OUR PICKS: DEMOCRACY WATCHThere Are Two Checks on a President’s Power. One Is Missing. | A New Threat to the Freedom of the Press | Elon Musk and the Decline of Western Civilization, and more

There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing  (Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic)
How regime change happens in America.

Elon Musk and the Decline of Western Civilization  (Francis Fukuyama, Persuasion)
Silvio Berlusconi invented the modern oligarchy. Musk is expanding it.

One Agency Tried to Regulate SpaceX. Now Its Fate Could Be in Elon Musk’s Hands.  (Heather Vogell, ProPublica)
The Trump ally and DOGE chief is expected to turn his budget-slashing sights on the FAA’s little-known commercial spaceflight office, which has proposed fines and grounded SpaceX after explosions and other incidents.

With Attack on Consumer Bureau, Musk Removes Obstacle to His “X Money” Vision  (Stacy Cowley, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, and Kate Conger, New York Times)
Former officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Elon Musk’s payment-business aspirations were driving his efforts to hobble the agency.

The DOGE Hoax  (Nick Catoggio, The Dispatch)
An ideological project disguised as a fiscal one.

There Are Two Checks on a President’s Power. One Is Missing.  (Philip Bump, Washington Post)
We are focusing on the courts because Trump has already prevailed over Congress.

Foreign Autocrats Are Exploiting Trump’s Chaos  (Christina Lu and Lili Pike, Foreign Policy)
Spending cuts in Washington are creating openings for repressive regimes.

A New Threat to the Freedom of the Press  (Jeffrey Cieslikowski, Persuasion)
The modern free press hinges on a single Supreme Court case. Trump wants to reverse it.