Tangle - SPECIAL EDITION: Catching up on under-the-radar stories

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

The Trump administration has started with a whirlwind, and we’ve been working overtime to keep up with everything. Between the Senate nominations, executive orders, government leaks and sudden emergencies, we haven’t had enough time to get into it all. We even dedicated last Friday’s editionto covering three confirmation hearings just to stay up to date. Every once in a while, we break our standard format to better cover the news, and we decided that today is a good time to do that.Ad-free podcasts are here!Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to tanglemedia.supercast.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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I do. Enjoy the number one feeling. Winning, in an exciting live dealer studio, exclusively on FanDuel Casino, where winning is undefeated. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connexontario.ca. Please play responsibly. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. And welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking and a little bit of our take.

I am your host today, editor Will Kavak, and we are going to be talking about a lot of things. We're going to be talking about all of the big stories from the first few weeks of the Trump administration that we haven't had a chance to cover in Tangle. And we're going to do it by soliciting input from across the Tangle team. You're going to be hearing from some voices

who you might not have heard from before, some people writing for the first time or contributing for just the second or third time. But we're really excited to bring you this piece because it's going to showcase the diversity of opinion and background and experiences on our staff and how they're thinking about some of the actions of the Trump administration and some of the stories in the country writ large that we haven't had a chance to go in depth on. We felt like it was an appropriate time to do this just because of the crush of news that's been coming these past few weeks. We've

obviously dedicated most Tangled Editions during that time to covering individual executive orders or actions or breaking news that comes the day before. But there's been a ton of under the radar or unappreciated issues that we haven't had a chance to talk about. So that's what we're going to focus on doing today. It's a special edition,

so we won't have all of our normal sections, but we are going to start with our normal quick hits, and then we'll dive into our main topic. So let's talk about some quick hits. One, during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump said the United States would assume control of the Gaza Strip and take responsibility for rebuilding it, adding that all Palestinians living in Gaza should be relocated to surrounding countries. Separately, Trump signed a

presidential memorandum ordering the Treasury Secretary to impose quote maximum economic pressure on Iran and implement a plan to eliminate the country's oil exports. Number two, authorities said they have recovered the bodies of all 67 people killed in the midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter in Washington, D.C. last Wednesday. Three, the Senate voted 54 to 46 to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general, with Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat

from Pennsylvania, joining all Republicans in supporting her confirmation. Separately, the Senate Intelligence and Finance committees voted to advance the nominations of Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., respectively, to a floor vote of the entire Senate. Number four, President Trump signed an executive order ending U.S. engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council and banning funding for the UN Relief Agency for Gaza. Separately, almost all employees of the United States Agency for International Development, also known as USAID, will be placed on leave by the end of the week, according to a notice

posted on the agency's website on Tuesday. Number five, the Trump administration began its plan to detain unauthorized immigrants at the U S military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with the first group of detainees arriving on Tuesday. The department of Homeland security did not provide further details about the migrants or their immigration status. All right, that is it for today's quick hits. So let's jump right into today's topic. Catching up on Under the Radar Stories.

The Trump administration has started with a whirlwind and we've been working overtime to keep up with everything between the Senate nominations, executive orders, government leaks and sudden emergencies, we haven't had enough time to get into everything we would have liked to. In fact, we even dedicated last Friday's edition to covering three confirmation hearings just to stay up to date. Every once in a while, we break our standard format to better cover the news, and we decided that today is a good time to do just that. We're also using this time to balance two specific biases that have seeped into our coverage and no we're not talking about political bias.

The first one is controversy bias. Tangle is an outlet that focuses on debate which means that we will err toward covering important stories that are divisive over equally important ones that aren't as polarizing. To use last Friday's piece as an example, our staff ended up being fairly critical of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Cash Patel, just as we were for Pete Hexeth and Matt Gaetz. But we covered these three picks

because they were controversial, which by definition meant that they were worthy of coverage, particularly within Tangle's coverage format. But that doesn't mean they were more important than other cabinet positions or nominations. The second bias is negativity bias. Our coverage has drawn some fair questions from readers about what exactly Trump was doing that we were encouraged by or hopeful about. It wasn't all negative. And that feedback has reminded us that the nature of our work covering controversial issues that invite debate can also skew coverage

of the early days of an administration negatively. In a generous read, reporters want to follow leads that the public should be concerned about. In a cynical read, outlets want to publish stories that create fear and worry so people will pay attention and pay them. Since our model is somewhat reactive, that often leads us to subconsciously or consciously

follow this tendency toward broader media negativity bias in our story selection. The result is that as readers, you were getting a sample of cabinet level nominees who were controversial and diverted from the norm, or stories that were controversial and diverted from the norm as the media is framing it. To add to that example of the cabinet nominee coverage,

we dedicated very little time to Marco Rubio's nomination for Secretary of State, or Doug Burgum's nomination for Secretary of the Interior, even though those are also highly impactful positions. But we didn't cover them at the time because they weren't creating as much controversy or opinion or commentary as some of the other nominations that we did cover. So to guide today's edition on all the things we've missed, we've asked the Tangle staff two questions.

One, what piece of news has interested you over the past two weeks that we didn't get to cover in depth and why? Second, what has Trump done so far that you are supportive of and why? We thought the answers would shine a light on all of these stories, illuminate the diversity of thought among our staff and give us an opportunity to expand our coverage of what has happened beyond the stories that are drawing headlines and debate. We even managed to coax a response out of our founder, Isaac Saul, who is currently on paternity leave but sent us a few responses of his own that we'll get into shortly.

As always, we are covering this not to say that the good balances out the bad or endorse a broader ideological viewpoint on either side, but our goal is to present all the information we can with nuance and depth so you can draw informed conclusions about the biggest issues of the day, even the ones that aren't generating a huge amount of controversy. So, as we get into it, you'll find some discussion conclusions about the biggest issues of the day, even the ones that aren't generating

a huge amount of controversy. So as we get into it, you'll find some discussion of all these stories from our various staff members. I'll read their titles aloud before we get into their responses. And in the newsletter, we also shared some links for additional reading from commentators on the right and left. If you're interested, you can go to readtangle.com and check this out. Let's get into it. We'll be right back after this quick break.

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And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply, details at fizz.ca. First, from Isaac Saul, Tangle's executive editor. Trump's disorganization. I have so much more to say about the first few weeks of Trump's presidency,

and I will put together a post when I'm back from paternity leave, but this is one notable take I figure I'll get off my chest now. Maybe this doesn't qualify as under the radar, but I think a lot of people are missing the forest for the trees by framing Trump's first few weeks as calculated and well planned. Trump is undeniably flooding the zone, but I'm not sure yet how different this is than Trump 1.0 or Trump's first term. His current administration is still beset by widespread leaking, disorganization, some missteps and signs of chaos. He's also breaking or testing the boundaries

of many laws, which is not a sound recipe for long-term or sustainable change. Signs of disorganization, like the OMB funding freeze fiasco, the tariffs that Trump backed off of after spending days getting Republicans to rally around them, or the IRS inadvertently removing words like quote, inequity of holding taxpayer money and quote, inclusion of a taxpayer ID on a form from important financial directives are everywhere. Even more targeted approaches like the dismantling of USAID seem to go through fits and spurts. First, the organization was going to be shut down. Then it was just getting a new director.

Now 10,000 employees are being told to pack their bags without a plan or much of an organization to get them home. And the attempt to shut the organization down without Congress might end up being plainly illegal. Another sign that Trump's strategy won't be effective, congressional Republicans are struggling to get anything done so far. It's unclear what important legislation

they're going to prioritize or how they're going to advance it. And Trump's rapid fire approach seems to be overwhelming even his own party. A lot is happening and maybe my being on paternity leave, again, this is Isaac, not Will, and getting to take in the news at a slower pace is informing my perspective. But I think there is a lot of miscommunication, disorganization and orders bound to get caught up in legal trouble once the courts catch up. And I think that's epitomized by something that Ezra Klein said when he

spoke to a longtime government employee who opposed Trump, who said the scary thing would be if Trump were moving in slow calculated ways, but actually doing what he did the first time around, blitzing, making mistakes and seeing what sticks. I think that view that Trump is creating an illusion of well-laid plans is actually closer to the reality I'm seeing. It's still early, but it'll be interesting to keep watching. The next story is written by Ari Weitzman, Tangle's managing editor. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Trump made a great decision by selecting Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Trump made a great decision by selecting Marco Rubio to run the State Department. Rubio has always been a strong communicator and a willing

partner for bipartisan legislation in the Senate, and he brings a kind of steady maturity befitting the position. In fact, one of the biggest knocks against Rubio as a politician, that he's somewhat politically inert and hasn't resonated with the GOP on their most animating issues, is a strength in a Secretary of State. I also consider the fact that he's willing to work with a president who famously employed personal attacks against him in the 2016 Republican primary to be a sign of grace and diplomacy. More characteristics that should serve him well as Secretary of State. His Senate confirmation failed to make news, but for all the right

reasons. Quote, his performance was flawless. Senator Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho, said, quote, I believe Senator Rubio has a thorough understanding of the United States role on an international scale, has served with honor on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is a good choice to lead the State Department. Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois said, in a period of immense polarization, Rubio was confirmed in a unanimous 99 to 0 Senate vote. Of course, the consensus of politicians doesn't necessarily mean that Rubio is a slam dunk pick. A better indication is how he performed in his first test in office. Over the weekend, President Trump cast doubt on the future of USAID, leading to conflicting messages from Elon Musk at the Department of Government

Efficiency and Rubio at the State Department. Rubio's comments were appropriately assertive to match the White House's tone, but also much more reasoned and sober than what we got from Musk. I strongly suggest watching Rubio field questions on USAID at an impromptu press gaggle while touring an airplane repair facility in El Salvador to get a read on why he's gained the respect and appreciation of so many of his colleagues. The next section is written by Magdalena Bokova, head of partnerships at Tangle. Women in Trump's cabinet.

On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as U.S. Attorney General in a 54 to 46 vote. Bondi, who previously served as Florida's Attorney General from 2011 to 2019, was the first woman to hold that role in the state. During her confirmation hearing, Bondi avoided taking firm positions on key issues, including whether she would enforce the TikTok ban, whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and whether she would investigate special counsel Jack Smith, who led probes into Trump during his time out of office. Trump has publicly called for Smith to be prosecuted. So this is a pretty

big question for Bondi as she starts her tenure as Attorney General. But despite the significance of her appointment and following the controversy surrounding Matt Gaetz's withdrawal, Gaetz was the attorney general pick before Bondi. Bondi's confirmation received little media attention. And this to me reflects a broader trend. Many of Trump's female cabinet appointees have flown under the radar. Even for someone who follows the news quite closely, it would be difficult to

name what positions people like Gail Slater, Harmeet K. Dillon, or Brooke Rollins were nominated for. Can you? While major headlines have focused elsewhere, Trump has actually doubled the female representation in his main cabinet relative to his first term, with women now holding about one-third of cabinet positions. Also, Susie Wiles made history as the first female White House chief of staff, yet her appointment was largely overlooked by the mainstream media. Given the flurry of changes over the past two weeks, it's understandable why, but it's

still worth following and paying attention to. The next response is written by me, Will Kavak, an editor at Tangle. Stargate, DeepSeek, and the AI arms race. Trump's January 23rd executive order on artificial intelligence is mostly a statement of intent that the US should work to solidify its position as a global AI leader and develop AI systems that are quote, free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas. But this declaration, combined with the recently announced Stargate project, offers a glimpse of where we could be headed on what I believe will be one of the defining stories

of the coming years. For background, Stargate is a joint venture announced by Trump between chat GPT developer OpenAI, investment firm SoftBank, and software company Oracle that intends to invest billions of dollars to build out AI infrastructure in the US. The companies have said they would collectively commit $500 billion to the project in the next four years, though Elon Musk has notably cast doubt on that figure. Regardless of the exact investment number,

Stargate is fundamentally an AI hardware effort. It will primarily involve the construction of new data centers and physical campuses to train advanced AI models, which typically require a significant amount of energy, storage, and computing power. Until recently,

conventional wisdom among AI leaders held that developing the most advanced AI models, think chat GPT or Anthropix Claude, requires expensive hardware and lots of it, specifically advanced computer chips like those made by Nvidia. That assumption is the impetus for Stargate and recent decisions by US technology leaders to boost their capital expenditures on AI hardware in the coming years. It's also why the Biden administration moved to impose export controls on computer chips.

If countries like China aren't able to purchase enough of these chips to develop their own advanced models, they'll be at a perpetual disadvantage. Or so the thinking goes. All of those assumptions were subverted last week by DeepSeek, a China-based AI startup. Without getting into the weeds of the announcement, DeepSeek claimed to have created an AI model that rivals anything produced by American companies at a fraction of the cost they claim $6 million

and computing power. Their specific claims are dubious and seem to be getting weaker by the day, especially that $6 million figure. But what isn't in doubt is that DeepSeek's product is impressive, particularly with math and coding problems. Now that could be a big problem for the US and initiatives like Stargate. For one, if DeepSeek were to build this model with relatively few AI chips, it suggests

that export controls won't hinder China's AI progress. Second, the company open-sourced its model so anyone can access its code and learn how it developed its system. That means smaller startups with minimal funding could begin developing AI products that rival the billion-dollar models. This is free market principles at their finest, but worry some given the potential military applications for China. Third, if DeepSeek's claims are verified, it's very bad news for anyone who may have just committed $500 billion on a faulty assumption about AI. It's plausible that DeepSeek has used creativity and ingenuity to solve a problem that US companies have been throwing gobs of money at to solve with brute force. That's a concern that could explain why Nvidia lost a jaw-dropping $592 billion in market capitalization after DeepSeek's announcement.

Of course, we should be very skeptical that DeepSeek is telling the whole truth about how it built its system, and of course, this single announcement doesn't render efforts like Stargate immediately irrelevant. In fact, even if DeepSeek is fully legit, AI hardware is still going to be important going forward. More chips and infrastructure inherently enable companies to run more tests simultaneously and support a range of enterprise and consumer functions. For the White House and its partners in the private sector, these developments are frankly a wake-up call, and I'll be watching to see how President Trump steers the government's strategy.

I expect more export controls are on the menu, but the real test will be whether Trump can keep his eye on the ball and not get bogged down in concerns about woke AI. The next response is written by John Law, Tangle's executive producer. The U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund. On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order tasking U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick to deliver a plan within 90 days for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund. For context, a sovereign wealth fund is like an investment account for a country. The fund is managed by the government with the aims of generating wealth and providing for the common good, and it can be used for health care,

infrastructure and the betterment of future generations. Trump has also floated the idea of using the funds to purchase TikTok. This may sound like a fresh idea to some in the U.S., but it's actually hardly novel. There are actually over 100 countries with sovereign wealth funds, including China, Saudi Arabia, and Norway, which manages the largest in the world, where national governments command funds worth trillions of dollars. Even within the U.S., over 20 states have sovereign wealth funds, Alaska's being the largest, and it holds over 80 billion dollars in assets.

It's also not really a partisan idea. Senior officials in the Biden administration were also working on similar plans for a fund before the end of their term. So if other small and major nations have successful funds and on both sides of the aisle there's at least a bit of consensus that it could be worth exploring, why haven't we done it yet? Well, the biggest issue comes down to the biggest difference. While other countries with these funds have budget surpluses, the U.S. runs huge budget deficits, not to mention $35 trillion in debt.

Not exactly a drop in the bucket. As Dominic Pino wrote in National Review, quote, the U.S. is running enormous budget deficits deficits forecast to get even bigger as things currently stand, and it would have to borrow even more money to start a sovereign wealth fund. So how would we get the money for such a fund? Well, according to Bloomberg quote, Trump advisors have previously discussed plans to use the US international development finance corporation to partner with major institutional players to leverage US economic powers." Also, perhaps a clue to his funding strategy lies in a famous Trump saying, drill baby

drill. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and especially Norway with its $1.7 trillion behemoth fund have built their funds with revenue from oil, natural gas, and mineral sales. Trump wants to expand oil and gas production, but may not have the support he's looking for from industry leaders, so whether he could actually do this remains an open question. Unsurprisingly, Elon Musk has also been involved in these conversations, which brings us to another critical concern. As Heather Long puts it in The Washington Post,

a sovereign wealth fund would be a way for a president to have access to money without having to deal with Congress, but as such, it would quickly become a dangerous slush fund, end quote. With many government oversight departments on the chopping block and a special government employee in Musk with a murky job description and increasingly alarming access, there are enough red flags to give pause and consider the possibilities and dangers to such a plan. Still, if President Trump can manage to create and fund this sovereign wealth fund, it could lead to investments in technology, infrastructure, medical research, or simply function as a

piggy bank that eventually gives back to taxpayers. And since both the Biden and Trump administrations have considered this plan, it's more than fair to give credit to President Trump for expeditiously pursuing it. But despite having the world's largest economy, but also the world's largest debt, I'm skeptical that our government

and this administration in particular can take this task on responsibly. The next response is written by Audrey Morehead, an associate editor. Restructuring the Department of Education. Anecdotally, this is an issue that's very important to me. I went through the public school system and I rely on federal loans for college. Beyond that, I grew up with many family members involved in public education. My mother taught for 20 years

before becoming a public school librarian. My grandmother taught elementary school for most of her life. My father and uncle are both school superintendents with decades of experience in administration. As such, I've spent my whole life experiencing and learning about the problems facing public education from many sides.

So it may come as a surprise that I and a lot of my family think getting rid of the Department of Education is a good move. While the aims of the department are noble and I personally place a high value on the importance of education, its results leave a lot to be desired. In the end, it's a good idea to streamline the federal government by restructuring departments, including the education department. First and foremost, I'm partial to the traditional conservative argument about constitutionality. A federal department of education is not outlining the constitution as a duty of the executive

branch. While the legislature did create and empower the department, I'm not convinced by arguments that the education— While the legislature did create and empower the department, I'm not convinced by arguments that the education, while the legislature did create and empower the department, I'm not really convinced by arguments that education should fall under the federal government's jurisdiction in our current system. As far as the department's impact on public education goes, recent results aren't great. American students' performances in reading and math increased after the department's formation during the Carter administration, but have now hit new lows in recent years, especially after the pandemic. Furthermore, the two seminal pieces of educational

policy in the 21st century, No Child Left Behind and its successor, Every Student Succeeds, have negatively affected public education by imposing ineffective, top-down accountability measures. Tying federal funding to statewide test performance creates undue pressure on teachers to quote teach the test rather than quote teach to learn. And there's no evidence that state testing has actually reduced achievement gaps among high and low income students as it was intended to do. Additionally, the other important work of the Education Department, its student loan programs, have also fallen under scrutiny. And for good reason. I personally experienced the disastrous FAFSA 2023-2024 rollout where many students were left in educational limbo, unable to receive aid,

and therefore unable to enroll in college. Of course, federal loan programs are vital for many middle class and low income students hoping to attend college, but the Education Department has not proven that it can fulfill this role well enough to justify its bloat. All in all, I'm not convinced that a federal Department of Education is necessary or even helpful. If Trump moves to abolish the Education Department by restructuring what I consider its most important work, providing federal student aid into other departments while guiding its more harmful, over-regulatory provisions,

then I count that as a win for students, parents, and educators everywhere. The next response is written by Russell Nystrom, our social media and marketing strategist. Releasing the JFK files. Waiting for a president to fully release the JFK files has been a bit like Charlie Brown trusting Lucy not to pull the football away, only to be disappointed every time.

For context, in 1992, Congress passed the John F. Kennedy assassination records collection act, which was signed into law by president George H.W. Bush. Among other requirements, the act mandated full disclosure of documents by October 26th, 2017, unless the president deemed doing so would pose significant risk to national security,

intelligence operations, or foreign relations. After pledging in 2017 to release every document, Trump reneged on his promise just a year later, though he did release tens of thousands of pertinent documents during his first term, just not all of the ones he said he would. President Biden also released thousands of relevant documents, but thousands more remain sealed or contain significant redactions. Just a few days into his second term, President Trump signed an executive order mandating the attorney general and director of national intelligence, DNI, to present a plan to the

president for the full and complete release of these records within 15 days or February 7th, 2025. Additionally, both officials are to present a plan to release records relating to the 1968 assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And as a side note, Trump's nominee for DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, has not been confirmed by the Senate at this time. So aspects of the order may be pushed back.

The order does not set a date by which the documents must be released. Experts say not to expect a smoking gun that proves beyond doubt whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted as the lone gunman or if there was a larger conspiracy when he killed President Kennedy. Instead, the final documents likely contain personal data of officers or informants still living, embarrassing information of intelligence agencies' knowledge of Oswald, and a spattering of details that may provide a more robust picture of the situation. In fact, we already know that some of the most infamous materials will not be released. Hours of interviews with Jackie Kennedy, the former First Lady, and then Attorney General

Robert F. Kennedy, as well as private letters between Jackie Kennedy and President Johnson. These are all under deeds of gift from the Kennedy family that bar their public release for decades to come. So will the documents ultimately be released? Only time will tell, of course, but I am hopeful that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an outspoken supporter of releasing the documents related to his uncle and father, likely being in the administration, will compel Trump to follow through on his promise this time. If Trump actually releases the government's documents, it will be a win for government transparency

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Next, Isaac Saul, our executive editor, wrote about executive orders limiting regulation. On Trump's first day in office, he issued several orders to expedite federal permits that will help shrink the timeline for building critical energy infrastructure. The directive was a response to long-standing bipartisan complaints about lengthy environmental reviews and the red tape of federal authorization for infrastructure projects, big and small. Trump's directive is an initial step, and he is limited in his power and what he can do, but it was an unsung positive from his first few days in office and something that Biden probably should have done himself. Even left of center writers like Noah Smith have championed the orders, which with any

luck could also expand to expedited permitting and construction of housing too. to. The next response is written by Magdalena Bukova, our head of partnerships. Why aren't we talking about Melania coin? With a single tweet on January 19th, first lady Melania Trump launched her own cryptocurrency, the official Melania meme coin symbolized as dollar sign Melania. Coming just days after President Trump unveiled his own meme coin, the move has sparked conversations about the ethical and financial implications of political figures endorsing cryptocurrencies, and it reflects the growing involvement of the administration in the cryptocurrency space. So should the Trumps have their own cryptocurrencies, even if it's just a meme coin? My answer is no.

The Trumps are blurring the lines between their political influence and profiting off the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies. While celebrity backed coins may drive the mainstream interest in crypto, they also raise trust and transparency issues given the unregulated nature of digital assets. Though it's unlikely the Trumps took the value of their meme coin seriously, they are still directly profiting from trading fees and cash returns from token sales. And this is all tied to their relevance as figures currently in the White House.

It feels odd to associate a meme coin with the White House, the world's most powerful office. It undermines its credibility at face value. What kind of message does that send to the world? Ari Weitzman, our managing editor, writes about the DNC electing a new chairman. The DNC chairman election has zero impact on US policy or anybody's day-to-day lives, but it's fascinating, and it gives us our first clue for how Democrats are learning and rebuilding from the 2024 election.

The short version, more of the same, but with more populism. Here's a brief list of winners from the DNC selection. First, Ken Martin, former leader of the Democratic farmer labor party in Minnesota. He is well known for being a behind the scenes tactician and for labor friendly policies and said he would take the low road so my candidates can take the high road. Martin was elected DNC chair. Kamala Harris, whose pre-recorded message received a strong ovation from attendees and who spoke with each front runner for 15 to 20 minutes before the election and who also

committed to fundraising for the next few months. Last, David Hogg, the Parkland school shooting survivor and gun control advocate, who was elected to one of the three DNC vice chair positions. And a slightly longer list of the losers. Ben Wickler, chair of the Democratic party in Wisconsin, who was seen as a front runner going into the vote, but ended up managing only a third of the total vote. Second, the senior leadership of the Democratic Party who endorsed Wickler. A real who's who of familiar names. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Billionaire donor George Soros. And LinkedIn founder and also billionaire Reid Hoffman. Next, diverse leadership representation. Bernie Sanders' senior advisor, Faiz Shakir, received only two of the roughly 400 votes cast, while self-help author and occasional presidential candidate Marianne Williamson received zero, as did former US House candidate, Quintessa Hathaway,

the only black woman running for the position. Next, any hope for a big ideological shift? Martin ran on changing tactics, saying the party has the right message and just needs to connect it back to voters. So it's unlikely we're going to see major messaging changes in the immediate future. The next response was written by Hunter Caspersen, Tangle's editorial fellow. Trump's reaction to the DC crash. We're publishing a big piece on the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, on Friday, but President Trump's response to the deadly DC plane crash was news in and of itself.

In a press conference on Thursday, Trump suggested that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives were to blame for the crash, stating, quote, the FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website. Media outlets on both the left and the right reported on his comments and many challenged the statements he made for being misleading or outright false. However, Vice President JD Vance spoke out against the media's criticisms of the president's statements saying, quote, the president has made it very clear that he wasn't blaming anybody, but he was being very explicit about the fact that DEI policies have led our air traffic

controllers to be short-staffed. Setting aside the conversation that DEI policies have led our air traffic controllers to be short staffed. Setting aside the conversation of DEI's effectiveness as a whole, I see the comments made by the president as a representation of Trump's tendency to scapegoat through an ideological lens. And the implications of the aftermath regarding Joe Ellis also concern me. Ellis is a transgender pilot for the Virginia Army National Guard who was falsely accused in thousands of social media posts of being the captain of the crashed Black Hawk helicopter. The rumors were even reported by at least two news outlets, one representing the false accusations of Ellis as fact. Ellis then posted a video to Facebook on Friday that proved she was alive and not at fault for the crash, of course.

But with these accusations of Ellis being linked so closely in time to President Trump's DEI statements, I see this as a prime example of the power Trump holds in the narratives he creates. With President Trump's focus on DEI as a whole, combined with the public response to this event, I see this playing out over Trump's presidency as a manic perception of non-white, transgender and disabled people that could have dangerous consequences. And finally, our last response is from Will Kabeck, one of Tangle's editors. Change in standards for government contractors. President Trump's executive order on DEI programs has garnered considerable attention for both its intent to root out these initiatives in every facet of the federal government and

how that objective has been executed, with the Office of Management and Budget using the order as a pretext for its short-lived funding freeze memo last week. Elon Musk has also centered DEI as his primary target in his efforts to cut government spending via the Department of Government Efficiency. The anti-DEI push in the Trump administration is probably a topic we'll cover in more depth soon, but Trump also issued an adjacent order on his first day in office that is worth discussing here. That action, titled, quote, ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity,

rescinds a 1965 executive order by President Lyndon B. Johnson titled Executive Order 11246 that established requirements for non-discriminatory practices in government contracting. Specifically, it prohibited government contractors or subcontractors who worked with the U.S. from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Sounds pretty basic, right? Yes, sex, or national origin. Sounds pretty basic, right?

Yes, but the order had another provision. It required contractors to take affirmative action to ensure they were not discriminating in their hiring practices. Over time, this stipulation was interpreted by successive presidential administrations as requiring contractors to adopt affirmative action policies, that is, consciously selective of different demographic traits, which is somewhat ironic considering the original intent of the order. Now, Trump has canceled that directive and replaced it with a provision that explicitly bars contractors from considering race, color, religion, sex,

or national origin in hiring. The potential impact is enormous. In fiscal year 2023, the federal government committed about $759 billion to contracts with a wide range of businesses. So Trump's order will impact hiring in numerous industries. I think this action was the right move. The application of Executive Order 11246 from President Lyndon B. Johnson has evolved beyond its original purpose, and some kind of clarification was overdue.

But I also believe the government shouldn't be in the business of mandating the hiring practices of contractors. As long as it is confident that the company can provide the desired service, it shouldn't matter the demographic makeup of its employees. I disagree with President Trump, Musk, and others that efforts to promote diversity are

worthless, but I'm aligned with the idea that it shouldn't be a priority in determining who the government works with. For what it's worth, this sentiment seems to be increasingly in line with how Americans view affirmative action policies writ large. Alright that is it for today's main story. Let's wrap up with our have a nice day story. Deforestation is a common concern among environmentalists, but a recent rainforest restoration effort

is taking shape in an unlikely place. At Bowdoin Pillars in England, volunteers working with the wildlife trusts have been transforming a barren field into a rainforest. Nearly 2,500 saplings have been planted and another 4,500 native trees are set to be planted by the end of the winter. Similar restoration projects are occurring in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You can read more about this story in Positive News.

All right, everybody, that is it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to our special edition on these under the radar stories from the first few weeks of the Trump administration. As always, if you'd like to support the work we do, you can head over to readtangle.com and sign up for a membership. You can also head over to tanglemedia.supercast.com to sign up for a premium podcast membership, which

gets you ad-free daily podcasts, Friday editions, Sunday podcasts, interviews, bonus content, and so much more. Seriously, this is an awesome premium membership. If you're thinking about it, highly recommend it. We'll be right back here tomorrow with a normal edition. And then on Friday, as a reminder, we're going to be doing a deep dive on the FAA and the plane crash in Washington, DC. You won't want to miss that one. Excited to share it with you. But for now, have a great rest of your day, wherever you are, and we will talk to you soon. Bye, y'all.

Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by Duke Thomas. Our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Will Kavak, Daily Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was made by Magdalena Bikova, who is also our social media manager. The music for the podcast was made by Magdalena Bikova, who is also our social media manager. The music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. And if you're looking for more from Tangle, please go check out our website at reedtangle.com.

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