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WTF. In just ten dystopian days, in the name of restoring America to a mythical white guy greatness, a blundering, vengeful, rabidly unfit oompa-loompa has tried to shut down the government, strong-arm the economy, whitewash culture, roll back civil rights, and in a ghastly flourish pass the buck on a fatal crash by luridly scapegoating imagined "others": Look! Over there! A blind, black, dwarf female air traffic controller! Grim fact: "What a horrible, pathetic little man."
Like a malignant, unstrung kid with zero impulse control blithely toying with a live grenade, the Orange Oaf (OOF) has unleashed chaos with a torrent of dodgy, often devastating "executive orders" that often bear little resemblance to governing or even reality: Tossing a blanket pardon to Jan. 6 thugs now startlingly swiftly landing back in prison, purging scores of competent federal workers to install know-nothing lackeys, fecklessly rescinding as much as he can of civil rights progress over the last 60 years. Next fever dream: separate water fountains. His most dazzling debacle was the madcap freezing of trillions in federal grants and loans, essentially shutting down governance to ensure it's consistent with (his) agenda" not "advancing Marxist equity," and after a day of predictable mayhem saying, oops, hmm, never mind.
He's also ordered that any semblance of "dangerous" and "demeaning" DEI efforts to create a level playing field be scrubbed from America's government, business, culture or the military, and enlisted the help of a brass-knuckled coterie of Space Nazis, sycophants and fixers to enforce it. When COSTCO shareholders thunderously rejected the demand to eliminate its diversity initiatives - insisting they are "appropriate and necessary" - the company was set upon by the head of the right-wing National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project, who argued DEI “may sound benign" but is in fact "weaponized language concealing a radical Marxist agenda" that stifles "excellence and innovation." Besides, he added of the whole preposterous project of encouraging fairness and inclusion, "I believe that this is a fad."
More muscle entered the fray when 19 GOP Attorneys General sent an irate letter to COSTCO's CEO warning him to end the "unlawful discrimination" of DEI efforts that "courts and businesses have rejected as illegal" - not - or else. Citing dubious legal precedents, they argue that by doubling down on DEI the company is "doing the wrong thing" and rejecting orange guy's order “steering companies back to their fundamental mission to focus on increasing shareholder value." Eek: Doing social justice not capitalism?! They move from bullying to coaxing to note the "refreshing change" of companies folding to threats - META, Amazon, McDonald’s, Target, Lowes, Ford, Boeing, Walmart and others abandoning DEI to stay “in step with the evolving external landscape" - before reverting to mob-style threats: Repeal in 30 days, explain why not, or a dead horse is in your bed.
In appreciation of backbone, Rev. Al Sharpton led 100 members of his National Action Network in a buy-in through Harlem's Costco; he warned, "If you want to put us back in the back of the bus, we going to do the Dr. King-Rosa Parks on you." And other companies have stood firm on diversity: Apple, Delta, Google, Pinterest, Microsoft, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Ben and Jerry's. Still, the lure of racism remains strong, even in a military that's over 30% female, black, Hispanic, or LGBTQ and despite the Air Force quickly backtracking when their move to eliminate Tuskegee Airmen and World War II female pilots from history drew outrage. But with drunken, rapey, White Nationalist Pete Hegseth now at the helm, things will only get worse.
For proof, look no further than this week's surreal news from the Defense Department's "Intelligence Agency" that, along with banning all DEI programs, they will "pause" annual observances of 11 "Special Emphasis Program" events, all coincidentally celebrating everyone not a rich white man. So: No more Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pride Month, Black or Women's History Month, or months honoring Hispanic, Native American, or Asian-American Heritage. Working to "fully implement all executive orders" to make America as racist as possible again, it intones, the military will "receive additional guidance" as we "continue to update our internal guidance.” Most importantly, Hegseth said he's directed staff to create a DEI Task Force to ensure they've killed all traces of DEI; then he snarled, "We're not joking around."
Of course, all this regressive rancor, furious posturing and backpedaling to a dreamily-recalled unequal past is at the behest of an addled, malignant, old white racist, sulky scion of unearned wealth, and dumpster fire of a hollow human being who, fixated on money, power and fictional grievances, has spent his tacky, florid life panicked anyone else might get what he, obscenely, has. But he's not just focused on revenge and greed. He's also "working." He's threatening allies, antagonizing neighbors, halting all medical research, planning to invade Greenland, returned Cuba to a terror state and is, after a Fox talking head suggested it, "building" a 30,000-person detention center at torture-haunted Guantanamo, which "nobody's ever heard of," to hold "high-priority criminal aliens" concentrated into one big secure camp though we're not sure what that's called.
He's hunting down and terrorizing said "aliens," aka "anyone with a tan," including a U.S. veteran, a Puerto Rican toddler, mother and grandmotherdragged off for speaking Spanish at a Milwaukee store, and many innocents. He's sharply spiked the price of eggs and gas, threatened a third term from a welcome grave, tried to steal a canal, left behind "shell-shocked" civil servants and other victims of his vitriolic wrecking ball tour, considered adding his paunchy profile to Mount Rushmore, bragged of turning on a hallucinatory faucet to end fires in California, hawked yet more crap, and named a parade of inept fascists, brain-worm cranks and greedy con-men to help burn it all down as supine Dems who've spent years warning he's Hitler nod and say, "I'm a yes on Goebbels." He's ceaselessly whined, raved, lied, and played golf.
Then, when a military helicopter hit an American Airlines passenger plane en route from Kansas to D.C., killing dozens, he crassly, viciously, moronically demonstrated yet again how infinitely, tragically unfit he is to run, not just a country but a hot dog stand. "This is a bad situation. NOT GOOD!" posted the imbecile who in his first days gutted the government, declared a federal hiring freeze widely deemed "dangerous," fired the heads of the Transportation Security Administration and Coast Guard, removed all members of a security advisory group considered key to aviation safety and, because he'd proposed making Elmo Musk accountable for SpaceX safety failures, fired the head of the FAA days before the worst air crash in decades - all to kick off a horrifically mangled response decried as "one of the biggest scandals in presidential history.”
At a press briefing, his face caked with orange grease paint, he babbled, "Our hearts are shattered...That icy, icy Potomac...Cold water." Then, even as crews began retrieving bodies, before any investigators were on site, he said he had "very strong opinions and ideas” and launched a fact-free, dumbfounding rant about how DEI caused the crash. It was, of course, Obama's fault from nine years ago. "I put safety first...(Dems) put policy (sic) first...They put politics at a level nobody's ever seen." Orange guy "made up very powerful tests." Dems "terminated" them, used "dangerous DEI tactics," hired air controllers with "intellectual disabilities," blindness, blackness, dwarfism, and female-ness. Bullshit: He had his own DEI program, DIVERSITY TAKES FLIGHT; there have been no crashes for almost 20 years, and the number of black controllers is "completely fucking irrelevant."
“There was a lot of vision and people should have been able to see that," he blithered. "You can stop a helicopter very quickly...It had the ability to go up or down...You could go under it or over it...Nobody realized..." Also, Pete Buttigieg is "a disaster" with "a good line in bullshit,” "You have to be naturally talented geniuses,” "This is a major chess game," "You want me go swimming?" and it's DEI's fault "because I have common sense (and) a lot of people don’t." But we bet those watching soon felt way safer. Especially once we learned tower control staffing was "not normal" - one worker doing the job of two - they've long been understaffed by a third - need 30, had 19 - and many had raised alarms that airspace is "uniquely congested." Still, OOF signed another "executive order" blaming DEI and Dems for the crash. His response was judged grotesque, disgusting, vile, monstrous, craven, despicable and “an epic face plant."
Soon after, in a "harrowing fulfillment of Biblical prophecy," panicked customers reported that all the nation's 3,059 Chick-fil-A stores were raptured when "a large burst of God's divine light shone down from the clouds and lifted (them) into the Lord's Eternal Kingdom." One employee said customers fell to the ground and "began screaming in tongues" as her fryers, grills and walk-in freezer hovered in the air; an Atlanta franchise owner theorized, "God has taken His favorite foods up to heaven (and) has left us to die a painful, tortuous death at the hands of Satan...We are doomed to live in a world without Chick-fil-A. May God have mercy on our souls.” Okay, that's from The Onion. In truth, we may or may not be doomed, with or without Chick-fil-A. But we could def use some mercy. Meanwhile, one pivotal, apocalyptic rule: "Do. Not. Comply."
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said during his address at an annual gathering of global elites on Wednesday that the world's addiction to fossil fuels has become an all-consuming "Frankenstein monster" imperiling hopes of a livable future.
"All around us, we see clear signs that the monster has become master. We just endured the hottest year and the hottest decade in history," Guterres said to the audience gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"A number of financial institutions and industries are backtracking on climate commitments," Guterres continued. "Here at Davos, I want to say loudly and clearly: It is short-sighted. And paradoxically, it is selfish and also self-defeating. You are on the wrong side of history. You are on the wrong side of science. And you are on the wrong side of consumers who are looking for more sustainability, not less. This warning certainly also applies to the fossil fuel industry and advertising, lobbying, and PR companies who are aiding, abetting, and greenwashing."
"Global heating is racing forward—we cannot afford to move backward," he added.
Guterres' remarks came as President Donald Trump, a fervent ally of the fossil fuel industry, took office in the U.S.—the largest historical emitter—and moved immediately to expand oil and gas production, which was already at record levels.
The U.S. is among a number of rich nations working to build out fossil fuel infrastructure and ramp up production in the face of runaway warming and worsening climate destruction across the globe.
Intensifying climate chaos—and global elites' disproportionate contributions to the planetary crisis—spurred several protests inside and near the Davos forum this week, with activists demanding higher taxes on the mega-rich and a rapid, just transition to renewable energy.
A climate protester calls for taxes on the rich during the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland on January 21, 2025. (Photo: Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images)
"It is more than obvious that the super-rich must pay their fair share," Clara Thompson, a Greenpeace spokesperson in Davos, said earlier this week. "Especially when they are among the largest contributors to the climate crisis."
"It shouldn't be the people, already struggling to make ends meet, who have to foot the bill and suffer the consequences of worsening climate impacts," Thompson added. "The scarcity narrative is simply not true—there is enough money to fund a just and green future for all but it is just in the wrong pockets."
An Oxfam report published Monday shows that the combined wealth of the world's billionaires surged three times faster in 2024 than the previous year, rising by $2 trillion as efforts to combat global poverty remained stagnant.
The findings come hours before the U.S. is set to inaugurate President-elect Donald Trump, a billionaire whose campaign for a second White House term was backed by the world's richest man and whose proposed Cabinet is stacked with billionaires. The report was also released as business and political elites gathered in Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum summit.
According to Oxfam, an average of nearly four new billionaires emerged every week in 2024, and billionaires saw their wealth grow by roughly $5.7 billion per day.
"The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable," said Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International's executive director. "The failure to stop billionaires is now spawning soon-to-be trillionaires. Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated—by three times—but so too has their power."
"The crown jewel of this oligarchy is a billionaire president, backed and bought by the world's richest man Elon Musk, running the world's largest economy," Behar added. "We present this report as a stark wake-up call that ordinary people the world over are being crushed by the enormous wealth of a tiny few."
"Untaxed billions of dollars in inheritance is an affront to fairness, perpetuating a new aristocracy where wealth and power stays locked in the hands of a few."
Oxfam's new report—titled Takers, Not Makers—estimates that 36% of billionaire wealth is inherited and 18% stems from monopoly power accrued by corporate behemoths such as Amazon. Every billionaire under the age of 30 inherited their wealth, according to Oxfam.
Another 6% of global billionaire wealth can be attributed to "crony sources" such as "lobbying, funding political campaigns, and creating revolving doors between the private sector and civil service," the new report finds.
All told, "most billionaire wealth is taken, not earned—60% comes from either inheritance, cronyism and corruption, or monopoly power," the report estimates.
"The ultra-rich like to tell us that getting rich takes skill, grit, and hard work. But the truth is most wealth is taken, not made," said Behar. "So many of the so-called 'self-made' are actually heirs to vast fortunes, handed down through generations of unearned privilege. Untaxed billions of dollars in inheritance is an affront to fairness, perpetuating a new aristocracy where wealth and power stays locked in the hands of a few."
If current trends persist, Oxfam estimates that the world is on track to see at least five trillionaires within a decade.
"Last year we predicted the first trillionaire could emerge within a decade, but this shocking acceleration of wealth means that the world is now on course for at least five," said Anna Marriott, Oxfam's inequality policy lead. "The global economic system is broken, wholly unfit for purpose as it enables and perpetuates this explosion of riches, while nearly half of humanity continues to live in poverty."
In the face of such staggering wealth accumulation at the very top, Oxfam called on governments to abolish tax havens, tax the inheritances of the ultra-rich, more strictly regulate corporations to "ensure they pay living wages and cap CEO pay," and provide debt relief to economically struggling nations to "end the flow of wealth from South to North."
"Taken together, today's levels of extreme wealth concentration are based not on merit," said Oxfam. "These are takers, and not makers."
In an effort to hold U.S. President Donald Trump to a promise he made on the campaign trail, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday introduced legislation alongside Republican Sen. Josh Hawley that would cap credit card interest rates at 10% for five years, targeting a major cash cow for Visa, Mastercard, and other corporate giants.
"During the campaign, President Trump pledged to cap credit card interest rates at 10%," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement Tuesday. "I am proud to be introducing bipartisan legislation with Senator Hawley to do just that. When large financial institutions charge over 25% interest on credit cards, they are not engaged in the business of making credit available. They are engaged in extortion and loan sharking."
"We cannot continue to allow big banks to make huge profits ripping off the American people," the Vermont senator added. "This legislation will provide working families struggling to pay their bills with desperately needed financial relief."
During his 2024 White House bid, Trump said he would support a "temporary cap" on credit card interest rates "at around 10%," declaring, "We can't let them make 25% and 30%."
One recent estimate put the average credit card interest rate in the U.S. at close to 27%, and an analysis released last year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that credit card interest rates have surged over the past decade—a boon for card issuers and a disaster for Americans falling deeper into debt.
"Working Americans are drowning in record credit card debt while the biggest credit card issuers get richer and richer by hiking their interest rates to the moon. It's not just wrong, it's exploitative. And it needs to end," Hawley (R-Mo.) said Tuesday. "Capping credit card interest rates at 10%, just like President Trump campaigned on, is a simple way to provide meaningful relief to working people. Let's do it."
It's not clear whether Sanders and Hawley's bill stands a chance in a Congress fully controlled by Republicans, many of whom have shown a willingness to play defense for the predatory banks and credit card firms that help fund their campaigns.
The Trump White House did not respond to media requests for comment on whether the administration would throw its support behind the Sanders-Hawley proposal, which is sure to face Wall Street opposition.
During a Senate confirmation hearing last month, Sanders asked billionaire U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent whether he supports Trump's call for a 10% cap on credit card interest rates.
Bessent replied that he would "follow what President Trump wants to do" on the issue.
During Trump's first term in the White House, Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation that would have capped credit card interest rates at 15%.
Just nine Democrats in the House and one in the Senate co-sponsored the bill, which received zero Republican support.
Ten days into U.S. President Donald Trump's second term, Amnesty International Americas director Ana Piquer on Wednesday urged the Canadian and Mexican governments to refuse to participate in the Republican's attacks on migrants seeking safety.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has taken various executive actions to
advance his far-right immigration agenda, including declaring a national emergency, attempting to end birthright citizenship, enabling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest people in sensitive locations like schools and churches, reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols—also known as the "Remain in Mexico" policy—and effectively halting asylum by shutting down CBP One, a mobile application that migrants used to schedule appointments with Customs and Border Protection at ports of entry.
"The executive actions adopted by President Trump severely impact the rights of people seeking safety and place countless lives at risk, fabricating nonexisting threats to expand militarization, externalization of borders, generalized use of immigration detention, expedited removals, and criminalization of migrant rights defenders," said Piquer. "These policies make it near impossible for individuals to seek asylum in the United States and will result in thousands of people being forcibly returned to places where their lives or safety are at risk."
"President Trump is also calling for the use of criminal prosecutions for people crossing irregularly into the United States, a policy that resulted in the mass separations of families during Trump's first term," she noted. "To this day, there are families—mostly from Central America—who have still not been reunited from the first iteration of this cruel policy."
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, toldThe Guardian earlier this month that "given the lack of records, it's impossible to know precisely how many families remain separated" due to the policy from Trump's first term, but "we think there may be around a thousand families or more that we can't confirm have been reunited."
Nodding to a weekend dispute between the Trump administration and Colombia, Piquer said that "the United States is also pressuring countries to accept deportation flights with individuals that are not nationals of those countries and threatening sanctions on those countries that refuse. All these policies have implications for countries throughout the Americas, continuing the troubling trend of the United States entering into bilateral agreements aimed at deterring migration."
The Amnesty leader specifically took aim at the Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement, which requires most people seeking refugee protection to do so in whichever of the two nations they enter first. The treaty has been in effect since 2004.
"The agreement has forced individuals to attempt dangerous border crossings and has pushed people underground in order to seek safety," Piquer stressed. "As the United States becomes increasingly unsafe for asylum-seekers, the Canadian government must withdraw from the agreement immediately."
The treaty has withstood legal challenges in Canada, but the global human rights group isn't alone in continuing to call on the Canadian government to ditch the deal. After Trump's inauguration, Jon Milton wrote for the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, a progressive think tank, that the U.S. president had "declared war on migrants."
"The situation is bleak, and Canada has responsibilities—both moral and legal—to act. The first thing it should do is immediately withdraw from the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States," Milton argued. "If Trump actually does even half the things he has promised to do to migrants in the United States, it will trigger a humanitarian crisis—and Canada has the responsibility to act to protect people fleeing persecution."
While Trump's return to power may impact Canadian immigration policy, most migrants enter the United States at the southern border. Amnesty is pressuring the Mexican government to refuse to participate in any reiteration of the Remain in Mexico policy. Piquer pointed out that the version imposed during Trump's first term "trapped asylum-seekers in camps along the U.S.-Mexico border where they were at serious risk of human rights violations, with thousands of reports of people being assaulted, raped, kidnapped, and extorted."
Already, she said, "the shutdown of the CBP One application has created an insurmountable barrier for approximately 270,000 vulnerable individuals attempting to seek safety in the United States. They are now stranded in Mexico with no clear pathway to protection."
According to Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the app shutdown "triggered a wave of despair and uncertainty." Ramón Márquez, coordinator for the group's Comprehensive Care Center in Mexico City, said that "a patient we treated this week suffered an acute anxiety attack after her previously approved asylum appointment in early February was canceled... Our therapeutic teams are ramping up interventions to support those in emotional crisis."
Adriana Palomares, general coordinator for MSF in Mexico, said last week that "migration and seeking asylum are rights, not crimes. Governments across the region, including the U.S. and Mexico, must urgently implement migration policies that prioritize people and their protection."
Similarly demanding swift action, Piquer said Wednesday that "following the termination of CBP One, the Mexican government must urgently adopt measures to ensure the safety and security of those who had been waiting in Mexico for CPB One appointments, including allowing them to apply for international protection in Mexico and travel freely throughout the country."
"President Trump will only be able to implement his harmful policies if countries in the Americas agree to play along," she emphasized. "Amnesty International urgently calls on the governments of the region to refrain from participating in policies that undermine the rights and dignity of those seeking safety."
Piquer also called on the U.S. government to "respond to this moment of global displacement with funding and policies of welcome, to respond to the crisis with policies that are humane rather than those that hurt." However, such calls seem unlikely to be heard by Trump—who has threatened both Canada and Mexico with tariffs—or the Republican-controlled Congress.
Trump on Wednesday afternoon is set to sign the first bill of his second term—the Laken Riley Act—which congressional Republicans recently passed with help from a
dozen Democratic senators and 46 Democrats in the House of Representatives. The legislation will expand mandatory federal detention of undocumented immigrants who are accused of even relatively minor crimes.
That includes locking up "undocumented children who have never been charged with or convicted of a crime," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) noted after voting against the bill. "We've seen time and again the damage the federal government can cause our children with dangerous immigration policies like this."
Less than a week into a fragile cease-fire between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq on Thursday released a report detailing how "Israel has systematically targeted and attacked the healthcare system to the point of its collapse in a campaign of genocide."
The new report—titled The Systematic Destruction of Gaza's Healthcare System: A Pattern of Genocide—builds on previous publications, including from United Nations entities, and testimonies from medical professionals who have worked in Gaza since Israel launched its U.S.-backed assault in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
"The Israeli occupying forces' (IOF) targeting of hospitals and health centers, the denial of adequate medical provisions into and around the Gaza Strip, and the abduction, torture, and killing of medical personnel is evidence of Israel's genocidal intent to: (i) inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and (ii) impose measures intended to prevent Palestinian births in the Gaza Strip," states the 116-page report.
"The concerted policy to destroy the healthcare system in Gaza is directly and causally linked to statements made by Israeli officials," the document continues, offering various examples and highlighting how it wasn't just hospitals—Israel also attacked "civilian residences, schools, shelters, mosques, churches, and other protected areas under international humanitarian law."
The report argues that "Israel's systematic campaign against Gaza's healthcare infrastructure as a whole is exemplified by the targeted destruction of al-Shifa Hospital," which is the largest hospital in the occupied Palestinian territory and "older than Israel." The document also addresses Israel's attacks on Adwan, al-Amal, al-Aqsa, al-Awda, Indonesian, Kamal, and Nasser hospitals.
Along with offering a summary of facts and legal analysis of "Israel's systematic attacks on Gaza's healthcare system as acts of genocide," war crimes, and violations of international humanitarian law, the publication features recommendations for other countries and blocs, international tribunals, U.N. experts, companies, and healthcare professionals.
Al-Haq called on the international community to "name and condemn Israel's ongoing genocide," impose an arms embargo, support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and demand the release of Palestinian political prisoners and those who have been arbitrarily detained by Israel, including healthcare workers.
The report was published as the death toll in Gaza continues to grow, as displaced residents of the Palestinian enclave return to the remnants of their homes and communities decimated by more than 15 months of Israeli bombings and raids.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said Thursday that the official death toll rose to 47,283, after 120 bodies "were recovered from under the rubble" in the past 24 hours, and 111,472 people have been injured. Global experts warn the true death toll is likely far higher.
Israel faces a genocide case led by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its military assault and restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
Al-Haq's report notes both the ICC warrants and the ICJ case, urging other governments to formally support the latter effort.
Throughout the 15-month assault on Gaza, Israeli settlers and troops also targeted Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank—where Al-Haq is based. However, since the cease-fire took effect Sunday, attacks in the West Bank have sparked fresh alarm.
In addition to pushing for the investigation of Israel's assault on Gaza, the new report urges a U.N. commission to probe "genocidal acts in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including but not limited to killings of Palestinians, causing serious bodily or mental harm to Palestinians, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people."
The same day the report was released, billionaire Elon Musk said that he was working to shut down the agency with U.S. President Donald Trump's blessing.
U.S. President Donald Trump does not have the authority to abolish the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to a Congressional Research Service report published Monday, which noted that congressional authorization is needed to "abolish, move, or consolidate" the humanitarian assistance agency.
The report was release the same day that billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tapped by Trump to help lead his administration's efforts to cut spending and bureaucracy through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE), said he was seeking to shut down the agency, which is known as USAID. Musk, who said he had received Trump's blessing to do so, made the remarks during a live discussion on X.
Also Monday, the State Department announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had taken over as acting director of the agency.
"Secretary Rubio has also now notified Congress that a review of USAID's foreign assistance activities is underway with an eye towards potential reorganization," according to statement from the State Department.
The Trump administration implemented a 90-day freeze on nearly all foreign aid during its first week, and days later placed dozens of senior USAID staffers on leave. Two top security officials at USAID were removed by the administration over the weekend after they refused representatives with DOGE access to restricted spaces at the agency.
According to the congressional report, the White House can make make structural changes to USAID and to the State Department, such as shifting functions from one agency to the other. However, the administration is supposed to notify and consult "appropriate congressional committees" prior to making changes, and "in the past, administrations have implemented such changes only after this notification."
The report states that some members of Congress had raised concerns over Trump's halting of foreign aid and the administration's removal of USAID officials, and that news of the "administration's actions to subsume USAID into the State Department may deepen such concerns and raise new questions" about the administration's adherence to consultation requirements and use of funds appropriated for USAID.
"Members on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, in particular, might elect to seek more information about these actions from the administration through congressional hearings, letters, and informal communications," wrote the author of the report.
"Trump's blatant collaboration with Musk is an attempt to consolidate billionaire power and dismantle democracy as we know it," said Our Revolution.
With U.S. President Donald Trump having little to say since he took office about reducing the high cost of living—an issue he has said won him the election—and his billionaire backer Elon Musk making his way through a takeover of numerous federal agencies, progressive organizers on Tuesday demanded that Senate Democrats treat Trump's second term like the "corporate coup" that it is and end all cooperation with the Republican Party.
"Let's be clear: Musk is not a federal employee," said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution. "He was not appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate, or authorized to have any leadership role in government. Yet, under Trump's orders, Musk is calling the shots—deciding who gets federal funds, raiding classified data, and shuttering agencies established by law. This isn't governance."
As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE), an advisory body Trump established by executive order, Musk has seized control of payment systems that send Social Security and Medicare benefits as well as other payments to millions of Americans; placed officials at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on administrative leave and attempted to shutter the agency; allegedly operated an illegal server at the Office of Personnel Management; and begun considering staff and spending cuts at the Department of Education as Trump prepares an order to close the agency.
Our Revolution called the effort "a Trojan horse for dismantling public institutions and replacing them with private, profit-driven control."
"Trump's blatant collaboration with Musk is an attempt to consolidate billionaire power and dismantle democracy as we know it," said the group. "This is not efficiency—it's a coup."
Echoing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) demand that Democrats in the Senate stop cooperating with the president's right-wing agenda, Our Revolution called out the seven Democratic lawmakers and one Independent—Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine)—who voted to confirm Trump's nominee for energy secretary on Monday.
The lawmakers "effectively [enabled] Trump's billionaire-backed dismantling of public institutions," said the group.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) also joined the call in the U.S. House for senators to do "everything in their power to block Trump's Cabinet nominees."
"The Democratic Party must act as a real opposition party," said Our Revolution, calling on senators to:
Progressive lawmakers and organizers also made their way to the Treasury Department on Tuesday afternoon, attempting to enter the agency and demanding answers about Musk's takeover.
"We need to understand why it is that our Department of Treasury has been broken into, and we need to go ahead and handle the person that decided they were going to have the audacity to go after our information," said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).
Our Revolution called for Democrats to take "bold, decisive action to protect democracy and halt this authoritarian takeover."
"This is not the time for silence or half-measures," said the group.
The U.S. Department of Education is reportedly the next agency in the crosshairs of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an Elon Musk-led White House team tasked with slashing government regulation and spending.
Roughly 20 people with DOGE are working inside the Department of Education with the aim of cutting spending and staff, The Washington Postreported Monday, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the situation and records the outlet obtained. The Wall Street Journal also reported that representatives from DOGE are working out of the Department of Education building, and sources told the outlet that DOGE is eyeing the agency as a target for its efforts to slash bureaucracy.
But in the long term, the Trump administration has even more drastic plans for the department that was established by Congress back in 1979. Both papers report that the administration is prepping an executive order aimed at dismantling the agency entirely.
According to the Journal, officials are discussing the an executive order that "would shut down all functions of the agency that aren't written explicitly into statute or move certain functions to other departments" and would also "call for developing a legislative proposal to abolish the department," according to people familiar with the matter. Timing and specifics are still being hammered out.
Because the agency was created by Congress, it therefore can only be fully eliminated by Congress, according to the Post.
Musk on Monday night wrote on his platform X that U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to fully dismantle the Department of Education "will succeed." Trump pledged to get rid of the Department of Education on the campaign trail and the priority was also listed among the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" policy proposals.
"They want to destroy public education," wrote Alejandra Caraballo, an instructor at Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic, in response to the Post's reporting.
Since Trump's inauguration, Musk and his lieutenants at DOGE have moved swiftly to gain influence over multiple government agencies. Last week, DOGE fired officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development and earlier this week Musk said he intended to shut it down completely. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that he's now in control of the agency.
DOGE representatives were also given access to a Treasury Department payment system that processes trillions of dollars worth of financial transactions and holds personal financial data on millions of Americans. Two unions and an advocacy group sued Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Treasury Department in federal court Monday for giving DOGE access to the system, citing privacy concerns.