• Musk leaving soon? Yesterday, Politico reported that Elon Musk would soon be stepping down from leading DOGE. The Leftmedia outlet spun this “revelation” as evidence of friction between Musk and President Donald Trump. However, from the very beginning, Musk’s role as head of DOGE was always understood to be temporary. Per federal regulations, no special government employee (SGE) can exceed 130 consecutive days in a position. Musk’s 130 days are up on May 30. A month ago, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Leftmedia claims that Trump was looking to keep Musk on indefinitely “garbage.” Furthermore, in a recent interview with Fox News, Musk himself noted the 130-day limit, stating, “I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that time frame.” Musk responded to Politico’s story in a post on X: “Yeah, fake news.”

• Trump vs. Maine: On Wednesday, the Trump administration ratcheted up its standoff with Maine over Democrat Governor Janet Mills’s refusal to comply with Donald Trump’s order barring males from competing in girls’ sports. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins observed that the state was in violation of Title IX. In a letter to Maine, she wrote, “Today, I am freezing Maine’s federal funds for certain administrative and technological functions in schools. This is only the beginning, though you are free to end it at any time by protecting women and girls in compliance with federal law.” Rollins did note that this action would not impact federal feeding programs or assistance to Mainers. The Pine Tree State’s Democrat-controlled legislature is also complicit in pushing the anti-female agenda, as it censured Republican state lawmaker Laurel Libby for speaking out against allowing males to compete in girls’ sports.

• American-made weapons under the gun in Europe: America has long been the primary provider of defense materiel to Europe. In the last four years, U.S. arms exports represented 43% of the global total, but Europe is signaling that it may want to wean itself off of the American supply. ReArm Europe is a plan proposed by the European Commission in March that would increase European defense spending and incentivize defense manufacturing on the continent. French President Emmanuel Macron says he is on a mission to convince European states used to buying American to buy continental instead. One key area of European defense is air power. Currently, the American F-35 is the only fifth-generation fighter on the market; that is unlikely to change. This European saber-rattling is in response to Trump’s actions regarding the Ukraine conflict and his comments about NATO.

• Gov’t-mandated backdoor in telecom opened door for China hacking: In his testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday, Georgetown University computer scientist and cryptographer Matt Blaze contended, “The job of the illegal eavesdropper has actually gotten significantly easier and … something like Salt Typhoon was inevitable and will likely happen again unless significant changes are made to our infrastructure and our approach to protecting it.” Salt Typhoon was a massive China-based hack against America’s telecom sector last year. Blaze argued that the massive scope of this hack was made possible thanks to the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). Blaze said that China, in particular, has been taking advantage of CALEA due in large part to outdated safeguards of phone systems. CALEA’s requirement that telecom companies include a backdoor into devices is being exploited by hackers like Communist China.

• Hamas revises death toll: A rule of thumb when it comes to terrorist organizations reporting casualty numbers is to take it with a block of salt. In an obvious and blatant effort to distort and smear Israel’s military response to the October 7, 2023, pogrom, Hamas had claimed that 70% of Gaza casualties were women and children. Well, as time has passed, Hamas has quietly updated its list, removing thousands of names of Palestinians who were allegedly killed. Tellingly, as of March 2025, the updated percentage of Palestinian casualties has changed, with 72% of all fatalities being males between the ages of 13 and 55, which just happens to coincide with the demographic category for Hamas combatants. The new list of “identified” dead also shrunk by 3,400, and 1,080 children who had been included in that number evidently didn’t actually die. Go figure.

• Would-be Kavanaugh assassin to plead guilty: Nicholas Roske showed up outside Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home in 2022 with a plan to assassinate him. Thankfully, once he saw the Secret Service presence in the area, he got cold feet and turned himself in. Roske’s attempted assassination came after Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer’s famous “whirlwind” comments on the steps of the Supreme Court and after the group Ruth Sent Us posted a map with pins near the homes of the justices. Despite their anti-judiciary stance just three years ago, today, Democrats applaud judicial interference vis-à-vis Donald Trump’s agenda. Roske’s legal team seems to have determined that their last-ditch effort to have evidence (including his confession) legally suppressed was doomed to failure. Roske has now pleaded guilty to avoid a disastrous trial with evidence stacked against him.

• SCOTUS upholds FDA’s ban on flavored vapes: It was a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court. How often do you hear that? The Fifth Circuit Court previously ruled against the FDA’s ban on flavored vaping products in a decision that the Supreme Court unanimously rejected. E-cigarettes — more commonly called vapes — are extremely popular with young Americans. They provide a hit of nicotine in a cloud of flavored water vapor. This decision specifically denies the right of Triton Distribution to market flavors such as Signature Series Mom’s Pistachio and Jimmy the Juice Man Peachy Strawberry. The FDA believes these flavors would represent a risk to Americans under 18, and with those names, perhaps with good reason. The Supreme Court has confirmed the FDA’s ability to reject these flavors.

• Woman refuses to fence man, gets expelled from the team: It’s an outrageous story that is all too common in women’s sports: an average male athlete “transitions” and competes with great success in the women’s event. Recently, a female fencer in Maryland, Stephanie Turner (31), stood up for women’s rights and took a knee rather than duel a man. USA Fencing gave her a black card and expelled her from the team for refusing to fence an “eligible” opponent — standard procedure, they say. Surely, USA Fencing must ensure that eligible opponents in a women’s tournament are, in fact, women. According to the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), Redmond had competed on the men’s team during the previous season. Turner says that the issue of men in women’s sports has changed her from a lifelong Democrat to “voting red down the ticket this year.”

Headlines

• Senate Republicans release budget blueprint with new tax cuts and a $5 trillion debt limit hike (NBC News)

• Trump imposes new tariffs on cheap Chinese goods sold by companies like Temu and Shein (NY Post)

• Eric Adams dropping out of Democrat primary, will seek reelection as independent (NY Post)

• California funnels $18 million into the Left’s dark money network under Gavin Newsom (Daily Signal)

• Liberals stealing from Jeff Bezos because he isn’t sufficiently leftist (Hot Air)

• Nashville police downplay religious and transgender elements of Covenant shooting in final report (Just the News)

• The University of Michigan DEI walkback is worth celebrating (National Review)

• Humor: Cory Booker hosts 24-hour PSA on the dangers of crystal meth (Babylon Bee)

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