The Dictatorship

Trump and Musk want to re-hire people who keep U.S. nuclear weapons safe — if they can find them

Published

11 months ago

February 19, 2025

Trump and Musk want to re-hire people who keep U.S. nuclear weapons safe — if they can find them

You may think we have too many nuclear weapons. Or you may think we don’t have enough. One thing you most certainly do not think, however, is that we should arbitrarily fire the people who keep these weapons safe and secure. But that is exactly what happened last week when the Trump administration suddenly fired 300 of the 1,800 people working at the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) in Washington, D.C.

Emails went out at 3 p.m. on Thursday announcing immediate firings. Without warning, dozens of people were told to step away from their computers and physically escorted out of the building, their digital access to the agency blocked and all connections to their work wiped away.

Many of those fired are part of the management team overseeing tens of thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians who build, maintain and guard the U.S. arsenal of some 5,000 nuclear weapons.

All of the people fired were probationary employees, meaning they had worked in their jobs for only one to two years. This included some fresh out of graduate school, as well as experienced officials switching to new assignments. Since they have fewer rights than permanent employees, they were apparently seen by Elon Musk and his shadowy “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE, which conducted the mass firings, as easy targets in their effort to decimate the federal government workforce.

The firings were part of hundreds of termination notices sent to workers at the Department of Energy, the parent organization of the nuclear agency. It appears that DOGE made the decision based purely on their status, without knowing what the workers actually did.

Nnsa has”https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/us/politics/trump-national-nuclear-security-administration-employees-firings.html?smid=url-share” target=”_blank”> two primary missions. Many of those fired are part of the management team overseeing tens of thousands of highly skilled scientists, engineers and technicians who build, maintain and guard the U.S. arsenal of some 5,000 nuclear weapons. Other fired officials work on NNSA’s other, equally vital mission of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and materials.

These threat reduction programs began when the collapse of the Soviet Union triggered fears of “loose nukes” in the hands of terrorists and outlaw nations. The programs took on new urgency after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 raised the specter of nuclear terrorism. They include everything from radiation detectors that help prevent nuclear smuggling to export controls that block, for example, Iran from getting technologies it could use to build a nuclear bomb.

Outcries from experts, officials and members of Congress about the risks to national security forced Trump officials to reverse course. They announced last Friday that they now want to rehire the workers. The problem is that they don’t know how to reach them.

NBC News obtained a memo sent to NNSA employees that reads, in part: “The termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel.” With the former employees locked out of their email accounts, Trump officials are now struggling to track down personal phone numbers. But even when reached, the workers are less than enthusiastic about returning.

“I will be honest, I intend to keep looking for work,” one employee told NBC News. “I will go back, but as soon as I find another role, I’ll be leaving.” Asked why she will still look for employment elsewhere, she said that she has “no faith I will keep my job.”

The chaos and confusion is likely to continue in the coming weeks. There are indications that Musk and President Donald Trump will soon issue sweeping Reduction in Force orders that could fire tens of thousands of federal workers, including those in vital nuclear security positions.

The chaos may be the point. Trump wants to demoralize the federal workforce, to weaken resistance to the executive orders pouring out of the Oval Office and pave the way for massive layoffs. “The organizing idea behind what they’re doing is that Trump wants to be king,” S. Chris van Hollen, D-MD., Said. “He doesn’t want to be accountable to the law, and the American people are getting hurt.”

Trump wants to demoralize the federal workforce, to weaken resistance to the executive orders pouring out of the Oval Office and pave the way for massive layoffs.

Chaos and nuclear weapons are not a good mix. There are certainly savings to be found in the massive nuclear weapons complex, still sized to support a Cold War-sized arsenal even though the current number of U.S. weapons is one-sixth the amount of the 1980s. However, abruptly firing employees without cause and without a coherent plan is a recipe for disaster, not savings.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., blasted the movecondemning the firing of nuclear workers and those in other vital government positions. “There is nothing ‘efficient’ about indiscriminately firing thousands upon thousands of workers in red and blue states whose work is badly needed,” she said. “Two billionaires who have zero concept of what the federal workforce does are breaking the American government — decimating essential services and leaving all of us worse off.”

NNSA requires a set of skills that are difficult to find. It takes years to train the managers, engineers and technicians involved in the nuclear programs. Treating them with contempt and calculated cruelty is not the way to retain their loyalty. Many could make much higher salaries in private companies but see their work on controlling nuclear weapons as a noble goal worth some personal sacrifice.

Senior officials in the previous administration warned of problems retaining this professional workforce because of the long hours and competition from the private sector. Instead of incentivizing their retention, Musk and Trump are discouraging current and future generations from government work. The loss of experience, talent and knowledge will cause enormous harm to U.S. national security that could take decades to repair.

The danger is not over. Although embarrassed officials had to walk back the immediate firings, it is not at all clear if the returning officials will report back to their same positions and responsibilities. Nor is there any indication that Musk’s agents understand the nature of the programs they are gutting. This may be particularly true of programs that fund nuclear security efforts abroad. Musk and Trump’s “America First” vision may well see funding border guards or nuclear safeguards in other nations as handouts to foreigners, particularly those programs operating in the Global South.

“They have no understanding as to why this is important,” one former NNSA official told me. “They will see trips to Indonesia for a nuclear security seminar as a vacation and not at all vital for U.S. national security. They will pick out a line item in a program and use it to mock the entire effort. ‘Why should we pay for African border guards?’ they’ll say. Their view is that we can just close U.S. borders and go it alone. But that is not possible if you truly want to stop the spread of materials that can be used in a nuclear or radiological bomb.”

Last week, Trump said“There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many.” There are plenty of programs he could cut to achieve that goal, including NNSA’s plan to build thousands of new “plutonium pits,” the cores of the new weapons Trump says we don’t need.

DOGE’s ham-fisted methods are no way to go about it. If Trump doesn’t want a nuclear 9/11 on his watch, he might want to pay a little more attention to the NNSA programs working to prevent it and call off Musk’s nuclear attack dogs.

The Dictatorship

Amanda Gorman honors Alex Pretti in new poem

Published

3 hours ago

January 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Amanda Gorman honors Alex Pretti in new poem

Jan. 25, 2026, 5:41 PM EST

Amanda Gorman shared a powerful poem on Instagram that she wrote in honor of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen killed by a federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday.

The poem, “For Alex Jeffrey Pretti,” characterizes Pretti’s killing as a “betrayal” and an “execution.”

Gorman, earlier this month, also paid tribute to Renee Nicole Good, another U.S. citizen killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. In a caption accompanying another poem shared on Instagram, Gorman said she was “horrified by the ongoing violence that ICE wages upon our community. Across our country, we are witnessing discrimination and brutality on an unconscionable scale.”

Her poem says, in part: “You could believe departed to be the dawn/ When the blank night has so long stood./ But our bright-fled angels will never be fully gone,/ When they forever are so fiercely Good.”

The 27-year-old writer and activist famously recited her poem, “Blue Light News We Climb,” at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration in 2021. Gorman has also written poems in the wake of other tragedies in the country, including “Hymn for the Hurting,” about the Robb Elementary mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas in 2022. She also performed a poem she wrote about reproductive rights and the Roe V. Wade Supreme Court case in a NowThis video in 2019.

Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.

The Dictatorship

Ted Cruz bashes Vance and Trump in secret recordings

Published

3 hours ago

January 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jan. 25, 2026, 4:01 PM EST

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in recordings obtained by Axiosseems to have a bone to pick with Vice President JD Vance and sometimes, President Donald Trump.

In his remarks, which lasted about 10 minutes and were reportedly made in a private meeting with donors sometime last year, Cruz portrays himself as an economically-minded, pro-interventionist who has the president’s ear.

The Texas senator is also heard criticizing former Fox News personality, Tucker Carlson, and his relationship with the vice president. “Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same,” Cruz told donors.

Cruz, who has clashed with Carlson in the past over foreign intervention policies, bashed the administration’s appointment of Israel critic Daniel Davis to a top national intelligence position. A vocal supporter of Israel himself, Cruz called Davis “a guy who viciously hates Israel,” and credited himself with removing Davis from the job.

The Republican senator also blamed Vance and Carlson for ousting former national security adviser Mike Waltz over similar anti-interventionist sentiments related to Iran.

“[Waltz] supported being vigorous against Iran and bombing Iran — and Tucker and JD took Mike out,” Cruz said.

Cruz also said he has been trying to get the White House to accept a trade agreement with India, but claimed White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, Vance and “sometimes” Trump, are resistant.

Domestically, Cruz cautioned donors about Trump’s tariffs, which he said could result in severe economic and political consequences. Cruz is reportedly heard telling donors that he told the president “if we get to November of [2026] and people’s 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10–20% at the supermarket, we’re going to go into Election Day, face a bloodbath.”

Cruz said a conversation he had with Trump about tariffs “did not go well,” and that Trump was “yelling” and “cursing.” Cruz said Trump told him: “F*** you, Ted.”

“Trump was in a bad mood,” Cruz said. “I’ve been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them.”

In a statement about the recordings, a spokesperson for Cruz said he is “the president’s greatest ally in the Senate and battles every day in the trenches to advance his agenda. Those battles include fights over staffers who try to enter the administration despite disagreeing with the president and seeking to undermine his foreign policy” and that “these attempts at sowing division are pathetic and getting boring.”

In an email responding to MS NOW’s request for comment on Cruz’s reported statements, the White House did not address Cruz’s statements.

Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.

The Dictatorship

The real reason Trump and MAGA are so quick to blame Minneapolis shooting victims

Published

3 hours ago

January 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jan. 25, 2026, 3:02 PM EST

Alex Pretti was shot to death on the sidewalk of a street in Minneapolis after he didn’t leave when federal agents demanded he leave. Renee Good was shot to death in her car on a street in Minneapolis because she tried to leave when federal agents demanded she not.

Advocates of President Donald Trump’s administration will cite this disobedience as a central factor in Pretti and Good’s deaths. Each has been assigned a contrived danger, as well, to reinforce the urgent need for their killings: Pretti had a gun (that he doesn’t appear to have drawn) and Good had her car (that she doesn’t appear to have used as a weapon).

But their central offense, among those eager to champion Trump’s politics and policies, was their failure to be pliant. They were at odds with the state and, well, sometimes that’s punishable by death.

It is stunning, though not surprising, to see the president of the United States and sworn federal officials impugn dead citizens so callously.

It has been posited that the eagerness with which Trump and his allies have defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents against charges of excessive force, and the alacrity with which they assign blame to the victims of those shootings, demonstrates hypocrisy, given their collective willingness to absolve — to beatify! — the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They, too, defied state authority and, in many cases, far more aggressively. But they are hailed as heroes by the current administration.

But this isn’t hypocrisy at all. It’s consistent. If you object to or impede their politics, they will hurt you. That is the consistency and it is why off-duty police were in the mob on Jan. 6 and why Trump supporters defend ICE today. It’s not the badge that matters. It’s the red cap.

The most jarring element of the response to Pretti’s death and to Good’s death is the speed with which the administration has disparaged the victims rather than the perpetrators. Each of them was also immediately asserted to have been a premeditated, violent actor. A terrorist. When each, instead, was at the scene of their unwitting deaths because they were part of and supportive of their community.

It is stunning, though not surprising, to see the president of the United States and sworn federal officials impugn dead citizens so callously. It’s utterly immoral, if not deranged. What flows through their veins is partisanship, and what dominates their thoughts is knocking their opponents and critics back on their heels. Perhaps there are flutters of recognition that this is not how human beings behave, much less political leaders in a democracy. But if those flames flicker into existence, they are quickly snuffed.

And for what! This is the question that continues to baffle me more than any other. Why has the Department of Homeland Security dispatched vans and SUVs filled with masked men to Minneapolis? Most immediately, it seems, it’s because a bad-faith “investigation” from a right-wing media personality made Minnesota a focus of the right’s collective anger. So the president pointed at Minnesota and his shock troops marched.

Their mission has been described in a number of ways, which means that (as with so much else in Trump’s world) the effect was decided before the cause. Maybe it’s about combatting the fraud alleged by the media personality, even though prosecutors had been investigating and securing convictions for social services fraud in Minnesota for years. Or maybe it’s just about uprooting immigrants.

This is the government’s most common explanation. Trump and his aides have repeatedly insisted that the expansive, guerrilla-style raids being conducted by federal agents in Minnesota have been effective at removing the “worst of the worst” criminal immigrants from the area, something it insists that the state’s Democratic leaders had refused to do. (The state disagrees.)

What’s the right ratio here, Mr. President? How many citizens being shot to death is worth this campaign of fear and its sporadic deportations?

At a White House press conference on Jan. 20, Trump held up images of 40 individuals who he claimed had been detained by federal agents in Minnesota. A DHS website titled, “ARRESTED: WORST OF THE WORST,” — identifies just under 500 such people in the state. Some of them (as was the case with Trump’s visual aids) seem less like “the worst of the worst” than like “people with any criminal record at all.” Does having a DUI make you one of the nation’s worst criminals? If you weren’t born here, I guess so.

Even by DHS’ count, though, the government isn’t only targeting “the worst of the worst.” On Jan. 14, the agency put out a press release claiming that they’d arrested 2,500 of the “worst of the worst,” meaning that the website, even with the drunk drivers, is a couple thousand short in its tally. Nationally, of course, ICE has accelerated its detention of people with no criminal records at all. One analysis estimates that 92 out of every 100 people added to ICE detention last year faced no criminal charges and had no past convictions. Besides, violent crime in Minnesota was already on the decline before DHS and ICE showed up (also mirroring national trends).

So the feds rolled up some people with criminal records or maybe pending charges. In doing so, they spread chaos and confusion around the city, shipped a kindergartener off to Texas and sent a baby to the hospital.

In doing so, they killed two residents of Minneapolis, their dying bodies laying at the side of the road.

What’s the right ratio here, Mr. President? How many citizens being shot to death is worth this campaign of fear and its sporadic deportations?

It seems as though the answer is clear by now: As many as can be killed with his base still believing that they were violent opponents of the president’s politics. As long as that belief is sustained, the killings can continue because it means that his supporters’ confidence and trust in him is sustained, too. And that, more even than purifying the populaceis what matters to Trump.

The White House and DHS frequently validate their work by pointing to the killers they’re taking out of the country, outsiders who’d killed Americans. It would be a more effective argument if they weren’t defending the outsiders they brought into Minneapolis who did the same thing.

Philip Bump is a data journalist and MS NOW contributor.