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March 05, 2025 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown

Newsletter Congressional OversightEthics in GovernmentGovernment CapacityTrump 2.0

The Government Shutdown is Already Here. Congressional Democrats need to act like it.

There’s a lot of back-and-forth right now about whether Congressional Democrats should, effectively, negotiate with terrorists. It goes like this: Congress has until March 14 to pass a bill funding the government to avoid a government shutdown. Republicans need some Democrats to vote in favor of the bill in order to get it past the 60-vote threshold in the Senate. Democrats don’t want to see millions of federal workers furloughed. But supporting the Republicans’ bill amounts to agreeing that business as usual can continue despite the coup; despite the illegal shutdown of agencies and unconstitutional impoundment of appropriated money and the flaunting of court orders. Despite, in other words, the five-alarm-fire that is our political reality.

March 03, 2025

Xaver Clarke

Blog Post JudiciarySupreme CourtTrump 2.0

Mark Paoletta’s Illegal Orders Are Before His Close Friend, Clarence Thomas

On Wednesday, February 26, Chief Justice John Roberts gave the first indication of the Supreme Court becoming involved in the ongoing legal battles over the Trump administration’s federal spending freeze. Roberts temporarily blocked a lower court’s ruling that ordered the release of nearly $2 billion in foreign aid assistance, opening the door for the full Court to weigh in on the issue.

February 28, 2025

Blog Post AbundanceClimate and EnvironmentCorporate CrackdownEthics in GovernmentTrump 2.0

Why We’re Skeptical About The “Energy Abundance” Agenda

Over the past few years, a cohort of neoliberal pundits from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson to Matt Yglesias and Eric Levitz have increasingly problematized the modern regulatory state, framing the government’s many environmental and labor standards as an impediment to “abundance.” Multiple books advancing this argument are slated to be published in the first months of 2025, from Marc Dunkelman’s Why Nothing Works to Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.

February 28, 2025

Fatou Ndiaye

Newsletter Climate and EnvironmentConsumer ProtectionCorruption CalendarEthics in GovernmentJudiciaryTechTrump 2.0

Week Six: A dying CFPB, Musk’s business boom, conflicts of interest, and blatant favoritism. 

This week, the Trump administration is moving fast to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), abandoning several active enforcement cases against financiers ripping off consumers. The SEC paused its case against Trump ally Justin Sun and handed the crypto industry another victory. Elon Musk continues to have field day after field day, slashing agencies he doesn’t like and watching his businesses balloon in value since the election. Several Trump appointees (like CFTC Chair Nominee Brian Quintenz and acting administrator of the PHMSA Ben Kochman) have major conflicts of interests which will likely skew agency action towards the interests of corporations at the expense of the public. We also witnessed an instance of blatant bias in how legal actions are handled, with leniency toward Republicans.

February 21, 2025

Jacob Plaza

Newsletter Corruption CalendarEthics in GovernmentLaborSECTrump 2.0

Week Five: Musk, Crypto, Tax Fraudsters, Fossil Fuel Cash In While Workers Lose Out

This week, we’ll focus on how DOGE’s priorities seem to reflect Musk’s grudges and interests in a less efficient government. Trying to be thorough without being totally thorough (the reign of ignorant terror is as vast as it is deep and consequential), here are several of the most salient examples of the Trump’s administration’s prioritization of corporate interests at the expense of the public. 

February 20, 2025

Fatou Ndiaye

Blog Post Government CapacityIRSSECTrump 2.0

Let’s Disavow The Myth of Government Efficiency

In a recent episode of Pod Save America, the hosts argued there was a “right” and “wrong” way to reduce the size of the federal government. We wholeheartedly disagree with that perspective. What the Trump administration is doing is indeed incredibly destructive and “wrong” and ostensibly center, center left and left wing voices need to push back against the idea that there’s a “right” way to slash the federal budget and workforce. We should be pushing for more resources for non-defense agencies, not less.