Inside The Elon Musk-DOGE Government Takeover
Plus: Global aid halted amid USAID overhaul and Trump signs trans athlete ban
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Good morning,
For Pennsylvanians hoping for eggs this morning, life just got a little tougher. Amid an egg shortage caused by the bird flu, someone with ingenuity (and a disregard for property) stole 100,000 eggs around 8:40 p.m. Saturday from a distribution trailer in Greencastle, PA. To top it off, they were organic.
“The thieves could sell them or even use them for vandalizing purposes,” Trooper Megan Frazer, a PA State Police spokeswoman, told the New York Times. “We don’t know what purpose of stealing 100,000 would be for at this time. With the extreme increased price of eggs, someone may have thought they could sell them.”
I've had to change my own egg-finding ways in New York City these past couple weeks: Goodbye grocery delivery, I'm back shopping in-store. Once there, I found the eggs were $2 more than usual! My next solution: pet chicken, maybe?
Lauren (Producer)
🚨 ONE IMPORTANT THING
USAID Overhaul Halts Global Aid Operations, Places 10,000 Employees On Leave
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) told its more than 10,000 global employees they will all be placed on administrative leave by 11:59 p.m. ET Friday. The USAID website, which had gone offline last week, is now back up and displaying the directive.
As a result of the department's freeze, shipping containers with lifesaving antibiotics and antimalarial drugs are stuck at the Port of Sudan. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, essential medicines are expiring; meanwhile, U.S.-grown soybeans destined for refugee camps have instead been diverted to warehouses.
ON-THE-GROUND IMPACTS
President Trump’s overhaul of USAID, with billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE taking lead, has stalled global aid distribution.
A 90-day freeze on foreign aid, stop-work orders, and the closure of USAID’s headquarters have disrupted global health efforts – despite the State Department claiming that "life-saving humanitarian assistance programs should continue."
The recent order specifies that all direct-hire staff will be placed on leave, except for those handling mission-critical functions, core leadership, and specially designated programs.
🚨 USAID is also preparing to bring overseas personnel back to the U.S. within 30 days, offering agency-funded return travel. The move is raising concerns about employees who have families abroad, some with children that may be only halfway through the school year. Nearly two-thirds of USAID employees work overseas.
PAST & PRESENT
In 2023, USAID provided over $1.9 billion in food assistance — the largest provider in the world. It also delivers vaccines, HIV treatment, childbirth care, and disease prevention programs targeting malaria and tuberculosis around the globe.
Critics of USAID point to past instances of wasteful spending, including hundreds of millions of dollars spent on failed infrastructure projects during the war in Afghanistan.
From 2001 to 2019, Washington spent more on nation-building in Afghanistan than in any country ever: $133 billion for reconstruction, aid programs, and supporting Afghan security forces, according to Washington Post reporting.
Beyond that, the Trump administration has been releasing a list of about a dozen smaller projects like a “transgender opera,” that they accuse of being “woke” and wasteful.
Musk, tasked with reducing federal spending, has called for the agency's complete dissolution, criticizing its spending and liberal agenda.
MORE FROM AROUND THE WORLD
📌 Global leaders denounce Trump proposal for US ownership of Gaza (VOA)
📌 White House walks back some of Trump’s Gaza proposal (POLITICO)
📌 Earthquakes keep rattling Greece’s volcanic island of Santorini every few minutes (AP)📌 U.S. military plane carrying about 100 undocumented immigrants lands in India (NBC)
🚨 ONE THING THAT NEEDS CONTEXT
Musk's Unprecedented Role Inside U.S. Government Sparks Legal Concerns
In the past week, Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has gained access to a critical federal payment system that handles $5 trillion, overseen moves to buy federal workers out of their contracts, gained access to Medicaid and Medicare systems, and started to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Many people have questioned how Musk – the richest man in the world &an unelected figure who still oversees private companies like SpaceX, X, and Tesla – can wield such power. Others argue that the White House is still keeping tabs on him.
IS IT LEGAL?
Because Congress formally established USAID as an independent agency in 1998, experts argue Trump cannot legally shut it down – or even merge it with the State Department – without congressional approval.
Additionally, a recent buyout offer to 2 million federal employees — to resign by Feb. 6 in exchange for 8 months pay and benefits — may violate laws prohibiting spending that has not been authorized by Congress.
Under the Anti-Deficiency Act, all spending must be appropriated by Congress. As of right now, funding is set to expire in March – well before the September date until which these employees have been promised pay.
Federal unions have also sued, alleging that DOGE’s access to private data breaches the Privacy Act of 1974.
“So many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they’re playing a quantity game and assuming the system can’t react to all this illegality at once.” - David Super, an administrative law professor at Georgetown Law School, to the Washington Post
Following lawsuits and concerns about his access, Justice Department lawyers agreed late Wednesday to a proposed order that will now prohibit the Treasury Department from sharing sensitive financial data with Musk and DOGE.
NBC News reports that Musk has also received quiet reminders from the White House in recent days, letting him know that his power is not unchecked. Trump told reporters this week that Musk "can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval."
However, a New York Times investigation uncovered that Musk has a direct line to Trump and operates with little if any accountability or oversight. “He often enters the White House through a side entrance, and drops into meetings,” they reported.
Many have raised concerns about Musk’s potential conflicts of interest, given his private companies have major stakes in federal regulation and seek tens of billions of dollars in government contracts. On Wednesday, the White House Press Secretary said that Musk will police his own conflicts of interest “with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing.”
Meanwhile, Musk’s influence is expanding beyond Washington. Republican-led states are advancing bills to align themselves with Trump’s policies, including supporting mass deportations and creating at least 11 state-level versions of DOGE.
Democrats are not happy. On Wednesday, lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee proposed a motion to subpoena Musk to testify about his recent actions in reorganizing federal agencies. The Republican majority blocked it in a 20-19 vote along party lines.
The motion, introduced by Ranking Member Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), cited Musk's efforts to "dismantle federal agencies" without Congressional oversight. During heated exchanges, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) accused Musk of gutting federal agencies, in addition to “firing federal employees and hacking personal data.”
MORE FROM WASHINGTON
📌 Bondi, as new AG, launches 'Weaponization Working Group' to review officials who investigated Trump (ABC)
📌 Maryland federal judge blocks Trump's birthright citizenship order (NPR)
📌 Senate panel set to advance budget next week, Sen. Graham says (POLITICO)
📌 CIA offers buyouts to entire workforce (CNN)
🚨 ONE THING MAKING HEADLINES
Trump Signs Order To Ban Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports
President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that bans transgender athletes from participating in women's sports at federally-funded educational institutions.
INSIDE THE MOVE
The order titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" requires federal Title IX rules – which ban sex discrimination in schools – to interpret “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth. Schools that are found by the Justice Department or other federal agencies not to be in compliance could lose federal funding.
Surrounded by female athletes at the signing ceremony, Trump shared the stories of former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines and high school volleyball player Payton McNabb, who have campaigned for trans-athlete bans after their experiences competing against athletes who were born as biological males.
This is the latest measure from the Trump administration targeting transgender Americans. Trump also signed orders barring transgender people from military service, restricting gender-affirming care for minors, and sending trans women to men’s prisons – the latter of which was blocked by a judge on Tuesday.
The Numbers: Out of more than 500,000 athletes currently competing at the university level, there are fewer than 10 athletes who publicly identify as transgender, according to the NCAA. The number of transgender athletes participating in youth and high school sports is unknown.
OUTSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE
Polling shows the public overwhelmingly backs the Trump position on this. A recent NY Times poll found that 79% of U.S. adults say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on teams that correspond with the sexes they were assigned at birth.
Last month, House Republicans were joined by two Democrats to pass a bill that would amend Title IX to recognize a person's "sex" as "based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth."
📌 NCAA vows to follow Trump order on transgender athletes (YAHOO SPORTS)
📌 Children's Hospital Los Angeles pauses gender-affirming care for new transgender patients (ABC)📌 New York attorney general tells hospitals to continue transgender care after Trump’s executive order (AP)
⏳ A FEW OTHER QUICK HEADLINES
📌 Once a DEI leader, Google retreats, citing Trump executive orders (USA TODAY)
📌 Blake Lively faces $7M defamation lawsuit from crisis publicist she claims 'weaponized a digital army' against her (PEOPLE)
📌 Two Grand Canyon-size valleys on the far side of the moon formed within 10 minutes, scientists say (CNN)
ICYMI FROM THE 📲
In case you missed it… Bill Nye the “Science Guy” becomes Bill Nye the “Fashion Guy” as he struts down the NYFW runway.