Mark March 6 as a particularly strange day in American history. Once again we see Trump dancing the tariff two step, a lively little number where economic ruin is aimed at our neighbors, and at us, and then Claudia Sheinbaum gets on the phone and Justin Trudeau goes to the podium and POOF! Tariffs gone as if by magic. At least for another thirty days. Then we may see more choreography around this central theme. But that’s not the biggest news today. No, the biggest news is that Trump put his foot down and muzzled Musk.
President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet in person on Thursday to deliver a message: You’re in charge of your departments, not Elon Musk.
According to two administration officials, Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy. Musk was also in the room. […]
The president’s message represents the first significant move to narrow Musk’s mandate. According to Trump’s new guidance, DOGE and its staff should play an advisory role — but Cabinet secretaries should make final decisions on personnel, policy and the pacing of implementation.
Musk joined the conversation and indicated he was on board with Trump’s directive. According to one person familiar with the meeting, Musk acknowledged that DOGE had made some missteps — a message he shared earlier this week with members of Congress.
Trump stressed that he wants to keep good people in government and not to eject capable federal workers en masse. But his administration has in recent weeks fired tens of thousands of federal workers across numerous agencies in a series of blanket terminations. A federal judge and the chair of a federal civil service board have both concluded that the terminations were not tied to performance issues — and may have violated civil service laws.
It is unclear whether the new guidance will result in laid off workers getting rehired.
Trump posted about the meeting on Truth Social after this story posted, promising to hold similar meetings every two weeks.
“As the Secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various Departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go,” he wrote. “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’ The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level.”
The timing of the meeting was influenced by recent comments from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who said on CNN Tuesday that Cabinet secretaries should retain the full power to hire and fire, according to one official. The official said Trump has been flooded with similar concerns from other lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries.
John Thune has more power than Elon now? While it makes complete sense constitutionally, it is not the way things are done in MAGA world. Could elected officials actually began to govern and not Elon Musk, in their place and stead? My heavens, will wonders never cease?
Bear in mind, Musk’s true power has yet to be ascertained. There are lawsuits saying that Musk is exercising unconstitutional power. And Trump didn’t do Musk or himself any favor Tuesday when he told the joint session of Congress that Musk was “in charge of DOGE.” That is precisely what some of the lawsuits are targeted at, discerning whether this unelected bureaucrat is running the government.
It looks like some lawyers talked to Trump last night. Or maybe Pam Bondi. It sure as hell wasn’t Alina Habba, that much you can take to the bank.
Is this another con? Saying this to appease all the complainers? Musk has been a destruction machine so far. He’s gotten rid of people that would benefit the 47 administration with that damned chain saw. Hey I guess they threw out the baby but want to keep the bath water?
Hmm. “Is this another con?”
Let’s see. There’s one surefire way to know whether this would be a con: Did Donald Drumpf open the upper rectal sphincter he calls a mouth and say something? If the answer is “Yes,” then it’s a definite con. If the answer’s “No,” then there’s a 50-50 chance that it’s a con.
Why is this troublesome foreigner in our country? He should be deported on the grounds that billionaires can be dipshits, and he is.
And, if the Head of Department does not follow DOGE advice, does the co President whisper to his co President. Cue infighting?
PS Just seen March 25 set aside the honor women…. Then the Irish, “who voted for me in great numbers” have all of March as their month.
This is real governing: signing frothy proclamations
“It looks like some lawyers talked to Trump last night.”
My thought exactly. Because what Trump is saying here mirrors the complaint made to the court that DOGE was supposed to be only an advisory body with no authority to do the stuff they’ve been doing. Of course it’s a bit late for that, Musk has already caused a hell of a lot of destruction.
One could surmise that Trump finally saw the light and realized that the most logical way to lay people off is to let the departments make the decisions among themselves. After all, every department has got some employees that don’t produce as one would hope and then there are the go-getters who not only are high producers, but they are the ones “in the no“ who know all the dippy little things that only they know in a given department. Those are the people you want to keep, the ones that can tell you where such and such as located, and know where it’s found in the written literature, etc. Those kind of folks you want to keep around