Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

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www.wsj.com

Elon Musk-Led Group Makes $97.4 Billion Bid for Control of OpenAI​

Unsolicited offer complicates Sam Altman’s plans to convert OpenAI to a for-profit company​

 

Trump White House says it can talk to Justice Dept. on criminal cases​

In contrast to guidance from the first Trump administration, the memo specifies that the president can discuss any types of cases with the attorney general.


“… The memo largely reflects guidance given during the first Trump administration, though it more clearly specifies that the president is not prohibited from discussing any types of cases with the attorney general.

The White House routinely issues such memos to staff at the beginning of an administration. They are intended to limit who speaks to the Justice Department about investigations and prosecutions — an effort to shield cases from political interference.

… In the post-Watergate era, the White House and Justice Department have tried to maintain clearer lines of separation to prevent the president and his aides from influencing sensitive cases.

Like previous administrations, the Trump administration states in its memo that it is standard protocol for the White House and Justice Department to communicate about policy and national security matters.

But White House counsel David A. Warrington also makes clear that President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and their counsels may ask about criminal and civil investigations.

That guidance, which is not legally binding, is significant in an administration that has vowed to upend the Justice Department and the FBI, which Trump and his allies have accused of mistreating him. Legal experts say the guidance could erode guardrails that have traditionally given the Justice Department a degree of independence from the White House that does not exist for other executive branch agencies. …”
 
altmin said:

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www.bloomberg.com
Billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has a key ally in the US Department of the Treasury: Tom Krause, a veteran technology executive who’s now a special government employee, or consultant, at the agency. Until a federal judge temporarily blocked DOGE’s access on Saturday, Krause had “read-only” access to Treasury’s payments system, which handles more than 1.2 billion transactions a year. The government calls it “America’s checkbook,” an essential window into the federal spending that President Donald Trump is looking to slash by $1 trillion or more.

Krause, 47, who’s serving as fiscal assistant secretary at Treasury, will keep his day job: chief executive officer of Cloud Software Group, which owns a company called Citrix Systems. His deep cost-cutting there shows why he may have appealed to Trump and Musk, the president’s adviser and Tesla Inc.’s CEO—and also why some people familiar with Krause’s record are unsettled about his new government role.

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Using a time-honored playbook, Citrix’s new owners financed the purchase mostly by loading up the company with debt—and then started eliminating thousands of employees to cut costs. Its financial results are improving.

But investing in cybersecurity isn’t like buying, and turning around, a struggling chain that sells groceries or furniture. It means handling risks to critical services more like those of owning a hospital or medical practice—matters of life or death where PE cost-cutting has provoked congressional inquiries.

At Citrix, employees raised an alarm about Krause’s approach and say their fears were borne out. Losing personnel left security software and hardware more vulnerable as bad actors stepped up their attacks, according to interviews with a dozen former Citrix staffers. They include executives, managers and software engineers involved in security. Many were dismissed after the buyout, and most asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters.

Hugh Boyd worked for 14 years at Citrix as a product security engineer before he lost his job in January 2024. Boyd, who says he’d been planning to retire anyway, notes that the company’s software includes millions of lines of code and complicated systems that have to work together to provide protection.

“What they did is probably one of the single biggest mistakes you can make in a security organization,” he says of the new owners’ staff reductions. “If you start running people off who are highly qualified and who have been doing this at the company for years, you’re really putting yourself in a precarious position from a security standpoint.”

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After the company instituted cuts, intruders infiltrated Citrix’s products in two major hacks. In 2023, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, the US government’s top online watchdog, ranked two vulnerabilities in Citrix software as the No. 1 and No. 2 most exploited flaws by hackers.
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As the article notes, Citrix products were littered with critical severity vulnerabilities last year and that has continued into 2025. Seems like our NetScaler guy is constantly having to patch his appliances.
 
Big Balls transfers to the State Department

19-year-old Musk surrogate has State Department email address​

The move illustrates that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service aides are being asked to fulfill multiple roles at once.


“… Edward Coristine, who briefly worked for Musk’sbrain-chip start-up Neuralink, is posted as a senior adviser to the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, a critical hub for data — both sensitive and nonsensitive, officials said.

, who also holds positions at the U.S. DOGE Service and the Office of Personnel Management, has attracted significant attention across Washington for his edgy online persona and the relative lack of experience he brings to his new federal roles.

But his new position could give him visibility into far more than just tech.

… Officials worried that his position might give him a foothold for obtaining unauthorized access to classified material and obtain compromising information on other countries and foreign activities.

… In addition to Coristine, a 23-year-old colleague of his, former SpaceX intern Luke Farritor, is also listed in the State Department’s directory as working at the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. …”
 

Susan Collins says Trump’s research cuts violate the law, as states sue to block them​

The Maine Republican, the Senate’s top appropriator, said she has HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s commitment to “re-examine” the cuts.

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www.politico.com

“… Collins added that she this morning had conveyed to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the NIH’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, her “strong opposition to these arbitrary cuts in funding for vital research.”

“He has promised that as soon as he is confirmed, he will re-examine this initiative that was implemented prior to his confirmation,” Collins said.

Collins is set to vote as soon as this week to confirm Kennedy to lead HHS and will oversee legislation due next month to fund the government in fiscal 2025. …”

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A promise to reexamine the new initiative if you only vote to confirm a lunatic to run HHS is weak tea, Susan.
 
“… The lawsuit filed by 22 state attorneys general, all Democrats, on Monday claims the NIH’s “unlawful action” will devastate critical public health at universities and research institutions.

… If the attorneys general’s lawsuit succeeds, Republican lawmakers may come under more pressure because the suit only covers the plaintiffs, the attorneys general explained during a Monday press conference.

Budget hawks in conservative circles have wanted to go after indirect research funding for years. …”
 
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