A federal judge on Friday declined to block Elon Musk's government cost-cutting department from accessing the U.S. Department of Labor's systems, an initial setback for the government employee unions resisting his efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy.

Marko Elez, the DOGE staffer who resigned after racist social media posts including a call to "normalize Indian hate" surfaced, will return to work for Musk, the billionaire announced.

The listless vessel that has been the Democratic Party finally found its bearings this week, honing in on a strategy that is largely focused not on attacking President Donald Trump, but rather Elon Musk. It’s not clear that it will fix Democrats’ many problems, but there are increasing signs and reasons to believe it could be a potent strategy.