Elon Musk Is Driving Trumpworld Absolutely Insane

Even the people closest to Donald Trump are suffering under Elon Musk’s sudden takeover of the executive branch, and they’re turning to an unexpected savior to intervene: White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Vitali, Wired’s Jake Lahut revealed Friday that a slew of longtime Trump loyalists have turned to the so-called “ice maiden” to liberate the administration from Musk’s influence.

“You spoke to half a dozen Trump loyalists, Republican aides, and advisers inside and around the administration,” Vitali started. “I think many of them, even though they say they’re shocked to be saying this, the rift almost seemed inevitable. But how much of a rift actually is it? And what is the sense behind the scenes?”

“I still don’t have a clear sense of the factions at play here, but it’s happening,” Lahut said. “I wouldn’t call it a full-blown freak-out quite yet, but the folks I talked to have all been loyal to Trump and have been on the [Trump] train since before January 6, and it takes quite a lot to rattle or surprise these people.

“And these are folk who, you know, normally would be inclined to spin this in some sort of way,” Lahut continued. “Instead, they don’t know who to turn to. A lot of them want Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, to intervene in some form.”

Wiles, whose job it is to iron out the creases in Trump’s chaotic Cabinet and streamline his mission, has already butted heads with Musk. Last month, she refused the billionaire a coveted permanent office in the White House. That move came weeks after Wiles told Axios that anyone who wants to be a “star” would have no place on her team.

“I don’t welcome people who want to work solo or be a star,” Wiles told Axios by email in early January. “My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately, or drama. These are counterproductive to the mission.”

The Justice Department is suing the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois for not caving to the Trump administration’s performative, fear-inducing immigration raids.

The DOJ wants to stop the city from enforcing its sanctuary city laws that they say “interfere with and discriminate against” Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown—yet another installment of the beef between the president and the city, which goes back to a canceled 2016 campaign rally.

Last month, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said that immigrants would be protected, “whether you’re undocumented, whether you are seeking asylum, or whether you’re seeking a good-paying job.

“We’re going to fight and stand up for working people. That’s what Chicago is known for,” he continued. “We’re going to continue to do that regardless of who’s in the White House.”

Last week, “border czar” Tom Homan complained that Chicagoans were too knowledgeable for ICE to carry out effective raids.

“Sanctuary citizens are making it very difficult to arrest the criminals. For instance, Chicago, very well-educated. They’ve been educated how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE,” Homan said. “I’ve seen many pamphlets from many NGOs: ‘Here’s how you escape ICE from arresting you’; ‘Here’s what you need to do.’ They call it ‘Know your rights.’ I call it ‘How to escape arrest.’”

On Saturday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker let Trump know he was “not afraid” of any retaliation he may receive from the president for his actions.

“We’re not gonna have our police here locally coordinating with federal officials to have them taken away.… It’s a reckless set of policies that [Trump is] engaging in,” Pritzker said on MSNBC’s The Weekend.

In a statement responding to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Pritzker’s office, Alex Gough, said, “Instead of working with us to support law enforcement, the Trump Administration is making it more difficult to protect the public, just like they did when Trump pardoned the convicted January 6 violent criminals.”

Johnson said in his own statement that the “safety and security of Chicago residents remains the priority for the Johnson Administration. Chicago will continue to protect the working people of our city and defend against attacks on our longstanding values.”

Justice Department lawyers refused Thursday to ensure that a list of FBI agents who had worked on January 6 cases wouldn’t have their names revealed as retribution for investigating and arresting a violent cohort of Donald Trump’s supporters, according to a new report from NOTUS.

On Monday, FBI employees were forced to respond to a questionnaire probing their involvement in the nearly 2,400 cases that stemmed from the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

While the agents involved hadn’t committed any partisanship or wrongdoing by simply doing their jobs, it’s not clear that Trump, who pardoned 1,500 rioters upon returning to office, will see it that way.

Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, who was appointed wholly by accident, has emerged as a staunch defender of agents involved in the January 6 investigations and refused to turn over the list of names. Instead, he presented only their employee ID numbers.

FBI special agents have already filed two lawsuits to protect the identities of those on the list. In D.C. District Court Thursday, lawyers representing the FBI employees argued that the information could potentially be weaponized by Trump, Elon Musk, or the Department of Government Efficiency.

But lawyers for the Justice Department wouldn’t give a straight answer when asked by District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb whether the names would be kept confidential, noting that it wasn’t out of the ordinary for FBI agents to have their names made public in court papers.

“We need to consult with our superiors,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Simon, according to NOTUS. Later, in an email, prosecutors said simply that they currently had no “intention” to publish the names and would notify the federal judge if they changed their minds.

Pamela M. Keith, the attorney representing nine anonymous FBI employees, said that the department’s unwillingness to promise that the names wouldn’t be released was something that “stood out” to her, NOTUS reported.

A federal judge has suspended President Donald Trump’s mass federal employee buyout scheme until at least Monday, when arguments on the program will be heard at a court hearing.

“I make no assessment at this stage of the merits of the claims,” Judge George O’Toole Jr. said at the hearing in Boston on Thursday, NBC News reported. The Trump administration offered federal workers the choice of a return to full-time in-office work or to quit with a buyout and severance pay through September 30. An email sent at the time stated that there “will NOT be an extension of this program.”

The buyout plan, also known as the “Fork in the Road” initiative due to its similarity to Elon Musk’s offer to Twitter employees in 2022, has been sending shock waves throughout the federal government. Trump has been very clear that it is a direct attempt to overhaul the federal bureaucracy in his image. Over 60,000 employees, or about 3 percent of federal workers, have accepted the offer.

“We are grateful to the judge for extending the deadline so more federal workers who refuse to show up to the office can take the Administration up on this very generous, once-in-a-lifetime offer,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Earlier on Thursday, a federal judge partially halted Musk’s DOGE henchmen from accessing government databases, making the Boston ruling the second setback of the day for the Trump administration. But the future of this “Fork in the Road” effort remains to be seen, as it has also been challenged by multiple federal employee unions.

A U.S. District Court in Washington on Thursday partially blocked Elon Musk and his DOGE groupies from further accessing government databases.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly approved a temporary restraining order that prevents two DOGE-affiliated employees from accessing anything other than read-only records from the Bureau of Fiscal Service’s systems.

The restricted employees are Tom Krause and Marko Elez, who will be permitted access on an “as needed” basis, according to the filing. Prior to joining Musk’s federal team, Krause served as a chief executive of a Silicon Valley software company, while Elez is a 25-year-old engineer with experience at two of Musk’s companies: X and SpaceX.

“The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,” the order reads.

The order was in response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, alleging that the newly minted Trump appointee had provided Musk and his team “full access” to Americans’ personal and financial information.

The order barred “any person who is an employee (but not a Special Government Employee) of the Department of the Treasury and who has a need for the record or system of records in the performance of their duties.”

The agreement will stay in place until February 24, when both parties are expected to return to court for a long-term preliminary injunction, according to ABC News.