☕ Daily Brief: DOGE Outlines New Cuts

By Upward News | Created at 2025-03-31 13:20:59 | Updated at 2025-04-03 23:38:26 3 days ago

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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

🚫 State Department officially notified Congress of USAID’s closure. The State Department and the US Agency for International Development notified Congress of their intent to undertake a major reorganization, effectively beginning the process of shuttering the controversial foreign assistance agency. The State Department now assuming control of USAID’s “essential lifesaving programs” marks a historic shift in American foreign policy, ending decades of using foreign aid as a tool for spreading soft power around the globe.

✂️ DOGE slashed $4.7 billion in wasteful spending. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) terminated 113 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $4.7 billion, including a $145,000 USDA consulting contract for "Peru climate change activities" and Mexican "gender equity" initiatives. These cuts represent the administration's aggressive approach to eliminating ideologically-driven spending that provides little benefit to American taxpayers. The speed and scale of DOGE's cost-cutting measures suggest more significant cuts to federal spending are in the works.

🔎 DOE is investigating Maine for hiding “gender plans” from parents. The Department of Education launched an investigation into Maine for alleged violations of the Family Education Rights Privacy Act after schools created "gender plans" for students while deliberately keeping parents in the dark. Education Secretary Linda McMahon emphasized that such policies are "both illegal and immoral" and could result in the termination of federal funding. This investigation could set a nationwide precedent for how schools handle student “gender identity” issues.

🇮🇷 Iran rejected nuclear talks with the US; Trump threatens bombings. Iran's president rejected President Trump's offer for direct negotiations over its advancing nuclear program, though he left open the possibility of indirect talks. In response, Trump warned of potential military action, stating, "If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing, and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” With Iran's air defenses already weakened from previous Israeli strikes, the threat of US military action carries particular weight.

CORRECTION

In Saturday’s Geopolitics 101 newsletter, we stated that “Canada’s new prime minister declared that America was no longer a trustworthy partner for the United States.” The new PM actually said that America was “no longer a reliable partner” for Canada. Whoops!

Corrections are included in newsletters for transparency.

INSIDER RADAR

🔒 MEMBERS ONLY

Mentioned behind the paywall: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, James Lankford, Pete Hegseth, Megyn Kelly, Kristi Noem, and Ben Shapiro.

HOAX TRACKER

🔒 MEMBERS ONLY

Mentioned behind the paywall: National Review and “Signal Gate.”

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QUICK AND IMPORTANT

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Utah's legislature passed a law banning pride flags in government buildings.
The FDA's top vaccine official resigned after policy conflicts with HHS Secretary RFK Jr.
US forces conducted airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting multiple cities over the weekend.

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INSIDER EXCLUSIVE

While much media attention has been focused on the Trump administration restructuring American domestic policy, the administration has been just as active in changing America’s foreign policy as well. Personnel appointments, policy announcements, and force restructuring are all on the table as the United States prepares to scale back its involvement in Europe…

THE MAIN STORY

WHAT’S HAPPENING_

Elon Musk and members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) appeared on Fox News last Friday to share additional findings from their federal audit and outline new plans to cut government spending. Musk stated that the team aims to reduce the federal deficit by $1 trillion within 130 days.

DOGE has already implemented mass layoffs and overseen the closure of several agencies, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The interview marked DOGE’s first major media appearance since its formation under the second Trump administration and highlighted notable instances of government waste, fraud, and abuse the team is working to address.

_THE FACTS_

Musk revealed that the federal government spent nearly $1 billion on an online national parks survey that produced no measurable results.
He also discussed how more than 15 million Social Security numbers belonging to people over the age of 120 are still listed as active.
Federal agencies still control 4.6 million government credit cards, almost double the number of federal employees. Musk said, “There should not be more credit cards than there are people,” noting that they have eliminated 300,000 cards so far.
DOGE highlighted that federal retirement records are stored in a cave containing 22,000 filing cabinets, causing delays of six to nine months in processing.
Musk and DOGE employee Brad Smith noted that the National Institutes of Health uses over 700 separate, unintegrated IT systems, managed by 27 different chief information officers.
The Department of Health and Human Services operates approximately 40 different communications offices.
The IRS employs 1,400 staff to distribute laptops and phones to new hires — supposedly a major redundancy.
$300 million in federal loans have been issued to individuals under age 11 and another $300 million to those over age 120 — both likely instances of fraud.
DOGE so far has laid off more than 113,000 federal workers and closed several federal offices.

_INSIGHTS_

BIAS SPOTTER

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Mentioned behind the paywall: CNN, Axios, The Daily Wire, and The New York Post.

THE DAILY DEBATE

POLL RESULTS FROM THURSDAY

Who do you think comes out looking the worst in the Signal controversy?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📱 Michael Waltz (222)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🪖 Pete Hegseth (38)
🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🗞️ Jeffrey Goldberg (207)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 Unsure (56)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💬 Other (35)

📱 Waltz: “He's the one who added Goldberg.” — Jill

🗞️ Goldberg: “How unethical do you have to be to not immediately identify yourself and request removal from a conversation you should obviously not be in? Especially one involving military movements / classified information?” — A.K.

🤔 Unsure: ”Using a non-secured communications platform is just stupid.” — D.K.

💬 Other: “It’s an issue with the process, not the person. It shouldn’t have been that easy for someone to be mistakenly added to the chat.” — Jacob

💬 Other: “It was a mistake. Don’t do it again. Move on.” — G.K.

558 votes

Today’s newsletter was written by Brandon Goldman, Anthony Constantini, and Ari David. We scoured 100s of sources to bring you stories and insights you won’t find in the mainstream media.