Category: “Dead Skunk in The Middle of The Road”

Issues and events that stink to high heaven

How Far Gone Are We?

Jamelle Bouie – March 13, 2025

Hands entwined with an American flag.
Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times

The question of the day is whether the United States is embroiled in a constitutional crisis.

Consider the circumstances. Congress has essentially surrendered its power of the purse to an unelected co-president who has seized control of much of the federal bureaucracy. The actual president has asserted a unilateral executive authority so powerful and far-reaching that it threatens the republican character of the American political system. And that president has taken actions — such as an attempt to unravel birthright citizenship — that blatantly and flagrantly violate the Constitution.

But as critics of the crisis view note, for all of his lawbreaking, transgression and overreach, the president has yet to take the steps that would clearly mark a constitutional crisis — openly defying a lower court order or, more significantly, a judgment of the Supreme Court.

One thing the language of crisis captures, however, is the degree to which the American political system is under a tremendous amount of stress. And to the extent that this stress threatens the integrity of the constitutional order, it is because the American system is, and has been, in a profound state of disrepair. If we are in or approaching a constitutional crisis, it has been a long time coming.

In 2009 the legal scholars Jack M. Balkin and Sanford Levinson published an article on constitutional crises titled, aptly enough, “Constitutional Crises.”

The aim of their argument was to distinguish ordinary (or even extraordinary) political conflict from a breakdown in the operation of the constitutional system.

“When constitutional design functions properly — even if people strongly disagree with and threaten each other — there is no crisis,” Balkin and Levinson explained. “On the other hand, when the system of constitutional design breaks down, either because people abandon it or because it is leading them off of the proverbial cliff, disagreements and threats take on a special urgency that deserves the name of ‘crisis.’”

A crisis occurs, to put it a little differently, when a constitution fails to achieve its primary task, which is to channel political disagreement into ordinary politics. It’s when disagreement begins to break down into violence — into anarchy or civil war — that you have a constitutional crisis.

From here, Balkin and Levinson offered a typology of democratic constitutional crises (primarily in the United States, although this extends to other constitutional democracies as well). There is the “Type 1” crisis in which political leaders have publicly claimed “the right to suspend features of the Constitution in order to preserve the overall social order and to meet the exigencies of the moment.” In this kind of crisis, a president has essentially claimed the sovereign power to declare a state of exception, acting, in Locke’s words, “without the prescription of the law, and sometimes even against it.”

No president has ever claimed the right to act outside the Constitution. Instead, those presidents who have sought to expand their power tend to frame their actions as the necessary exercise of legitimate authority. Prominent examples include Abraham Lincoln at the start of the Civil War and, more recently, George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks.

In the “Type 2” crisis, political leaders do not abandon the Constitution so much as refuse to break with a failing constitutional order. “If Type 1 crises feature actors who publicly depart from fidelity to the Constitution,” Balkin and Levinson wrote, “Type 2 crises arise from excess fidelity, where political actors adhere to what they perceive to be their constitutional duties even though the heavens fall.”

If there is a paradigmatic example of this crisis in American history, it can be found in the secession crisis of 1860 to early 1861, when President James Buchanan stood by as Southern secessionists seized federal armories and prepared for war.

The third and final category of constitutional crisis that Balkin and Levinson discussed involves a situation in which “the relevant actors all proclaim their constitutional fidelity” but “disagree about what the Constitution requires and about who holds the appropriate degree of power.” What distinguishes this from ordinary disagreements is the willingness to go outside of normal politics to resolve the conflict, up to and including the use of violence.

You can see this type of crisis in the struggle over Reconstruction, when recalcitrant Southern white people took up arms to challenge and overthrow the postwar biracial political order.

“Constitutional Crises” was something of an incongruous argument to be making, given the rise of Barack Obama, whose presidency opened with a sense of promise and optimism about the future. The mood and circumstances were a little more appropriate eight years later when, at the start of the first Trump administration, Balkin followed up on this exploration of constitutional crises with an article on what he evocatively termed “constitutional rot.”

If a constitutional crisis is an acute event — brought on by external shock or internal breakdown — then constitutional rot is something like a chronic illness. It is, Balkin wrote, “the degradation of constitutional norms that may operate over a long period.”

You may, at this late date, be tired of talking about norms, but it is true that constitutional democracies depend on them for their survival. A successful republic rests on well-functioning institutions that structure ambition and the acquisition of political power. It demands a certain amount of forbearance from both political leaders and ordinary citizens when it comes to the use of that power. Politics cannot be a winner-take-all game.

Above all, constitutional democracy requires a broad commitment to the public good, or what we might describe as civic virtue — a particular obsession of America’s revolutionary generation. This includes ordinary people, who have a responsibility to keep themselves informed and engaged, as well as elected officials, who are entrusted with the public good and thus the obligation to further the common interest rather than the most narrow concerns of themselves or their allies. Even our system, designed to harness ambition so that the “interest of the man” is “connected with the constitutional rights of the place,” according to Federalist No. 51, depends on a certain amount of selflessness from those who choose public service.

Constitutional rot is when all of this begins to deteriorate. It’s when government officials reject the public good in favor of the private interests of their supporters and financial backers, when institutions fail to address public problems, when political actors embrace a nihilistic ethos of winning regardless of the damage it might do to the overall health of the political system, and when politicians reject any and all limits on their use of power and try to insulate themselves from accountability, democratic or otherwise.

Each dynamic eats at the foundation of constitutional government. And like the rot that afflicts the sill plate of an old home, it will undermine the entire structure if left to grow and fester.

If we use the typology Balkin and Levinson outlined, then it is a little hard to say that the United States is experiencing a constitutional crisis. For as much as Donald Trump has centered his second term on a radical assertion of executive power, he has not yet claimed to be above or beyond the Constitution. His view, in fact, is that he has “an Article 2 where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” (This is wrong, of course, but it means something, even still, that the White House is trying to ground its claims within the existing political order.)

The Constitution also isn’t, at this moment, faltering on the shoals of a political, social or economic crisis, and our political leaders have not turned to extraconstitutional methods to try to resolve their conflicts.

Reasonable people can disagree about whether the current circumstances constitute a constitutional crisis. But it is extremely difficult to deny the extent to which the constitutional order is rotting from the inside out.

You can see it in the wide and widening gap between what the public wants from its government and what that government is able to deliver. You can see it in the vulgar influence peddling and outright looting that passes for normal behavior in Washington. You can see it in the catastrophic weakness of both political parties, whether it’s a Republican Party so hollowed out by extremism and in thrall to the ultrarich that it was easy pickings for a populist demagogue and his wealthy backers or a Democratic Party whose feckless leadership class is more concerned with securing its personal influence than building the kind of organization that can construct and mobilize popular majorities.

You can see it in the failure of the American political class to deal with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — a system-level threat to constitutional government whose ringleader was allowed to run, a third time, for president — and you can see it in that president’s easy seizure of the power of purse. The fact that Elon Musk, a de facto prime minister acting with the authority of the president, can cancel federal programs without a peep from the majority in Congress is a sign of constitutional rot. The fact that Republicans in Congress would rather beg Musk for a reprieve than assert the power of their institution is also a sign of constitutional rot setting in even further. And the fact that so many of our institutions are treating Trump’s executive decrees as laws — bending to and indulging his whims as if he were sovereign, as if he were a king and not a president — is a sign of constitutional rot.

Constitutional rot can lead to constitutional crisis. At the same time, not every house that rots at its foundation falls apart. Some become uninhabitable even as they appear otherwise. So it goes for a republic. We may retain the appearance of a constitutional democracy even as the rot corrodes the freedoms and values that give that term its weight and meaning. We’ve already reached the stage, after all, where the ruling regime attempts to deport one of its most vocal and vulnerable critics.

With a house, there is only one thing to do about rot. Tear it up. Remove it. And replace it with something new. If our political system — if our constitutional order — is too rotted through to secure freedom, equality and the blessings of liberty, then perhaps it’s time to rethink what it is we want out of American democracy.

Assuming, of course, that we can keep it intact.

trump and musk, who both never served their countries really hate U.S. Veterans: Trump’s mass federal workforce cuts: What has happened so far

USA Today

Trump’s mass federal workforce cuts: What has happened so far

Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAY – March 12, 2025

President Donald Trump’s mass firings of permanent federal employees have already begun and are expected to accelerate over the next few weeks with tens of thousands more employees terminated. But the layoffs didn’t come out of nowhere.

This week, federal agencies face a deadline to provide Trump administration officials with plans for a reduction in force, a dramatic downsizing of the nation’s more than 2 million federal workers that will occur over the next few months. Along with layoffs, some agencies are expected to indefinitely extend their hiring freezes, eliminate currently vacant positions and consolidate offices as ways to reduce headcount.

Guided by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department Of Government Efficiency aides, Trump has spent his first eight weeks in office focused on dismantling the federal government, including shutting down and laying off the staff of the United States Agency for International Development and taking steps to do the same to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Trump has also begun dismantling the Department of Education with cuts to about half of its workforce.

More: How Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has dominated Trump’s agenda

After a buyout offer was accepted by fewer federal employees than expected, tens of thousands of probationary federal workers were laid off. Probationary workers include employees in their first year or two on the job, people who have recently moved between federal agencies and people who were recently promoted.

The firings have affected all 50 states and include employees at agencies that Americans frequently interact with, including the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Internal Revenue Service, National Institutes of Health and many others.

The White House has not responded to repeated requests from USA TODAY for a precise number of fired employees. Here’s a timeline of how Trump’s workforce firings have taken shape, starting with Inauguration Day.

Jan. 20: Trump signs executive order changing job classifications
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures while signing a series of executive actions in the Oval Office at the White House on Inauguration Day in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2025.
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures while signing a series of executive actions in the Oval Office at the White House on Inauguration Day in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2025.

Among his first actions as president, Trump signed an executive order that revives a policy from the final days of his first administration known as Schedule F. The directive creates a new employment classification for tens of thousands of nonpartisan career civil servants, effectively stripping them of job protections by reclassifying them as at-will positions, meaning they can be dismissed for nearly any reason.

A separate executive order froze hiring of federal civilian employees in the executive branch. It stated that any federal civilian position vacant when Trump took office may not be filled, and no new position may be created – with rare exceptions.

More: Trump talks tariffs, Gaza and Greenland, takes jab at Biden in first Oval Office presser

Jan. 28: Buyout offer made to federal employees
U.S. President Donald Trump walks into the East Room before signing the Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation passed during his second term in office, at the White House on January 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks into the East Room before signing the Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation passed during his second term in office, at the White House on January 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.More

Trump’s administration offered buyouts to nearly all 2.3 million federal employees. The offer came in a surprise email that hit inboxes at 6:04 p.m. on Jan. 28 with the subject line: “The Fork in the Road.”

In the email, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offered all federal employees eight months of pay and benefits through September if they resigned by Feb. 6. Unions warned workers considering Trump’s offer that there is no guarantee the president can or will stick to it because Congress hasn’t approved funding for federal agencies beyond March 14.

Jan. 29: Union sues over reclassifying federal employees

Unions representing federal employees sued the Trump administration to block the schedule F executive order, alleging that it aimed to politicize the federal government by stripping federal workers of job protections.

More: ‘Politics over professionalism’: Federal employees’ union sues Trump over executive order

Feb. 4: USAID employees placed on administrative leave

About 10,000 employees of the United States Agency for International Development ‒ two-thirds of whom work overseas across 60 countries ‒ were notified that they will be placed on administrative leave at the end of the week as part of Trump’s move to dismantle the foreign aid agency.

More: USDA plans big cuts to food bank, school food programs: What to know

Feb. 5: Government warns of furloughs
People protest against the administration of President Donald Trump's decision to virtually shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 5, 2025.
People protest against the administration of President Donald Trump’s decision to virtually shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 5, 2025.More

The Trump administration warned federal employees that they could be furloughed if they did not accept the buyout offer, according to an email obtained by USA TODAY.

The email warned employees that many will be stripped of civil-service protections and suggested there may be loyalty tests for those who remain.

Feb. 6: Boston judge temporarily halts deadline to accept buyout offer

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole issued a temporary restraining order pausing the Trump administration’s deadline to accept the buyout in order to allow time for labor unions to challenge the plan’s legality. The American Federation of Government Employees and two other unions filed the lawsuit arguing that the administration lacks any statutory basis for the “unprecedented offer.”

More: What to know after federal judge pauses Trump’s buyout deadline for federal workers

The Trump administration’s lawyers had argued that extending the deadline on the very last day would “markedly disrupt the expectations of the federal workforce, inject tremendous uncertainty into a program that scores of federal employees have already availed themselves of, and hinder the administration’s efforts to reform the federal workforce.”

Also on Feb. 6, the administration ordered all federal department and agency heads to produce lists of their lowest-performing employees.

The order from OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell also asked departments and agencies to identify potential barriers to ensuring “the ability to swiftly terminate poor performing employees who cannot or will not improve.”

Feb. 7: Trump fires head of the Office of Special Counsel
Federal workers and supporters hold signs as they demonstrate against Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) outside of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) headquarters on February 07, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Federal workers and supporters hold signs as they demonstrate against Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) outside of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) headquarters on February 07, 2025 in Washington, DC.More

An aide to Trump fired Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of the Special Counsel, on the night of Feb. 7 in a one-sentence email. Dellinger sued, arguing that 1978 federal law creating his position states he can only be removed from his job because of inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance.

Probationary employees largely rely on the special counsel to back them when challenging a dismissal through the proper government channels, rather than suing.

Feb. 10: Trump fires leaders of Merit Systems Protection Board
Cathy Harris of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board poses as she leaves the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in downtown Washington, D.C., U.S., March 3, 2025.
Cathy Harris of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board poses as she leaves the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in downtown Washington, D.C., U.S., March 3, 2025.

Within a matter of minutes, Trump fired the leaders of two other boards that federal workers can turn to as an avenue to contest their firing. Union challenges to the firings have been rejected because they have not first gone through these boards.

Trump fired Merit Systems Protection Board chair Cathy Harris, just before 11 p.m., leaving the board with two members – Raymond Limon, a Democrat whose term expired on March 1, and Henry Kerner, a Republican. A court temporarily reinstated Harris, whose term doesn’t expire until 2028, after she sued. The Merit Systems Protection Board is tasked with protecting federal workers against partisan politics and illegal employment practices. It cannot operate without a quorum.

Trump also fired the Federal Labor Relations Authority board chair, Susan Grundmann, three and a half minutes before he fired Cathy Harris. The authority handles certain complaints with federal workers’ labor unions.

Grundmann sued to be reinstated, but for the time being, Trump named Colleen Kiko, a Republican member, as chair, presiding over only one other member, Democrat Anne Wagner.

Also on Feb. 10, a court temporarily reinstated Dellinger, who promptly asked the Merit Systems Protection Board to pause the terminations of six probationary employees at six agencies, and reinstate them while he investigated their cases.

Feb. 11: Trump signs new EO to make major cuts to federal work force

Trump signed an executive order Feb. 11 that seeks to significantly reduce the size of the government by instructing heads of federal departments and agencies to undertake plans for “large-scale reductions in force.”

A White House summary of the order said agency heads were ordered to “coordinate and consult with DOGE to shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions.”

Under the order, federal agencies aren’t allowed to hire more than one employee for every four employees who depart. It also instructed the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to create new rules to ensure future federal hires are subject to additional conduct standards, such as U.S. citizenship and filing federal tax returns on time.

Feb. 12: Judge allows buyouts to move forward

O’Toole, the Boston-based federal judge, restored Trump’s buyout project, deciding federal employees unions that sued to stop the program lacked standing to bring their challenge and that his court does not have jurisdiction to hear their complaint.

In total, about 75,000 federal employees accepted President Donald Trump’s buyout offer. That equaled about 3.3% of the federal government’s 2.3 million workers, coming in below the White House’s projections that 5% to 10% of the workforce would accept. Congress has not yet approved spending for the next year or said spending for buyouts would be included.

More: President Trump’s buyouts for federal employees can proceed, judge rules

Feb. 13: Thousands of probationary employees are fired

Thousands of recently-hired federal workers received notice that they had been fired.

Probationary workers are easier to fire because they lack the bargaining rights that career employees have to appeal their terminations. Firings were government-wide: from the Department of Education and Small Business Administration to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the agency that oversees the nation’s fleet of nuclear weapons.

The firings have continued in the weeks since, including more than 880 probationary employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – which forecasts the nation’s weather and protects ocean species – on Thursday.

More: ‘Took away my hope.’ Federal workers say Trump mass firings upended their lives

Supporters of all sizes, attend a rally to support federal workers terminated recently on Friday, March 7, 2025 at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center at 5000 W. National Ave. in Milwaukee.
Supporters of all sizes, attend a rally to support federal workers terminated recently on Friday, March 7, 2025 at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center at 5000 W. National Ave. in Milwaukee.
Feb. 20: Unions sue over firing probationary employees

A coalition of federal employee unions sued the administration, alleging that officials misused the probationary period to eliminate staff and that the Office of Personnel Management directed federal agencies to use a standardized termination notice falsely claiming performance issues in firing tens of thousands of employees.

“OPM, the federal agency charged with implementing this nation’s employment laws, in one fell swoop has perpetrated one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country, telling tens of thousands of workers that they are being fired for performance reasons, when they most certainly were not,” the unions argued in court documents.

Feb. 22: Five things or resign

Musk took to his social media site, X, to instruct federal workers to report their work accomplishments via email or resign.

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” said the post. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

The email that employees received did not mention termination or disciplinary action for employees failing to respond promptly, but sent shockwaves as employees got conflicting instructions from agencies about whether or not to respond.

“What did you do last week?” the emails read. “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”

Feb. 24: Office of Special Counsel says firing of probationary employees was illegal

Dellinger, who leads the Office of the Special Counsel, said firing probationary employees was illegal because it used boilerplate language blaming their performance rather than specific concerns and asked the Merit Systems Protection Board to decide whether to reinstate six employees while he investigates further.

More: Federal agency investigating Elon Musk’s Tesla hit with DOGE layoffs

Federal law generally requires 60 days’ notice for a reduction in force (what the federal government calls layoffs) and prohibits probationary employees from being fired for reasons unrelated to performance or conduct.

Feb. 25: Merit Systems Protection Board reinstates some probationary employees
A demonstrator wears a USAID vest during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's adviser, billionaire Elon Musk's campaign to push out tens of thousands of federal workers, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 25, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A demonstrator wears a USAID vest during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s adviser, billionaire Elon Musk’s campaign to push out tens of thousands of federal workers, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 25, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan HowardMore

The Merit Systems Protection Board ordered six fired federal employees to be rehired at least through April 10, while Dellinger’s office investigates.

“I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that each of the six agencies engaged in a prohibited personnel practice,” stated the order. The Office of Special Counsel has said it is considering ways to seek relief for a broader group of federal employees similarly fired in recent weeks.

Feb. 26: New orders for mass layoffs targeting civil service employees

The Trump administration ordered heads of federal departments and agencies to prepare plans to initiate “large-scale reductions in force” by March 13.

A memo sent by the offices of Personnel Management and Management and Budget also instructed federal departments to eliminate and consolidate duplicative positions, reduce their property footprints and produce reorganization plans for their agencies.

Elon Musk shows off his t-shirt reading "Tech Support" while speaking at the first cabinet meeting hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., February 26, 2025.
Elon Musk shows off his t-shirt reading “Tech Support” while speaking at the first cabinet meeting hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., February 26, 2025.

Federal employees with full civil service protections are expected to be targeted. U.S. Postal Service workers, positions deemed necessary for law enforcement, national security and border and immigration obligations, as well as military personnel in the armed forces are exempted.

The memo also instructs federal departments to submit new organizational charts by April 14 as well as any proposed relocations of agency offices or headquarters from Washington to “less-costly parts of the country.”

More: Elon Musk talks death threats, DOGE directives at Trump’s first Cabinet meeting

Feb. 27: California judge blocks firing of probationary employees

Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern California District temporarily blocked the Trump administration from its mass firing of probationary federal employees.

Alsup said the mass firings were likely unlawful and ordered the Office of Personnel Management to halt the action, saying the agency acted out of bounds by telling other agencies – including the Education Department, the Small Business Administration and the Energy Department – to fire employees.

“OPM does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire or fire any employees, but its own,” Alsup said. The judge did not order the rehiring of anyone who had been terminated.

Feb. 28: A second five things email

The administration sent a second round of emails to federal workers instructing them to list what they’ve accomplished that week. The new directive came from agency leaders instead of DOGE.

A terminated federal worker leaves the offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C. on February 28, 2025 after being laid off following U.S. President Donald Trump's order to cut funding to the agency.
A terminated federal worker leaves the offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C. on February 28, 2025 after being laid off following U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to cut funding to the agency.More

More: How Trump and Musk have sought greater control over federal employees

March 5: Firings are up to agencies

In response to Alsup’s ruling, the Trump administration informed federal departments that any firings of their probationary workers are up to the agencies themselves.

The revised guidance from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management states that “OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees,” adding that “agencies have ultimate decision making authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.”

That same day, the Merit Systems Protection Board ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reinstate a fired worker, as well as “numerous” other probationary employees who were fired Feb. 13 and later.

The ruling at the request of the Office of Special Counsel who argued the firings violated federal laws related to probationary employees and reductions in force because they used a form letter that the Department of Agriculture also sent to nearly 6,000 other probationary employees.

March 6: Trump allowed to fire special counsel
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes speaks as New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison listen during the Community Impact Hearing on the public impact of federal firings and DOGE funding freezes by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., March 5, 2025.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes speaks as New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison listen during the Community Impact Hearing on the public impact of federal firings and DOGE funding freezes by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., March 5, 2025.More

More: ‘Blatantly illegal’: Judge reinstates labor board member fired by Donald Trump

A federal appeals court ruled that Trump did have authority to fire Dellinger, the Office of the Special Counsel leader who said firing probationary employees was illegal because agencies used boilerplate language. Dellinger said he would not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Trump administration has said it will replace Dellinger with Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins. His agency is laying off workers whose main avenue to contest their firing is to turn to the Office of the Special Counsel for help.

March 12: Member back on the Federal Labor Relations Authority

U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan reversed Trump’s Feb. 10 removal of Grundmann, a Democratic member from the Federal Labor Relations Authority, by issuing a permanent injunction requiring the rest of the board to treat Grundmann as if she had not been removed.

The authority hears disputes between federal agencies and their employees’ union and could play a significant role in expected legal fights over the mass layoffs.

What is ahead?
President Donald Trump, accompanied by Elon Musk, a White House senior advisor, and Tesla and SpaceX CEO, speaks next to a Tesla Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump, accompanied by Elon Musk, a White House senior advisor, and Tesla and SpaceX CEO, speaks next to a Tesla Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday.

More: ‘We deserve to be heard.’ Fired fed workers begin weekly protests on Capitol Hill

Heads of federal departments and agencies have until Thursday to prepare and present plans to initiate “large-scale reductions in force” as Trump shifts to a more aggressive phase of cutting the federal workforce beyond recently hired or promoted employees.

Among the planned reductions, reported by USA TODAY, are terminations of 76,000 workers from the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1,300 workers from the Department of Education, and more than 1,000 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Trump has also openly discussed cuts of 65% to the Environmental Protection Agency’s workforce.

Layoffs are not immediate. Agencies must give employees 30 or 60 days notice.

USA TODAY reporters Joey Garrison, Bart Jansen, Maureen Groppe, Kayla Jimenez, Erin Mansfield and Tom Vanden Brook contributed.

The Wild Upgrade Elon Musk Demanded for His DOGE Office

Daily Beast

The Wild Upgrade Elon Musk Demanded for His DOGE Office

Julia Ornedo – March 12, 2025

Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks at U.S. President Donald Trump as he speaks to the media, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
REUTERS

It seems that the Department of Government Efficiency isn’t done furnishing the federal offices they’ve turned into dorm rooms—and their boss Elon Musk himself has joined in on the fun.

Musk reportedly asked Chris Young, one of his political advisers, to procure a massive TV for his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building so he could play video games, a source familiar told Politico.

The DOGE chief earlier told friends that he had been sleeping in his DOGE office, in the same way he slept in Tesla factories for years, because he believed it motivated his employees to “give it their all.”

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, U.S., August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Wurm / REUTERS
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, U.S., August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Wurm / REUTERS

A longtime GOP field organizer, Young was reportedly hired by Musk in August last year to oversee the America PAC tasked with boosting Republican voter turnout in the November polls. Young has become Musk’s right-hand man for personal and professional logistics in Washington D.C., according to Politico.

Young belongs to the exclusive club of Musk’s most trusted advisers, which is said to be composed of executives who followed the billionaire from his companies. They include former Boring Company CEO Steve Davis, his wife and former X real estate chief Nicole Hollander, and SpaceX Vice President for People Operations Brian Bjelde.

It isn’t just Musk who has turned federal buildings into a personalized office.

DOGE goons have also transformed government offices into crash pads complete with furniture, children’s play areas, and their own washer-dryer, two General Services Administration employees told Politico last week.

Photos and invoices obtained by Politico showed a child’s play area decorated with a stuffed animal and other toys, as well as a $25,000 invoice to install a washer-dryer.

DOGE lackeys have also set up IKEA beds, lamps, and dressers in at least four rooms on the sixth floor of the GSA building. The rooms can only be accessed by people with high-level security clearances, making them difficult to inspect.

“People are definitely … sleeping there,” a GSA staffer told the news outlet.

Former federal employees have speculated that the DOGE team sleeps in their offices to “terrorize the civilian workforce.”

“It’s exceedingly odd,” Jeff Nesbit, an author and former senior official, told Politico. “I’ve run the public affairs offices of five different Cabinet departments or agencies under four different presidents, two Republicans and two Democrats. I have never heard of any such thing.”

Elon Musk Reportedly Wants the Government to Shut Down So He Can Do Something Dark

Futurism

Elon Musk Reportedly Wants the Government to Shut Down So He Can Do Something Dark

Victor Tangermann – March 12, 2025

Unelected White House official Elon Musk is reportedly hoping the federal government grinds to a halt — so he can dismantle it even more ruthlessly.

As Wired reports, Musk is hoping that a government shutdown could allow him to more easily fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers, a potentially existential threat for many government agencies.

His purported desire could fly in the face of the interests of the Trump administration. Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported, the White House tried to convince House Republicans to vote for a stopgap measure, called a continuing resolution, to fund the government through September.Advertisement

With a Friday deadline looming, the measure would need Democratic votes in the Senate. But whether they’ll fall in line remains uncertain. Trump’s escalating trade war has sparked a major stock market crash, straining relations with Congress.

Yet a shutdown could end up being beneficial to Musk’s continued plundering of the federal government. The mercurial CEO has been ransacking agencies with the help of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

“A shutdown has been his preference,” a Republican source told Wired. “I think he’s boxed in there by the president. I think it would be really hard for him to get around that.”

As The Hill reports, Senate Democrats are caught between a rock and a hard place. They either have to fund the government and stop a potentially calamitous shutdown that could drag on for weeks or even months — or oppose the continuing resolution to ensure the Trump administration doesn’t get what it wants.

A shutdown could prove disastrous, even without Musk firing workers left and right, leading to close to one million “nonessential” government workers being furloughed.

But even putting all of those workers on ice could only save roughly $110 billion a year, falling far short of the $1 trillion Musk hopes to eliminate by 2026.

Shutdown or not, Musk has been eviscerating government agencies with alacrity. The Department of Education announced this week it would cut half of its workforce, which could prove to be a debilitating blow.

And a shutdown could make things far worse. After 30 days, some furloughed workers could become permanently laid off as part of “reduction in force” proceedings.

“There are concerns anyone deemed nonessential will be DOGE’d,” a State Department employee told Wired.

What exactly will happen if it drags on for that long remains unclear given the lack of precedent. Only one partial shutdown has lasted over 30 days, starting in late 2018.

And many other workers could eventually be forced out as they look for other sources of income.

“I suspect the greatest impact of a long-term shutdown is that it will encourage federal employees to leave public service sooner rather than later,” University of Minnesota School of Law professor Nick Bednar told Wired. “Even though federal law permits back pay, federal employees still need to pay for rent, groceries, and other essentials.”

How Citibank got caught in a $20B climate fight

Grist

How Citibank got caught in a $20B climate fight

Jake Bittle – March 12, 2025

In the chaotic first few weeks of the Trump administration, as the government has frozen and unfrozen billions of dollars in federal funding, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin has focused on one program in particular. For almost a month, he has been waging a crusade against the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a Biden-era program designed to finance climate action in underinvested areas.

For this initiative, the Biden EPA doled out billions of dollars to a handful of climate-focused nonprofits to help them set up their own “green banks.” These banks would then lend out the money to support solar panels and other clean energy development in areas that don’t typically draw a lot of investment in the hopes of mobilizing private money for the same projects.

Zeldin has attacked the green fund as “criminal” and sent letters to the climate nonprofits notifying them that their contracts are being terminated “effective immediately.” He has alleged without evidence that the Biden administration’s attempts to dole out funding after the 2024 election, and its selection of climate-focused nonprofits, are evidence of “waste and self-dealing.” Meanwhile, the Justice Department has attempted to open a grand jury investigation into the program, causing at least one senior prosecutor to resign, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has also begun a probe into the money despite resistance from a judge. That’s in spite of the fact that Congress mandated the program when it passed the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, in 2022 and that the executive branch has no constitutional authority to override congressional spending.

Stuck in the middle of the administration’s feud against the green fund recipients is Citibank, the third-largest financial institution in the United States. The Biden administration entrusted Citi to manage the massive $20 billion program, but in the weeks since Zeldin’s campaign began, the bank has allegedly refused to release the money to grantees. It finds itself between a rock and a hard place — either give the money back to the EPA and breach its contracts with the climate nonprofits, or release the money to green grantees and risk President Donald Trump’s ire. The longer the bank holds out, the more risk there is that one of the IRA’s most ambitious and novel programs could collapse altogether.

Now the nonprofits charged with setting up these green banks are fighting back. Climate United Fund, the largest grantee from the program, filed a lawsuit over the weekend against both the EPA and Citi to secure its $7 billion grant. The nonprofit’s lawsuit accuses the agency of illegally pressuring Citi to withhold funds and the bank of breaching its contract with Climate United. Two other nonprofits, the Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities, filed suit this week as well to reactivate their respective $5 billion and $2 billion grants.

“We’re going to court for the communities we serve — not because we want to, but because we have to,” said Climate United Fund’s CEO, Beth Bafford, in a statement. “This isn’t about politics; it’s about economics.”

On Tuesday, hours after the third nonprofit filed its lawsuit, the EPA announced that it had “notified [the nonprofits] of the termination” of the green bank program. EPA said it would “re-obligate” the Biden-era money but did not say whether Citi had returned the funds. A representative for one grantee said she did not know the status of the funding.

Most federal grantees access funding through a Treasury Department portal known as the Automated Standard Application for Payments, or ASAP. Cities and nonprofits log into the portal and request electronic cash transfers to draw down the money the government has promised them. It’s not that different from filing an expense report in an online HR application at your job.

In the first weeks of the Trump administration, as the White House issued an executive order that “pause[d]” all funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, many grantees found they were unable to access this system. After multiple court orders, the Trump administration began to release some of this money from the Treasury. Some school districts have drawn down money to pay for clean buses, and some community banks have pulled down money from the $7 billion Solar for All program, which helps pay for energy improvements in low-income households. However, many grantees have said their money is still unavailable.

The green bank program doesn’t use ASAP. The program was designed to dole out nine- and 10-figure grants to a half-dozen nonprofits, giving each one seed money to start its own climate-focused bank. Most of these nonprofits were purpose-built to apply for the green bank program. Each one is a partnership between several community-focused financial institutions — Climate United, for instance, was founded by entities including Calvert Impact, a socially oriented investment fund, and Self-Help, a nonprofit credit union. The organization aimed to finance projects such as solar farms and electric truck fleets, and as project developers paid the money back, Climate United would lend it out to support different green initiatives. They used these initial loans to “de-risk” energy projects, making it easier to raise additional money from private-sector lenders.

This kind of program required a different sort of financial arrangement, and that’s where Citibank came in. Just four days before the 2024 election, Citi signed a contract with the Biden administration to help manage the green bank money, according to documentation filed with Climate United’s lawsuit. The bank agreed to hold Climate United’s funding and that of other grantees in money market accounts where it would earn investment income. When Climate United and other green funds needed money, Citi was supposed to liquidate a portion of their account and distribute the money within a day or so.

Holding the money at Citi rather than the Treasury was supposed to make it easier for the grantees to raise private cash for energy projects. “One of the three goals of the program is private-sector leverage,” said Adam Kent, who is the director of blended and inclusive finance at the environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, which is not involved in any of the green banks. “Having the funding at Citi allows the awardees to book that award on their balance sheet, which allows them to go raise additional private capital.”

But on February 19, when Climate United attempted to draw funding down from its account, the fund received no response from Citi, according to the lawsuit. Climate United and its lawyers say they attempted to contact the bank no fewer than seven times over the course of two weeks before the bank responded. On March 3, a representative for the bank told the group that it had “forwarded [Climate United’s message]” to the EPA “for an appropriate response.” In a follow-up email, the bank said it was “awaiting further guidance.” The other two nonprofits that filed lawsuits also said that Citi refused to offer them clarity about the status of their money.

Email correspondence between Beth Bafford of Climate United Fund and a representative from Citi regarding Climate United's $7 billion grant. Citi has allegedly refused to release money according to its contract with Climate United.
Email correspondence between Beth Bafford of Climate United Fund and a representative from Citi regarding Climate United’s $7 billion grant. Citi has allegedly refused to release money according to its contract with Climate United.More

In response to an inquiry from Grist, the EPA said it does not comment on pending litigation. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which regulates financial agreements like the one between the EPA and Citi, did not respond to a request for comment.

Citi also did not respond to Grist’s request for comment. But in a court filing on Wednesday in the Climate United suit, Citi said that it “desires nothing more than to fulfill its contractual obligations” but said its duty to follow directives from the federal government took precedence over its commitment to disburse money to Climate United.

A funding delay of a few months could kneecap or even collapse the green bank program. In a declaration that accompanied Climate United’s lawsuit, Bafford said the nonprofit “cannot currently access funds to pay its payroll and other expenses.” She went on to say that “even temporary loss of access to its primary funding will severely damage Climate United’s internal operations, its financing programs … and its long-term reputation and ability to carry out its mission in the market.”

Kent concurs with that assessment. Even if Climate United and its fellow grantees succeed in getting their money, he said, the Trump administration’s vendetta against the program could hamper private interest in future solar farms and energy projects.

“I think the attacks on this program have definitely had chilling effects on [investors’] desire to say, ‘Hey, I actually think this is going to benefit my community,’” he said.

Zeldin has maintained his singular focus on the green bank program even as the EPA has begun to unfreeze other grants. He has referred to the disbursement to Citi as a “rushed effort” to shield money from Trump’s oversight. But in a twist, the administration has had more success freezing money that is housed at Citi than it has had freezing money at Treasury, where it has partially complied with court orders that require it to release some grants.

This isn’t the first time that Citi has found itself in the middle of a fight between the Trump administration and a federal grantee. Last month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency clawed back some $80 million from a Citibank account owned by New York City. The outgoing Biden administration had sent New York the money to house migrants at hotel shelters, but because the transaction had only taken place a few weeks earlier, Trump’s FEMA was able to reverse it through the Automated Clearing House transfer system without exerting political pressure on the bank. New York City has since sued to reclaim the money.

Even if a court orders Citi to restore the money to Climate United and other grantees, the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure the bank do not bode well for the fate of future climate investment — or for democracy itself, said Hana Vizcarra, a senior attorney at the nonprofit legal firm Earthjustice, which is not involved in the lawsuits.

“Any time the government is targeting private-sector institutions or others, it makes for a dangerous dynamic,” she said. “I think we’re seeing that in a lot of different places right now, and it can lead to some unpredictable actions in response.”

Editor’s note: The Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice are advertisers with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions. This story has been updated to include a summary of Citi’s Wednesday court filing in the Climate United lawsuit.

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Elon Musk’s DOGE has worked quickly to cut federal agencies. Here’s a list of what’s been targeted so far.

Business Insider

Elon Musk’s DOGE has worked quickly to cut federal agencies. Here’s a list of what’s been targeted so far.

Grace Eliza Goodwin – March 6, 2025

  • Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency to cut federal spending and root out waste.
  • Under Elon Musk, DOGE has already targeted a number of federal agencies, including USAID and the DoD.
  • Here’s a list of the government programs and agencies DOGE has gone after so far.

Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has wasted little time sending his newly created DOGE office after federal agencies.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order officially creating DOGE. With billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk as its de facto leader, the group has taken swift action toward its stated goal of rooting out government fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

Here’s a list of the agencies DOGE has targeted so far and other key initiatives from the new organization.

Social Security Administration

The Trump administration has sent DOGE to find fraud within the Social Security Administration, arguing that the agency sends out payments to dead Americans. A Business Insider analysis of recent SSA audits found that errors like overpaying beneficiaries and paying dead people amount to less than 1% of the SSA’s total benefits payouts — far less than Trump and Musk have claimed.

The SSA — which manages Social Security benefits and payouts — has been the target of DOGE’s sweeping reduction of the federal workforce, cuts that SSA workers have warned could delay payments to beneficiaries and hinder frontline workers’ ability to handle claims and issue Social Security cards.

As part of the Trump administration’s efforts to restructure the SSA, the agency banned its workers from reading the news on their work devices. One worker told BI that they sometimes need to access news sites to, for example, confirm deaths through obituaries, and without that ability, recipients’ claims could be slowed down.

Department of Defense

DOGE is now going after the Department of Defense, the oldest and largest government agency in the US, with a total budget of over $800 billion.

In early February, Trump said that he expected DOGE to “find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse” in the Pentagon. That includes what Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz has called the “absolute mess” of US shipbuilding.

DOGE posted on X on February 14 that it had begun looking into the DoD.

“Great kickoff with @DeptofDefense,” the post said. “Looking forward to working together to safely save taxpayer dollars and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”

DOGE staffers have been at the Pentagon collecting lists of probationary employees across defense agencies, and it’s expected that many could soon be terminated, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

Internal Revenue Service

DOGE has set its sights on the IRS.

The task force sought access to the Internal Revenue Service’s data system that houses highly sensitive information about every taxpayer, nonprofit, and business in the country, The Washington Post reported on February 16.

The IRS considered granting DOGE broad access to its systems and data, including its Integrated Data Retrieval System, which lets IRS workers view and adjust taxpayer accounts and data, the Post reported.

But The White House later agreed to block DOGE’s full access to the IRS’s payment systems, instead granting read-only access of taxpayer data that has been anonymized, the Post reported on February 20, citing people familiar with the arrangement.

Before the agreement to make the data anonymous and read-only was reached, officials sounded alarm bells about the kind of access DOGE would have. Even within the IRS, access to this data is strictly monitored, and employees are prohibited form accessing their own files or those of their friends and family, according to the agency’s employee handbook.

Democratic Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, a ranking member of the Committee on Finance, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a ranking member of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, wrote a letter to the IRS on February 17 urging DOGE to disclose the extent of its access to IRS systems.

The senators argued that giving DOGE access to sensitive taxpayer data raises “serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda.”

The IRS was also one of several federal agencies where probationary employees were fired en masse. The agency’s enforcement of tax evasion could be hit especially hard by the cuts.

And the IRS is working up plans that could cut its 90,000-person workforce in half through a variety of layoffs, attrition, and incentivized buyouts, the Associated Press reported on March 4 citing people familiar with the matter.

The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health — the federal agency that funds and conducts medical research under the Department of Health and Human Services — announced in a directive on February 7 that it was cutting how much of its funding can be used for administrative overhead.

The NIH said it would be placing a 15% cap on “indirect costs” related to research projects, which includes things like personnel, facility maintenance, and equipment. The NIH said on X that this limit would save the agency $4 billion per year, “effective immediately.”

After separate lawsuits from state attorneys general and organizations representing hospitals and research institutions, a federal judge temporarily blocked the funding cuts in February, and in March, extended that pause in a preliminary injunction.

The NIH has also been targeted by Trump and Musks’s widespread staffing cuts across the federal workforce, with the agency losing over 1,100 staffers, according to an internal email obtained by Reuters.

Federal worker layoffs

As part of Trump and Musk’s promise to reduce the federal budget, the Trump administration has laid off thousands of probationary workers — typically, employees who have been in their roles for less than two years — from a wide swath of federal agencies.

That includes workers at the Forest Service, the Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Education, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Internal Revenue Service, Veterans Affairs, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that provides healthcare to more than 160 million Americans, said in a press release on February 5 that its officials were working with DOGE to find “opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources in line with meeting the goals of President Trump.”

In response to a post containing a Wall Street Journal article about CMS collaborating with DOGE, Musk wrote on X, “Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening.”

On February 12, a group of 32 Democratic Senators wrote a letter to Trump urging him and Musk to keep their “hands off Medicare or Medicaid.”

“DOGE is invading CMS, posing immeasurable risks to Americans’ health care,” the letter reads. “DOGE representatives, with no training or expertise, could make unilateral, politically motivated decisions to target both beneficiaries and health care providers while blocking access to care and essential payments for services.”

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA is also on DOGE’s hit list.

While at the Commerce Space Conference in Washington DC on February 12, the space agency’s acting administrator said that NASA was expecting a visit from DOGE.

“So we are a federal agency. We are going to have DOGE come. They are going to look — similarly to what they’ve done at other agencies — at our payments,” said Janet Petro, in comments reported by Bloomberg.

On February 14, the space agency confirmed to Flying, an aviation-focused magazine, that DOGE staff were on-site to review its payments.

NASA has done quite a lot of business with Musk’s own space company, SpaceX, amounting to around $14.5 billion in contracts between the two.

In a February 6 letter to NASA’s Janet Petro, Democratic Representatives Zoe Lofgren, a ranking member of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and Valerie Foushee, a ranking member of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, demanded the space agency provide answers on whether it was working with DOGE.

And in a follow-up letter sent on February 21, the representatives — now joined by Rep. Emilia Sykes, a ranking member of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight — again urged the agency to disclose the extent to which it is working with DOGE, arguing that Musk’s involvement is a dangerous conflict of interest.

Department of Education

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to shut down the Department of Education (ED). On February 12, he told reporters that he wants the department closed “immediately,” adding that it “is a big con job.”

Along with some GOP lawmakers, Trump has said that education should be handled at the state and local level, and that a federal agency isn’t necessary.

On February 12, DOGE said that it had cancelled a number of ED contracts — including a “$4.6M contract to coordinate zoom and in-person meetings,” a “$3.0M contract to write a report that showed that prior reports were not utilized by schools,” and a “$1.4M contract to physically observe mailing and clerical operations.”

The cost-cutting group has also said that it has terminated 89 contracts at the ED, totaling $881 million.

Trump has said that he wants his newly confirmed education secretary, Linda McMahon, to put herself out of a job — a task McMahon herself hinted at in an email to ED staff about the agency’s “historic final mission.” And that may come sooner rather than later — Trump is expected to imminently issue an executive order disbanding the Education Department, the Wall Street Journal reported in March, citing people familiar with the matter.

DEI Initiatives

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order terminating federal roles, offices, and programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

And on January 31, just 11 days into its existence, DOGE announced it had terminated 104 government contracts related to DEI programs and initiatives.

DOGE said the cuts — spanning 30 agencies including the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Personnel Management, Environmental Protection Agency, and many more — created over $1 billion in savings.

US Agency for International Development

Musk has been working to shut down the US Agency for International Development, which funds humanitarian efforts around the world. As the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid, the US channeled nearly $32.5 billion through the agency in 2024, providing aid to countries like Ukraine, Jordan, and Ethiopia.

In a post on X on February 3, Musk accused the agency of being a “criminal organization” and said he “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” Hours later, USAID workers were told to stay home from work, and within days, the agency announced that all direct hire personnel would be placed on leave globally, with a few exceptions — a move that would have reduced its workforce from over 10,000 employees to less than 300.

Following a lawsuit from federal employee labor unions, a federal judge partially blocked Musk and Trump’s attempted shutdown of USAID — which legal experts argue is illegal without approval from Congress. The judge’s order temporarily blocked the Trump administration from placing USAID workers on leave, first until February 14, and in another extension, until at least February 21.

But by the end of February, USAID workers were told to clear out their desks at the agency’s Washington, DC headquarters after the Trump administration said it was ending 90% of the department’s contracts.

On March 5, the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration‘s freeze on foreign aid, allowing the release of nearly $2 billion in foreign aid funds.

Experts have warned that a shutdown of USAID would make China more powerful on the world stage.

Federal worker buyout

As part of Musk and Trump’s efforts to trim government spending and reduce the federal workforce, the Trump administration emailed a buyout offer to around 2 million government employees. The deferred resignation, sent by the Office of Personnel Management at the end of January, offered to pay employees their full salary and benefits through September, without the need to work during that time, in exchange for their resignation.

The offer was met with mass confusion, shock, and outrage from federal employees, many of whom questioned whether the government could actually promise to pay them through September with a looming government shutdown in March when current funding runs out.

The offer appeared to come straight out of Musk’s playbook, right down to the title of the email sent to federal workers: “Fork in the Road.”

After federal labor unions filed a lawsuit arguing that the offer is illegal, a federal judge twice extended the deadline for employees to accept the buyout, but ultimately ruled that it can proceed.

The offer finally closed on February 12, with 75,000 workers accepting the buyout, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

Federal Aviation Administration

Following the deadly American Airlines plane crash in Washington DC in January, Musk announced he would be going after the Federal Aviation Administration.

Days after the crash, Musk wrote on X that the FAA’s “primary aircraft safety notification system failed for several hours,” adding that, as a result, Trump gave the DOGE team his approval to “make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed Musk’s role, saying the DOGE team was “going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas — who chairs the committee that oversees the FAA — said he’s confident in Musk’s ability to upgrade the FAA, adding that the American people should take “real comfort in his ability to navigate complicated technologies.”

Not everyone has so much faith in Musk.

Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington argued in a letter to Duffy that, as the CEO of SpaceX, Musk has a clear conflict of interest that should prohibit his involvement with the FAA.

Last year, the FAA proposed fining SpaceX more than $600,000 for two occasions where the rocket company is said to have violated its launch licenses.

On February 19, Duffy said on X he had enlisted SpaceX engineers “to help upgrade our aviation system.”

The FAA said in a statement to Business Insider on February 25 that it had begun testing out a SpaceX Starlink internet terminal at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at its “non-safety critical sites in Alaska.”

Treasury Department

Trump said he granted Musk and his DOGE team access to the Treasury department’s digital payments system, which controls trillions of dollars in payments to Americans — everything from Social Security benefits to tax refunds.

The Treasury Department said Musk’s team was only granted “read-only” access to the system, but the move still sparked criticism, particularly from Democratic lawmakers and federal workers’ unions. The unions sued the Treasury Department, arguing that the agency had illegally granted Musk access to sensitive personal and financial information.

Trump defended Musk’s access to the platform, telling reporters it was only so that DOGE could find additional areas to cut government waste.

“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval, and we will give him the approval where appropriate,” Trump said.

On February 14, the Treasury Department’s acting inspector general said in a letter obtained by the AP that he was launching an audit of the payment system’s security controls and would be looking into whether any “fraudulent payments” had been made, as Musk has alleged. The Government Accountability Office also said it would be opening a probe into DOGE’s access to the payment system, according to a letter sent to lawmakers that was obtained by Politico.

For now, a federal judge has barred DOGE officials from accessing the Treasury Department’s sensitive payments systems until a lawsuit alleging the access is illegal concludes.

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Trump has threatened to overhaul, or entirely scrap, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides aid to Americans following natural disasters like Hurricane Milton and the LA wildfires.

The president has called the agency, which employs more than 20,000 staff around the US, a “very big disappointment” that is “very bureaucratic,” “very slow,” and costs “a tremendous amount of money.”

On February 10, Musk wrote on X that “FEMA betrayed the American people by diverting funds meant for natural disasters to pay for luxury hotels for illegal migrants.”

But New York City officials said that FEMA had correctly allocated the funds, which were never part of a disaster relief grant and were not used on luxury hotels, as Musk had said, The New York Times reported.

Hours after Musk’s post, FEMA’s acting director, Cameron Hamilton, posted on X that the payments had been suspended and that the responsible personnel will be held accountable.

On February 11, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security announced that four FEMA officials had been fired in connection to the payments, including the agency’s Chief Financial Officer, two program analysts, and a grant specialist.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

On February 6, a group of Democratic lawmakers accused “unelected and unvetted associates of Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency” of targeting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The NOAA is in charge of forecasting the weather, analyzing climate data, and tracking extreme weather events.

Senator Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Jamie Raskin, along with other Maryland Democrats, penned a letter alleging that DOGE bureaucrats had been visiting NOAA headquarters, housed within the Department of Commerce, with the intent to break up the agency and merge it with the Department of the Interior.

In their letter, the lawmakers urged the leaders of the US Department of Commerce, Howard Lutnick and Jeremy Pelter, to maintain the independence and integrity of the NOAA, as Lutnick had promised to do in his confirmation hearing.

The lawmakers argue that DOGE is illegally attacking NOAA without congressional approval, in an attempt to dismantle and privatize the agency which they say would rob American farmers, businesses, and citizens of crucial, life-saving services.

The Trump administration has already laid off hundreds of workers at NOAA, which meteorologists say will degrade weather forecasts and public safety.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Musk has repeatedly called for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was established in 2011 after the Great Recession to oversee financial products and services offered to Americans. It seeks to protect Americans from financial scams and abusive practices, like excessive overdraft fees.

“CFPB RIP,” Musk wrote on X on February 7 next to a tombstone emoji.

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ordered the CFPB to halt most of its work and told the consumer watchdog agency to stop issuing “public communications of any type.”

The CFPB has told staffers to “not perform any work tasks” while it shuts down its DC headquarters amid an uncertain future.

The agency followed up by sending termination notices to dozens of employees, some of whom had already accepted the buyout offer, sources familiar with the situation told CNBC.

The agency’s first director, Richard Cordray, has warned that shuttering the CFPB would turn the consumer finance world into the “wild, wild west,” adding that Musk’s attempted shutdown is unethical and, with his plans to offer financial services through X, could be considered a conflict of interest.

Productivity email sent to federal employees

DOGE sent a mass email to federal workers on Saturday, February 22 asking them to provide five bullet points explaining what work tasks they had accomplished in the past week. They were given a Monday night deadline to respond, and if they didn’t, Trump threatened that they could be “semi-fired” or “fired.” While at first Musk said anyone who didn’t respond would be terminated, he later changed course to say workers would be given another chance.

The “What did you do last week?” email, sent by the Office of Personnel Management, followed Trump’s instruction to Musk to”get more aggressive” in reducing the size of the federal workforce.

In a post on X on February 24, Musk explained the email as “basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.”

The email caused mass confusion among federal workers, who received conflicting guidance from their superiors on whether to respond or not.

It’s not yet clear how the differing guidance across federal agencies will be resolved, but Musk said on X that the “mess will get sorted out this week.”

“Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality,” his post continued. “They don’t get it yet, but they will.”

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Some DOGE employees are earning six-figure taxpayer-funded salaries from the federal agencies they are shutting down

Fortune

Some DOGE employees are earning six-figure taxpayer-funded salaries from the federal agencies they are shutting down

Beatrice Nolan – March 5, 2025

Some DOGE employees are being paid six-figure salaries.
  • DOGE, Elon Musk’s cost-cutting government task force, was set up to eliminate inefficiencies—but some of its staff are reportedly earning hefty six-figure salaries while slashing federal jobs. Musk had initially claimed positions within DOGE would be “tedious work” where “compensation is zero.”

Some employees at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), established to reduce bureaucracy and streamline federal agencies, are taking home six-figure taxpayer-funded salaries, according to reports.

While DOGE has aggressively downsized government offices, some of its own members are earning top-tier federal salaries, Wired reported.

Jeremy Lewin, a key figure in dismantling USAID and reshaping other agencies, makes over $167,000 per year, the report said. While Kyle Schutt, a software engineer working within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, takes home $195,200, per Wired, which is the federal pay ceiling.

Others, including 28-year-old tech entrepreneur Nate Cavanaugh, also earn six-figure salaries.

Elon Musk initially claimed that positions at DOGE would be “tedious work” where “compensation is zero.” While other DOGE employees, like Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, and Derek Geissler, appear to be unpaid volunteers, a full picture of the department’s salaries has been difficult to establish.

Some DOGE employees hold other designations, including “Special Government Employee” (SGE) status, which allows them to bypass standard federal employment rules, maintain outside income, and avoid certain financial disclosures.

Musk has no official link to DOGE, despite being the face of the cost-cutting team, and is instead listed as an SGE, which limits him to an advisory role for a maximum 130-day work period. SGE positions can be either paid or unpaid.

Representatives from DOGE and the GSA did not respond to a request for comment from Fortune.

DOGE’s government cuts

DOGE’s influence over the federal government has been sweeping.

The team has enacted aggressive cost-cutting and restructuring efforts.

It was instrumental in shuttering various government agencies, including USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and has overseen the firing of thousands of federal employees.

The department has also accessed sensitive citizen data within The Treasury and IRS, raising concerns from Democratic lawmakers and prompting legal challenges.

It recently played a key role in shutting down 18F—a government tech unit focused on improving digital services—and has overseen mass layoffs within the General Services Administration (GSA).

DOGE has proposed various other future initiatives to save funds, including a proposal to sell off more than 500 federal buildings.

Musk, who does not take a salary for his work with DOGE, remains the world’s richest person with a net worth of more than $350 billion. His companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, have received over $38 billion in government contracts and subsidies over the years.

Despite Musk’s claims of transparency, the department has not publicly disclosed full details of its spending or hiring practices. DOGE claims to post its activities on a public “wall of receipts,” run via a feed on X. However, the team has backtracked on a significant amount of the savings it claimed to have achieved and quietly deleted several of the posts.

Musk has consistently defended DOGE’s work against critics. He has emphasized the need to reduce government spending and modernize the federal government to eliminate inefficiencies.

The billionaire has been putting pressure on federal employees to report their productivity. Last week, he emailed all government employees, asking them to list five things they had achieved the previous week—or risk being fired.

trump fires more Veterans than any president in history, and he’s not done yet: Trump’s VA secretary defends 80,000 layoffs in a wildly unpersuasive way

MaddowBlog: From The Rachel Maddow Show

Trump’s VA secretary defends 80,000 layoffs in a wildly unpersuasive way

Defending deep cuts at his agency, VA Secretary Doug Collins said, “The federal government does not exist to employ people.” He’s badly missing the point.

By Steve Benen – March 6, 2025

You’re Fired !

As recently as last week, Donald Trump told reporters that the White House is keeping track of the number of military veterans who are losing their jobs as a result of his administration’s policies. “We hope it’s going to be as small a number as possible,” the president said.

As a practical matter, those “hopes” don’t appear to be amounting to much. Thousands of veterans have already been laid off as a result of the White House’s agenda, even as veterans’ benefits are put in jeopardy by Elon Musk and his DOGE operation.

It was against this backdrop that Trump’s Veterans Affairs Department announced this week that it’s laying off 80,000 workers as part of an agencywide reorganization. While the precise total of veterans who’ll lose their jobs as part of this effort hasn’t yet been announced, it stands to reason that the number will be significant: Veterans make up a disproportionate share of federal employees in general, and at the VA, the percentage is likely to be even higher.

The White House’s Alina Habba told reporters this week that military veterans affected by the DOGE-led layoffs may not be “fit to have a job at this moment.”

As it turns out, she wasn’t the only member of Trump’s team making controversial comments about veterans headed for the unemployment line. NBC News reported on Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, who released a video via social media this week, sharing his perspective on the developments.

“Now, we regret anyone who loses their job, and it’s extraordinarily difficult for me, especially as a VA leader and your secretary, to make these types of decisions,” Collins said in the video. “But the federal government does not exist to employ people. It exists to serve people.”

But no one has ever argued that the federal government exists to employ people. The point has always been that those who work on agencies such as the VA are there to serve Americans who need assistance.

If Collins or other Republicans want to argue that the department can lay off 80,000 people and not sacrifice care or benefits for veterans at all, they’re welcome to make the case. The fact that they’ve offered no such assurances suggests benefit cuts for those who served are, at a minimum, on the table for the Trump administration.

The Cabinet secretary added in the same video, “We’ll be making major changes, so get used to it.” But therein lies the rub: If you’re an injured veteran, worried about what Trump and his team have in store for the trimmed down VA, getting “used to” fewer services and less care is a life-changing proposition.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, “Slashing nearly 80,000 VA staff is a benefit cut by another name. This staffing cut is a betrayal of our promise to our service members. It will mean longer wait times, fewer appointments, less health care service for our veterans.”

The New York Democrat added, in reference to the VA cuts, “It is outrageous. No one in America bargained for this and Democrats are going to fight this tooth and nail working with our veterans service organizations to fight these awful, unfair cuts that take out the desire to give tax cuts to billionaires on our veterans who served us so well. This is just one of the most outrageous things they have done and there’s a long list.”

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”