Vance suggests judges can’t limit what Donald Trump can do
Vice President Vance, who took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, has come out against the government structure and checks and balances that are at the heart of the Constitution. Vance says that judges, in the judicial branch of government, do not have the power to put checks and balances on Donald Trump, who is at the top of the executive branch of government. Vance stated his views on the website X, formerly Twitter, run by Elon Musk, who himself has questioned whether the executive branch has to obey court orders.
Musk gets access to personal data about disaster victims
Elon Musk and his computer people have gained access to sensitive personal information about tens of thousands of Americans who have been victims of disasters. The information is in computer files from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Kristi Noem, who now heads the Department of Homeland Security of which FEMA is a part, indicated to in an interview on CNN that she doesn’t know exactly what information Musk has about the people whose data is on FEMA’s computer systems but plans to talk to him about it.
Trump orders end to minting pennies
Donald Trump yesterday issued an executive order for the U.S. Mint to stop minting new pennies, a coin that has been in existence since the 1790s. This is his first move to change the money used in the U.S. Elon Musk called for an end to producing pennies and also targeted the nickel for extinction. Musk and Trump both have said it is too expensive to produce each penny and the government could save a lot of pennies if it dropped them. Trump is now involved in crypto currencies, which unlike pennies and nickels can’t be carried around in people’s pockets or put in piggy banks.
Judge to hear arguments on federal employee buyout offer
Federal Judge George O’Toole was due to hear arguments today in his Boston courtroom in a lawsuit brought by federal unions alleging that the buyout offer for federal workers from Donald Trump and Elon Musk is illegal because Congress has not authorized the money needed to pay for it. A court order temporarily blocked them from imposing their original deadline for federal employees to accept the buyout the offer and then possibly firing all the federal employees who did not take their buyout.
CNN and The Washington Post latest to be limited at Pentagon
In another move against mainstream news media, the Trump Administration has ordered CNN and The Washington Post to get out of their office space at the Pentagon. This follows the previous evictions of NBC News, The New York Times, National Public Radio and Politico. The offices and broadcast booths that some of the organizations have used for decades are being turned over smaller, right-wing news operations such as Newsmax, Breitbart News and One America News. In a new wrinkle in his assault on the news media, Trump posted online that the CBS News program “60 Minutes” should be terminated immediately. Trump is suing CBS over its airing of an interview with former Vice President Harris and has increased his demand for damages in the lawsuit to $20 billion.
Financial protections for U.S. consumers being stopped by Trump Administration
The Trump Administration has installed Russell Vought, head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, as head of the government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Vought immediately moved to close it. CNBC reports that Vought sent emails over the weekend and this morning telling employees to stop their work. The agency monitors what financial firms are doing and protects consumers from fraud and other issues. The CFPB’s headquarters building in Washington was closed to its employees as of this morning.
