new-york-lockdown-conditions

Related, "How a Guards’ Strike Plunged New York Prisons Into Turmoil and Why the Timing Is Curious - Correctional officers complain of unsafe conditions, but critics say the protests were meant to deflect attention from ‘a moment of reckoning.’" (archived)

Summary

Trump’s mass layoffs of federal workers will impact communities nationwide, not just Washington, D.C.

While 23% of federal employees work in the capital region, the majority live elsewhere, with some districts relying on federal jobs for up to 7% of employment.

The administration has already cut 200,000 jobs, mainly targeting recent hires with fewer protections.

Experts warn these cuts could destabilize local economies, particularly in areas with military bases and federal agencies, potentially amplifying economic downturns in affected regions.

Archived at https://archive.is/Wx39e

Summary

Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, temporarily blocked results linking Musk and Trump to "misinformation."

xAI's engineering head attributed this to an unauthorized system prompt update by a former OpenAI employee.

Despite Musk's "maximally truth-seeking" claims, interventions occurred when Grok labeled Musk, Trump, and others as harming America or suggested they face the death penalty.

Summary

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) called Elon Musk’s email to federal employees demanding details of their past week’s work “plainly unlawful.

Musk shared the email and threatened resignation for non-compliance, sparking outrage and confusion.

The union's president, Everett Kelley, called for the email's retraction and an apology, citing a lack of legal authority and violations of management delegation.

Agencies like the Defense Department advised employees to disregard the email, asserting their own management authority. The union criticized the email as disruptive and intimidating.

The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Caleb Vitello, was removed from his post, administration officials and other people familiar with the matter said, amid frustration in the Trump administration that deportations haven’t accelerated faster.

The administration is shaking up the leadership at ICE and is soon expected to announce a new acting director, one of the administration officials said. Another administration official said the team at ICE would be expanded.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Vitello is “actually being elevated so he is no longer in an administrative role, but is overseeing all field and enforcement operations: finding, arresting, and deporting illegal aliens.”

Vitello will remain at ICE and will head the office responsible for arrests and deportations.

Efforts to reach Vitello weren’t immediately successful.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration moved its fast-paced dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development toward what appeared to be its final phases, telling all but a fraction of staffers worldwide that they were on leave as of Monday and notifying at least 1,600 of the U.S.-based staffers they were being fired.

The move was the latest and one of the biggest steps in what President Donald Trump and cost-cutting ally Elon Musk say is their goal of gutting the six-decade-old aid and development agency in a broader campaign to slash the size of the federal government.

The move comes after a federal judge on Friday allowed the administration to move forward with its plan to pull thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the United States and around the world. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols rejected pleas in a lawsuit from employees to keep temporarily blocking the government’s plan.

The top 10% of earners—households making about $250,000 a year or more—are splurging on everything from vacations to designer handbags, buoyed by big gains in stocks, real estate and other assets.

Those consumers now account for 49.7% of all spending, a record in data going back to 1989, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Three decades ago, they accounted for about 36%.

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