President Elon Musk Can’t Understand How the U.S. Government Works

Elon Musk won’t stop showing just how little he understands about the U.S. government.

The billionaire technocrat joined President Donald Trump Tuesday night in an interview on Fox News’ Hannity, to attempt to justify the Department of Government Efficiency’s invasion into the sensitive files of government agencies and the Trump administrations’ efforts to gut the federal government.

Musk falsely reasoned that he could do whatever he wanted because of a mandate from U.S. voters.

“All we’re really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president. And what we’re finding is an unelected bureaucracy,” said Musk, who himself is unelected and increasingly unpopular among voters.

“There is a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president and Cabinet. You look at D.C. voting and it’s 92 percent Kamala,” Musk noted.

“If the will of the president is not implemented, and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented. And that means we don’t live in a democracy, we live in a bureaucracy,” he said. “And so I think what we’re seeing here is sort of the thrashing of the bureaucracy as we try to restore the will of the people.”

“Is this making sense?” Musk asked.

No, it isn’t, and it’s because of Musk’s ironic disposition toward the founding document that is the U.S. Constitution, which sought to establish three branches of government that act as checks and balances on each other.

Neither Musk nor Trump care about the actual structure of the government, or that it was created in direct response to the tyranny of monarchy. That’s why they so openly attempt to skirt the rules about destroying federal agencies such as USAID, which can only be done by an act of Congress, and float impeaching judges who say things they don’t like. To them, there is only the executive branch, the reins of which Musk seems to have happily taken off of Trump’s hands.

Trump on Tuesday announced he would unveil an aggressive set of tariffs, confirming the worst fears of manufacturers across the auto, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical industries.

“It’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” the president said, when asked about the specific rate he’d be placing on foreign automobile imports. When asked about semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, he noted they’d be “25 percent and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over the course of a year.”

Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that the tariffs on automobiles could come as soon as April 2.

In Trump’s telling, the tariffs are designed to strong-arm companies into bringing their manufacturing onto U.S. soil. About 20 percent of car sales in the United States last year were imports from Canada and Mexico. But 25 percent tariff on those sales would upend the auto supply chain and likely cause costs to rise dramatically, which would then of course lead prices for consumers to rise as well.

“Whether it’s auto tariffs that he comes up with on the fly or a general tariff, the net result is closures of plants all over the U.S. at the same time as Canada and Mexico,” Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association president Flavio Volpe told Politico.

Time will only tell how Trump plans to convince American consumers that they should keep footing the bill—while the price of everything from automobiles to gaming consoles to Ozempic skyrockets.

Now that he has been confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to put his frightening ideas about public health into action.

Kennedy made a speech to HHS staff at the Washington, D.C., headquarters Tuesday and announced that he planned to begin investigations into whether anti-depressant medications and the childhood vaccine schedule are responsible for chronic diseases in the United States. The speech was intended for staff only, although a livestream link was distributed.

“Nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy said, and urged staff to keep an “open mind.”

“We will convene representatives of all viewpoints to study the causes for the drastic rise in chronic disease,” Kennedy added. “Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized.”

Kennedy’s comments on childhood vaccines contradict his testimony during his Senate confirmation hearings, where he told the Senate Finance Committee, “I support vaccines. I support the vaccine schedule. I support good science.”

Several medical studies have debunked claims that vaccines and SSRI anti-depressant medications are linked to chronic illnesses or conditions such as autism. But now that Kennedy has been confirmed, it seems that he can stop pretending to support such health measures.

Over the weekend, several thousand probationary federal health employees were fired, only one day after Kennedy’s confirmation. With fewer employees to oppose him, Kennedy can put his debunked theories about public health into practice, and the consequences could be disastrous.

Promises kept? Not quite.

Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday purporting to expand access to in-vitro fertilization, but the mandate falls short of his actual campaign promise to make IVF free.

“🚨PROMISES MADE. PROMISES KEPT: President Trump just signed an Executive Order to Expand Access to IVF! 👶” announced Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s emoji-happy press secretary, in a post on X.

“The Order directs policy recommendations to protect IVF access and aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments.” she wrote.

Crucially, the order does not mandate any of these things, only recommends them. The order’s “recommendations will focus on how to ensure reliable access to IVF,” according to a fact sheet about the order obtained by NOTUS.

In August, Trump claimed that if elected to a second term, he would have either the government or insurance companies cover the cost of IVF, which can cost thousands of dollars.

“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump said in an August interview with NBC. “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

When pushed to clarify exactly who would shell out for these procedures, he said that one option would be to make insurance companies pay “under a mandate.”

A White House official told NOTUS Tuesday that this order was the Trump administration’s “first step” toward realizing that promise.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Trump bragged about the toothless order. “I’ve been saying that we’re gonna do what we have to do,” he said. “And I think that the women, AND families—husbands, are very appreciative of it.”

It should come as no surprise that Trump is going to do what he has to do, just not what he said he would do.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller threw a temper tantrum on live television Tuesday while tunelessly singing the praises of Elon Musk’s disastrous Department of Government Efficiency.

When faced with even the simplest questions about DOGE, Donald Trump’s former immigration ghoul couldn’t keep his cool long enough to make it through an interview on CNN.

Host Brianna Keilar asked Miller to clarify who was responsible for removing 300 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday, before the Department of Energy had frantically rescinded the terminations the next day.

“So then, who is it making those decisions of which federal employees are terminated?” Keilar asked.

“Well, in that case the secretary of energy would be the one. So, what you’re describing would be the cuts in the Department of Energy, those are directed by the Senate-confirmed secretary of energy,” Miller replied.

“OK, so that was the secretary of energy’s mistake?” Keilar pressed.

“Well, I wouldn’t use the term mistake,” Miller said about the obvious error.

“I would say that it’s pretty standard when you’re downsizing government, you make cuts, you assess those cuts. You see who needs to be rehired, you see who needs to be kept, who needs to be reevaluated,” Miller continued, adopting Musk’s inane view that the best way to downsize was to cut off limbs of the system, and then simply wait to see whether it stops working—or something blows up.

“That’s not what happened here, though, Stephen. You know that. They were rescinded,” Keilar said.

“These are all normal things,” Miller continued.

“These aren’t normal things,” Keilar pushed.

“I understand that even a temporary interruption in federal employment is a great crisis and catastrophe for you, and for CNN,” Miller bit back, his mask slipping with a cold grin.

Keilar continued pushing back on Miller’s assertion that the DOGE cuts were a personal crisis, but an incensed Miller struggled to let her get through another question.

“Well, if I don’t think it’s a crisis, and you don’t think it’s a crisis, then why are we talking about it?” Miller fumed.

“It’s not my crisis, Stephen. I’m not a federal employee,” Keilar said.

As Miller continued to tout the supposed success of DOGE, he started screaming when Keilar wouldn’t say what he wanted her to.

“You may assert there’s no waste in the Pentagon!” he said. “You may assert there’s no waste in Treasury! You may assert—”

“Oh, Stephen, I’m not asserting, [I] don’t think anyone would assert that, Stephen,” Keilar interjected.

“Then WHY ARE YOU NOT CELEBRATING THESE CUTS? If you agree there is waste, if you agree there is abuse, if you agree there is corruption, why are you not celebrating the cuts, the reforms that are being instituted?” Miller cried. “Every day that no action is taken the entire salary of American workers that are taxed disappears forever.”

“Stephen, let’s calm down,” Keilar said. “We’re not having a debate—”

“Well, you are clearly trying to debate ME!” Miller glowered. “And I will be… as excited as I want to be about the fact that we are saving Americans billions of dollars.”

Keilar tried to ask Miller about whether DOGE employees would be able to access taxpayer bank accounts and personal information at the Internal Revenue Service. But again, he lost it.

“They will not be able to access anything that any other appropriately authorized federal employee could access,” Miller snapped. “When you keep talking about ‘DOGE employees,’ you’re just talking about federal workers!”

“Your question may as well be ‘can federal workers do their job?’” Miller fumed.

“No, that’s not what I’m asking,” Keilar interjected.

“Well, I’m telling you that that’s actually what you are asking!” Miller spit back.

When asked whether the research information systems (RIS) data would be used in Trump’s massive deportation scheme, Miller ranted a resounding, and incredibly hostile, yes.

“I’d have imagined that CNN, which has endlessly talked about the importance of democracy and the rule of law would say that no class in this country should be above the law, least of all illegal aliens who have trespassed on our territory!” he shouted.

“Stephen, I’m just asking,” Keilar said. “I wanted to get your position on some things, we’re not taking a position here.”

“It doesn’t sound to me like you are in fact indifferent or unbiased on these questions, but thank you,” Miller fumed.