| | | |  | | By Jake Traylor, Dasha Burns, Ben Johansen, Sophia Cai and Irie Sentner | | Presented by |  | | | Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump’s unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben | Email Adam | Email Holly | Email Jake HOW ELON MADE HIS WAY IN: ELON MUSK’s government takeover was years in the making, as the tech billionaire began laying the groundwork for his government efficiency project by the Republican presidential primary in 2023, nearly the entire New York Times newsroom detail in an exhaustive, thorough piece this morning. It began that September, when he dropped in about an hour late to a dinner party at Silicon Valley tech investor CHAMATH PALIHAPITIYA’s mansion. Musk made it clear that he saw the gutting of the bureaucracy as primarily a technology challenge. He told the party of about 20 that when he overhauled Twitter, the key was gaining access to the company’s servers. More from NYT: “Wouldn’t it be great, Mr. Musk offered, if he could have access to the computers of the federal government? Give him the passwords, he said, and he would make the government fit and trim.” COMING SOON … Some federal workers are slated to receive a second email as early as Saturday asking them for five bullet points detailing their prior week’s accomplishments, WaPo’s EMILY DAVIES, CAROL D. LEONNIG and HANNAH NATANSON report. Federal workers received a similar email last weekend but now they are slated to become a weekly requirement. The new message is expected to come from addresses associated with chiefs of agency HR departments across the government, WaPo writes. MUSK’S 130-DAY PARTY: For six weeks, members of the Trump White House who have grown weary of Musk’s disruptive style have taken solace in the fact that he serves as a temporary government employee, with a 130-day cap. But a White House official now says there is no known end date on Musk’s tenure, Jake and Dasha report. “No one here at the White House is tired of winning. The President has tasked Elon Musk with eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, a mission that will continue until completed,” said deputy press secretary HARRISON FIELDS. Musk’s “special government employee” designation as leader of the Department of Government Efficiency means he isn’t subject to the same financial disclosures as full-time government employees. But it also comes with a work limit: 130 days out of a 365-day year. Because of that time limit, questions have swirled around how long Musk can and will serve at DOGE, which has dramatically reshaped the federal government by firing thousands of government workers and demanding others justify their job performance via email. But it’s become increasingly clear inside the White House that Musk will blow past the 130-day limit and stay around as long as President DONALD TRUMP lets him. “There are likely people who are counting the days until 130 days are up and will push against keeping him around, but I just think that’s a losing battle,” said an outside political adviser close to the president, granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. Musk, the person said, is “here to stay.” There has been no talk of “limits” around Musk’s role as head of DOGE, said a person closely involved in conversations at the White House granted anonymity to speak candidly about the exchanges. Everything discussed about Musk and his work going forward is done so in the long term, the person said. Exactly how Trump’s White House would circumvent the 130-day rule remains an open question. But it’s been done before. During the Obama administration, HUMA ABEDIN was designated as a temporary State Department adviser and faced scrutiny from Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa) for allegedly serving more than the 130-day limit. 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 westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe!
| | | | A message from Comcast: Did you know that about 90% of our smartphone data travels over WiFi, not cellular? WiFi carries 10 times the amount of data of all cellular networks combined, including 5G. Comcast runs the nation's largest and fastest WiFi network, connecting over a billion devices each year. WiFi operates over unlicensed spectrum, fostering innovation and competition by giving millions of consumers and businesses access to essential, affordable wireless connectivity. Learn more. | | | | | Which president had a wine cellar built on the White House grounds? (Answer at bottom.)
| | ‘THE BUG’: Musk, in a sprawling interview released today with the conservative podcaster JOE ROGAN, said "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy." “Empathy is good, but you need to think it through," Musk said. But, he added, Democrats are “exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.” The men were speaking about the conspiracy theory that drove Musk to back Trump last summer: That Democrats are intentionally moving undocumented immigrants into swing states to gain political power, and, eventually, one-party rule. Musk explains, in his own words: “If they had another four years, they would legalize enough illegals in the swing states to make the swing states not swing states. They would be blue states. They’d win the House, the Senate and the presidency. They would then make D.C. into a state, maybe Puerto Rico, get four extra senators, pack the Supreme Court, so then they’ll have the House, judiciary, Senate and presidency, all blue. And then they would keep importing more illegals to cement that outcome, basically what happened in California. It would have been the end.” CONFLICT CONCERNS: Musk is ratcheting up his attacks on the company in charge of a $2.4 billion federal aviation contract — while promisting his own satellite business, Starlink, as a potential replacement, our ORIANA PAWLYK reports. Musk’s beef with Verizon comes as his cost-cutting initiative is weighing the future of the Federal Aviation Administration, heightening concerns that his role poses a grave conflict of interest. For at least the second time this week, Musk attacked the wireless communications company on X, his social media platform, for what he called subpar work on a new communications system for the FAA — even though Verizon’s system is still in the testing phases.
| | INCENTIVES, INCENTIVES: The Education Department is offering a buyout of up to $25,000 to most of its employees, according to a department-wide email obtained by our REBECCA CARBALLO. Employees have until Monday at 11:59 p.m. to make the decision, JACQUELINE CLAY, a chief human capital officer, wrote in the email sent out this afternoon. “This is a one time offer in advance of a very significant Reduction in Force for the U.S. Department of Education,” Clay wrote.
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| | | | | DOESN’T GET ANY CLEARER THAN THIS: Trump and Vice President JD VANCE turned on Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY in a remarkably heated exchange in the Oval Office today, our ELI STOKOLS reports. The president accused Zelenskyy of failing to express sufficient gratitude for U.S. involvement and overplaying what they said was a weak diplomatic hand. “You’ve done enough talking. You’re not winning this,” Trump said, raising his voice to the Ukrainian leader. “You have a damn good chance of coming out okay because of us.” Minutes after the exchange, Trump announced on social media that he kicked Zelenskyy out of the White House. “He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office,” Trump wrote. “He can come back when he is ready for Peace.” A joint press conference planned for this afternoon was also canceled. Trump had promised a “very big deal” between the two countries that would have offered the U.S. easy access to rare earth minerals in Ukraine. The signing was called off, too.
| | GOTTA BE QUICKER THAN THAT: The Trump administration planned to rapidly fire the “vast majority” of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s roughly 1,700 employees before a court intervened, our KATY O’DONNELL reports for Pro subscribers. The revelation came in a sworn declaration filed in a federal court late Thursday in a case the CFPB employee union has brought against Acting Director RUSS VOUGHT. Filings depict a frantic rush by agency leadership and DOGE to lay off staff and bring about a “wholesale termination of the contracts needed to keep CFPB running,” before a federal judge intervened earlier this month. After the bureau fired all probationary and term employees, the plan was to “fire approximately 1,200 additional employees, by eliminating whole offices, divisions, and units,” one employee stated.
| | MORE USDA CUTS: The Agriculture Department has frozen more spending and paused government credit cards as it moves to implement Trump's executive order giving DOGE more power across federal agencies, our MARCIA BROWN reports for Pro subscribers. “Contracts, cooperative agreements and loans not provided to individuals and conferences, training, and purchase cards are paused until further notice," according to one email sent by the acting associate administrator for USDA's Farm Service Agency, which was viewed by POLITICO. Government credit cards are also paused for the next 30 days, the administrator said. A second email sent to USDA staff emphasized that the changes do not impact “direct assistance to individuals,” including SNAP benefits.
| | Inside DOGE’s Clash With the Federal Workforce (WSJ’s Scott Patterson, Josh Dawsey and Brian Schwartz) Why It Matters Who Asks the Questions (The Atlantic’s Jonathan Lemire) MAGA hat drama could taint Trump’s top military adviser pick (POLITICO’s Paul McLeary and Joe Gould) US intel shows Russia and China are attempting to recruit disgruntled federal employees (CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Cohen)
| | President THOMAS JEFFERSON had a wine cellar built just west of the White House and called it an “ice house,” according to the White House Historical Association. Thanks to the White House Historical Association for this question! A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it! Edited by Noah Bierman, Jennifer Haberkorn and Isabel Dobrin.
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