The Headlines - U.S. Economy Under Stress, and a Behind-the-Scenes Look at DOGE

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Plus, Gene Hackman’s everyman legacy. On Today’s Episode: U.S. Economy Shows Signs of Strain From Trump’s Tariffs and Spending Cuts, by Alan RappeportAgriculture Department Looks to Import Eggs as Prices Soar, by Linda QiuThe People Carrying Out Musk’s Plans at DOGE, by The New York TimesChief Justice Allows U.S. to Continue Freeze on Foreign Aid Payments, by Zach Montague, Michael Crowley and Adam LiptakOrgan Transplant System ‘in Chaos’ as Waiting Lists Are Ignored, by Brian M. Rosenthal, Mark Hansen and Jeremy WhiteGene Hackman, Hollywood’s Consummate Everyman, Dies at 95, by Robert BerkvistTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, February 27th. Here's what we're covering. The United States economy is starting to show signs of strain under President Trump's aggressive agenda. It's still the strongest economy in the world, but economists warn that the relative calm that Trump inherited could be in jeopardy. When he took office last month, there was stable growth and inflation was easing. Three of Trump's big policy moves could shift that, starting with his widespread funding freezes. Those freezes have thrown billions of dollars of projects focused on

infrastructure and clean energy into limbo, rattling businesses and states that had already started work on them. And U.S. farmers took a hit when the crops they export for foreign aid programs got caught up in the spending pause. On the tariff front, Trump's plans to put hefty surcharges on America's biggest trading partners—China, Canada, and Mexico, could cause prices to rise at home and trigger trade wars. Consumers are watching warily. A recent survey of consumer sentiment showed the largest monthly decline in

four years. And the flood of government layoffs is also contributing to the unease. The dismissed federal workers are a small percentage of the overall American workforce, but thousands of people losing their jobs at once could the unease. The dismissed federal workers are a small percentage of the overall American workforce. But thousands of people losing their jobs at once could affect what has been a historically strong labor market. Trump has acknowledged that his policies could bring some initial pain. His plan is that cutting taxes and government spending, as well as other initiatives, will offset that. But even some of his biggest supporters have expressed concern about where the economy is headed.

Last week, Larry Kudlow, a Fox business host who served in the first Trump administration, said, quote, At least for now, the economic signals are flashing slower growth and higher inflation. Not good. Meanwhile, we have to get the prices down, not the inflation down. Not good. Meanwhile... We have to get the prices down, not the inflation down, the prices of eggs and various other things. Eggs are a disaster. One of the biggest economic issues that Trump ran on, the price of groceries, is still front and center for many Americans, especially egg prices.

The bird flu outbreak has pushed those prices to record highs. Trump acknowledged the situation in his first cabinet meeting yesterday and — All right, you want to talk eggs? — Yeah. — Let's do it. — His new secretary of agriculture, Brooke Rollins, said the U.S. was looking at temporarily importing eggs from other countries to try and bring prices down. — … which countries, but we're talking to three or four countries right now

about getting between 70 and 100 million eggs into the country in the next month or two, which of course will help with supply and demand. Turning to imports may only have a limited impact on the market since the U.S. consumes billions of eggs each month. Rollins said the administration will also be funding measures to fight bird flu, including developing vaccines for chickens.

Also, at yesterday's cabinet meeting. Is anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, we'll throw them out of here. President Trump dismissed growing criticism of Elon Musk that's been coming from both inside and outside of the federal government. I have a lot of respect for Elon and that he's doing this and some disagree a little bit but I will tell you for the most part I think everyone's not only happy they're thrilled.

As Musk's Department of Government Efficiency continues to fan out across federal agencies looking for what to cut and who to fire, the Times has been looking at who is on that team. The White House has not disclosed most of the names of the staffers, and Trump issued an executive order that effectively shields the group from open records laws. When some of the Doge staffers have gone into federal agencies to grill employees about their work, they've even declined to share their own last names. The Times has now compiled a list of known Doge staffers. One big theme is how many ties these folks have to his private companies, including SpaceX,

Tesla, X, and a bunch of his other enterprises. They have worked at his companies and clearly were recruited through that network. My colleague Nick Nejamas has been digging into who works at Doge. Few of them have real formal Washington experience. Some of the lawyers do, but many are software engineers who are in their first job ever in Washington. You'll see some of these Doge aides have email addresses at three, four, five, even six government agencies because they have been parachuting in and out of so many of these departments.

One of the Doge aides who really exemplifies what's happening is a young man, a software engineer named Luke Faradar, who dropped out of college, is a prize-winning computer scientist, 23 years old, and we have seen him play a key role across at least half a dozen federal agencies, including shutting down USAID. Nick says many federal workers have told him they're concerned about the young team's inexperience. They're having to walk Doge staffers through how their agencies work, step by step. In some cases, staffers have been fired and then quickly unfired when it became clear

that their work was more essential than Doge aides realized. I think what we've learned is that this group is extremely empowered to break things, in their words, inside the federal government and keep moving fast and keep moving forward. Chief Justice John Roberts has given the Trump administration its first Supreme Court victory in its attempts to slash government spending. Late last night, Roberts said the government does not have to immediately pay more than $1.5 billion for foreign aid work that's already been completed. That includes AIDS relief programs and other life-saving humanitarian efforts. The government had been facing a midnight deadline set by a lower court to make those payments. But government lawyers asked the Supreme Court for more time, saying the payments posed a logistical issue. Robert's order is only temporary. The full court is expected to consider the matter soon.

to consider the matter soon. There are more than 100,000 people waiting for an organ transplant in the United States. It's a life or death issue for them. They have faith in the organ transplant system, which was designed to prioritize fairness, and increasingly it is, in more and more cases a lie. My colleague Brian Rosenthal, along with a team of Times investigative reporters, has discovered that strict federal guidelines for organ donations are being regularly ignored. The system is supposed to work like this. For every organ that becomes available, nonprofit groups called procurement organizations, turn to a computer-generated list of possible recipients.

They're supposed to prioritize the sickest patients. But there's been a shift, and the procurement organizations are now leapfrogging over hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. Bryan says that's in large part because in the past few years, the federal government made a well-intentioned push to make sure no organs go to waste. But under that increased pressure, the system started to warp. If the organ is at risk of becoming unusable, the procurement organization can use something

called an open offer. And that is when they just pick a hospital, they call them, and they say, here, we have this organ. Put it into any of your patients. The organ procurement organizations say they give these open offers only as a last resort. But we found that these procurement organizations are increasingly using open offers just to cut staffing costs and save money and sometimes just steal organs to preferred hospitals. These practices are exacerbating disparities in healthcare.

We found that when organizations use open offers, transplants disproportionately go to white patients, Asian patients, patients with college degrees, and patients who are healthier. Earlier this month, the Times took its findings to the federal contractor that oversees the transplant system. The contractor said that procurement organizations should not be allowed to ignore the waiting lists and said it had ordered increased oversight of the process. The full investigation is at NYTimes.com. And finally, Gene Hackman has died at 95.

The Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead yesterday afternoon in Santa Fe, New Mexico. According to police, no foul play is suspected. Hackman had a 40-year career in Hollywood. His breakout role and his first Academy Award came with the 1971 crime film, The French Connection. Come on, have you ever been to Poughkeepsie? You've been to Poughkeepsie, haven't you? I want to hear it! Come on! You've been there Poughkeepsie. You've been in Poughkeepsie, haven't you? I want to hear it! Come on! Yes, yes, yes. You've been there, right?

Yeah. He became the go-to everyman who could play a little bit of everything. A thief, a president, a submarine commander, a sheriff. Hackman joked it was because he looked just average. He said he resembled your everyday mine worker. At one point, he was considered the hardest working man in Hollywood, turning out as many as four films a year. He did psychological thrillers, westerns, comedies. One of his last movies before he unofficially retired was The Royal Tenenbaums, where he played the absentee father of three child prodigies. Everyone's against me.

That's your fault, man. Yeah, I know, but damn it. I want this family to love me. In an interview with GQ magazine, Hackman was once asked to sum up his life in a single phrase. He replied, he tried. I think that would be fairly accurate. Those are the headlines today on The Daily, how Trump's firing spree at the Pentagon, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has rocked the military.

That's next in the New York Times audio app, where you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.