Muskquerade: Elon Musk's Havoc Is Not What Voters Bargained For
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What is the main concern regarding Elon Musk's influence on government?
Well, Donald Trump might be giving Elon Musk free reign to wreck the federal government. But the good news is the backlash is getting stronger and louder every day. I'm going to talk to Senator Cory Booker about what Democrats and the courts are doing to fight back. Plus, my exclusive interview with Maryland Governor Wes Moore, whose state is dealing with this assault in real time. And later, I'll talk to the former Twitter executive who's giving out free advice to federal workers about how to handle a Musk takeover. Okay, I kind of think that, I mean, to some degree, what we are seeing from Donald Trump right now is sort of what we expected. The strange obsessions and the constant bluster and the wild pronouncements, none of that is anything really that new.
There was also the talk about taking over Greenland and Canada and the Panama Canal. There was the short-lived trade war with nothing to show for it. There was the decision just yesterday to strip security clearances from people he doesn't like. There was the third-person announcement that he's appointing himself chairman of the Kennedy Center. And I could go on and on and on, but I'm not going to. The point is, if you have been following Donald Trump for the last decade, and many of you I know have been, this is all very much what you might expect from a Trump 2.0. And I guess this continuation of the Trump show is, on some level, what a slight majority of the American people may have voted for. I don't know.
But what you may not have bargained for, what they may not have bargained for, and I certainly didn't, is what I'm going to call Musk 1.0. I actually think it's safe to say people were not prepared for the way Trump has basically ceded his power. I mean, there's a reason. Time magazine's latest cover shows Musk sitting in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk. And I'm just going to leave that up there for a second because why not? And because over the past few weeks, Elon Musk has elbowed his way into nearly every corner of the government, shuttering agencies, firing employees, gaining access to the sensitive personal data belonging to millions of Americans. In an interview that's going to air later today, Trump said he's not done yet.
I'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. He's going to find the same thing. Then I'm going to go to the military. Let's check the military. We're going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. And, you know, the people elected me on that.
I mean, did they really? Did the American people really elect you to let Elon Musk do what he's doing? Because it turns out the American people don't love it. A new poll out just this morning shows that just 23 percent of all Americans say they want Musk to have a lot of influence over government operations and spending. And boy, does he seem to have a lot of influence.
How are protests and public dissatisfaction manifesting against Musk?
And this dissatisfaction isn't just showing up in polls. I mean, it's also showing up in real life. We saw protests all across the country this week and big ones here in Washington. Like this protest you can see on the screen from the country's largest federation of unions. When workers caught wind that Musk planned to show up at the Department of Labor on Wednesday intending to shut it down, hundreds of people, you can see them there, gathered on the building steps ready to meet him. Guess what? He never showed up. People are also lighting up the phone lines of congressional offices, many of them fed up with Elon Musk, what he's doing. Of course they are. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said the usual call volume coming into the Senate is about 40 calls a minute. But right now, it's 1,600 calls a minute. Independent Senator Angus King said he's been hearing from constituents constantly about Doge and Musk and that his office can hardly pick up the phones fast enough. Democratic Senator Tina Smith put it like this. It's a deluge on Doge.
According to the New York Times, an aide for Republican Senator John Curtis estimated that about 60 percent of the calls coming into his office were critical of Musk, while the other 40 percent concerned Trump's nominees.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main concern regarding Elon Musk's influence on government?
0:01–2:57
2
How are protests and public dissatisfaction manifesting against Musk?
2:57–8:48
3
What legal actions are being taken against Musk's government influence?
8:48–17:01
4
How is Governor Wes Moore responding to the federal government changes?
17:01–21:39
5
What role does the Department of Education play in state education policy?
21:39–29:48
6
How can federal employees protect themselves during this transition?
29:48–34:12
7
What is the impact of DEI on federal programs?
34:12–41:45
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Briefing with Jen Psaki
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