We’re About to Find Out What Mass Deportation Really Looks Like

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. The Trump administration is working hard to convince the public that its mass-deportation campaign is fully under way. Over the past several weeks, federal agents have seized foreign students off the streets, raided worksites, and shipped detainees to a supermax prison in El Salvador using wartime powers adopted under the John Adams administration. The tactics have spread fear and created a showreel of social-media-ready highlights for the White House. But they have not…

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Why Trump Says He’s ‘Not Joking’ About a Third Term

Donald Trump’s interest in seeking an unconstitutional third term as president, like many of his most dangerous or illegal ideas, began as a joke. Trump would muse on the stump that he deserved an extra term because he was robbed of his first (by Robert Mueller’s investigation) or his second (by imagined vote fraud in 2020) without quite clarifying his intent. But in an interview with NBC News this weekend, and then in remarks on Air Force One, Trump said he was completely serious about at least exploring the notion.…

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‘How you do it matters’: GAO heightens concerns about federal workforce

Comptroller General Gene Dodaro’s very last congressional hearing on the Government Accountability Office’s high-risk list went back over some familiar yet urgent ground, as the long-time head of GAO repeatedly warned Congress about the future of the federal workforce. “I’ve been very concerned about the federal workforce,” Dodaro told lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during a hearing last week. “It doesn’t have the proper skills that are needed to address many of these important areas that are providing critical services to the American people, and at…

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J. D. Vance Stopped Talking About Eggs

We used to hear a lot about eggs from J. D. Vance. On the campaign trail, he talked about them constantly: how his kids were nuts for them, and how, thanks to the failed policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, omelets were ruined for everyone. “My kids eat a lotta eggs!” he said in Traverse City, Michigan. And in Monroeville, Pennsylvania: “A lotta eggs in my family!” Although other elements of the speech changed here and there, eggs—and their rising price—were always front and center. “The 7-year-old, he’s got…

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What to Know and What to Do About the White House Funding Freeze Chaos

Donald Trump just issued an order that will immediately stop federal funding and hurt American families. Healthcare will be cut. Preschools will be forced to close. Services for seniors will end. While advocates were able to file a successful appeal with the courts to halt Trump from continuing to move forward, Trump wants this fight to erupt and to disrupt the lives of his opponents and millions of everyday Americans. This is another way for Trump to make people’s everyday lives harder and hurt their wallets while giving tax cuts…

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Hegseth Is Right About DEI: US Military Faces Historic Recruiting Crisis Because of It

A focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion has damaged the effectiveness of the U.S. military and hurt recruitment numbers. Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee grilled President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, on Tuesday. One exchange in particular highlighted the wrongheaded thinking that infects some in the current U.S. leadership and how it addresses the military’s challenges. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the panel, said in hostile questioning of Hegseth that the military is “more diverse than it has ever been” and…

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