Damian Paletta
Appearances
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
I mean, great question. I mean, in the TikTok example, we believe that it's hard to find someone with standing to sue. So, yes, it does seem completely different from what the law says, a law that was overwhelmingly approved by Congress last year and signed by President Biden. But it's hard to find, like, who would have the standing to file a lawsuit to get it gummed up in the courts.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
And the same thing with the inspectors general. yes, you have to notify Congress within 30 days before, and you have to give specific reasons. Trump did none of that. I suppose some of the inspectors generals could sue, but in this example, the spending example, many people would have the standing to sue because it would impact them.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
And that's what got this case in front of a federal judge so quickly.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
So it looks like this came right out of Elon Musk's shop and the Office of Personnel Management. And one of the issues with this, so the idea is they email this kind of buyout offer, although it has the same subject line that Elon Musk used in his sort of similar buyout offer when he took over Twitter in 2022.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
Yeah. And so it goes out to over two million federal employees. Democrats immediately said, whoa, whoa, this seems like kind of a trick, a rope-a-dope. Because you have to respond, resign in the email. And so what if you respond that this is an illegally binding contract?
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
Also, Congress is only author or the government's only authorized to pay employees through March 14th because that's when a shutdown would happen if there's not a deal. And so there's no money. There's actually no money to pay people through September 30th. Now, Congress can do a new bill, but people would be agreeing to something when there's actually no money to pay them.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
And so there's a lot of questions that was done without real press releases, without an explanation, without any clarification, and even without a follow-up, without real answers about how it's going to work. And so that's just led to confusion and even a little bit of paranoia about what the administration's really up to.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
Yeah, I would just say to be, he's 78 years old. He's older than Biden was at the beginning of his term. And so I kind of understand why he's moving so quickly. He wants to do a trade war this year. He wants to do tax reform this year. He's got to kind of empty the tank in 2025. And, you know, who knows what an 80-year-old Trump who's lost the midterms will be able to accomplish in 2027.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
So I think he's going to go for broke. He doesn't really take advice to slow down and be cautious. You know, but I think this is what Americans knew was going to happen. This is what they voted for. This is what they saw in his first term. This is the personality. He's very gregarious and energetic. And this is what Americans wanted. And so this is what they're getting.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
Sure. So when it's numbers, it's easy to unpack it a little bit if we just talk. We start with the numbers. So the federal budget's about $7 trillion. We know that the Trump administration wants to cut the budget dramatically from $7 trillion down to who knows what. You know, Elon Musk said he wants to lop $2 trillion off the budget so that we could get it down maybe to $5 trillion.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
So we know they want to do this, but obviously spending stuff all runs through Congress. But what happened here is one week, exactly one week after Trump was sworn in, they put out this memo, this two-page memo, and it says... First of all, it says there's a $10 trillion budget, which is not true. There's a $7 trillion budget, which is still a lot of money, but, like, every trillion counts.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
There's a $10 trillion budget. $3 trillion of the 10 is used on woke stuff and this and that, financial assistance. And so we're going to freeze it, and it's going to be frozen effective tomorrow at 5 o'clock. The only thing they really said, the only exemptions that they offered in this memo, deep in the footnotes, were Social Security and Medicare.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
And so for a lot of us who follow the budget closely, that said everything else was fair game. And so what happens after this memo goes out? Well, I mean, Head Start programs that get money for, you know, the children, community centers, states felt like their money was going to get frozen. And then so the memo went out on Monday.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
By Tuesday, it appeared that the Medicaid system in this country had completely frozen up and seized up. And so the system that paying the hospitals, paying the health care providers for all those people completely seized. I've never seen anything like that before. That happened less than 24 hours after this memo went out. There was a ton of questions.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
The White House couldn't answer the questions. And so they had to put out another memo on Tuesday, essentially blaming the media for the confusion and offering a few clarifications, essentially saying this would not apply to Medicaid and it would not apply to food stamps or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
Yeah, this is kind of a tale of three memos. The Monday memo that didn't make a ton of sense. The Tuesday memo, which tried to walk a little bit back. And then there's the Wednesday memo that said, we rescind the Monday memo. Let's just pretend this never happened. And then Caroline Leavitt tweets out, well, we're not actually rescinding it. We're just doing something else.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
And the judge saw the tweet and said, wait a second. We're still going to have a hearing on this. So I think, you know, this is a great example of the... Trump administration kind of coming out guns blazing, you know, following this Silicon Valley ethos of move fast and break things. And it shows it doesn't quite work that way in Washington.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
I mean, obviously, the Trump administration, Elon Musk, everyone wants to change the way Washington works. And there's a lot of bipartisan support for attacking the budget and attacking government spending in a much different way.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
But this way that they tried to completely claw back all power over government spending in a hastily written memo that obviously had some factual errors in it, I think shows that moving too fast in some key spaces like this could actually backfire on them.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
I mean, there's a clear strategy by the Trump administration to take some of these things, birthright citizenship is one, and this Impoundment Act of 1974 is another, and get them out into the courts as quickly as possible.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
Exactly. The Empowerment Act of the 1970s essentially puts restrictions around what the White House can do once the money has already been authorized by Congress and put into law. And Russ Vogt, who's Trump's nominee to be the budget director, and President Trump himself both believe that that law is unconstitutional and that the commander-in-chief should have the power to do that.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
So what they want is... is to get this into the courts. They wanted a lawsuit about this, just like they wanted a lawsuit about the birthright citizenship executive order, which the Constitution appears to say, you know, should not go into effect.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
But if there's a lawsuit and it gets in the courts and they get in front of a friendly Supreme Court, and actually Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy wrote an op-ed in the journal saying exactly this, that they want this into the courts. So that if a friendly Supreme Court rules on it, then they get everything they want.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: A Whiplash on Federal Spending
They actually can't do these things without the court kind of ruling in their favor. So the sooner they can do it, even if it's in kind of a messy memo, although that might not help them in the courts if they have a messy memo, but the sooner they can get the courts involved, the sooner they can kind of get down to business.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Defends Tariffs, Budget Cuts in No-Apologies Address
He listed a bunch of government programs by name that this Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, has identified for cuts. And he went through a number of African countries, for example, that have gotten millions of dollars for specific programs. And he listed them in great detail.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Defends Tariffs, Budget Cuts in No-Apologies Address
By identifying these programs in places like Lesotho, he's trying to show Americans, this is not where your tax money should be going. This money should stay within the United States. Eine interessante Teil der Rede war, als er die Demokraten getötet hat und sagte, z.B. : Zivilbewerber sind unerwählte Bürokraten und sie sollten keinen Wunsch haben, wie die Regierungen laufen.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Defends Tariffs, Budget Cuts in No-Apologies Address
Einige Demokraten haben zu diesem Punkt Elon Musk angemerkt, dass er ein unerwählter Bürokrat ist. Sie wollten auf ihn die Türen öffnen. Aber ganz ehrlich gesagt, es gab nicht genug von ihnen, und es war nicht effektiv, weil die Kameras nicht wirklich zu ihnen gedreht haben. Es war also nur ein Show, dass Präsident Trump wirklich den Mikrofon hatte und er die Nacht hatte.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Defends Tariffs, Budget Cuts in No-Apologies Address
Er hat darüber geredet, einen Deal zwischen Russland und der Ukraine zu bekommen. Er war nicht so gegenwärtig, wenn er über die Ukraine in dieser Rede gesprochen hat, wie er es in den letzten Tagen war. Er hat es so gemacht, als wäre ein Deal in Berührung.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Defends Tariffs, Budget Cuts in No-Apologies Address
Gleichermaßen hat er in dieser Rede nicht darüber geredet, den Gaza-Strip zu übernehmen, was etwas war, was den Mittleren Osten ein paar Wochen hervorragte. Er hat gesagt, dass Greenland, wenn sie es wollen, in den Vereinigten Staaten einsteigen kann. In der Vergangenheit hat er gesagt, dass wir Greenland übernehmen werden.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Defends Tariffs, Budget Cuts in No-Apologies Address
Und er hat auch nicht erwähnt, dass er mehrere Male darüber gesprochen hat, dass er Kanada der 51. Staat machen wird. Es ist also interessant zu sehen, ob er in dieser Aussprache intensiv eine weibere Außenpolitik präsentieren wollte als in den letzten Wochen. or if he'll be back making those same pledges.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Defends Tariffs, Budget Cuts in No-Apologies Address
But it seemed like he was intentionally trying to soften his foreign policy that has made many world leaders in Europe, Asia and around the world very uncomfortable.