USDA, DOGE demand states hand over personal data about food stamp recipients

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5389952/usda-snap-doge-data-immigration

May 9, 20253:55 PM ET

Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday

By

Jude Joffe-Block

,

Stephen Fowler

People shop in a supermarket in New York City on Feb. 20, 2025.

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

The Department of Agriculture is demanding states hand over personal data of food assistance recipients — including Social Security numbers, addresses and, in at least one state, citizenship status, according to emails shared with NPR by an official who was not allowed to speak publicly.

The sweeping and unprecedented request comes as the Trump administration ramps up the collection and consolidation of Americans’ sensitive data, and as that data has been used to make misleading claims about people in the U.S. illegally accessing public benefits and committing fraud, and to build a greater capacity to deport them.

The emails obtained by NPR also show the nationwide directive regarding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, follows a request by federal auditors for information that included citizenship data but not other data typically used to verify financial eligibility for the program.

In 2024, SNAP served an average of 42 million people each month, according to the Department of Agriculture, at a cost of $100 billion. Only some categories of lawfully present noncitizens are eligible to receive SNAP benefits, and those without legal status can never qualify. However, a noncitizen parent without legal status may apply for the assistance on behalf of their children who are U.S. citizens.

The latest data demands are “absolutely alarming,” and “reckless” and likely violate the Privacy Act and other statutes, said John Davisson, senior counsel and director of litigation at the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. He and other advocates warn the data could be used to enable deportation and mass surveillance efforts and would do little to address improper payments.

“It is an unprecedented extension of the administration’s campaign to consolidate personal data,” Davisson said.

USDA’s unusual data request

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is a federal program. Each state administers the program and enrolls participants based on eligibility determined by Congress. While the USDA and its Office of Inspector General can audit state SNAP programs, participants’ personal data typically remains under the state’s control.

In March, the USDA’s Office of Inspector General notified California, Florida, New York and Texas of inspections of their SNAP programs to see if the states were improperly using administrative funds to pay out benefits, the emails show.

That ultimately led to a request for detailed sensitive data — including citizenship status and addresses — of all SNAP participants in the previous year from at least one of the states.

A sign outside of a grocery store welcomes those on food assistance in a Brooklyn neighborhood that has a large immigrant and elderly population on Oct. 16, 2023 in New York City.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

An April 2 update the state received from the OIG’s office added a new objective: performing analytics on participant data to “evaluate its quality and integrity.” Yet the watchdog ultimately declined to request participants’ employment status or income — which are key for determining financial eligibility for food assistance and detecting possible fraud.

Instead, the request prioritized other data fields, including name, date of birth, address, contact information, Social Security number, citizenship status and information about household members, the emails show.

At an initial joint video conference, the states learned the inspections had been requested by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, according to an official who attended the meeting but was not authorized to discuss the matter. Trump fired existing inspectors general across the federal government when he took office, including at the USDA where a new permanent leader of the office has yet to be confirmed.

Earlier this week, the USDA escalated its quest for data further.

In a May 6 letter to all states, an adviser for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services said the federal agency would be seeking personally identifiable information for SNAP applicants and recipients, including, but not limited to, “names, dates of birth, personal addresses used, and Social Security numbers” going back to Jan. 1, 2020. USDA did not answer NPR’s questions about the full extent of personal data it was requesting.

The letter said USDA is asking private contractors that process SNAP payments for states to turn over that data, and will use it to “ensure program integrity, including by verifying the eligibility of benefit recipients.” The directive comes as Republican lawmakers in Congress are proposing deep cuts to the food assistance program that would reduce the number of people who participate in it.

DOGE’s role

The May 6 letter cited President Donald Trump’s March 20 executive order, “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos,” which calls on agencies to ensure the federal government “has unfettered access to comprehensive data from all state programs that receive federal funding “including from “third-party databases” in order to identify fraud and overpayments.

The ad hoc Department of Government Efficiency team, or DOGE, has been accessing sensitive data across the federal government in recent months and has been using allegations of wasteful and fraudulent spending to justify dismantling government agencies. Neither DOGE nor the White House responded to NPR’s requests for comment.

Fidelity Information Services, a vendor used by some states to process electronic bank transfer transactions for SNAP programs, told its state partners the day before USDA’s letter to states that the agency and its DOGE team contacted them in connection to the executive order, and that “no proprietary, confidential, or personally identifiable information” was shared, according to emails obtained by NPR.

A customer shops for eggs at a grocery store on March 12, 2025 in Chicago.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

“FIS values its close working relationship with both USDA and its state partners and is committed to supporting efforts to improve program efficiency and reduce fraud,” reads a statement the company provided to NPR. “As agreed with the USDA and in compliance with federal regulation, FIS has notified States of the USDA’s request and is working with both to determine the most efficient manner to respond with the requested information.”

Wired, the Washington Post and CNN have reported that DOGE is also combining sensitive data from across agencies, including Social Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service, to create a data tool that can help the federal government track and arrest immigrants they want to remove.

More than a dozen federal lawsuits allege DOGE staffers have been illegally granted permission to view databases with personal and financial information the government maintains, and multiple federal judges have expressed concern about what information DOGE has accessed and why. Late last month, DHS announced a DOGE-led overhaul of its Systematic Alien Verification Entitlements (SAVE) database, making the system free for state and local governments to use and promising a “single, reliable source for verifying non-citizen status nationwide.”

Davisson, the privacy attorney, said the SNAP data being requested could be used to make exaggerated allegations of fraud, and that combining the information with other DOGE-obtained data could be used for immigration enforcement efforts.

“What they’re building is a surveillance weapon and it can be put to all sorts of adverse uses in the future,” said Davisson.

NPR asked the USDA if the agency would be following protocols outlined in the Privacy Act, such as publishing a privacy assessment and System of Records Notice for the new dataset. An unnamed spokesperson using a USDA press email account told NPR the agency’s general counsel is determining whether that is required.

“All personally identifiable information will comply with all privacy laws and regulations and will follow responsible data handling requirements,” the email said.

Fraud and abuse with SNAP benefits are rare

After Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at ensuring immigrants without legal status are not receiving federal benefits, Agriculture Secretary Rollins made combatting alleged mispayments to ineligible immigrants a focus.

“The days in which taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize illegal immigration are over,” Rollins said in a February press release.

In fiscal year 2023 about 11% of SNAP benefits distributed were considered improper over- or underpayments. Still, even fewer — about 1% of those — were attributed to state-level issues related to determining citizenship eligibility, according to USDA’s own data.

Most of the improper payments in 2022 were due to unintentional mistakes by state workers or households, rather than intentional fraud, according to an analysis of the data by the left-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

Only 50% of eligible noncitizens (which includes refugees and green card holders) and 59% of eligible children living with noncitizen adults participated in SNAP in 2022, according to a USDA report. Overall, advocates said participation among those who are entitled to receive this benefit is low due to fears that it may have a negative impact on immigration proceedings.

A sign alerting customers about SNAP food stamps benefits is displayed in a Brooklyn grocery store on Dec. 5, 2019 in New York City.

Scott Heins/Getty Images

Even though immigrants without legal status are not eligible to receive SNAP or other federal benefits, SNAP data does include the names and addresses of people who could be subject to deportation now or in the future, or who share a household with people who could be.

Some legal immigrants who receive SNAP benefits may lose their legal status in the future given that the administration is trying to reverse Biden-era immigration programs that granted hundreds of thousands of people the ability to live and work in the U.S.

For years, advocates and state agencies have tried to reassure immigrant families that it is safe for them to sign up for assistance if they met the eligibility requirements.

“People seeking services need to know that their information will be used only to administer the program — and won’t put them or their family members at risk,” said Tanya Broder, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center.

“But the federal government’s demand for ‘unfettered’ access to sensitive data across multiple agencies, and its aggressive pursuit of immigrants, raise serious privacy concerns and the potential that information will be weaponized against people who would go hungry without assistance.”

On an FAQ page to sign up for food assistance from California, the site currently says the state will not report applicants’ immigration status to authorities and information is used only to determine eligibility.

“Authorities cannot use this information to deport you unless there is a criminal violation,” the state website says.

New York’s website says: “Applying for or receiving SNAP will not affect your ability to remain in the United States.”

Advocates NPR spoke with said it is important for SNAP participants to understand that it is not yet known at this point how states will handle the USDA’s pending data requests.

Esther Reyes with Protecting Immigrant Families, a coalition of 700 groups across the country that help eligible immigrants access services, is urging states to check with their congressional delegations about whether the data requests are legal before responding.

As for people who may feel fearful about enrolling in SNAP given concerns over data, Reyes said, “We really encourage families and communities to talk to enrollment workers and the people that they trust before acting on that fear.”

NPR’s Ximena Bustillo contributed reporting.

Have information you want to share about SNAP, DOGE access to government databases and immigration? Reach out to these authors through encrypted communication on Signal. Stephen Fowler is at stphnfwlr.25, Jude Joffe-Block is at JudeJB.10 and Ximena Bustillo is at ximenabustillo.77. Please use a nonwork device.

Correction May 9, 2025

An earlier version of this story misspelled John Davisson’s name.

Clay Jones, and Open Windows

We know Trump has no respect for democracy by Ann Telnaes

His supporters should be held accountable for their complicity Read on Substack

==========

Tiny Orange Balls by Clay Jones

Rubio has too many jobs Read on Substack

Kids, I can’t give you the super-long blog that you deserve to go with this cartoon. I have to be at an event in about 30 minutes in Washington, DC, and I haven’t looked to see how many metro stops that is, and I still need to get dressed and make myself smell good.

I started this cartoon at home, worked on it some more on the train, and finished it in my hotel room. After that, I went to Ben’s Chili Bowl, which is an institution in this city and only two stops from my hotel on the green line. And now I kinda want a nap because of those half-smoke dogs.

Anyway, Marco Rubio is currently doing a lot of duties in the Trump regime. He’s the Secretary of State, in charge of the National Archives, director of USAID, and now he’s the National Security Adviser, which was dumped on him after Trump demoted Mike Waltz to the role of Ambassador to the United Nations.

The ambassadorship to the UN would be an important job in any other administration, but not this one. Trump would rather pull out of the UN than participate in it. The ambassadorship to the UN is about as important in the Trump regime as the Secretary of Education.

The last person to be Secretary of State while also serving as National Security Adviser was Henry Kissinger, and Marco Rubio is not Henry Kissinger.

Marco struggles to be Marco. He has no firm commitment to any political position because Trump might tell him to change one, or two, or several.

Marco is not the dumbest Republican in Washington. I wouldn’t put him down with Tommy Tuberville, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Marsha Blackburn, or Cindy Hyde-Smith, but he’s no Katie Porter either. Sorry, I couldn’t think of any current Republicans to use an example of a smart person.

Senator Tammy Duckworth said there is “no way he [Rubio] can do that and do it well.” When he was just the Secretary of State, he wasn’t doing that one job well. And who can say he ever did his Senate job well?

Duckworth also said, “There’s no way he can carry … that entire load on his own.”

Marco was in the Signal chat group leaking out war plans, and he didn’t notice there was a stranger in the group.

Trump is just dumping shit off on Marco, who doesn’t even have enough of a backbone to say stop. But I hope he learns how to say stop by the time Trump gives him a fifth job…

…of playing with his balls.

Now, I gotta go hang out with cartoonists.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see!)

The Fall

Growing up, my father had a number of sayings that I did not always appreciate. One that sticks with me to this day is when he saw me waxing my first car. Admittedly, it wasn’t a great car, but it was mine!, and I was proud to have it. So there I was, rubbing away at it like a bum on the beach caressing a dented lamp hoping a Genie would pop out and make it a Mustang or something, and I saw him, leaning against the wall watching me use up his good wax and I grinned at him. “You know, son, there’s only so much you can polish a turd,” he said, then walked away as my grin fell.

Value is subjective, determined by the amount of life we deem it to be worthy. One of the most dangerous things you can do is stand between a man and what he believes worth everything for he will destroy anything to protect it.

The second most dangerous thing one can do is to overvalue something, for you will willingly destroy yourself and everything you love less in the pursuit of that item. This is the fall of Mike Lindell, Michael Cohen, Rudi Giuliani, and so many others. Obsessed with a conman and addicted to the koolaid, they laid prostrate upon the dark alter of Trump and sacrificed their wealth, career, future, loved ones, and perhaps their very soul for that which is objectively corrupt, offensive and untrue.

It is interesting to me to watch the fall of another who thought he could ride the corrupt lies to greatness only to find them as corrosive to ‘friend’ as to ‘foe’. Elon, once the wealthiest of businessmen, began his downfall by attempting to stifle the decency within Twitter in service to his Lord drumpf. He then used his platform to lie and cheat for a conman, buying his presidency and drinking the koolaid as fast as drumpf could make it.

I couldn’t understand why this man, wealthier than many countries, would put all he was and could be on the line like that. A man known for his advances in science and conservation placed himself within the nuclear blast zone of someone who denies science, flaunts his own ideas over those of experts, who embraces ignorance and self aggrandizement, and who denies conservation care for the environment. What drives people like these to destroy themselves? What hold does that Svengali have on them?

In all fairness, I don’t think I need to shed a tear for Elon. He is a big boy and will just have to suffer the consequences of his self-immolation. It is the curiosity of seeing it happen live, to see the startling half-realization that hate has consequences and seeking the shiney value, the loud and obnoxious clown above all that has real value, has begun his destruction. I can’t help but to wonder where he will wash up.

LGBTQ advocates celebrate wins after Pride flag banning bill and others fail this Session

LGBTQ advocates celebrate wins after Pride flag banning bill and others fail this Session

I think the tide is turning and the superexpressive attacks on the LGBTQ+ people, both adults and kids is not working well for republicans. I think they will see at local levels people are not buying it and are working to stop efforts to wipe all mention of LGBTQ+ people from society. Hugs

Gabrielle RussonMay 3, 2025

‘This is more than a policy victory,’ Equality Florida said.

LGBTQ advocates are celebrating several bills — including one that could have banned Pride flags flown at government buildings — stalling out this Session.

“Once again, we’ve done what many thought was impossible: not one anti-LGBTQ bill passed this session,” Equality Florida’s Executive Director Nadine Smith said in a statement Saturday.

The Legislative Session ended Friday although lawmakers failed to pass a balanced budget.

Some of the dead bills including HB 75/SB 100 that would have banned government buildings, schools and universities, from flying flags that represented a “political viewpoint.”

The proposal was sponsored by outgoing state Sen. Randy Fine before he left for Washington, D.C.

“How would we feel if the city of Palm Bay or the city of Ormond Beach flew the Make America Great Again flag from City Hall? How would we feel if a teacher hung that in their classroom?” Fine said during a March committee hearing. “The idea is whether it’s political viewpoints that we agree with or we disagree with, let’s keep that stuff out of government buildings.”

Equity Florida lobbied against the bill with its public policy director Jon Harris Maurer calling the flag ban “unnecessary, unclear, unconstitutional and dangerous.”

“It does not help Floridians struggling with insurance and housing affordability,” he said. “Instead, it is a made-up solution to a culture war for political purposes, but it will have real harms.”

Ultimately, Fine’s bill was withdrawn, failing to reach the Senate floor.

Equity Florida also heralded the defeat of other bills, including HB 1495/SB 440 to prevent governments from using the preferred pronouns for people who are transgender and other bills targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI.)

The organization pointed to its grassroots campaign this Session with 400 LGBTQ activists lobbying during “our largest largest advocacy week ever,” 16,000 emails sent to lawmakers and about 325 in-person meetings with legislators.

“It’s students and seniors, faith leaders and frontline workers, parents and teachers, standing together and making sure lawmakers hear us loud and clear: we will not back down,” Smith said in a statement.

Gabrielle Russon

Gabrielle Russon is an award-winning journalist based in Orlando. She covered the business of theme parks for the Orlando Sentinel. Her previous newspaper stops include the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Toledo Blade, Kalamazoo Gazette and Elkhart Truth as well as an internship covering the nation’s capital for the Chicago Tribune. For fun, she runs marathons. She gets her training from chasing a toddler around. Contact her at gabriellerusson@gmail.com or on Twitter @GabrielleRusson

Trump Allies Sue John Roberts To Give White House Control Of Court System

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-allies-sue-john-roberts-to-give-white-house-control-of-court-system

A think tank founded by Stephen Miller sued Roberts and the office that administers the judiciary, claiming that the White House should run the federal courts.

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 04: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) greets Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr as he arrives to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump was expected to address Congress on his early achievements of his presidency and his upcoming legislative agenda. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) LESS

By Josh Kovensky

|

May 2, 2025 10:42 a.m.

Updated May 2, 2025 4:45 p.m.

Close allies of President Trump are asking a judge to give the White House control over much of the federal court system.

In a little-noticed lawsuit filed last week, the America First Legal Foundation sued Chief Justice John Roberts and the head of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.

The case ostensibly proceeds as a FOIA lawsuit, with the Trump-aligned group seeking access to judiciary records. But, in doing so, it asks the courts to cede massive power to the White House: the bodies that make court policy and manage the judiciary’s day-to-day operations should be considered independent agencies of the executive branch, the suit argues, giving the President, under the conservative legal movement’s theories, the power to appoint and dismiss people in key roles.

Multiple legal scholars and attorneys TPM spoke with reacted to the suit with a mixture of dismay, disdain and laughter. Though the core legal claim is invalid, they said, the suit seems to be a part of the fight that the administration launched and has continued to escalate against the courts over the past several months: ignoring a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of a wrongly removed Salvadoran man, providing minimal notice to people subject to the Alien Enemies Act, flaunting an aggressive criminal case against a state court judge.

The executive branch has tried to encroach on the power of the judiciary in other ways too, prompting a degree of consternation and alarm unusual for the normally-staid Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. As TPM has documented, DOGE has already caused disorder at the courts and sent out mass emails to judges and other judiciary employees demanding a list of their recent accomplishments. Per one recent report in the New York Times, federal judges have expressed concern that Trump could direct the U.S. Marshals Service — an executive branch agency tasked with protecting judges and carrying out court orders — to withdraw protection.

These are all facets of an escalating campaign to erode the independence of the judiciary, experts told TPM. The lawsuit demonstrates another prong of it: close allies of the president are effectively asking the courts to rule that they should be managed by the White House.

“It’s like using an invalid legal claim to taunt the judiciary,” Anne Joseph O’Connell, a professor at Stanford University Law School, told TPM.

“To the extent this lawsuit has any value other than clickbait, maybe the underlying message is, we will let our imaginations run wild,” Peter M. Shane, a constitutional law scholar at NYU Law School, told TPM. “The Trump administration and the MAGA community will let our imaginations run wild in our attempts to figure out ways to make the life of the judiciary miserable, to the extent you push back against Trump.”

A FOIA from America First

The America First Legal Foundation filed the suit on April 22.

It came after the group first filed a FOIA request in July 2024 to the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts asking for “all records referring or relating to (1) Clarence Thomas or (2) Samuel Alito” and all communications with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), starting in April 2023. Both Democrats have led investigations into the influence of wealthy political donors’ money on the court, the conservative legal movement’s long-term plan to capture the high court, and alleged ethical violations by Justices Thomas and Alito. The Judicial Conference, which is composed of senior federal judges and operates via an array of committees, sets policy for the judiciary.

Ethan V. Torrey, legal counsel of the Supreme Court, rejected the request in a September 2024 letter, per an exhibit filed along with the complaint.

Daniel Z. Epstein filed the FOIA request, and is listed as lead attorney on the lawsuit. Epstein currently represents President Trump in his personal capacity in the lawsuit against CBS over an October 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.

Stephen Miller, the longtime Trump aide, founded the America First Legal Foundation in April 2021, describing it as the “long-awaited answer to the ACLU.” Over the next few years, the group succeeded in slowing down or blocking several Biden administration policies, often by filing in the Northern District of Texas’s Amarillo courthouse, which is presided over by a judge who is notably receptive to conservative arguments. Its priorities often match those of Trump’s second term; it attacked diversity programs, protections for LGBT students, immigration, and supposed “wokeness” in corporate America. Miller himself has been a public driving force in the most aggressive and lawless elements of the second Trump administration’s effort to bulldoze through civil liberties in the name of increasing the tempo of deportations.

In an email after publication, an America First Legal spokesperson cited a 1991 9th Circuit decision in a case brought by a federal judge seeking to force the Administrative Office to pay for a private defense attorney he wanted to hire in a lawsuit brought over his work as a judge. In that ruling, the 9th Circuit found that AO was a “non-Article III adjunct,” akin to a magistrate judge or special master: a body that serves the courts, but is not a court itself. America First Legal didn’t immediately reply to a follow-up question from TPM about whether it could address its claim that the Judicial Conference is also an independent agency of the executive branch.

When the suit was filed in April, it received a small round of coverage that focused on FOIA element of the claim.

Legal experts suggested to TPM that the FOIA piece is something of a trojan horse. The Judicial Conference and Administrative Office’s denial of the FOIA request provides standing to sue, and thereby ask a federal judge to declare that the two judicial bodies “are subject to the FOIA as independent agencies within the executive branch.”

In terms of importance, a judge finding that core parts of the judiciary are independent agencies of the executive branch would dwarf any FOIA material America First Legal might receive. The lawsuit itself seems to acknowledge this. At one point, in language channeling that of a protection racket, America First Legal observes that “Federal courts rely on the executive branch for facility management and security. Federal judges, as officers of the courts, need resources to fulfill their constitutional obligations.”

New extreme for an old theory

There is a level of irony here.

For years, conservative legal scholars have pushed the idea that power in the executive is unitary, granting the President the ability to exert direct control over all federal officials who carry out federal law. It opens the door to a level of presidential power that hasn’t been seen until this administration, and which the Supreme Court may ratify this term.

This lawsuit asks the judiciary to extend that logic to its own operations, potentially dealing a fatal blow to judicial independence.

This argument reaches a provocative peak when it comes to the Judicial Conference of the United States. There, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court can appoint members to committees. The lawsuit says that this means Roberts may, at times, fall under the President’s power — for FOIA purposes, of course.

“Accordingly, if the Chief Justice does indeed have this power to appoint officers, then he must be acting as an agency head, subjecting the Judicial Conference to the FOIA,” the suit reads.

Melissa Murray, a professor at NYU Law, pointed out that the suit raises a number of bizarre scenarios. If it makes it to the Supreme Court, “does the Chief Justice have to recuse himself?” she asked.

“It does seem like poking the bear,” she added.

As of this writing, lawyers for Roberts and the U.S. Courts director have not appeared on the docket. In other cases filed against parts of the judiciary, the Justice Department’s Civil Division has appointed attorneys.

The DOJ did not return a request for comment. The Administrative Office of U.S. Courts declined to comment. The Supreme Court also did not return requests for comment.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that federal courthouses will soon start serving Trump steaks, or that Kid Rock will be called on to provide filler sound during sidebar sessions.

Blake Emerson, a professor at UCLA Law, called the suit’s claims “outlandish,” and said that if it somehow succeeded, it would grant the White House control over “the means by which the judicial branch functionally operates.”

O’Connell, the Stanford Law Professor, described it to TPM as more of an attempt to tell a story about “how much power they think the executive should have” than a serious legal claim.

“There is no chance that this will prevail,” she said.

Read the lawsuit here:

He bought a president and got everything he wanted

Musk gave Trump $290 million. The quid pro quo? Deregulation.

– The NLRB dropped union-busting charges against SpaceX
– The EPA backed off fines for environmental violations
– The FAA continues approving launches despite rocket explosions
– The FCC is giving Starlink favorable… pic.twitter.com/jH64dF6m1c
— Our Revolution (@OurRevolution) April 26, 2025

Trump’s Space Budget Reflects Influence of Elon Musk and SpaceX

SpaceX, already one of the biggest NASA and Pentagon contractors, could win billions of dollars in new contracts if President Trump’s budget proposal is approved by Congress.

Elon Musk at the White House in April.Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times

By Eric Lipton

Eric Lipton has spent the last 18 months examining SpaceX contracts with the federal government and how federal agencies regulate SpaceX and other companies controlled by Elon Musk.

May 2, 2025

Elon Musk and SpaceX are big winners in Donald J. Trump’s 2026 spending plan.

President Trump is delivering on Mr. Musk’s wish list at both NASA and the Pentagon to reorient federal spending on space in a way likely to drive billions of dollars in new business to Mr. Musk’s space technology company, if Congress signs off on the budget plan.

At the Pentagon, Mr. Trump is calling for a massive jump in spending, an extraordinary 13 percent increase, almost entirely through allocations in a Congressional budget reconciliation plan under consideration.

The jump would happen while many other federal agencies would be slashed, in part to supercharge federal spending in two areas where SpaceX is positioned to profit: a vast missile defense system and space missions to Mars and the moon.

Mr. Trump has proposed a Golden Dome defense system to track and kill missiles headed toward U.S. targets, possibly sent by China, Russia, North Korea or other rivals.

Pentagon officials say SpaceX is considered likely to be the top recipient of this burst of new spending, which could generate billions of dollars in new contracts for the company.

That is because SpaceX manufactures both rockets that can launch military payloads into orbit and satellite systems that can deliver the surveillance and targeting tools needed for the project, which would require the largest military investments the United States has ever made in space.

Mr. Trump’s budget plan also calls for an undisclosed but large amount of new money for “U.S. space dominance to strengthen U.S. national security.”

The giant load of expected new business for SpaceX, which already had started to become clear based on policy shifts Mr. Trump has made since January, has drawn questions from Democrats in Washington, who have questioned if Mr. Musk is cashing in on his enormous contributions toward Mr. Trump’s re-election and his position as a top White House adviser.

SpaceX is already, by far, the largest recipient of Pentagon spending on existing military low-earth-orbit communications systems, and it gets the largest cut of Pentagon rocket launch contracts. Congressional approval for the plan to significantly expand this spending would be a giant win for Mr. Musk and SpaceX.

Mr. Trump’s proposed budget calls for Pentagon spending for 2026 to be $113 billion greater than for this year. But that increase would come entirely from allocations Congress is considering via its reconciliation plan for the 2025 fiscal year, according to Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former space industry executive, who pointed to a footnote in Mr. Trump’s plan.

NASA’s budget faces overall cuts in Mr. Trump’s plan, but there are increases that largely match SpaceX’s own corporation priorities.

The spending plan goes after Mr. Musk’s commercial rivals, calling for NASA to phase out funding for the Space Launch System, a rocket program being led by Boeing, and also the Orion astronaut capsule, being built by Lockheed Martin, which was part of three planned flights to take humans back to the moon.

Instead, Mr. Trump’s budget calls for “more cost effective commercial systems that would support more ambitious subsequent lunar missions,” an industry that SpaceX now dominates. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which has developed its own new rocket, also could be a big beneficiary of this shift, industry executives said Friday.

Both Blue Origin and SpaceX have moon landing systems that NASA is contracted to use and that have not, at least so far, been targeted for cuts.

“Their design is easier to do than SpaceX,” said Doug Loverro, a former NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations who has also been an adviser to the Trump administration, referring to Blue Origin’s moon landing plan.

The NASA budget also calls for $1 billion in new spending to focus on a mission to Mars, which has been the primary driving force for Mr. Musk since he first started SpaceX. He is already building a new rocket, called Starship, to attempt to deliver on this plan.

“SpaceX’s handprints are all over this,” said Mo Islam, a co-founder of Payload, a commercial space news site. “I don’t see there is any other way to look at it. SpaceX is positioned to be the primary beneficiary of the majority of these budgetary moves.”

There are some items in the NASA budget that could result in declines in spending at SpaceX, such as less spending on the International Space Station, where SpaceX delivers both cargo and astronauts.

But SpaceX still will likely emerge the winner. It recently won an $843 million contract to “de-orbit” the space station when it is retired in 2030. And Mr. Musk has pushed Mr. Trump to speed up that retirement date.

“The decision is up to the President, but my recommendation is as soon as possible,” Mr. Musk wrote on his social media platform, X, in February.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1892621691060093254

In the 2024 fiscal year, SpaceX secured $3.8 billion in federal contracts, most of it from NASA and the Pentagon. The company has taken a total of $18 billion in federal contracts overall in the last decade, a New York Times analysis of federal contracting data shows.

Experts like Mr. Loverro have long argued that NASA is too focused on an over-budget and behind-schedule moon program called Artemis, particularly the parts of the effort that rely on Boeing and Lockheed. That said, Mr. Loverro said the new spending plan “does impact SpaceX in a lot of very positive ways.”

But Mr. Harrison, the former industry executive, said it also opens up SpaceX and the Trump administration to potential criticism.

“It taints this now all with a suspicion of improper influence,” Mr. Harrison said. “Even if these are legitimate questions.”

Eric Lipton is a Times investigative reporter, who digs into a broad range of topics from Pentagon spending to toxic chemicals.

How Many Dolls?

One Doll, Two Dolls, Three Dolls, Sex Dolls by Clay Jones

The dolls names are Melania and Ivanka Read on Substack

Last Wednesday, Trump predicted during a Cabinet meeting (where everyone was required to praise him while Gulf-of-America caps were aligned across the table) that higher prices caused by tariffs will mean “children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls.”

I’m sure fathers buy their daughters as many dolls as they cry for, because dads are weak for their daughters, but I doubt they buy 30 for Christmas. Am I wrong? What I’m thinking, is that he bought Ivanka thousands of dolls and maybe half as many for his other daughter, what’s-her-name. He probably bought a gazillion GI Joes for Jr and maybe a few Barbies for Eric.

I had “action” figures, not dolls, when I was a kid. Not only did I have superheroes like Batman and Spiderman, I also had a Fonzie (who suffered a traffic accident when I hid him in a lamp and one of his cool legs melted off). I even had an Epstein from Welcome Back, Kotter. Of course, I had a bunch of Star Wars guys. Oh, crap, maybe I did have 30, but I didn’t get 30 for Christmas.

What’s surreal here is that Trump is a glutton. From what I’ve heard from his friends, he’s also a pack rat and a hoarder. His offices are full of useless crap he doesn’t need. It’s all junk. But now this billionaire, who purchases portraits of himself and has multiple homes and golf resorts, is telling Americans to cut down on their consumerism. What?

This is probably the first time in the modern era that the Republican message is, “Don’t spend so much money.” Wasn’t one of Trump’s campaign messages, “Make America wealthy again?” It was along with, “Make America hate again.”

At the cabinet meeting, Trump said, “You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open. Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”

Yeah! Screw those spoiled brats! If nothing else, instead of buying them so many dolls, make them get a job and pay rent and board. You can ship them off to Arkansas, where Governor Sarah Huckabee Hound Sanders has greatly loosened child labor laws.

When you go to McDonald’s and they’re screaming for the Happy Meal toy, make that brat pay for that Happy Meal.

In 1995, my life was a living hell every time we went to McDonald’s because my kid was always screaming for the Black Power Ranger, and we got Pink Power Ranger every. fucking. time, and my son would lose his shit. I should have melted them like I did to poor Fonzie.

I still have nightmares about Pink Power Ranger.

Trump also said, “They (China) have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much of which — not all of it — but much of which we don’t need.” This….THIS coming from the asshole selling us Trump straws. This grifter probably wants us to stop buying so much shit from China and buy more of his shit…from China.

Trump is out of touch because he thinks the tariffs will only hike prices for useless shit. But people need to eat too, and some are taking out loans to buy groceries. The other option is to make your kid eat his GI Joe.

Stephen Miller said, “If you had a choice between a doll from China that might have, say, lead paint in it, that is not as well-constructed as a doll made in America that has a higher environmental and regulatory standard and that is made to a higher degree of quality, and those two products are both on Amazon,” Miller said, “then, yes, you probably would be willing to pay more for a better-made American product.”

Lead paint? Someone tell Baby Goebbels that imports sold in America are often subject to the same regulatory standards as domestic products. Also, during Trump’s first term, his Environmental Protection Agency tried to roll back safety standards that would expose children to…wait for it….lead paint.

If you really want to freak your kid out, buy them a Stephen Miller doll. The brat will be begging for a Pink Power Ranger after that.

A Stephen Miller doll would be like a Goebbels version of Chucky.

Creative note: Proofer Laura wrote, “This is unspeakably gross.” I told her she should be ashamed of herself for looking at it… after I sent it to her.

Music note: I listened to Bleach by Nirvana.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see!)

New Oklahoma curriculum includes pro-Trump conspiracy theories

Judd Legum

,

Rebecca Crosby

, and

Noel Sims

May 01, 2025

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (Screenshot/YouTube)

Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, thousands of high school students in Oklahoma will be required to learn about President Trump’s debunked claims that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. The lesson will not be part of a course on conspiracy theories, but an official component of the new social studies curriculum created by Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (R).

The new curriculum includes a section that requires students to “analyze contemporary turning points of 21st-century American society.” That requirement includes the following:

Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of “bellwether county” trends.

In March, Walters said the purpose of this section was to teach “students to think for themselves” and “not be spoon-fed left-wing propaganda.” According to Walters, there are “legitimate concerns” about the integrity of the 2020 election that were “raised by millions of Americans in 2020.”

Walters is wrong. There are no “discrepancies” in the 2020 election results that validate the claims of Trump and his allies that the results were fraudulent. The new curriculum is simply an amalgamation of unsupported claims.

There was no “sudden halting” of ballot counting in key states. The counting took an extended period in some states because election officials were legally prohibited from counting early ballots in advance. Mail-in balloting is safe and secure. Large increases in vote totals (“batch dumps”) happen in every election, impact both parties, and are not a sign of fraud. Record turnout in 2020 was not “unforeseen” — it was due to increased engagement related to the pandemic and other factors. And traditional “bellwether” counties are now more conservative than the nation as a whole.

The new curriculum will cost Oklahoma taxpayers at least $33 million.

Oklahoma’s legislature had an opportunity to block the new curriculum. The chairman of the Oklahoma Senate Education Committee, Adam Pugh (R), filed a resolution that would have sent the curriculum back to the Oklahoma State Board of Education for further review. But ultimately, the resolution did not receive a vote.

Moms for Liberty, a far-right activist organization, sent a letter to Republican members of the legislature, praising the new curriculum as “truth-filled, anti-woke, and unapologetically conservative.” They also delivered a warning: “In the last few election cycles, grassroots conservative organizations have flipped seats across Oklahoma by holding weak Republicans accountable. If you choose to side with the liberal media and make backroom deals with Democrats to block conservative reform, you will be next.”

How Walters jammed his new standards through the State Board of Education

Walters’ new social studies standards were approved by the Oklahoma State Board of Education in February. But many members have since said that Walters used deceptive tactics in order to pass new last-minute changes.

Walters did not send the new standards with his additions to the members of the board until 4 p.m. the day before the board’s 9:30 a.m. meeting. This did not give members enough time to read the new standards, which are around 400 pages long. Some of the members said later that they did not even realize that the new standards were different from the earlier version that they had previously reviewed.

The email sent the day before the meeting “subtly indicate[d]” that updates had been made, but did “not provide any specifics,” 2 News Oklahoma reported. In the meeting, Walters did not mention the specific changes. In an April 24 meeting, one of the board members, Chris VanDenhende, asked Walters to provide documents that noted the changes made, but Walters called the request “irrelevant.”

At the February meeting, Ryan Deatherage, a board member, asked to delay the vote so they had time to read the full standards, but Walters “pressure[d] the board to vote that day, indicating a legislative time crunch,” according to 2 News, which attended the meeting. In reality, they had until April to approve the standards. After the February meeting, multiple members of the board stated that they wanted another chance to review the standards, calling Walters’ tactics a “breach of trust,” the Oklahoman reported.

Walters claimed that the last-minute additions to the standards were based on public input. But there is no evidence of this. During a press conference, “a reporter who reviewed an open records request said there were no public comments that suggested adding a standard about election discrepancies,” KGOU reported. Walters responded by arguing that there were “focus groups” and “a lot of discussions that were going on.” But Walters also acknowledged that he was the one who decided to change the content. “Ultimately, it was up to me to make the final decisions of what are we going to put in,” he stated.

Walters also included right-wing activists on the committee that reviewed the social studies standards. The committee would normally involve educators and other experts, but Walters’ committee included Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation; Dennis Prager, the co-founder of PragerU; and right-wing media personalities Steve Deace and David Barton. Only three out of the 10 people on the committee have lived in Oklahoma, according to the Oklahoma Voice.

The Oklahoma Council for Social Studies (OCSS) opposes Walters’ new standards: “OCSS cannot fully support the standards in their current form. Many of the late additions include historically inaccurate content and do not align with the inclusive, evidence-based approach that is essential to high-quality social studies instruction.” The statement also argued that “the manner in which these changes were introduced raises serious concerns, casting doubt on the transparency and integrity of the standards development process.”

More Bible, less Biden

Among the curriculum changes that will soon go into effect is the removal of part of a unit in which students will learn about former President Joe Biden’s administration. The original lesson plan taught students about the “challenges and accomplishments” of Biden’s term, but the new version focuses on challenges and leaves out accomplishments.

The original version said that students should be able to describe economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic and bipartisan infrastructure legislation. The new version only asks students to describe “the United States-Mexico border crisis” and “America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Gaza-Israel conflict.”

While Biden’s accomplishments are de-emphasized in the new curriculum, the amount of time Oklahoma students spend learning about Christianity and the Bible will be increased. In December, Walters proudly announced that his new curriculum will increase the number of mentions of the Bible from two to nearly 50 for students starting in first grade. The Bible lessons primarily focus on the influence of Christian values on the Constitution and the Founding Fathers.

Students as young as six years old will learn the stories of the Ten Commandments and David and Goliath. By the end of middle school, students will have gone through several lessons on how the Bible’s principles served as inspiration for the American independence movement. In high school, they will be able to take an entire course about early Christians and the history of Christianity.

Despite the new emphasis on the relationship between the Bible and America’s founding, the curriculum does not reference the separation of church and state. Walters and many of the Christian nationalist figures who helped him craft the curriculum have said that the separation of church and state is unconstitutional or a myth.

Clay Jones on POTUS 5/2

MAGA Grouch by Clay Jones

Trump stinks Read on Substack

After seeing this cartoon, my friend John Kovalic wrote, “Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letter ‘F’ and the number 47.”

Late last night (Thursday), Donald Trump issued another illegal executive order, with this one ordering the board of directors for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to “cease federal funding for NPR and PBS” because Trump claims they’re woke and liberally biased.

The problem with liberal bias is that facts have a liberal bias. If everything you say is a lie and everything you do is corrupt, illegal, sick, depraved, inhumane, racist, and fucked up, then factual reporting is not your friend.

Trump can’t do anything official against the free press, but he can put his weight on them, which seems to be working on The Washington Post and CBS News, but he can meddle with government programs…to an extent.

The order says, “Neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens. The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.”

The good news is, the government will continue to fund Trump’s golf games.

PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger called it a “blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night.” The middle of the night is when authoritarian governments tend to do their best work, like sending stormtroopers to break down your door, drag every member of your family out, and then put them in a train cattle car.

CPB issued a statement saying, “CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”

I bet Trump’s thinking that’s the kind of biased reporting that is costing PBS and NPR their funding. He’s probably also thinking, “Respect my authority!”

The CPB noted that the statute Congress passed to create it “expressly forbade any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors.”

Congress said that such funds “may be used at the discretion of the recipient” for producing or acquiring programs to put on the air.

Trump has already asked Congress to rescind funds already approved for public broadcasting. Fascists always murder a free press.

CPB is already suing the regime over Trump’s executive order seeking to fire three of its five board members.

Trump recently attacked PBS and NPR on his platform ShitSocial, saying, “REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!”

Does Big Bird look like a radical left monster?

Conservatives have been howling for years that NPR and PBS are liberally biased while the progressive group Fair (Fairness in Accuracy in Reporting) once issued a report blasting PBS and NPR for being too conservative.

That’s the thing with the media. It’s never conservative enough for conservatives or liberal enough for liberals.

We got that complaint all the time when I was at The Free Lance-Star. Our page at that time was conservative, but we ran liberal columns and my pinko and unpatriotic cartoons. My editors sought balance, but there was still more conservative content than liberal, yet the conservatives still howled.

Each week, Politico publishes what they call the “Cartoon Carousel,” which is a collection of cartoons from the past week (USA Today and The Washington Post both used to do this, but they stopped). It too seeks balance and publishes an equal number of conservative and liberal cartoons, which means half the cartoons suck. I support diversity in news content, but I hate when it’s chosen over quality.

Now, one of those who complain irrationally about balance is in the White House, and he’ll abuse his power to do things the Constitution doesn’t give him the power to do.

Trump’s first 100 days have been a total disaster. Defunding public broadcasting is the kind of messed up crap we can expect for the next 100 days and every day after that until we get this orange ogre out of the White House.

Creative note: My brain was slow-moving today, and I have about ten subjects written down to choose from. Sometimes it’s harder to choose your subject than it is to write the cartoon. When you have a long list of subjects, it’s nice when you can combine two of them, which I did today. Oscar came to me around noon. I need to move on to those other subjects, but while writing this blog, I got a great idea featuring Bert and Ernie.

Music note: Have you ever noticed that the Sesame Street theme is the same song as Sunshine Day by The Brady Bunch?

Drawn in 30 seconds: From TikTok, and with music. (snip-MORE)