MSNBC
Lawrence O’Donnell – March 13, 2025
Category: Mental Health
trump and many of his administration and associates are sexual deviants and predators
The Other 98% – March 14, 2025
John Hanno: hitler would be proud of what this trump, musk, vance MAGANAZI fascist billionaire administration is doing to destroy our Constitutional Democracy.
The Other 98% – March 14, 2025
Musk Keeps His Eye on Social Security
New York Times – On Politics: Musk’s Washington
Musk Keeps His Eye on Social Security
The tech billionaire has repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that Social Security is rife with fraud, even as President Trump denies plans to cut those benefits.
By Jess Bidgood – March 14, 2025
Elon Musk keeps talking about Social Security.
Two weeks ago, he called it a Ponzi scheme. This week, he suggested that his Department of Government Efficiency would scrutinize the agency’s spending. And he has repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that Social Security payments are flowing to undocumented immigrants and dead people.
The latest sign of his interest in the agency came today, when my colleagues Theodore Schleifer, Kate Conger and Ryan Mac reported that one of Musk’s closest advisers had taken a position there.
The adviser is Antonio Gracias, a private equity investor who lent Musk $1 million during Tesla’s early days and has vacationed with his family in places like Jackson Hole, Wyo. Gracias’ involvement may be the clearest sign yet that Musk considers the agency a key priority. He is one of nine members of the Department of Government Efficiency who have arrived there in recent days, my colleagues wrote. Two others work at Gracias’ investment firm.
We don’t know exactly what Gracias’ role is. But a court filing last week offered one glimpse of DOGE’s early activities in the agency. In the filing, which The Washington Post covered in detail, Tiffany Flick, a career agency official who retired in mid-February, said the group’s representatives appeared to be seeking sensitive information and data that fell into three categories: allegations about benefits being paid out to deceased people; concerns about multiple benefits going to a single Social Security number; and payments going to people without a Social Security number.
Flick said all of those concerns were “invalid.” But they do align with the false allegations about fraud that Musk and President Trump have been making in public — which Democrats say Republicans intend to use as a pretense for scrutiny and cuts.
Trump and his allies have repeatedly denied that they have plans to cut Social Security benefits, which Republicans have long avoided doing for fear of political blowback.
“They’re not going to cut Social Security. They’re not going to cut Medicare. They’re not — that’s just fearmongering from the left,” said Chris LaCivita, one of Trump’s 2024 campaign managers, in an interview with Politico published this morning.
LaCivita didn’t claim that Musk wasn’t interested in cuts to those programs. Instead, he argued that Musk wasn’t as influential as Democrats have suggested.
“He’s not president, he’s not president” LaCivita said, referring to Musk. “He doesn’t get to make those decisions.”
America Under Siege
We the People Under Siege – March 14, 2025
John Hanno: trump, musk, vance and their billionaire cabinet are rewarding the ultra rich, and predatory investors and corporations who elected them and who are pushing for a deep recession so they can buy up homes and businesses for pennies on the dollar. Protect your homes and savings. Curtail spending to the very basics. Pay down credit cards. Start a victory garden this spring. And protest, protest, protest, when they try to turn our National Parks and public lands, over to fossil fuel interests and when they allow them to pollute our air and water. WTFU America. www.tarbabys.com
What Trump and Musk Want With Social Security
The Atlantic
What Trump and Musk Want With Social Security
Lora Kelley – March 14, 2025
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
The idea that millions of dead Americans are receiving Social Security checks is shocking, and bolsters the argument that the federal bureaucracy needs radical change to combat waste and fraud. There’s one big problem: No evidence exists that it’s true.
Despite being told by agency staff last month that this claim has no basis in fact, Elon Musk and President Donald Trump have continued to use the talking point as a pretext to attack America’s highest-spending government program. Musk seems to have gotten this idea from a list of Social Security recipients who did not have a death date attached to their record. Agency employees reportedly explained to Musk’s DOGE team in February that the list of impossibly ancient individuals they found were not necessarily receiving benefits (the lack of death dates was related to an outdated system).
And yet, in his speech to Congress last week, Trump stated: “Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old.” He said the list includes “3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149,” among other 100-plus age ranges, and that “money is being paid to many of them, and we’re searching right now.” In an interview with Fox Business on Monday, Musk discussed the existence of “20 million people who are definitely dead, marked as alive” in the Social Security database. And DOGE has dispatched 10 employees to try to find evidence of the claims that dead Americans are receiving checks, according to documents filed in court on Wednesday.
Musk and Trump have long maintained that they do not plan to attack Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the major entitlement programs. But their repeated claims that rampant fraud exists within these entitlement systems undermine those assurances. In his Fox interview on Monday, Musk said, “Waste and fraud in entitlement spending—which is most of the federal spending, is entitlements—so that’s like the big one to eliminate. That’s the sort of half trillion, maybe $600, $700 billion a year.” Some observers interpreted this confusing sentence to mean that Musk wants to cut the entitlement programs themselves. But the Trump administration quickly downplayed Musk’s comments, insisting that the federal government will continue to protect such programs and suggesting that Musk had been talking about the need to eliminate fraud in the programs, not about axing them. “What kind of a person doesn’t support eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending?” the White House asked in a press release.
The White House’s question would be a lot easier to answer if Musk, who has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” wasn’t wildly overestimating the amount of fraud in entitlement programs. Musk is claiming waste in these programs on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars a year, but a 2024 Social Security Administration report found that the agency lost closer to $70 billion total in improper payments from 2015 to 2022, which accounts for about 1 percent of Social Security payments. Leland Dudek, a mid-level civil servant elevated to temporarily lead Social Security after being put on administrative leave for sharing information with DOGE, pushed back last week on the idea that the agency is overrun with fraud and that dead people older than 100 are getting payments, ProPublica reported after obtaining a recording of a closed-door meeting. DOGE’s false claim about dead people receiving benefits “got in front of us,” one of Dudek’s deputies reportedly said, but “it’s a victory that you’re not seeing more [misinformation], because they are being educated.” (Dudek did not respond to ProPublica’s request for comment.)
Some 7 million Americans rely on Social Security benefits for more than 90 percent of their income, and 54 million individuals and their dependents receive retirement payments from the agency. Even if Musk doesn’t eliminate the agency, his tinkering could still affect all of those Americans’ lives. On Wednesday, DOGE dialed back its plans to cut off much of Social Security’s phone services (a commonly used alternative to its online programs, particularly for elderly and disabled Americans), though it still plans to restrict recipients’ ability to change bank-deposit information over the phone.
In recent weeks, confusion has rippled through the Social Security workforce and the public; many people drop off forms in person, but office closures could disrupt that. According to ProPublica, several IT contracts have been cut or scaled back, and several employees reported that their tech systems are crashing every day. Thousands of jobs are being cut, including in regional field offices, and the entire Social Security staff has been offered buyouts (today is the deadline for workers to take them). Martin O’Malley, a former commissioner of the agency, has warned that the workforce reductions that DOGE is seeking at Social Security could trigger “system collapse and an interruption of benefits” within the next one to three months.
In going anywhere near Social Security—in saying the agency’s name in the same sentence as the word eliminate—Musk is venturing further than any presidential administration has in recent decades. Entitlement benefits are extremely popular, and cutting the programs has long been a nonstarter. When George W. Bush raised the idea of partially privatizing entitlements in 2005, the proposal died before it could make it to a vote in the House or Senate.
The DOGE plan to cut $1 trillion in spending while leaving entitlements, which make up the bulk of the federal budget, alone always seemed implausible. In the November Wall Street Journal op-ed announcing the DOGE initiative, Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who is no longer part of DOGE) wrote that those who say “we can’t meaningfully close the federal deficit without taking aim at entitlement programs” are deflecting “attention from the sheer magnitude of waste, fraud and abuse” that “DOGE aims to address.” But until there’s clear evidence that this “magnitude” of fraud exists within Social Security, such claims enable Musk to poke at what was previously untouchable.
A 19-year-old who was reportedly fired from an internship for leaking internal information to competitors is now a DOGE ‘senior advisor’ in the State Department
Fortune
A 19-year-old who was reportedly fired from an internship for leaking internal information to competitors is now a DOGE ‘senior advisor’ in the State Department
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez – March 13, 2025
- Teenager Edward Coristine, a member of the DOGE team, is now a senior advisoer in several federal departments thanks to Elon Musk. Coristine was previously fired from an internship for reportedly leaking information to competitors. He also worked briefly at Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink.
Thanks to Elon Musk, a teenager with a rocky track record now wields significant influence in the federal government as a senior advisor in multiple departments.
Edward Coristine, 19, was most recently a freshman mechanical engineering and physics major at Boston’s Northeastern University until joining Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team at DOGE. The department has been busy in recent weeks conducting mass layoffs and scaling back federal spending.
Now Coristine is reportedly a senior advisor at both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security as part of DOGE’s department overlapping cost-cutting efforts, the Washington Post reported. Coristine is also listed as one of several “experts” at the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s HR department, Wired reported.
Coristine is the son of Charles Coristine, the CEO of organic-snack company LesserEvil; Charles Coristine bought the company in 2011 after quitting his job at Morgan Stanley. The company has been profitable since 2021, CNBC reported.
The younger Coristine took a leap into government after he previously interned at technology security company Path Network and worked briefly at Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink, according to Bloomberg.
Coristine was reportedly fired from his internship at Path Network after he allegedly leaked information to competitors, Bloomberg reported. Coristine later posted on instant-messaging platform Discord that he did “nothing contractually wrong” while working at Path Network, according to Bloomberg.
Coristine did not return messages seeking comment. DOGE and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
At the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, Coristine potentially has access to sensitive information, according to Bloomberg. Democratic senators, including Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), have already spoken out with concern about DOGE’s considerable reach and its cost-cutting mission.
“Giving Elon Musk’s goon squad access to systems that control payments to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other key federal programs is a national security nightmare,” Wyden told Bloomberg.
The Washington Post identified at least six engineers under the age of 25 working for Musk’s DOGE. One of the engineers, 25-year-old Marko Elez, resigned after the Wall Street Journal reported on alleged past posts that were racist in nature. Musk said later in a post on X he would rehire Elez, because “to err is human, to forgive divine.” Elez has been reportedly reinstated at the Social Security Administration, according to Bloomberg.
Coristine also has a history of controversial and offensive posts, according to Substack newsletter MuskWatch, which tracks the activities of Elon Musk.
‘Idiotic and dangerous’: Republicans running out of answers for Trump torching the economy
The Mad King spurred on by The Crazy Queen musk, and his spineless republi-con congress, court jesters.
Nicolle Wallace – March 13, 2025
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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?
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
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.”
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.”