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Insider View of D.C.

Editor’s Note: Our main news sources do us a disfavor in the way they reported the first three weeks of the new administration. I’ve been following Laura Rozen for many years and found her to be a reliable source of information. Not as famous as other pundits are, but much better, especially in reporting what’s going on in U.S. diplomacy. Here is the first part of her Feb. 7 substack. Read the whole thing here.

Split Screen by Laura Rozen

From close up, here in Washington, D.C., as someone who regularly covers the U.S. federal government, the sweeping assault that unelected billionaire Elon Musk and his unvetted DOGE team are committing on U.S. government agencies and personnel is alarming.

Alarming, not because there should not be reforms or cuts to federal agencies’ budgets, programming or staffing; but because their anti-government jihad is being conducted without any oversight, legal mandate, organizational plan, knowledge of the workings of the government, or security vetting of the Musk/DOGE staff barging into federal agencies and demanding access to sensitive government payment and IT systems and personnel databases. In short, without any respect or accountability for the damage they could wreck on systems that American citizens and federal workers rely on to protect their security, privacy, and functional governance.

And there is growing evidence today that the DOGE team infiltrating these systems was not properly vetted. Click here to continue reading.

Recommend you subscribe to Diplomatic by Laura Rozen on substack as part of your news about foreign affairs.

Photo: People protested Wednesday against the so-called Department of Government Efficiency outside of the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., as concerns grow about the unprecedented power that President Donald Trump has handed over to Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.DREW ANGERER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES