All posts tagged "Department Of Government Efficiency"

Secretary of State Marco Rubio celebrated the end of operations for the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday with a Substack article titled, "Making Foreign Aid Great Again."

USAID was the nation's largest foreign aid agency with funding that went toward combatting mortality rates from diseases like AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as nutritional deficiencies and maternal mortality. It was one of the very first agencies targeted by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

According to CNN, a "new analysis finds that its closure could contribute to some 14 million deaths in the next five years," painting "a potentially catastrophic picture of what could come now that USAID has been dismantled and the [Trump] administration is turning away from a lot of these foreign assistance funds."...

The New York Times is standing by its reporting that Elon Musk's drug use "was more intense than previously known" when he started to wield influence over Donald Trump's presidential campaign and possibly beyond.

In a post to X on Tuesday afternoon, the newspaper's communications account wrote, "Elon Musk is continuing to lash out because he doesn't like our reporting. Nothing that he's said or presented since our article about his drug use during the presidential campaign was published contradicts what we uncovered. We stand by our journalism."

The post was in response to Musk's screenshot of a "Laboratory Final Report" conducted by "United States Drug Testing" on samples the post states were collected June 11 showed "negative" results for drugs, including cocaine, ketamine, opiates, and cannabinoids. Musk posted "lol" along with the screenshot....

Steve Bannon is demanding a special counsel investigation into fellow MAGA bro Elon Musk’s federal contracts as well as his alleged drug use, The Daily Beast reported.

Bannon told the podcast, "Sunday Night with Chuck Todd," that there should be formal investigations into Musk, who has admitted to using the drug Ketamine to treat depression, and who received $38 billion in federal subsidies over the past 10 years.

"The best way to do it is as a special counsel that can kind of oversee everything," Bannon said of his proposed investigation....

Elon Musk contradicted his own artificial intelligence bot, Grok, over a post mocking White House aide Stephen Miller.

According to The Daily Beast, the AI-generated X post in question appeared to come from Musk's account in response to a Miller post that said, "We will take back America."

Musk appeared to taunt Miller, writing, "Just like I took your wife."...

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of allowing DOGE to access sensitive Social Security information, according to CNN's Joan Biskupic.

In a 6-3 ruling Friday afternoon, the court lifted a block on DOGE's access that was imposed by a lower court.

"You know, the Social Security Administration has so much personal information on all of us; our Social Security numbers, our bank account numbers, all sorts of records, date of birth — and DOGE had said that it needed access to this material for part of its efforts to modernize government systems," Biskupic said. ...

Elon Musk appeared to sport a black eye during his Oval Office appearance with President Donald Trump Friday.

Musk was celebrating the last day of his tenure as a special government employee heading up the Department of Government Efficiency.

The bruising was visible at the outer corner of his right eye as Musk answered reporters' questions. He didn't address the apparent injury and no reporter asked him about it....