Mr Viral
Treasury Department sued over DOGE takeover
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s administration is being sued over Elon Musk’s alleged “massive and unprecedented” intrusion into the American government’s payment systems. The suit, filed in a Washington, DC federal court Monday evening by the advocacy group Public Citizen, calls for the court to stop the “unlawful, ongoing, systematic, and continuous disclosure of personal and financial information … to Elon Musk and other members of the so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), or to any other person.”
Public Citizen filed the suit against the Treasury Department on behalf of the Alliance for Retired Americans, American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Employees International Union days after reports emerged that Musk and DOGE had gained access to federal payment systems — and to millions of Americans’ Social Security numbers. The suit claims that the Treasury Department, led by recently appointed Secretary Scott Bessent, violated the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code’s regulations surrounding taxpayer information by letting Musk and DOGE access these systems.
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An “AI-first” GSA.
Wired reports that an Elon Musk ally outlined an “AI-first strategy” to General Services Administration workers on Monday. “Throughout the meeting, [Thomas] Shedd shared his vision for a GSA that operates like a ‘startup software company,’ automating different internal tasks and centralizing data from across the federal government,” according to Wired.
“There is not one single entity holding Musk accountable.”
Elon Musk, running amok in American government, is attempting to dismantle USAID, taking an interest in federal real estate, and “reveling in the trappings of the opulent Secretary of War Suite in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.” His goons are also attempting to access Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services systems.
CBS is preparing to give Harris interview materials to the FCC.
FCC chairman Brendan Carr said he expects CBS News to submit a transcript of a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris by the end of the day, writes The Wrap.
This submission is related to a complaint from rightwing group Center for American Rights over the episode’s editing. The Wrap notes that former FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel had previously dismissed the filing, accusing the group of “seeking to weaponize” the regulator.
Trump agrees to a one-month pause on Mexico, Canada tariffs
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
On Monday morning, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and US President Donald Trump announced the US is pausing tariffs against Mexico for one month, as previously reported by Bloomberg. In the afternoon, a similar deal was announced by Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pause proposed tariffs for 30 days. Trudeau cited Canada’s $1.3 billion border plan and said it would also make new commitments, including a joint strike force and an intelligence directive aimed at organized crime.
There’s no word yet on any kind of delay in implementing a pause for tariffs on China.
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Trump orders a ‘sovereign wealth fund’ for the US.
The President signed an executive order today to create the fund “within the next year,” and told reporters that the US could use it to purchase TikTok, according to Reuters.
Trump has previously suggested the US could own 50 percent of the app in a “joint venture.”
Data brokers can keep selling your social security number, says new CFPB chief
Treasure Secretary Scott Bessent has been named the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the bureau announced today. Bessent quickly instructed the agency to “to stop all rulemaking, communications, litigation, and other activities,” reports Bloomberg Law.
A source inside the CFPB told Bloomberg Law that his order “appeared to shut down the CFPB altogether for the time being.” The email containing the order told the bureau to stop work on new regulation, enforcement of existing rules, investigation of companies, or issue “public communications of any type,” The Washington Post reported.
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Canada will retaliate against Trump with tariffs on US goods
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Canada will set its own tariffs against US goods in retaliation to broad 25 percent tariffs President Donald Trump announced on Saturday on Canadian imports. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a 25 percent tariff on a total of C$155 billion worth of American goods — C$30 billion of that on Tuesday when Trump’s tariffs go into effect, then an additional C$125 billion after 21 days. Trudeau also warned that the US tariffs will harm both countries’ economies, particularly the auto industry. “This is a choice that, yes, will harm Canadians, but beyond that, it will have real consequences for you, the American people,” he said in a press conference on Saturday.
Trudeau offered a “far-reaching” list of products that would be subject to import taxes, including American alcohol, orange juice, clothing, appliances, lumber, and plastics, along with “much, much more.” Non-tariff moves like reexamining public procurement policies are also on the table. However, he said that actions like limiting energy exports would require more careful consideration because “no one part of the country should be carrying a heavier burden than any other.”
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Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
The US is officially imposing tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. President Donald Trump announced that goods imported from Mexico and Canada will face a 25 percent tariff, while goods from China will face a 10 percent tariff. There will also be a lower 10 percent tariff on energy resources from Canada. In a series of posts on X announcing the tariffs, the administration claimed they were happening to “hold China, Mexico, and Canada accountable for their promises to halt the flood of poisonous drugs into the United States” while repeatedly referencing fentanyl.
The tariffs are set to go into effect on Tuesday, February 4th, according to The New York Times. They’re expected to have an impact on a huge swath of goods, ranging from the electronics we use every day to necessities like clothing, pharmaceuticals, and lithium batteries.
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Canadian officials have reportedly been notified of tariffs.
Despite no public announcement yet on the expected tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and maybe China, Canadian officials tell reporters they’ve been notified President Donald Trump is imposing a 25 percent tariff on most goods and a 10 percent tariff on energy products (i.e. oil). Tariffs were supposed to go into force today, but they’re now apparently supposed to hit Tuesday, at least in Canada. A response from Canada is expected later today.
Trump fires CFPB head Rohit Chopra
Image: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Donald Trump’s data purge has begun
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images
Key resources for environmental data and public health have already been taken down from federal websites, and more could soon vanish as the Trump administration works to scrap anything that has to do with climate change, racial equity, or gender identity.
Warnings floated on social media Friday about an impending purge at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), spurring calls to save as much data as soon as possible. The CDC shares data on a wide range of topics, from chronic diseases to traffic injuries, tobacco use, vaccinations, and pregnancies in the US — and it’s just one of the agencies in the crosshairs.
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Mr. Nvidia goes to the White House.
Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, didn’t join other AI-heavy tech execs at the presidential inauguration and skipped the announcement of the Stargate Project, but Reuters reported he was scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on Friday.
Trump’s first round of tariffs is almost here
Electronics, avocados, vegetables, cars, tractors, crude oil — these are some of the things that could soon get more expensive for US consumers. Under President Donald Trump’s proposed plan, goods coming in from Mexico and Canada will be subject to a 25 percent tariff beginning on February 1st. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has also said Trump was “very much still considering” tariffs on China on the same day. As of late Thursday, the specifics of these plans were still up in the air.
Sweeping tariffs were one of Trump’s marquee campaign promises leading up to the election in November. He’s previously threatened up to a 60 percent tariff on goods from China, a 100 percent tariff on goods from Mexico, and even a 200 percent tariff on John Deere products imported into the US. Despite this, Trump failed to levy any tariffs on day one of his presidency, with Bloomberg reporting on Thursday that his administration lacked even concepts of a plan. His first round is now supposed to hit goods from Mexico and Canada, the two largest trade partners for the US.
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Meta agrees to pay $25 million to settle Trump account suspension suit
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Meta agreed to a $25 million settlement over a 2021 lawsuit President Donald Trump brought against Meta for suspending his accounts after the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the news, and Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the settlement to The Verge.
It’s a step that Trump discussed with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his recent visit to Mar-a-Lago, The Verge has independently confirmed. One unnamed source told The Journal that Trump indicated the lawsuit would need to be resolved before Zuckerberg would have a chance of being “brought into the tent.”
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Lee Zeldin, who wants to “make America the AI capital of the world” will lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
The new transportation secretary’s first act is to start letting cars pollute more.
Sean Duffy, fresh off his confirmation as Donald Trump’s secretary of transportation, signed a memorandum to “start the process of resetting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which will ultimately lower the price of a car for American consumers and eliminate the electric vehicle mandate,” his office said in a statement. There is no EV mandate, of course, and rolling back federal fuel economy rules will ultimately increase oil consumption and release more carbon dioxide into the environment during a global climate crisis. But at least we’ll get cheap cars! (We won’t.)
Trump’s media company is getting into fintech, too.
Trump Media is launching Truth.Fi as part of its “financial services and financial technology strategy,” but there still aren’t many details about what it will actually do. The company also plans to invest $250 million into customized exchange-traded funds, along with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
This comes just one day after Elon Musk’s X announced that it’s partnering with Visa to launch its X Money service this year.
Elon Musk saying he’ll ‘bring home’ two astronauts for Trump is as dumb as it sounds.
Ars Technica explains why even as off-the-cuff maybe-trolling, Musk’s recent comments about the ISS crew put a strain on NASA. Here’s the crux:
The “stranded” astronauts on the space station probably could come home as early as next week. But if they were to do so, it would create a lot of headaches for NASA, its international partners, and probably even for Musk’s human spaceflight team at SpaceX.
Another change from Google’s maps team.
Google announced yesterday that Maps in the US will show Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, and CNBC today reports that the company’s maps division has added the US to its list of “sensitive” countries. CNBC says that that classification is reserved for “states with strict governments and border disputes” and includes countries like “China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, among others.”
Did Elon Musk write the federal worker buyout email?
The buyout offer that just went out to millions of US federal workers has the subject line, “Fork in the Road,” which is the same subject line Musk used when he gave his “extremely hardcore” ultimatum to Twitter employees in 2022. While it’s unclear if he was involved in the creation of this new email, Musk himself seems to at least be in on the reference.
Donald Trump wants to claw back clean energy funding
The Trump administration sent a memo instructing federal agencies to pause grant, loan, and other financial assistance programs. It’s a catch-all for a wide range of programs President Donald Trump has crusaded against and it’s unclear what specifically is in the crosshairs with this move, but it seems to target Biden-era programs to deploy clean energy.
But just before the funding freeze was set to take effect on Tuesday, a federal judge paused it until February 3rd at 5 PM, and could extend the pause after a hearing on Monday. The administrative stay will let the government continue to disburse only funds that have already been authorized. The freeze was supposed to stop funds for policies Trump rolled back through executive orders, “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
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DeepSeek wakes up Trump.
The president has called the Chinese AI startup “a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win.” DeepSeek’s models are much cheaper to build than those of leading AI companies and, ever the businessman, Trump sees the appeal: “Instead of spending billions and billions you’ll spend less and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution.”
Trump says Microsoft wants TikTok (again).
Asked by reporters if Microsoft is in talks to take over TikTok’s US arm, the president was succinct: “I would say yes.” The company is reported to be among several investors, including Oracle, working on a joint bid. Microsoft previously tried to buy the social site back in 2020, which CEO Satya Nadella called the “strangest thing I’ve ever worked on.”
Google Maps in the US will change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley
Illustration: The Verge
Google said today that it plans to update Google Maps to reflect President Trump’s January 20th executive order to change the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali to the Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, respectively.
The company noted on X the updated nomenclature will appear once the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated.
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