POLITICO Nightly: The political education of Elon Musk

 

By Charlie Mahtesian Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, on Feb. 20, 2025. | Francis Chung/POLITICO THE WIDE STATE — Elon Musk’s move-fast-and-break-things ethos has served him well so far in his efforts to demolish the federal bureaucracy. But now comes the moment the billionaire leading President Donald Trump’s DOGE initiative may not be prepared for — managing the politics of his sprawling cuts. The classic early signs of backlash are beginning to surface — a batch of worrisome polling, angry town hall scenes , protests — and congressional Republicans are beginning to get nervous . If the period of quiescence is truly coming to an end, Musk only has himself to blame. His brash statements and indiscriminate, chainsaw-wielding approach suggest a one-dimensional view that could prove costly to the party in power. Musk aired it last week in a joint interview with Trump on Fox News. “There’s an unelected, vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president and the Cabinet,” Musk told interviewer Sean Hannity. “And if you look at, say, D.C. voting, it’s 92 percent Kamala [Harris].” In other words, in Musk’s view, he’s on a mission to eliminate the Washington-based Democratic deep state. The trouble is, the federal government is a far more complex organism than he seems to recognize. Some agencies are more popular with the general public than others . There are distinct partisan differences in how various departments are perceived. The federal government’s reach also stretches well beyond the D.C. area. Its economic presence is felt acutely in every state and in all 435 congressional districts — not just through government transfer payments, but in terms of actual jobs. The two states with the largest Republican House delegations, Texas and Florida, are together home to almost a quarter-million federal government workers. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Louisiana-based district is home to almost 13,000 . Beyond the Beltway, across the blue and red state divide, there are IRS processing centers, Postal Service distribution centers, national laboratories, VA hospitals and cemeteries, missile sites, military installations, penitentiaries, national parks, historic sites and rural development offices, just to name a few of the federal outposts that stand to be affected by Musk’s massive firings and spending cuts. The political collateral damage of meat-axe style reform — not to mention the human toll — is just now sinking in for some of the members who represent those places. One of the reasons it took so long is that DOGE began by eviscerating an agency that lacked a significant domestic constituency outside Washington — USAID. Now that larger agencies with bigger footprints are on the firing line, the calculus is different. To date, Musk has been insulated by his proximity to Trump, as well as the impression that he is carrying out the president’s wishes. But the political education of Elon Musk is about to begin. He is about to be confronted by the reality that the federal government is more of a “wide state” than a “deep state.” And he’ll soon discover the imperatives of holding on to the GOP’s slim House majority. His relationship with Trump will also be tested if the DOGE blast radius continues to expand — presidents have a habit of throwing inconvenient allies under the bus. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmahtesian@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @PoliticoCharlie . WEST WING PLAYBOOK 2.0: One month in, it’s clear that Donald Trump’s second term is reshaping Washington in ways unseen since the New Deal. To track this seismic shift, we’ve relaunched West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government . Washington, remade: This new daily briefing will deliver blow-by-blow updates on Trump’s far-reaching efforts to overhaul federal agencies. From the actions of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to the strategy being carried out by the Office of Management and Budget under Russ Vought and the resulting conflicts playing out in the courts and Capitol Hill, our reporters will be your guide to the unprecedented disruption hitting Washington. Sign up now to get it delivered straight to your inbox. What'd I Miss? — Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio arrested at Capitol after scuffle with protester: Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys who was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his conviction related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, was arrested today outside the Capitol after a scuffle with a protester . Tarrio swiped at the protester’s hand after she put it close to Tarrio’s face while he was speaking with a journalist. Capitol Police officers immediately surrounded Tarrio, put him in handcuffs and took him into custody. — D.C. police probe incident involving Florida congressman: D.C. police have launched an internal investigation into the department’s handling of a Wednesday incident involving an alleged assault by Florida Rep. Cory Mills. Metropolitan Police Department officers were called midday to a home in southwest Washington for a reported assault involving the use of force with hands or feet, according to a police report obtained today by POLITICO. A department spokesperson confirmed that Mills, a two-term Republican, is the alleged assailant. No arrest was made, and the matter remains under investigation, a second police spokesperson, Tony Lynch, said. — LA Mayor Karen Bass axes fire chief: Mayor Karen Bass removed the city’s fire chief , Kristin Crowley, today, culminating an escalating blame game that has festered since devastating wildfires swept the city last month. A spokesperson for the fire department said they had no immediate comment. Bass had been increasingly vocal in recent days about Crowley’s handling of the fires, alleging that the chief had not sufficiently warned her of the severity of the danger before Bass left for a diplomatic mission to Ghana. The mayor’s absence at the outset of the fires was the subject of fierce criticism, putting Bass on defense at the height of the crisis. ***CHINA & OTHER NATIONS HAVE BANNED CRYPTO FOR GOOD REASONS! *** — Coinbase says SEC agrees to toss lawsuit, signaling end of crypto battle: The Securities and Exchange Commission has preliminarily agreed to throw out its case against cryptocurrency behemoth Coinbase , according to the company, a big step toward slamming the door on the Wall Street regulator’s enforcement crusade against the $3 trillion market. Staff at the agency have agreed in principle to dismiss the lawsuit against Coinbase, the company said in a blog post today. The agreement is pending approval from the SEC’s three commissioners, who are expected to vote on the dismissal next week, according to Coinbase. — Acting ICE director reassigned: Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Caleb Vitello is moving to a new post , as the White House continues its push to speed up arrests and deportations. Before being tapped to lead the agency, Vitello was the assistant director of the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs in ICE and worked closely with top Trump administration officials during the first term. The latest shake-up comes as top administration officials remain frustrated with the pace of arrests and deportation numbers. ICE arrests increased during Trump’s first weeks in office, but the pace has since slowed — and arrests do not always equal deportations. AROUND THE WORLD Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) meets with President Donald Trump at Trump Tower on Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. | Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP FAKE NEWS — The German Interior Ministry has identified a Russia-linked disinformation campaign spreading fake claims of election fraud in Germany just days before Sunday’s vote. Fabricated videos circulating on social media falsely suggest ballots in Leipzig are missing the name of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate. Another video appears to show a machine shredding ballots cast for the AfD. As first reported by Der Spiegel, city officials and security agencies have debunked both videos and warned of an attempt to mislead voters. “This is a targeted campaign designed to influence the Bundestag election,” a spokesperson for the interior ministry told POLITICO. “Authorities in Leipzig and Hamburg quickly verified these videos as fake. The characteristics of this disinformation effort point to ‘Storm-1516,’ a Russian-affiliated influence operation that has been active in past elections.” Storm-1516 is a known Russia-linked group that has previously spread election-related falsehoods, including during the 2024 presidential vote in the United States. The group relies on fake news websites and anonymous social media accounts to amplify misleading narratives, aiming to erode trust in democratic institutions. REVISION UPWARDS — European leaders are working on a military aid package for Ukraine — worth at least €20 billion ($20.9 million) — to bolster Kyiv as the United States increasingly aligns with Moscow, three EU diplomats told POLITICO. The planned package comes after U.S. President Donald Trump blamed his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for the war in Ukraine, calling him a “dictator” who had tricked the U.S. into spending billions of dollars in military aid. The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives also said Thursday there was “no appetite” in Washington to send further aid to Kyiv. The amount of European aid, which would include military hardware like artillery shells and missiles as well as cash, could yet rise farther as diplomats continue intensive consultations ahead of a gathering of foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. POLITICO reported earlier this week that the package’s projected value was €6 billion to €10 billion, but that amount has changed during the talks and could still evolve. Nightly Number $88 billion to $128 billion The estimated price tag of a high-speed rail project in California that is now facing delays , according to a state inspector general report published today. Construction on the initial 171-mile Central Valley line is now unlikely to be completed by the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s 2033 timeline. RADAR SWEEP SOCIAL SPENDING — TikTok and Instagram are a hub for social media influencers who build a career selling an idealized lifestyle. And social apps are curating experiences that make it more feasible for people to snag their favorite influencers’ trendy products. This new wave of shopping , already booming in China, is rapidly growing in the United States. Ironically, this innovative way of shopping has produced a new set of influencers whose goal is the opposite — to get people to curb spending by promoting “underconsumption-core and no-buy trends.” Abby Monteil wonders in Slate magazine if creators who taught us how to overconsume can actually help break the cycle. Parting Image On this date in 1972: President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast each other at the end of the banquet in the Great Hall of the People in Peking. The dinner ended Nixon's first day on his visit to the People's Republic of China. | Bob Daugherty/AP Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   Follow us

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