Hey – happy Groundhog Day. This news cycle calls for a special Sunday edition. So here's the latest from Toronto, Washington, Palm Beach, and Los Angeles...
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"Working the weekend is a superpower," Elon Musk wrote on Saturday, attaching a 😂 emoji to the end of his tweet.
The world's richest man was responding to an acolyte's post about DOGE achieving billions in government spending cuts "this weekend." Musk wrote, "Very few in the bureaucracy actually work the weekend, so it's like the opposing team just leaves the field for 2 days!"
Musk's DOGE associates at the Treasury Department "now have full access to the government’s payments system," CNN reports. Musk's allies have also taken charge at the Office of Personnel Management. What are they doing, how, and why? There is very little in the way of transparency.
As AP reporter Michael Sisak observed, "Between website deletions, Pentagon booting news outlets and press offices switching from emails to X posts, there are lots of blackout curtains going up around government transparency, accountability and the dissemination of information to the public."
But Musk's disciples are not the only busy ones this weekend – journalists are working overtime to document what's happening. Moments ago, CNN's Jennifer Hansler and Alex Marquardt broke the news that "two top security officials at the US Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave Saturday night after refusing to allow" DOGE staffers "to access systems at the agency, even after DOGE personnel threatened to call law enforcement." Here's the article.
>> Big-picture stories, like this Axios assessment of "purges, punishments, payback," are also a must right now...
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The 'State of the Union' is: |
Jake Tapper's intro this morning: Today "the state of our union is thinking, 'you can't say he didn't warn you.' Mexico and Canada are responding this weekend after President Trump carried out one of his key campaign promises, imposing aggressive tariffs on America's closest neighbors, as well as on China… Tariffs were just one item on the president's to-do list this week, which included a purge of top FBI officials here in Washington, one that could expand to thousands of agents," including those who pursued January 6 rioters.
"Think about that," Tapper added, "potentially firing FBI agents for investigating people who beat up cops."
>> "Is there any specific evidence?" Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy deflected when Tapper asked for evidence backing up Trump's claims that "DEI or FAA hiring practices are responsible in any way" for Wednesday's midair collision. Video...
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>> "Remember how Elon Musk destroyed Twitter by ripping apart its infrastructure without understanding it? Now imagine that same playbook applied to the federal government," Techdirt's Mike Masnick wrote.
>> New York Times reporter Theodore Schleifer, who reports on the world’s wealthiest people, said "the Musk team has been VERY curious about ways to get their hands on the wheel of how money actually gets out the door."
>> CNN's Hadas Gold says Musk is acting like government employees are the enemy – but as one former senior OPM official told her, "the career professionals who staff any agency are the subject matter experts in their fields, so those career staff are there to implement the agenda of that administration as effectively as possible. By cutting out career professionals, it's actively hampering your agenda."
>> The reality is that "we do not know what exactly Elon Musk is doing to the federal government," CNN's Zachary Wolf wrote in the What Matters newsletter.
>> Marisa Kabas, author of The Handbasket, said "my inbox has been a firehose of federal employees sharing whatever they can in absence of very few public officials standing up for their rights."
>> "Having watched with growing alarm the developments of the last 24 and 36 hours in Washington, I thought I'd take a stab at how the US media would cover this story if it was happening overseas in a foreign country," Garrett Graff wrote, offering a fiercely critical draft of what "should be written this weekend."
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>> Politico's Jonathan Martin penned a "memo to Elon" reminding him that "the Trump Show is a one-man play."
>> In a newly expanded lawsuit, X is "accusing more companies of illegally boycotting the social media platform" after Musk acquired it, NPR reported. New defendants include Lego, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Shell, and Pinterest...
>> New FEC filings show that Musk "spent more than $290 million on the 2024 election."
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VP tells the press to 'buckle up' |
Vice President JD Vance's comment last night seemed to be in response to the widening criticism about the firings, foreign aid funding freezes, and other moves:
"Memo to the press," he wrote: "When a president is elected by the People and then does what he promised to do, that’s democracy. When a president is thwarted by unelected bureaucrats, that’s oligarchy. President Trump refuses to bend the knee to that oligarchy. Buckle up!"
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'The Dumbest Trade War in History' |
☝️ That headline comes courtesy of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. The Journal says Trump is imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada "for no good reason." Trump hit back in a Truth Social post from Mar-a-Lago this morning, calling the Journal the "Globalist" head of the "TARIFF LOBBY."
One of Rupert Murdoch's other publications, the New York Post, has a different take on the tariffs this weekend: "We hope Trump's big move here works as intended." The Post whacks journalists for "prophesying death, destruction and more expensive avocados." Prophesying? Nah, just reporting. News outlets are doing a superb job describing Trump's "$1.4 trillion gamble" and explaining "what will get more expensive."
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Check out the Canadian coverage |
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opened his speech last night in compelling fashion: "First," he said, "I want to speak directly to Americans. Our closest friends and neighbors."
"This is a choice that, yes, will harm Canadians. But beyond that, it will have real consequences for you, the American people," Trudeau said.
I highly recommend checking out Canadian news coverage of the trade war. The tariffs are even bigger news in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver than they are in New York and Washington.
Right now the CBC's banner headline says "Trump has ruptured the Canada-U.S. relationship. To what end? And what comes next?" The Globe and Mail's homepage also has an extraordinary layout with full coverage. CTV is running a live updates blog here. And this Toronto Star analysis piece simply asks, "Who in the world will stand up to Donald Trump?"
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The Pentagon's pro-Trump swap |
NBC out, One America News in.
National Public Radio out, Breitbart in.
The New York Times out, The New York Post in.
Friday night's announcement of an "annual media rotation program" at the Pentagon elevated three relatively small and ardently pro-Trump media outlets while sidelining more popular, more mainstream news organizations.
The fourth rotation was the exception: HuffPost, which has a progressive brand and is highly critical of Trump, is being offered Politico's workspace this year. Curiously, though, HuffPost wasn't seeking space at the Pentagon, and it doesn't currently have a Pentagon correspondent. Here's my full story...
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'Clearly not in the public interest' |
After the changes were announced, journalists were left to wonder if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's press office targeted specific outlets for the "rotation" over tough coverage of Hegseth's confirmation battle. The Times called the changes "concerning" and said "steps designed to impede access are clearly not in the public interest."
>> NBC said "we're disappointed by the decision to deny us access to a broadcasting booth at the Pentagon that we’ve used for many decades" but "despite the significant obstacles this presents... we will continue to report with the same integrity and rigor NBC News always has."
>> NPR said much the same, and urged the Pentagon "to expand the offices available to press within the building so that all outlets covering the Pentagon receive equal access."
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The 'Federal Censorship Commission' |
In a highly unusual move, the FCC has asked CBS News to hand over the unedited transcript and tapes from its interview with Kamala Harris last fall. And CBS has said it will comply. "This is yet another example" of FCC chair Brendan Carr "rapidly turning the FCC into the Federal Censorship Commission. It’s wrong and dangerous," Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said in response.
This, of course, has to do with Trump's rage against "60 Minutes" over the editing of the Harris interview; his frivolous lawsuit against CBS; and CBS parent Paramount Global's ongoing effort to settle the suit as it seeks to merge with Skydance.
CBS journalists are alarmed by the perception that the network is caving to Trump to win regulatory approval. "Trump’s lawsuit was a joke, but if we settle, we become the laughingstock," a CBS correspondent told me on condition of anonymity.
So why does CBS say the network is "legally compelled" to comply with the FCC's request? Can the government really compel TV stations to hand over raw news gathering material? I'm working on a follow-up story about this today, so get in touch if you have something to share...
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>> "The White House stenographers have a problem. Donald Trump is talking so much, the people responsible for transcribing his public remarks are struggling to keep up with all the words," The AP's Chris Megerian wrote.
>> ICYMI: Trump Media has granted "large amounts of stock to directors, including two who are Trump administration nominees," CNN's Elisabeth Buchwald and Clare Duffy report.
>> From the left: Media critic Dan Froomkin argues that "Trump's authoritarian moves are blatant attacks on long-held American values and should be called out as such in news articles, not just in opinion pieces."
>> From the right: I'm seeing conservatives happily sharing this Babylon Bee headline, "Exhausted Media Begs Trump To Take A Day Off."
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Chuck Todd said farewell to NBC News on Friday, a number of months before his contract was set to expire. In a memo to colleagues, he said he has a "few new projects" in the works and signaled a desire for a more entrepreneurial phase of his career. He also said NBC is allowing him to take his twice-a-week podcast franchise, "The ChuckToddcast," to a new distributor. His guest on Friday's episode was Marty Baron, and the episode was a taste of what's to come from Todd.
As he said in his memo, "the media has a lot of work to do to win back the trust of viewers/listeners/readers and I'm convinced the best place to start is from the bottom up,” with local instead of national media...
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With last month's L.A. wildfires still on their minds, organizers of the Grammys face a "difficult task in striking the right tone at the ceremony," CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister wrote yesterday. Wagmeister spoke with Ben Winston, the executive producer of the awards, about his approach.
"We know we've got the biggest stars in the whole world that are sitting there, and we bring real awareness to what's happened," he said. "We do some really serious fundraising for the causes that need it so much right now. We pay tribute to our first responders. We showcase LA businesses. Surely that is worth doing rather than not doing." Read/watch more here...
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"Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story" has its linear TV premiere tonight at 8pm ET on CNN. The documentary "reconstructs his life and career, ultimately rendering a sensitive, harrowing and incredibly human portrait of the man as actor, advocate, husband and father," Dan Heching writes.
The documentary was a big hit at Sundance last year, and it was jointly acquired by several parts of Warner Bros. Discovery – DC Studios, Warner Bros. Motion Pictures, HBO and CNN Films.
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