Trump Can Continue Mass Firings of Federal Workers, US Judge Rules

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/mass-layoffs/2025/02/20/id/1199874/

Thursday, 20 February 2025 03:57 PM EST

The Trump administration can for now continue its mass firings of federal employees, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, rejecting a bid by a group of labor unions to halt President Donald Trump’s dramatic downsizing of the roughly 2.3 million-strong federal workforce.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C. federal court is temporary while the litigation plays out. But it is a win for the Trump administration as it seeks to purge the federal workforce and slash what it deems wasteful and fraudulent government spending.

The National Treasury Employees Union and four other unions sued last week to block the administration from firing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and granting buyouts to employees who quit voluntarily.

The unions are seeking to block eight agencies including the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Department of Veterans Affairs from implementing mass layoffs.

Cooper on Thursday said he likely lacks the power to hear the case, and that the unions instead must file complaints with a federal labor board that hears disputes between unions and federal agencies.

Trump has tapped Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has swept through federal agencies slashing thousands of jobs and dismantling federal programs since Trump became president last month and put Musk in charge of rooting out what he deems wasteful spending as part of Trump's dramatic overhaul of government. Trump also ordered federal agencies to work closely with DOGE to identify federal employees who could be laid off.

Termination emails were sent last week to workers across the federal government, mostly recently hired employees still on probation, at agencies such as the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the General Services Administration, and others.

The plaintiffs, which include the United Auto Workers, the National Treasury Employees Union, and the National Federation of Federal Employees, said in their lawsuit that White House efforts, including through DOGE, to shrink the federal workforce violate separation of powers principles by undermining Congress' authority to fund federal agencies.

The unions said that unless the court intervenes, they will be irreparably harmed by lost revenue from dues-paying members who were either fired or retired early to take buyouts.

Most civil service employees can be fired legally only for bad performance or misconduct, and they have a host of due process and appeal rights if they are let go arbitrarily. The probationary employees primarily targeted in last week's wave have fewer legal protections.

A judge overseeing a similar case in Boston federal court allowed the buyouts to move forward in a ruling on February 12, finding labor unions that filed the case did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit because they had not shown how they would be harmed by the plan.

The window to accept buyouts has now closed, and about 75,000 workers took up the administration's offer, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. That represents about 3% of the total federal workforce.

The unions are asking the judge to declare the firings and buyouts illegal and block the government from firing more employees or offering another round of buyouts.

In a Monday court filing, the government said the unions did not have a right to sue because they would not be harmed by the firings and buyouts. Granting the unions' request would also inappropriately interfere with the president's efforts to streamline the federal workforce, the government argued.

More than 70 lawsuits have been filed seeking to block Trump's efforts to remake the federal workforce, clamp down on immigration and roll back transgender rights.

The results have so far been mixed, but judges have blocked some aspects of Trump's marquee policies, including his bid to end automatic birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S.

IRS Fires 6,000 Workers as Trump Slashes Government

https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/irs-fire-doge/2025/02/20/id/1199826/

Thursday, 20 February 2025 11:30 AM EST

An executive at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service told staffers Thursday about 6,000 employees would be fired, a person familiar with the matter said, in a move that would eliminate roughly 6% of the agency's workforce in the midst of the critical tax-filing season.

The cuts are part of President Donald Trump's radical downsizing effort that has targeted bank regulators, forest workers, rocket scientists and tens of thousands of other government employees. The effort is being led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, Trump's biggest campaign donor.

The layoffs at the IRS largely target workers at the agency who were hired as part of an expansion under former Democratic President Joe Biden, who had sought to expand enforcement efforts on wealthy taxpayers. The agency now employs roughly 100,000 people, up from 80,000 when he took office.

Independent budget analysts estimate the expansion could boost government revenues and help narrow trillion-dollar budget deficits. Trump's Republicans say the expansion would lead to more harassment of ordinary American taxpayers.

The workers being cut are in their probationary period and enjoy fewer protections than career employees.

The IRS has taken a more careful approach to downsizing than other agencies given that it is in the middle of its busiest period, with the April 15 tax filing deadline just two months away.

The 2025 tax filing season opened on January 27, with the IRS expecting over 140 million individual tax year 2024 returns by the federal filing deadline.

The dismissals target revenue agents, customer-service workers, specialized auditors and IT specialists across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., according to people familiar with the matter.

The IRS will retain several thousand probationary employees deemed critical for processing tax returns, including those involved in supporting and advocating for taxpayers, one source said.

The White House has not said how many of the nation's 2.3 million civil-service workers it wants to fire and has given no numbers on the mass layoffs. Roughly 75,000 took a buyout offer last week.

The campaign has delighted Republicans for culling a federal workforce they view as bloated, corrupt and insufficiently loyal to Trump, while also taking aim at government agencies that regulate big business and collect taxes – including those that oversee Musk's companies SpaceX, Tesla and Neuralink.

Musk's Department of Government Efficiency team has also canceled contracts worth about $8.5 billion involving foreign aid, diversity training and other initiatives opposed by Trump. Both men have set a goal of cutting at least $1 trillion from the $6.7 trillion federal budget, though Trump has said he will not touch popular benefit programs that make up roughly one-third of that total.

Democrat critics say Trump is exceeding his constitutional authority and hacking away at popular and critical government programs at the expense of legions of middle-class families.

Trump Admin to Press Ahead on Amazon, Meta Antitrust Cases

https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/trump-amazon-meta/2025/02/20/id/1199862/

Thursday, 20 February 2025 02:58 PM EST

The Trump administration will press on with its antitrust cases against Amazon and Meta, a top official said Thursday, vowing to maintain pressure on Big Tech's market dominance.

In an interview with FOX Business, newly appointed Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Andrew Ferguson confirmed that ongoing cases against Amazon and Meta would proceed, emphasizing his commitment to "holding Big Tech's feet to the fire."

Questions lingered on whether the Trump presidency would continue with the cases, given the new proximity between President Donald Trump and tech bosses.

Since Trump's election victory in November, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has moved aggressively to demonstrate political alignment with the White House, while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos visited the president during the transition period.

Both were given prominent roles during the president's inauguration ceremony.

The Biden administration's FTC Chair Lina Khan faced bitter criticism from Silicon Valley over what some viewed as aggressive blocking of acquisitions by major tech companies.

"What companies can expect over the next couple of years is vigorous antitrust enforcement," Ferguson said, adding that the agency would strictly follow "the law, not my preferences."

Ferguson on Thursday also launched a public inquiry into how tech platforms restrict user access based on speech content or affiliations.

This would help address the frequent complaint of Republicans that major tech platforms censor conservative content.

The inquiry "marks an important step forward in restoring free speech and making sure Americans no longer suffer under the tyranny of Big Tech – permanently," he wrote on X, the social media site owned by top Trump advisor and billionaire Elon Musk.

The Federal Trade Commission currently shares antitrust enforcement with the Department of Justice, which has two cases against Google and one against Apple.

The DOJ's antitrust division secured a major victory against Google last year and to resolve that case, prosecutors are seeking to force Google to divest its market-leading Chrome browser.

Gail Slater, Trump's nominee to head the DOJ's antitrust division, has indicated that she will continue the cases against Google and Apple.

The FTC's case against Meta is scheduled for trial on April 14 in federal court in Washington. The Amazon case will be heard in October 2026 in Seattle.

Ferguson also addressed Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides liability protection to online platforms, calling it "in need of very serious reform."

While tech companies strongly defend Section 230, public concern about social media's harmful effects has led to increased scrutiny of the law's broad protections.

Ferguson suggested that a Supreme Court decision or congressional action might be needed to modify the law's scope.

Somebody down south is getting worried?

Bet her hubby is a cartel leader.

Mexico President: US Must Not Launch Invasion Over Cartels

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/mexico-claudia-sheinbaum-drug-cartels/2025/02/20/id/1199868/

Thursday, 20 February 2025 03:34 PM EST

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum warned the Trump administration on Thursday that her country will not tolerate an invasion of its national sovereignty to target drug cartels.

"This cannot be an opportunity for the U.S. to invade our sovereignty," Sheinbaum said in response to the Trump administration's formal designation of eight cartels as terrorist organizations, CBS News reported. "With Mexico, it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion."

Mexico's two main drug cartels, Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa, were included in the terrorist declaration.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the cartels "constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime," but the move to designate them as terrorist organizations opens the door for potential military action.

Elon Musk, who leads Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, posted on X, which he owns, that the move makes the cartels "eligible for drone strikes."

Experts said that taking military action, either by bombing or invading Mexico, appears unlikely.

In recent days, the administration has increased the use of drones to seek Mexican fentanyl labs.

The drones are part of a covert program started during the Biden administration. The effort was not disclosed until this week.

The CIA has not been authorized to use drones to carry out strikes against the cartels, and information that is being gathered is reportedly being shared with Mexico.

Sheinbaum said Mexico plans to follow through on her promise of expanding legal action against U.S. gun manufacturers if the Trump administration declared the cartels as terrorist groups.

Mexico's government claims gun manufacturers are negligent by selling weapons that end up being used by drug traffickers. The country has filed a $10 billion lawsuit in the U.S. against gun manufacturers and vendors.

Sheinbaum said the lawsuit could be expanded to allege that gun manufacturers are complicit with terrorist groups.

According to a CBS News investigation, up to a half-million firearms are smuggled into Mexico annually. Another report determined that cartel gunrunners pay Americans to buy weapons all over the U.S., including Alaska, and brokers and couriers then ship the weapons across the border.

Sheinbaum has also made a cash offer to encourage people to leave guns at designated drop-off points, including at churches.

She earlier this month accused the U.S. of slandering her government by claiming it is allied with drug cartels.

"If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the U.S. gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups," she said.

We ready for suicide weekend?

So what was the senate vote count for Kash?

>>22621592

TY.

o7

With all this winning, it feels like a Friday!

2 days early are we?

Elric! Fancy meeting you here!

>>22621899

1st arrest will be either him or Schummer…they taking odds over at Draftkings…kek

>>22621928

He did just drop off, didn't he.

>>22622023

Don't be surprised when a nuke or dirty bomb goes off in a major city with interstates running through them.

All ya gotta do is put it in the trailer of an 18 wheeler, and off ya go.