With Donald Trump's feet firmly back under the table at the White House, his role as 47th President of the United States is joined JD Vance as his official Vice President. Still, the implementation of Elon Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency and power to try and slash up to $2 trillion off the federal spend means some have even elevated his title from the self-appointed 'First Buddy' to 'President Musk'.
Although Musk doesn't have a position that was voted for and is instead seen as a "special government employee", his proximity to the POTUS is causing a divide. Major agencies, including the FBI, told staffers to ignore an email from Musk demanding to know "What did you do last week?", while there were some awkward glances when Trump asked his cabinet whether they thought the DOGE head was doing a good job.
The President seems pretty happy with the way things are going, and despite calls for Musk to be 'more aggressive' in slashing federal outgoings, he says that those close to him are 'thrilled' by what the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has accomplished in the past few weeks.
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There are questions from the Democrats about just how much power Musk is wielding, but according to longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, the divisive billionaire could actually be doing the party a favor.
Speaking to NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, Carville said Musk will 'be the greatest generator' for Democratic votes. Explaining why, Carville continued: "Let me say this very specifically, the greatest generator of Democratic turnout ever, more than Barack Obama.
“Musk will turn out more Democrats than Obama could, and I understand the gravity of that statement, but if he keeps going, that's what’s going to happen."
When Cuomo pushed Carville on why, the latter replied: "Well, I was privy to some data that in a very critical state, and the Musk stuff is like nothing I’ve ever seen in the history of polling. Like, nothing. And we’re a month into the game."
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He didn't reveal more about this data, but according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll from February 13-18, 49% of those asked said they didn't think Musk was doing a good job. This was compared to just 34% approving of the way he's handling things.
The same poll (unsurprisingly) revealed that only 6% of Democrats approved of his work when compared to 70% of Republicans.
Finally, 56% of Republicans in the poll thought it was necessary for Musk to shut down whole departments.
Carville told Democrats to bide their time instead of throwing their hands in the air or holding press conferences, doubling down on the idea that the government will 'collapse' within the next 30 days: "Events are coming. The budget is coming. The resolution is coming, the debt ceiling is coming.
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"You can come up with every fake number you want, but you can’t fool a bond market that these people are not foolable. They’re not gonna believe any of that."