Rachel Maddow looks at growing public anger at Donald Trump's war on the U.S. government, and looks at how cuts in the federal workforce, slashed funding to the NIH for medical research, and the decimation of USAID is having a profoundly negative economic effect in places that were previously supportive of Trump. 
Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC

I want to talk today about the media’s coverage of the Trump-Vance-Musk coup. I’m not referring to coverage by the bonkers right-wing media of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and its imitators.

I’m referring to the U.S. mainstream media — The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, National Public Radio — and the mainstream media abroad, such as the BBC and The Guardian.
Robert Reich, Substack

Recently one of my opposite numbers, a columnist up in Vancouver, B.C., announced that he couldn’t take America anymore. He broke up with us.
Danny Westneat, The Seattle Times

Farmers report missing millions of dollars of funding they were promised by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, despite promises from the Trump administration that a federal funding freeze would not apply to projects directly benefiting individuals.
Daniel Wu, Gaya Gupta and Anumita Kaur, The Washington Post

Last Sunday, the head of the Lutheran social services outfit in the Northwest woke to find his phone had been blowing up.
“I had texts and calls that had come in overnight from people all over the country, some of them extremely alarmed,” says David Duea, CEO of Lutheran Community Services Northwest in Tacoma.
Danny Westneat, The Seattle Times

Governor Ferguson and Steve Starr have the same idea. Steve, Grant County chair and ARC expert, will talk to us tomorrow about what is happening in north central Washington. He was going to touch on the employment effects of data centers in Quincy. Bob thinks Steve is on the right track.
Don Schwerin, Chair, Ag & Rural Caucus

This April 19th marks the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the American Revolution and its war against monarchial power. It comes at a time when those who oppose President Trump’s exercise of powers that go well beyond those the Constitution allots to presidents are stunned by the speed and scope of his actions, and uncertain about how they can even begin to counter them.
Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect

Musk’s rats continue to burrow into sensitive government payment systems. According to the best source I’ve found on this (Nathan Tankus’s Crises Notes), Musk and his rats have now gained unrestricted access to your Social Security number, your confidential bank information, your confidential medical information, and much more.
Robert Reich, Substack

Yesterday afternoon, about seventy people showed up at the Spokane office US Representative Michael Baumgartner (R-CD5). Baumgartner wasn’t there, but surely his staff relayed the message that his constituents were upset.
Jerry LeClaire, Indivisible

The mood around Department of Energy offices in Richland is grim as Elon Musk reportedly plans to eliminate half of the federal jobs across the nation as part of his Department of Government Efficiency work for President Trump.
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald

As of 5 pm ET today, Trump will halt tens of billions of dollars in federal spending. This isn't about cutting the size of government. It's about further concentrating power in Trump's hands.
Robert Reich, Substack

On Thursday, agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered the back of a small business in Newark, NJ, without a warrant and arrested three undocumented workers. They also detained and questioned employees who are U.S. citizens, one of them a military veteran.
Paul Krugman, Substack

Some thoughts about the first week of Trump II: The New York Times describes Trump as leading “a global wave of hard-line conservative populism.” Rubbish.
Robert Reich, Substack

I would have thought it would be a cold day in hell when I would have anything good to say about Senator McConnell, who is arguably the reason the Trump circus got to DC in 2016.
Martin Edic, The Witness Chronicles

He sees himself as a wartime president.
Jonathan Last, The Bulwark

President Donald Trump was in office for only 24 hours before the state of Washington sued his administration.
David Gutman, The Seattle Times

When Donald Trump assumes office Monday, as the 47th president of the United States, he will mark the solemn occasion with an inaugural address.
David Adler, The Alturas Institute

President Joe Biden sat down with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell for an unedited conversation that lasted almost the entire length of O’Donnell’s show.
Sarah Jones & Jason Easley, TCinLA