Government & Communications

The first few weeks of the second Trump administration have combined the “shock and awe” of the 2003 invasion of Iraq with the Silicon Valley mantra “move fast and break things.” The shock treatment distracted attention from how President Trump and agencies of government such as the Federal Communications Commission are moving fast to break three foundational principles

The Trump administration further embraced the theory that the deadly Covid-19 pandemic emanated from a lab in China, updating the government’s main websites about the virus to detail that argument.

To protect kids online, Mark Zuckerberg says Congress should focus on Apple and Google — not Facebook and Instagram. The Meta CEO, owner of the two social media sites, is flooding Washington with ads aimed at convincing lawmakers to require his rivals’ app stores to verify shoppers’ ages and require parental consent for kids to download social media apps. In 2024, Zuckerberg was able to convince House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to shelve a bill that would have required Facebook and Instagram to make design changes to protect kids from bullying, sexual exploitation and other online ills.

When Elon Musk and President Donald Trump commanded all federal workers to submit weekly emails listing five accomplishments, they warned of harsh consequences: Failure to comply would count as a resignation.

For the past six years, Gavin Wax has held court as the president of the New York Young Republican Club, a group he helped turn from a small, stodgy establishment outfit into “a vanguard of the Trump movement.” Under his leadership, the club has moved far to the right.

On March 27, 2025, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to consider the confirmation of Arielle Roth, President Donald Trump's nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. If confirmed as the Assistant Secretary and head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Roth would oversee $48.2 billion in broadband infrastructure and adoption funding Congress allocated through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr warned European allies hesitant about working with Elon Musk’s satellite internet company that they needed to choose between US and Chinese technology.

There are some seriously dystopian things going on in the Trump administration these days. The most recent "WTF" moment came from Trump's 

The CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” is not going easy on President Trump and the commander in chief is noticing. President Trump went after the program in a social media post after seeing two critical stories regarding his handling of the Russia-Ukraine war and his proposal to annex Greenland.

On January 7, 2025, fires erupted across the city of Los Angeles, California. The Eaton Fire burned through the eastern side of the city, burning through the Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre communities and causing 18 deaths, destroying 9,400 structures, and scorching 14,000 acres of land. In the west, the Palisades Fire led to twelve deaths, destroyed over 6,000 structures, and covered over 23,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu. The Hurst, Kenneth and Hughes fires also burned through parts of northwestern and central LA.