Musk grabs for the third rail

Politico

10-03-2025

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THE LATEST: ELON MUSK told Fox Business' LARRY KUDLOW that his DOGE team has permeated 'pretty much' every Washington agency and that his 100-person squad will grow to a maximum head count of 200.
'Yeah, I think so,' Musk admitted in an interview with Kudlow today when asked whether DOGE would go into next year.
He reaffirmed his goal to hit $1 trillion in savings. But he also seemed to evince a fundamental misunderstanding of just how far-flung the federal government is, again insisting that 92 percent of Washington voters backed former Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, while ignoring the roughly 2 million federal career civil servants who work outside of D.C. and in all 50 states.
Musk has had a busy few days since we were last in your inbox. His social media site, X, is occasionally blacking out today, which Musk blames on a 'massive cyberattack.' He told Kudlow that it seemed to be coming from 'IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.' Tesla stock is tanking as the car company is facing protests. And one of his rockets exploded again.
How is he running DOGE and his other businesses simultaneously? 'With great difficulty,' Musk said.
Oh, and about those astronauts stuck in space? Musk said 'we're bringing them back in a few weeks.'
But other than that, his mission to remake the federal government continues apace. He spent the weekend at Mar-a-Lago with President DONALD TRUMP. And he's also making nice with Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO after reports of friction between the two at a Cabinet meeting. When Rubio posted to X today that his department would cancel 83 percent of the programs at USAID, Musk responded: 'Tough, but necessary. Good working with you.'
PAWS OFF MY RETIREMENT: Musk is dangerously close to touching a political third rail.
Trump's billionaire adviser called Social Security 'the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.' Department of Government Efficiency lieutenants have entered the Social Security Administration. The SSA is planning to slash staff.
The moves are stressing out some Republicans — and making Democrats optimistic — ahead of the 2026 midterms.
'If people think Medicaid is a hot-button issue, Social Security is 10 times that. He may think it's a Ponzi scheme, but the people on it and the people about to be on it do not think that,' said CHRISTOPHER NICHOLAS, a longtime GOP consultant based in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. 'People say, 'Well, it's one thing if you cut some agency I barely recognize, like the Forest Service or USAID.' But everybody knows Social Security because anybody who's working, they're paying into it.'
Democrats, who have been seeking a return to relevance after Trump's 2024 victory and have struggled to develop a clear attack line against DOGE, sense an opening.
Sen. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-Mich.), who delivered the official Democratic response to Trump's joint address last week, highlighted Musk's remarks about Social Security in her speech.
'He could very well come after your retirement, the Social Security, Medicare and VA benefits you worked your whole life to earn,' she said. 'The president claims he won't, but Elon Musk just called Social Security the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.'
House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES has also seized on the issue, saying recently that 'President Trump, Elon Musk and House Republicans must keep their hands off Social Security.'
The president and Republican leaders have maintained that slashing Social Security is off the table.
'Any American receiving Social Security benefits will continue to receive them,' White House press secretary KAROLINE LEAVITT said today. 'The sole mission of DOGE is to identify waste, fraud and abuse only.'
Musk reiterated his criticisms in his interview with Kudlow, telling him that there are '20 million people who are definitely dead marked as alive in the Social Security database.'
What makes Musk's jabs at Social Security particularly head-scratching is that Trump's own political success is in no small part tied to the fact that in his 2016 campaign he broke ranks with small-government conservatives and promised to not touch the program.
Still, Trump has aligned with Musk on some of his critiques of the entitlement, saying in his speech to Congress that 'we're also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors.'
A poll by Blueprint, a liberal firm, illustrates the risk for the GOP. The survey found that voters reported one of the most persuasive arguments for voting for Democrats as a check on Republicans was that Trump cannot be trusted to protect Social Security and Medicare. The same poll also had a number of warnings for Democrats, including that most voters think they are hopelessly lost when it comes to figuring out a strategy to take on Trump.
Republicans are hoping Musk doesn't inadvertently find that plan for them.
'I've never heard an elected official talk about Social Security as a Ponzi scheme,' said Nicholas. 'Nobody ever talked about it that way on the Republican side.'
MESSAGE US — West Wing Playbook is obsessively covering the Trump administration's reshaping of the federal government. Are you a federal worker? A DOGE staffer? Have you picked up on any upcoming DOGE moves? We want to hear from you on how this is playing out. Email us at [e-mail].
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POTUS PUZZLER
How many presidents have appeared on 'Saturday Night Live'?
Musk Radar
MUSK'S STARLINK SPAT: Musk on Sunday set off a diplomatic spat over the use of Starlink satellite services in Ukraine by tweeting that Ukraine's 'entire front line would collapse if I turned [Starlink] off.' The post prompted Poland's foreign minister, RADOSŁAW SIKORSKI, to remind Musk that Poland is paying for Starlink for Ukraine at the cost of $50 million per year and that Poland might start looking for an alternative to Starlink if it 'proves to be an unreliable provider.'
Rubio hit back on X, saying that Sikorksi was 'making things up' and that 'No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink.'
Polish Prime Minister DONALD TUSK posted on X today that 'true leadership means respect for partners and allies,' including 'the smaller and weaker ones.'
Agenda Setting
HUNTING FOR WINS: Inside DOGE, officials are desperate for positive headlines as the initiative faces more and more scrutiny from Republican lawmakers and the public.
'I need wins to defend,' General Services Administration official and former Tesla employee THOMAS SHEDD told staff last week, The Washington Post's ELIZABETH DWOSKIN, FAIZ SIDDIQUI and EMILY DAVIES report. Shedd urged employees to 'remain focused on the reason you came to the government and this team to begin with, which is to deliver value and ship,' using a Silicon Valley phrase for getting new products into the market.
They're now racing to finish the first part of their assignment — slashing the federal bureaucracy — and move on to the work that they expect will yield better PR: using their tech expertise to build apps and websites to help federal workers and Americans access government services.
Airbnb co-founder JOE GEBBIA, a former longtime Democratic donor and close friend of Musk's, is expected to help lead the effort.
THE FAA IS HIRING: The Federal Aviation Administration is launching a plan to 'supercharge' hiring of air traffic controllers. In a 50-second video titled 'The Best and The Brightest' posted across social media platforms today, the FAA directed applicants to a website outlining a five-step application process and an average salary of $160,000 for certified professional controllers three years after graduating the FAA academy.
A senior FAA official previously told Sophia that while air traffic controllers were not allowed to take the federal 'buyout' offer, the FAA is losing critical expertise as senior managers opt to retire early rather than ride out DOGE's upheaval.
WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT
DOGE STAFFER'S NEW PERCH: TYLER HASSEN, a little-known figure with an oil and gas background helping spearhead DOGE efforts at the Interior Department, was quietly promoted Friday to acting assistant secretary of policy, management and budget, POLITICO's E&E News' HEATHER RICHARDS reports for subscribers.
NOAA BRACES FOR MORE: Managers at the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are being asked to identify an additional 1,029 employees to be culled from the agency as part of a 'reduction in force' plan that would cut deeper into the agency's science, regulatory and education programs, POLITICO's E&E News' DANIEL CUSICK reports for subscribers.
The new cuts are in addition to the roughly 650 probationary employees fired Feb. 27 and the more than 400 staff who retired or accepted the Trump administration's 'deferred resignation' option last month.
CHIEF SCIENTIST AXED: NASA is eliminating its office of the chief scientist and its office of science, policy and strategy as a part of a phased reduction in force strategy, Acting NASA Administrator JANET PETRO announced in an email to staff today reviewed by West Wing Playbook.
The agency is also cutting the diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility branch of its office of diversity and equal opportunity, Petro wrote.
Petro's signoff: 'Embrace the Challenge.'
IVORY TOWER HIRING FREEZES: Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania both announced hiring freezes today in light of the financial uncertainty from the recent federal funding cuts. Cornell University and Stanford University announced hiring freezes last month.
'The scope and pace of the possible disruptions we face may make them more severe than those of previous challenges, such as the 2008 financial crisis or the COVID pandemic,' Penn Provost JOHN JACKSON JR. and Senior Executive Vice President CRAIG CARNAROLI wrote in an email, The Daily Pennsylvanian's FINN RYAN reports.
In the Courts
OPM IN THE HOT SEAT: The Trump administration is fighting to prevent a court showdown set for Thursday over the Office of Personnel Management's role in the recent firings of tens of thousands of probationary federal employees, our JOSH GERSTEIN writes in. Justice Department lawyers today asked U.S. District Judge WILLIAM ALSUP to cancel his order for acting OPM chief CHARLES EZELL to testify at a hearing in San Francisco in a suit brought by employee unions and nonprofit groups impacted by the firings.
'Compelling the testimony of an acting agency head would pose major separation-of-powers concerns, especially at this early stage of litigation,' DOJ lawyers wrote. They also argued Ezell's testimony would be of 'scant evidentiary value' because he was only briefly on one of two phone calls where the plaintiffs claim OPM relayed orders to fire all non-essential probationary workers.
Alsup, an appointee of President BILL CLINTON, already ruled that any directive OPM gave to fire employees at other agencies was illegal. But he has balked at reinstating the employees unless the plaintiffs can prove the firings were directed by OPM and not agency leaders. The judge seems to be mulling that theory as he issued a new order today requiring the government to give him copies of 'template termination letters' OPM sent to various agencies involved in the firings.
TRIBES SUE TRUMP: A group of Native American tribes and students is suing the Trump administration to reverse its firing of federal workers at Native schools, NYT's RACHEL NOSTRANT reports. The firings included nearly a quarter of staff at the only two federally run colleges for Native people: Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico.
As a result, dozens of courses at the two colleges lost instructors and school dorms were quickly overrun with garbage as students reported undrinkable brown water, according to the lawsuit.
What We're Reading
Who is DOGE's Amy Gleason? Data cruncher and former nurse is a 'straight shooter' (NBC's Elizabeth Chuck)
Inside the DOGE Cuts Disrupting the Veterans Agency (NYT's Roni Caryn Rabin and Nicholas Nehamas)
DOGE Has Deployed Its GSAi Custom Chatbot for 1,500 Federal Workers (Wired's Makena Kelly and Zoe Schiffer)
Musk Doesn't Understand Why Government Matters (NYT's Editorial Board)
POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER
Only one president, GERALD FORD, appeared on 'SNL' during his term, uttering the words 'Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!' in 1976.
But three other presidents (either prior to holding office or after) have been on the program. In 1994, former President GEORGE H.W. BUSH — known for his ability to take a joke — interrupted DANA CARVEY's cold open, where he was impersonating the former president. 'Dana, George Bush here. I'm watching you do your impression of me. And I've gotta say, it's nothing like me. Bears no resemblance. It's bad, it's bad,' he told Carvey.
During the 2007 Democratic primary, soon-to-be President BARACK OBAMA appeared in a sketch that featured AMY POEHLER as HILLARY CLINTON and DARRELL HAMMOND as BILL CLINTON, where the Clintons are hosting a Halloween party. Obama came in wearing a mask of himself, taking it off to a round of applause. 'Well, Hillary, I have nothing to hide,' Obama said to Poehler. 'I enjoy being myself. I'm not going to change who I am just because it's Halloween.'
And famously, Trump hosted 'SNL' in 2015.