Today in Politics, Bulletin 74. 2/18/25

… Newsweek reports that Joe Rogan has lost his #1 slot in the podcast rankings to the MeidasTouch Podcast, according to Podscribe data.

… Newsweek: “Podcast charts have largely been dominated by shows with a conservative or pro-Trump voice, and the likes of Joe Rogan, Shawn Ryan and Ben Shapiro have frequently appeared in the Top 10. But less than a month into the new admin, the rise of the left-leaning MeidasTouch to become the country's most popular podcast indicates a potential shift in tone currently resonating with Americans.”

… “Joe Rogan has long dominated the podcast chart, but this month he slipped down into the 2nd spot, according to Podscribe. His podcast was downloaded and played 48.6 million times, a 32% decrease from the previous month. The MeidasTouch Podcast took top spot with 56 million downloads and plays, increasing in reach by 101% this month.

… NYT reports that Denise Cheung, the highly respected Criminal Division Chief for the US Attorneys Office in DC, has abruptly resigned after refusing to carry out a directive from a Trump appointee. Cheung said that she was given an unethical order to launch a criminal probe and pursue an asset freeze on a government contract issued during the Biden Admin. She said there was no legal basis to support the demand.

… Cheung said she refused to betray her oath: "I have been proud to serve at DOJ and the DC office for over 24 years. During my tenure, which has spanned over many different administrations, I have always been guided by the oath I took to support and defend the Constitution."

… Over 900 former federal prosecutors signed an open letter to prosecutors in DOJ to remember their oath and come forward if Trump appointees demand that they do something unethical: "Some of you have been ordered to make charging decisions based expressly on considerations other than the facts and the law, including to serve solely political purposes."

… Reuters reports that USDA employees who were reviewing Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink were just fired over the weekend. The cuts included about 20 people in the FDA’s office of neurological and physical medicine devices, several of whom worked on Neuralink oversight.

… Steve Bannon roasted Musk over Neuralink and other issues in new interview: “Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant. He wants to impose his freak experiment and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, tradition or values.”

… Bannon has always railed against transhumanism, which is a movement by tech bros which seeks to extend life spans and alter natural life and brain functioning with technology.

… Bannon then said Musk is a fraud: "DOGE is sitting there with the budget, but where the fuck are the DOGE cuts? We are 30 days away from approving a budget for the entire year with $2 trillion already baked in, and not one penny of anything that DOGE found. It's ludicrous. Performative. There's hesitancy to take on the Pentagon. I want $100 billion cut from its $900 billion budget."

… Michelle King, former acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, resigned abruptly after she refused to comply with DOGE's demand that she turn over data on millions of Americans, which included Social Security numbers, work histories, and medical information. King was a non-partisan career civil servant who worked for SSA for decades.

… Musk has been hyping the results of his subsequent deep dive into Social Security data over the last two days, claiming that over $4.7 trillion was paid out to millions of dead people. Naturally, his posts have gone viral as Republican politicians and MAGA influencers cranked up their propaganda machine to spread his lies.

… WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt then went on Fox to repeat the claim in this familiar disinformation playbook: “President Trump has directed Elon Musk and the DOGE team to identify fraud at the social security administration. They've not dug into the books, but they suspect there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent social security payments.”

… Fox host ‘Kennedy’ told their audience today that this might mean that we are all going to be getting fat checks soon because Musk will probably be giving us back all the fraudulent money he will be recovering: “When you are finding all this money and taking it back - give that back to the American people. And people will be able to take out new loans and start new businesses.”

… A chicken in every pot! Courtesy of our savior, King Elon Musk.

… Former Fox Business host Trish Regan said she really wanted to believe Musk’s claims about this, but after looking into it she realizes it’s all just a hoax: “Sounds like WH may have misinterpreted DOGE data on social security. It seems we are NOT PAYING these benefits. These people are just on the rolls despite no checks going out. This is not the huge find that people hoped for. While social security records SHOULD be cleaned up, it appears this finding will have little savings effect since the checks weren’t going out. Looks like the team got out over its skis on this one.”

… Rep. Eli Crane: “If you packaged everything done by DOGE so far and put it on the House floor back in the 118th Congress, you’d have been lucky to get half of the Republican caucus to vote for it.”

… Crane is saying this to praise Musk, but he makes our point for us. What he said is exactly the problem. We have a constitutional republic with elected representatives who are accountable to their constituents. They are the people who are supposed to make these decisions, not an oligarchs like Musk and his minions.

… Meanwhile, MAGA Mike Johnson gave the House of Representatives the week off. Musk has everything handled.

… WaPo just profiled abruptly fired VA employee Luke Graziani, who is a disabled 20-year Army veteran who did 2 tours in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan, and has 4 kids. He said he didn’t think he would be one of the government employees fired by DOGE because of his status as a disabled vet. He thought wrong - nobody is safe from the South African illegal immigrant.

… Sen. Ruben Gallego: “The same guy who dodged the draft 5 times just fired 1,000 people who care for veterans. Trump does not stand with our military.”

… Even Tom Cotton is now griping about DOGE’s mass firings of critical employees: “As the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee and a member of the Armed Services Committee, I’m aware of a number of critical national security capabilities that rely heavily on the spectrum the government is considering walking away from to detect and defend threats. We MUST ensure those capabilities are protected in any potential auction so that the US can maintain peace through strength.”

… At the hearing before Judge Chutkan yesterday, Trump lawyers claimed that Musk is not officially in charge of DOGE, which was being sued for exceeding their authority. Chutkan seemed incredulous and questioned the statement of Trump’s lawyer, based on Trump and Musk claiming many times that he was running the show. Hours after the hearing, the WH filed a statement with the court claiming that Musk is not the administrator of DOGE and is technically not even part of it. They now say he is just a “senior advisor to the president.”

… Karoline Leavitt was then asked on Fox about this new filing. Host: This affidavit says Musk doesn't work for DOGE at all. So what is his role at DOGE? Leavitt: “Elon Musk is a special government employee. Elon Musk has been tasked with overseeing DOGE.”

… What this lie is really all about is an attempt to shield Musk from all accountability and responsibility for everything he is doing. He is given titles that allow him to avoid Senate confirmation and some ethics and financial reporting requirements. When his DOGE operation is sued, they claim he technically isn’t part of DOGE. Musk claims that he is a model of transparency, while he hides everything he does and refuses to take responsibility for any of it.

… So Trump, Musk, and Fox want the American people - and judges presiding over lawsuits - to believe that Musk really had nothing to do with the decisions that are being made by DOGE. Maybe they were made by his DOGE bro Edward ‘Big Balls’ Coristine.

… Rep. Tim Burchett went on an incoherent rant on CNN when he was asked about the age and qualifications of the DOGE bros. He compared them to his Marine vet dad fighting in the jungles during WW2: “Well, those Japanese, those are Japanese rifle that, guess what? My dad was 20, 21 years old when he killed the people that carried that. You all don’t question the fact that, you know, these 20-22 year-old people, they’re the ones that fight our dadgum wars.”

… Dadgummit! What else do you need to know? They’re practically raising the flag at Iwo Jima.

… Axios reports that Democrats in Congress are meeting with state AGs, law firms, constitutional experts, and advocacy organizations to work on a coordinated strategy to use the courts, demonstrations, and legislative actions in congressional hearings to deal with Trump and Musk’s attempt to dismantle the federal government.

… Amanda Litman, President of ‘RunForSomething’: “The future of the Democratic Party will not be shaped by think tanks, pollsters, ad makers, or consultants. It will be shaped by people literally running as Democrats over the next few years. Rebuilding the party requires broad candidate recruitment for principled authentic leaders.”

… I agree with this 100%. The consultants and pollsters do not need to be our leaders and we don’t need to follow them. Our leadership that will emerge out of this mess is going to come from the grass roots activists. Many of the best candidates for office in 2026 and 2028 are currently being recruited from people who have just been fired by DOGE. I want to follow and listen to them, not the self-interested consultant class.

… Litman: “As of this morning, more than 19,000 people have signed up with runforsomething to consider running for local office just since Election Day - 6,000 of them just in the last three weeks. People are ready to fight back.”

… Controversial Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced that he is resigning just 4.5 years into his 10 year term: “It has been one of the pleasures of my life and a crowning achievement of my career to have been associated with them and their mission of public service.”

… It is unclear exactly what exactly led to this move. Trump appointee DeJoy was roasted three months ago by both Republicans and Democrats for his incompetence while running USPS, which led to him actually covering his ears in a pathetic attempt to avoid hearing their scorn and ridicule. Maybe it was that, or maybe it was Clay Higgins’s rant yesterday about his illegal mailbox. We just may never know.

… But it is good riddance to DeJoy, except we know that Trump is likely to now appoint someone even worse. Wasn’t Sarah Palin just complaining about not getting a job yet from Trump? Could happen. Maybe Michael Flynn?

Reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow since I do my podcast Uncovered, which takes a deep dive into the 10 biggest stories of the week. We are all very excited about the success of the MeidasTouch Podcast. Ben, Brett and Jordy are the stars of the show, but those of us on the research and writing team who provide the content feel like we were part of this accomplishment as well. Thanks to all of you for your support!

… The Telegraph (UK) reports they obtained a copy of the proposed peace plan that was delivered to President Zelensky from the Trump admin. The plan was described as essentially “the US economic colonization of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity," and also "implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved."

… The Trump shakedown guarantees the US 50% of the revenues generated by the extraction of natural resources in Ukraine, and 50% of revenues generated by "all