
Joe Biden accused of editing himself into family Easter photo
Former President Joe Biden has been accused of digitally editing himself into a photo of the Biden family taken outside his Delaware home by a group of online sleuths.
'We wish everyone celebrating today a peaceful and joyful Easter', the 82-year-old wrote above a jovial photo of his wife, children, their spouses, and his grandchildren, in an image he posted to X on Easter Sunday.
Even Willow Biden, his adopted gray shorthair tabby cat, made an appearance for the shot.
In the photo, Biden is seen smiling and sitting at the top of a staircase in his porch, dressed in a navy suit, with a diagonally striped blue tie and white shirt.
However, the 46th president has since received a barrage of hatred from trolls, accusing him of photoshopping himself into the image.
Several users highlighted that Biden looked out of place, dressed to stand on the podium of a presidential campaign, rather than in a more relaxed attire suitable for Easter at home.
'This looks photoshopped!', Conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel wrote below the post.
Matt Williams, a man who identifies himself as a Christian Nationalist, asked Elon Musk 's generative AI chatbot to verify the image: '@grok is Joe Biden photoshopped into this picture?'
Multiple users then focused on the placement of the former president's left hand, claiming it was unusual in appearance.
'WHOSE HAND IS THIS,' wrote a user who goes by @ThePoliticalPom.
Yet another striking element of the photo was the absence of Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
'If - and I stress the word 'if' - this photo is real, where is Hunter? He wasn't invited to Easter?' podcaster and right-wing influencer Eric Matheny wrote on X.
Biden's second child has been embroiled in various scandals over the years. In June 2024, he was convicted on three felony gun charges.
In December 2024, just before Trump took office, Biden issued a 'full and unconditional' pardon for his son, 55, citing that his charges were politically motivated and sought to bruise the Biden family name.
Janice Hough, a 'proud Dem for life', took the opposite stance on Biden's image, stating: 'I miss this man in the White House.'
This past week, Biden took to the podium to deliver his first speech since leaving office at a conference in Chicago.
He said that Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) counterpart, Elon Musk, had "taken a hatchet" to the Social Security system, and that the new administration had caused a 'breathtaking' amount of damage and destruction to America.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
DOGE used flawed AI tool to ‘munch' Veteran Affairs contracts, report claims
Employees in the Department of Government Efficiency reportedly used a flawed artificial intelligence model to determine the necessity of contracts in the Department of Veterans Affairs, resulting in hundreds of contracts, valued at millions of dollars, being canceled. Given only 30 days to implement President Donald Trump 's executive order directing DOGE to review government contracts and grants to ensure they align with the president's policies, an engineer in DOGE rushed to create an AI to assist in the task. Engineer Sahil Lavingia wrote code which told the AI to cancel, or in his words 'munch,' anything that wasn't 'directly supporting patient care' within the agency. However neither he, nor the model, required the knowledge to make those decisions. ' 'I'm sure mistakes were made,' he told ProPublica. Mistakes are always made.' One of the key problems was that the AI only reviewed the first 10,000 characters (roughly 2,500 words) of contracts to determine whether it was 'munchable' – Lavingia's term for if the task could be done by VA staffers rather than outsourcing, ProPublica reported. Experts who reviewed the code also told ProPublica that Lavingia did not clearly define many critical terms, such as 'core medical/benefits,' and used vague instructions, leading to multiple critical contracts being flagged as 'munchable.' For example, the model was told to kill DEI programs, but the prompt failed to define what DEI was, leaving the model to decide. At another point in the code, Lavingia asked the AI to 'consider whether pricing appears reasonable' for maintenance contracts, without defining what 'reasonable' means. In addition, the AI was created on an older, general purpose model not suited for the complicated task, which caused it to hallucinate, or make up, contract amounts, sometimes believing they were worth tens of millions as opposed to thousands. Cary Coglianese, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies governmental use of AI, told ProPublica that understanding which jobs could be done by a VA employee would require 'sophisticated understanding of medical care, of institutional management, of availability of human resources' – all things the AI could not do. Lavingia acknowledged the AI model was flawed, but he assured ProPublica that all 'munchable' contracts were vetted by other people. The VA initially announced, in February, it would cancel 875 contracts. But various veteran affairs advocates sounded the alarm, warning that some of those contracts related to safety inspections at VA medical facilities, direct communications with veterans about benefits, and the VA's ability to recruit doctors. One source familiar with the situation in the department told the Federal News Network that some cuts demonstrated a 'communication breakdown' between DOGE advisors, VA leaders, and lawmakers who oversee the VA. The VA soon walked that number back, instead announcing in March it would cancel approximately 585 'non-mission-critical or duplicative contracts,' re-directing around $900 million back to the agency. Lavingia, who was fired from DOGE approximately 55 days his blog and released the code he used at the VA on GitHub.


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
‘Big Balls' and other Musk DOGE proteges could see payback from Trump-Elon feud after mass firings
A public feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has put the fate of his signature Department of Government Efficiency work into question. After leading a charge to fire thousands of federal workers, DOGE employees are now wondering whether they could be next thanks to the world's richest man's apparent animosity towards the president. With Musk's oversight, the now-former adviser to the president deployed DOGE staff to purge the workforce, gut entire agencies and slash billions of dollars in grant funding and research. Some of Musk's top DOGE lieutenants connected to his companies were hired for full-time roles drawing large salaries. Among them: Edward 'Big Balls' Coristine, Luke Farritor, and Ethan Shaotran, who have had unprecedented access to the inner workings of critical government agencies. The White House has insisted to The Independent that DOGE isn't limited to a handful of employees but is now baked into every level of government, with a mission to find 'waste, fraud and abuse.' But the employees that Musk brought into the administration are now reportedly worried they could become its targets. Several of Musk's top allies in DOGE left the administration with him, but remaining staffers fear the growing tension between the billionaire and the president could expose them to his political retribution, according to ABC News. DOGE staffers texted one another on Thursday as the Trump-Musk feud spilled out over social media and asked whether they could be fired next, according to The Wall Street Journal. Some DOGE employees are also looking for jobs elsewhere, ABC reported, but it's unclear what their prospects look like after a toxic run inside the federal government that most Americans don't support. But some major companies like Coinbase are opening their doors to DOGE workers. The cryptocurrency exchange created an online hiring portal specifically for former DOGE staff. The Independent has requested comment from the White House. Musk's signature achievement in government fell significantly short of his stated goal of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget. Instead, DOGE's efforts sparked chaos across the government, from gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to facing accusations of being responsible for thousands of deaths by putting the U.S. Agency for International Development through a 'wood chipper,' as Musk called it. DOGE's work under Musk also drew more than a dozen legal challenges and court orders finding the whole operation likely unconstitutional. Musk and his allies, meanwhile, siphoned data from agencies like the Social Security Administration and IRS, knitting together an unprecedented surveillance network. In Musk's absence, DOGE staff continues to report to federal agency managers and the U.S. DOGE Service, the former U.S. Digital Service that Trump renamed to reflect Musk's efforts. 'The DOGE team is doing an incredible job, they're going to be continuing to do an incredible job, and I'll continue to be visiting here and a friend and adviser to the president,' Musk said just last week as he announced the end of his 130-day 'special government employee' role. 'Elon's really not leaving,' Trump said at the time. 'He's going to be back and forth, I think — I have a feeling. It's his baby, and I think he's going to be doing a lot of things.'

ITV News
2 hours ago
- ITV News
Reform UK to send first ‘Doge' team to look at council spending in Kent
Reform UK is set to send in its first Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit to look at 'wasteful spending' in councils. A team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors will 'visit and analyse' local authorities, starting with Kent County Council on Monday, the party said. It follows the US Doge, which was launched during Donald Trump's presidency to cut federal spending. Billionaire Musk was involved but has since left his position spearheading the unit. Reform says its UK version will be led by a yet-unnamed man described as one of the country's 'leading tech entrepreneurs with a specialism in data analytics who has also been a turnaround CEO'. The party said that the unit will use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis tools and forensic auditing techniques to 'identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions'. A letter sent to Kent County Council, which Reform now controls after the May local elections, read: 'The scope of the review includes but is not limited to: Contractual arrangements with suppliers and consultants, all capital expenditure, use of framework agreements and direct awards, any off-book or contingent liabilities, use of reserves and financial resilience, any audit flags raised by internal or external auditors in the last three years. 'We request that all relevant council officers provide the Doge team with full and prompt access to: Council-held documents, reports and records (electronic and paper), relevant finance, procurement, audit and contract data, meeting minutes and correspondence concerning major procurements, any internal investigations or whistleblowing reports relevant to financial matters, any additional documents that might be of assistance.' It added: 'Should you resist this request, we are ready to pass a council motion to compel the same and will consider any obstruction of our councillors' duties to be gross misconduct. We trust this will not be required.' It is signed by council leader Linden Kemkaran, party chairman Zia Yusuf and party leader Nigel Farage. Mr Yusuf said: "For too long British people have been British taxpayers have watched their money vanish into a black hole. "Their taxes keep going up, their bin collections keep getting less frequent, potholes remain unfixed, their local services keep getting cut. Reform won a historic victory on a mandate to change this. "As promised, we have created a UK Doge to identify and cut wasteful spending of taxpayer money. Our team will use cutting-edge technology and deliver real value for voters." A Kent County Council spokesman declined to comment. The Liberal Democrats, who are the second-biggest party in Kent, say that when so much of the budget is mandatory, Reform have very little room to make savings. Liberal Democrat Cllr Richard Streatfield, Kent County Council, said: "Cuts are not part of the equation. "We have a growing population of over 65s who are using demand-led services and only 0.6% of our budget is on discretionary services. "We are using 99.4% of the county council's taxpayer's money for services that we are legally obliged to provide." Sarah Barwick, Branch Secretary of Unison said: "There's fears of job cuts. KCC's really reduced its number of staff in the number of years I've been employed. "We're right at almost the lowest point of staff that you can get without serious problems that could compromise the services." During a local election campaign launch in March, Mr Farage told supporters: "Frankly folks, what we need in this country to pay for the cuts that people deserve and need, we need a British form of Doge, as Elon Musk has got in America. Let's have a British Doge."