NewsNation contributor and former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said President Trump and Elon Musk are itching for a fight with the courts over their cuts to the federal workforce.
Mulvaney was weighing in on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sending a memo to federal agencies requiring them to turn over their plans for mass government layoffs.
It follows an executive order from Trump that mandated layoffs and provided more specific guidance, including breaking down their plans for a reduction.
“I was impressed today by the professionalism [in] the memo, the amount of thought that’s gone into it,” Mulvaney said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “The Hill.” “Clearly, they’ve done their homework, and my guess is they’re itching for a fight with the courts over how far the executive can go on this type of thing.”
Mulvaney also touched on the recent email from OPM that asked workers to detail what they accomplished over the last week. Musk said online that if they failed to respond to the email, it would be taken as resignation, but as confusion spread the decision was ultimately voluntary and left up to different agencies.
“My guess is there’s a method to the madness on the emails,” Mulvaney told host Blake Burman.
He added that he believes those who didn’t respond to OPM’s emails are going to be on the chopping block and the Trump administration can argue that their positions are not necessary.
“The executive does have the authority to do this on a fairly grand scale, so it will be fascinating to watch. They might actually be able to shrink the size of the government,” Mulvaney said.
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