The Elon Musk Blow-back
Author: Greg Valliere
February 24, 2025
PERHAPS THE CHAIN SAW was a bit too much. Elon Musk’s stunt with the saw appealed to the activist GOP base, but helped to drive Musk’s job approval rating down to the low 30 percent zone.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, it prompted some of President Trump’s new cabinet appointees to push back on Musk.
THE DEFECTIONS ARE NOTEABLE: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard instructed personnel in U.S. spy agencies not to respond to Musk, according to the text of an email she sent to the workforce on Sunday, citing the agencies’ sensitive and classified work.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT employees were given similar instructions to not respond, as were FBI personnel and Department of Homeland Security employees.
THIS LATEST MUSK INITIATIVE ORDERED all federal employees to explain what they did in the past week, in bullet points. Labor attorneys immediately responded that Musk lacks the authority to do this.
WE THINK THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS BLOATED, and we agree that there’s still fat to trim. But the wave of firings has been harsh and chaotic, and polls show the public is uneasy about layoffs and a softening economy.
THIS IS CRUCIAL FOR TRUMP, because he needs to hang on to his political capital as a fierce budget fight looms next month, with a growing likelihood of a government shutdown…
TRUMP IS A MASTER at reading the polls, but he was simply wrong on Saturday when he said his polls are rising. They have clearly fallen in the past two weeks.
TRUMP EVENETUALLY WILL REALIZE the country likes incremental change, not mass layoffs. In another week or two his polls could be even lower, and he will need a scapegoat. He has one — Musk, who already is an albatross among Republicans in Congress, many of whom were aghast at the chain saw stunt.
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