Newsletter

The Paper Trail: April 1, 2025

Trump Cleared to Fire NLRB, MSPB Members; USAID Cuts Hamper Myanmar Earthquake Relief; Companies Pay X to Stay off Musk “Naughty List”; And More.

Apr 01, 2025

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The Paper Trail

Top stories for April 1, 2025

Appeals court clears way for Trump to fire leaders of “independent” federal agencies: A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to overturn a lower court injunction and allow Trump to remove Biden-appointed members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board. (Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, Politico)

Trump suffers day of losses in his retribution campaign against law firms: Federal judges on Friday issued temporary restraining orders blocking much of Trump’s executive orders punishing the firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale. The judges let stand the parts of the EOs stripping security clearances from lawyers at the firms. (Devlin Barrett, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Judge blocks Trump administration firings of intelligence workers in DEI roles (Salvador Rizzo, Washington Post)

Scores of child-care centers at risk after Trump officials gut federal office: Child-care centers in federal buildings are at risk of lower quality and higher costs after the closure of the GSA office overseeing them. (Aaron Wiener, Washington Post)

USAID cuts hobble earthquake response in Myanmar: While China, Russia, and other nations have rushed emergency response teams to the devastated country, the U.S. has been slow to act. Many U.S. foreign aid systems have been shattered by widespread layoffs. (Hannah Beech and Edward Wong, New York Times)

The Trump admin cut election security funds. Now officials fear future elections may be “less secure”: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s programs for securing elections have been put on hold pending a review by DHS, with no guarantee they will start up again. Election officials are worried about their ability to guarantee physical and cyber security during the voting process. (Maggie Miller, Politico)

Republicans hesitant to stand behind Trump’s plan for student loans: President Trump has yet to win over his own party with his push to transfer the Education Department’s student loan operation to SBA, which is slated to lose nearly half of its staff. There is also concern over SBA’s lack of experience with the student loan system. (Rebecca Carballo, Politico)

Trump pardons Nikola founder Trevor Milton: President Trump pardoned Trevor Milton, who was convicted in 2022 of lying to investors about his company’s zero-emissions trucks. One of Milton’s trial attorneys was Brad Bondi — the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Milton and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump fundraising committee last year. (Corinne Ramey and Ben Foldy, Wall Street Journal)

Analysis: Who’s watching DHS? The gutting of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, means that DHS has lost three key oversight and accountability entities. That just leaves the Office of Inspector General, which has a track record of keeping secrets from Congress and looking the other way on alleged abuses. (Sarah Turberville, The Constitution Project at POGO)

Elon Musk & DOGE

DOGE accesses federal payroll system over objections of career staff: Members of DOGE gained access over the weekend to a payroll system at the Interior Department that processes salaries for about 276,000 federal employees across dozens of agencies. The move overruled objections from senior IT staff who feared it could compromise highly sensitive personnel information and make it more vulnerable to cyberattacks. After the DOGE workers obtained access, they placed two of the IT officials on administrative leave and under investigation. (Coral Davenport, New York Times)

DOGE plans to rebuild SSA codebase in months, risking benefits and system collapse: Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years; DOGE wants it done in months — potentially putting the integrity of the system, and the benefits on which 65 million Americans rely, at risk. (Makena Kelly, Wired)

Big brands are spending small sums on X to stay out of Musk’s crosshairs: Corporate executives say they feel pressure to advertise on X, lest they trigger damaging public fallout with Elon Musk. (Hannah Murphy, Cristina Criddle, and Daniel Thomas, Ars Technica)

Other DOGE News:

→ Trump hints that Musk and DOGE may be coming to the end of the road

→ DOGE wants businesses to run government services “as much as possible”

→ Elon Musk visits the CIA to discuss DOGE cuts

→ Elon Musk makes false claim about billion-dollar national park survey

Israel-Hamas War

Trump administration targets billions in funding to Harvard: The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism will review the more than $255 million in contracts and $8.7 billion in grants between the federal government and Harvard and its affiliates. (Susan Svrluga and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Washington Post)

How colleges are cracking down on students now: Colleges and universities have turned to more sophisticated technology and shows of police force to investigate student vandalism and other property crimes related to pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Civil rights lawyers and legal experts say recent tactics go beyond what has been the standard for campus security. (Isabelle Taft, New York Times)

Dobbs Aftermath

Trump administration cuts some funds to Planned Parenthood: The administration will begin to withhold some federal funding from Planned Parenthood starting today, a move that will curtail access to services including cancer screenings and affordable birth control. (Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post)

Alabama groups can aid out-of-state travel for abortions, judge rules: U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled that Alabama’s attorney general can’t threaten groups in the state with prosecution for helping women travel out of state to obtain abortions. (Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Caroline Kitchener, Washington Post)

Russia-Ukraine War

The partnership: The secret history of the war in Ukraine: The story of America’s hidden role in Ukrainian military operations against Russia’s invading armies: America was woven into the war far more intimately and broadly than previously understood. (Adam Entous, New York Times)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Hegseth’s younger brother is serving in a key role inside the Pentagon: Phil Hegseth’s role as senior adviser to the DHS secretary and liaison officer to the Defense Department raises questions if his employment runs afoul of federal nepotism laws. (Lolita C. Baldor, Defense News)

Hegseth launches review of combat standards: The defense secretary’s memo follows his repeated criticism of what he says has been a lowering of military standards to promote diversity in the ranks. (Missy Ryan, Washington Post)

U.S. Naval Academy ends affirmative action in admissions: The U.S. Naval Academy will no longer consider race, ethnicity, or sex as a factor for admission to the service institution. The decision comes after a federal judge ruled in December that the academy could continue considering race in its admissions process — the academy argued that prioritizing diversity in the military makes it stronger, more effective, and more widely respected. (Brian Witte, Military Times)

Business and Finance

FCC chairman orders inquiry into Disney’s DEI practices: It’s unclear whether the FCC has the power to punish a media company for its diversity initiatives. (Cecilia Kang, New York Times)

Federal investigators were preparing two Texas housing discrimination cases — until Trump took over: The government spent years probing allegations that a Dallas homeowners association created rules to kick out poor Black people and that Texas discriminated against minority residents in Houston after Hurricane Harvey, only to suddenly reverse course under Trump. (Jesse Coburn, ProPublica)

Tech

Trump family pushes further into crypto, starting another venture: Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are investing in a Bitcoin-mining company called American Bitcoin, with Eric serving as chief strategy officer of the new venture. The project is the third major crypto venture that the Trump family has started over the past year. Since taking office, President Trump has relaxed enforcement of the crypto industry. (David Yaffe-Bellany, New York Times)

Health Care

U.S. scientists lost $3 billion in NIH grants since Trump took office: Since January, NIH research funding has plummeted by more than $3 billion compared with the pace of funding in 2024.This slowdown amounts to a 60% drop in grant support for a wide variety of research — from studies on cancer treatments, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s to vaccines, mental health, and transgender health. (Beth Mole, Ars Technica)

The CDC buried a measles forecast that stressed the need for vaccinations: Leaders at the CDC last week ordered staff not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging. The CDC’s statement about the decision shows that the agency is falling in line with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Patricia Callahan, ProPublica)

Top FDA vaccine official resigns, citing Kennedy’s “misinformation and lies”: The FDA’s top vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks, resigned under pressure Friday and said that Health Secretary Kennedy’s stance on vaccines was irresponsible and posed a danger to the public. (Christina Jewett, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and Noah Weiland, New York Times)

Democratic senators call for investigation into assisted living facilities in Medicaid: Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Ron Wyden asked GAO to conduct a new review of how oversight is conducted over assisted living facilities that participate in Medicaid following a 2018 report that found federal oversight of the facilities was lacking and allowed abuse and neglect to go unnoticed. (Joseph Choi, The Hill)

Trump nominates Republican once accused of mishandling taxpayer funds as HHS watchdog: Thomas March Bell, nominated to lead HHS’s Office of Inspector General, was once accused of mishandling taxpayer funds and has a history of launching investigations against abortion clinics. (Amanda Seitz, ABC News)

🔎 See Also: Trump says he’ll stop health care fraudsters. Last time, he let them walk (Brett Kelman, CBS News)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Trump administration deports more migrants to Salvadoran prison

→ Trump administration admits “error” in deporting Maryland resident to El Salvador

→ U.S. has spent $40 million to jail about 400 migrants at Guantánamo

→ Judge blocks Trump from ending deportation protection for Venezuelans

→ Tech companies are telling immigrant employees on visas not to leave the U.S.

→ “Mission South Africa”: How Trump is offering white Afrikaners refugee status

Other News:

→ Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president

→ Trump administration sues to invalidate dozens of union contracts

→ Wisconsin attorney general sues Elon Musk to block $1M payment offers in Supreme Court race

→ Entire staff at federal agency that funds libraries and museums put on leave

→ Bondi instructs Justice Department to dismiss Biden-era legal challenge to Georgia election law

→ Democrats sue Trump administration over elections executive order

Nominations & Appointments

Nominations

Jonathan Berry - Solicitor of Labor, Department of Labor
Mark Brnovich - Ambassador, Serbia
Sara Carter - Director of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President
Bart McKay Davis – United States Attorney for the District of Idaho
Ron Parsons - United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota
David C. Waterman - United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa

Appointments