Maya Boddie, Alternet

Many US government workers are surprised by the lengths President Donald Trump is going to exact revenge on his political adversaries, The Guardian reports insiders say.

Per the report, while some officials resigned ahead of Trump's inauguration, some remained in their positions, hoping for the best.

"The most common refrain I’m hearing from people who have left but are still talking to people on the inside is: 'I knew it was going to be bad but I didn’t think it was going to be this bad,'" longtime Democratic lawyer Mark Bergman told The Guardian. ...

President Donald Trump on Monday urged the House of Representatives to renew his tax cuts.

This comes as the GOP-controlled Congress attempts "to overcome internal differences on how to pay for" the president’s "sweeping tax cuts, with hardline conservatives determined to reduce an annual federal deficit approaching $2 trillion," according to Reuters.

READ MORE: Trump’s expiring 2017 tax cuts made income inequality worse and especially hurt Black Americans: study...

President Donald Trump left the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board — an independent civil liberties watchdog — "paralyzed" on Monday after firing three of its members who were selected by Democrats, according to The New York Times.

This comes after the new MAGA administration earlier today fired "more than a dozen" prosecutors on Special Counsel Jack Smith's team.

Per the Times, Sharon Bradford Franklin, Edward W. Felten and Travis LeBlanc were all ordered to leave their posts following Trump's inauguration last week, and notified that refusal to do so would result in their dismissals by the president....

New York Times columnist and former Republican, David French, in an op-ed published Sunday points to one German political expert to make sense of President Donald Trump supporters' unwavering loyalty.

"Over the last decade, I’ve watched many of my friends and neighbors make a remarkable transformation," French writes. "They’ve gone from supporting Donald Trump in spite of his hatefulness to reveling in his aggression."

However, he notes, "This isn’t a new observation. In fact, it’s so obvious as to verge on the banal. The far more interesting question is why," arguing, "When a person believes that he or she possesses eternal truth, there’s a temptation to believe that he or she is entitled to rule."...

President Donald Trump's new administration looks a lot different from his first. For starters, Trump's second administration is filled with MAGA loyalists who appear to be willing to back their leader no matter the consequences.

According to an exclusive Axios report, the difference "is surprising — even frustrating — some longtime friends in his second administration's early days with fewer leaks, a lack of exploitable rivalries, and tighter restrictions on access to him."

A lobbyist connected to the current administration told the news outlet, "There's a 'strong silo system' that has kept advocates and special interests from forum-shopping and end-running administration officials."...