Elon Musk’s New USAID Stooge Once Threatened to Gut a Girl

Jeremy Lewin, the newly appointed head of the remaining shreds of USAID, has a history of violent outbursts and making racist remarks, according to an exclusive report from Rolling Stone.

Before Lewin was installed as the agency’s chief operating officer earlier this month, he was DOGE’s team lead overseeing the gutting of USAID. Six people told Rolling Stone that when Lewin attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, a prestigious high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he expressed explicitly racist views.

“I have a vivid memory of him telling me that he believed non-white people were inherently of ‘lower value’ than white people,” said one former acquaintance who spoke with Rolling Stone. That person described Lewin as “blatantly racist.”

Others who knew him then said that he espoused ideas such as the “great replacement theory” and claimed that white people were biologically more intelligent than people of other races.

One former acquaintance told Rolling Stone that news of Lewin’s appointment gave them “chills.”

“I thought he had no empathy. He was fashy, misogynistic, [and] really believed Western civilization was superior. I can see him enjoying taking away humanitarian programs in Africa. It’s frightening. It’s like letting Hannibal Lecter mind kids or something,” they told the magazine.

In school, Lewin also had a penchant for violent outbursts, and allegedly threw things at other students. Outside of school he was violent too. One girl, who was a minor at the time, told police that she feared for her life after Lewin threatened her with a knife at a party, asking why “he shouldn’t gut [her] and cut [her] right now,” according to police reports.

The 18-year-old Lewin had a hearing scheduled on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, but it was ultimately canceled for unknown reasons, according to Rolling Stone.

Lewin went on to attend Dartmouth University and Harvard Law School, before clerking for Judge Judith Rogers, a progressive who was the first Black woman appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

His new position at USAID was announced as U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang barred DOGE from taking any actions at the agency without permission of a USAID official, ruling that DOGE’s efforts to shutter the agency likely violated the U.S. Constitution. Lewin’s appointment was likely an effort to skirt the order.

After the government asked the judge to exempt Lewin from the order, the judge amended his order to specifically include Lewin. Chuang said his order purposefully included “all individuals with a past or present affiliation” with DOGE to “address the most likely perpetrators of constitutional violations.”

“Excluding Lewin from this class would undermine these purposes,” Chuang wrote in his order.

Still, Lewin sent out a memo Friday announcing that the USAID would terminate the vast majority of its employees on either July 1 or September 2, likely violating Chuang’s direct order.

Donald Trump’s global tariff “Liberation Day” begins April 2—but European officials say that they have their own hand to play in the U.S. president’s trade war.

“Europe has not started this confrontation,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told lawmakers Tuesday at a European Parliament session in Strasbourg, France. “We do not necessarily want to retaliate, but if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it.

“Europe holds a lot of cards, from trade to technology to the size of our market. But this strength is also built on our readiness to take firm counter measures if necessary. All instruments are on the table,” von der Leyen said.

The European Union is composed of 27 member countries, several of which have stood as America’s longest and strongest allies, including France, Germany, and Spain.

After Trump announced forthcoming aluminum and steel tariffs on the continental bloc, the EU said it would impose a $26 billion levy on imported U.S. goods.

Trump has also managed to shut American companies out of other deals with the international coalition, including the European Union’s $800 billion defense spending plan. That followed revelations that Canada and Portugal were similarly wobbling on whether to buy American when restocking their military arsenals.

But beyond nickels and dimes, Trump’s whiplash tariffs and his decision to spark a global trade war have critically damaged America’s image on the international stage, wrecking the nation’s relationships with its long-standing allies.

Even America’s northern neighbor has had enough: On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his country’s cozy relationship with the U.S. had come to an end and that Canada would wean itself off American products and services “at speeds we haven’t seen in generations.”

But the EU is waiting to assess the impact of Trump’s tariffs before issuing more retaliatory tariffs, though von der Leyen is reportedly consulting with member states about another round—worth $18 billion—that would cover steel, aluminum, poultry, beef, seafood, and nuts, per The Guardian.

“So many Europeans feel utterly disheartened by the announcement from the United States,” von der Leyen said. “This is the largest and most prosperous trade relationship worldwide. We would all be better off if we could find a constructive solution.”

Senator Cory Booker is in hour 15 of a Senate floor “filibuster” at the time of this writing. He started the marathon speech in protest of Trump at 7 p.m. on Monday.  

While technically not an official filibuster—since no legislation is being blocked—the New Jersey Democrat’s lengthy speech will likely disrupt the Senate’s schedule if it goes past noon. 

While he covered everything from 9/11 to the New York Giants, Booker used the majority of his speech to excoriate President Trump and the outsize influence of Elon Musk and DOGE, who he says have displayed a “complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the needs of the American people.”

This speech is one of the more aggressive anti-Trump actions that the Democratic Party has taken, and is certainly a louder, more direct demonstration than the protest signs some Democratic lawmakers held up at the State of the Union. Booker has been helped along at multiple points of his speech by Senators Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy, and others. Booker also read personal accounts from both citizens and noncitizens living in fear of things like Musk and Trump’s cuts to Social Security or ICE detainment. 

“Today, 73 million Americans count on Social Security. Millions more than that are planning on those benefits they earn being there for them. You heard from that first letter I read that people are really worried. Forty percent of people who rely on Social Security—40 percent—have no other source of income,” Booker said, around 2 a.m. on Monday night. “You don’t fix America by throwing seniors, or veterans, or Americans with disabilities under the bus. That’s not how we do things.… Social Security is not the government’s money to spend. It’s the hard-earned savings of working Americans, and it belongs to Americans. The president and Elon Musk need to keep their hands off of it. It’s not theirs to take.” Neither Musk nor Trump have commented on Booker’s speech. 

The record for longest official filibuster is still held by legendary racist Strom Thurmond, who railed against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered New York prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter.

“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”

Mangione was charged with first-degree murder “in furtherance of an act of terrorism” by state prosecutors. He has pleaded not guilty to all state charges.

Mangione has a history of severe back pain and noted in an alleged manifesto that the U.S. has the “most expensive healthcare system in the world” but “ranks #42 in life expectancy.”

“United [Healthcare] is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but [h]as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it,” he wrote. The U.S. actually ranks even lower in life expectancy at sixtieth in the world. It is by far the most expensive.

A jury trial date has not been set.

This story has been updated.

Republicans are finally admitting that Donald Trump’s tariff plan will hurt Americans.

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins probed Montana Senator Tim Sheehy’s thoughts on the country’s economic trajectory in an interview Monday, highlighting that 95 percent of his state’s imported goods come from Canada, Mexico, or China.

“Is this going to hurt people in your state, do you think?” asked Collins.

“There’s absolutely going to be short-term pain,” Sheehy said. “I mean, if you’re going to remodel your house to make it better in the end, it’s gonna be really annoying in the short-term when your house is getting remodeled, and there’s drywall dust everywhere and there’s workers in your living room.”

But knowing that the president’s plan won’t bode well for his constituents isn’t enough for Sheehy to pull his support.

“The reality is that remodel has got to happen in order to make things stronger and more stable in the back end,” Sheehy added.

Other Republican lawmakers have similarly conceded that Trump’s plan will be a painful transition. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville told Fox Business Monday that Trump’s plan would be a “slow pain” before “the gain” of potential stateside manufacturing jobs, while Oklahoma Senator James Lankford echoed Sheehy’s construction metaphor.

“I feel like in some ways in the economy this is kind of like a kitchen remodel or a bath remodel,” Lankford told CNN on Sunday. “It’s going to be noisy for a little while, but we all know where we’re headed: trying to reduce the prices for Americans and increase jobs.”

Trump has dubbed April 2, the date his tariffs go into effect, “Liberation Day.” But the president’s casual disregard for how his economic plan will affect American wallets was on full display over the weekend, when he told NBC News’s Kristin Welker that he “couldn’t care less” if American autoworkers raised the prices of their cars as a result of his tariffs.

“I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars. We have plenty,” Trump told NBC.

It was one of the first instances in which Trump has openly acknowledged the imminent damage.

Since he was on the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly attempted to spin the tariff pitch, claiming that it will be foreign countries who pay the difference on the rising cost of goods rather than Americans. But economists have pointed out that’s not how tariffs work. Instead, Trump’s global tariff war is expected to affect just about every sector of life for the average American.

Products that will see prices rise include groceries such as avocados, maple syrup, ground beef, cherry tomatoes, sugar, bananas, nuts, cooking oil, squash, cucumbers, strawberries, and pineapples. Trump’s tariff-related executive orders have also had immediate ramifications for countless other business sectors, raising the price on everything from liquor to gas.

Children’s toys, shoes, beer and alcohol, and crude oil were all hit in Trump’s 25 percent tariff hike on Canada and Mexico, alongside an additional 10 percent tariff on China. Car manufacturers BMW, Audi, Nissan, and Mazda were also affected, as was American-owned Ford. And every industry that relies on lumber, aluminum, and steel—from artisan goods to construction—will see mark-ups as the materials themselves become more costly.

The rising cost of screws, for instance, has already started to affect supply chains for American companies that make everything from “car parts to appliances and football helmets to lawn mowers,” reported The Wall Street Journal.