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Musk Connections: N/A

Other Corporate Connections: Founder of Russell Street Ventures, Co-founder of Aspire Health, Co-founder of CareBridge, Co-founder of Main Street Health. 

DOGE Deployments: HHS

On March 21, BigLaw firm Paul Weiss struck a deal with the Trump administration in exchange for an executive order targeting them to be lifted. This capitulation to Trump undermines the rule of law and will invite future authoritarian moves by the administration. As RDP’s Henry Burke wrote, “Appeasement will only lead to certain destruction.”

While national security adviser Michael Waltz’s Signal chat security breach debacle has dominated headlines this week, it’s not the only act of reckless disregard for the safety and security of Americans in the news. This week also saw projections that Trump-Musk cuts to the IRS could lead to a $500 billion tax revenue shortfall this year, with a slump already in effect at this point in tax season.

In the months before the re-election of Donald Trump precipitated our rapid descent into authoritarianism, two books were being written about the idea that progressivism went astray in the 1960s and 1970s. In Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson describe a drift into a “politics of scarcity,” and in Why Nothing Works, Marc Dunkelman calls it a “cultural aversion to power.” Both books ask a pertinent question: Why doesn’t the government do big, bold things, quickly, to address the pressing issues of our time? We have an abundance of viewpoints and veto points, they argue, but a shortage of affordable housing and transmission lines. Something’s got to give. The unstated question, of course, is who must give.

Abundance co-author’s word salad about environmental review left us scratching our heads.

Fascists respond to capitulation with more aggression. Elon Musk has already started targeting firms himself.

Over the past couple months, the Trump administration has fired approximately 2500 people at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which provides lifelong healthcare services and non-healthcare benefits such as disability compensation, home loans and life insurance to veterans. There has been widespread outrage among veterans in response to the administration’s actions thus far, but Trump and VA Secretary Doug Collins remain set on tightening the screws. 

Among many instances of blatant corruption, this week saw huge gains for Trump’s crypto firm and huge losses for the EPA’s scientific research arm.

“We’re not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think.” 

These were the words of Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan after the Trump administration violated multiple court orders and deported people without due process. Are we in a constitutional crisis yet? (Yes, and this is not the first time Trump officials have refused to obey the courts; we are tracking these violations here.)

The Democratic Party could spell this out clearly and consistently for voters.

Senators shouldn’t go easy on Trump’s nominee to lead the SEC. Here are some things they ought to ask him about.