DOGE vs. DEI: Republicans’ promise to purge government diversity initiatives could be wide-ranging, and hard to pull off
CNN
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the two billionaires tasked with slashing government waste, are expected to recommend an agency-wide purge of spending on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, three sources familiar with their plans tell CNN.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the two billionaires tasked with slashing government waste, are expected to recommend an agency-wide purge of spending on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, three sources familiar with their plans told CNN. That could include eliminating entire divisions involving DEI in agencies across the government, such as the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity & Inclusion at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Policy at the Department of Defense. “Anything having to do with DEI will be gone,” said one of the people familiar with the plans for President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, adding that Republicans in all branches of the incoming government are on board. “Everyone is committed to working together and rooting it out.” Musk and Ramaswamy have made no secret of their disdain for DEI. Musk called it “just another word for racism” earlier this year. “An efficient government has no place for DEI bloat. Time to DOGE it,” Ramaswamy posted last month. Among DOGE’s first recommendations for action could be rescinding Biden-era executive orders related to DEI, according to one of the people familiar with DOGE discussions.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.