The second, coming days after King Abdullah II of Jordan , and Crown Prince Hussein al Abdullah departed from the White House Tuesday, caught the advertising off guard.
Prior to a lake report sending the message to investigators, the White House had not previously made it known that Musk may enter the signing of the professional order. The prank attracted the attention of breaking news personalities from a number of broadcasters and gave Trump what he typically seeks most: media attention.
“FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE”, White House communications director Steven Cheung posted in the fallout.
Trump pushed for Musk to talk and get inquiries from the hit about his job with DOGE, a contentious organization that has received applause from Republicans, Democrats ‘ demonstrations, and some legal interruptions from federal courts.
” It’s called transparency”, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC ) told the Washington Examiner about Trump’s efforts to use executive orders for media attention. It’s being accurate, open, open, and open about everything you’ve actually asked for and giving you. It’s wonderful”.
Musk’s White House look is yet another illustration of how Trump has simplified program professional buy signings into times to bring more attention to his management.
The result is intended to let the people know that the Biden administration’s shadowy time are over. The daring Trump presidency is in.
Americans are once again getting used to having a leader who is open and takes the lead, according to White House spokeswoman Kush Desai, who criticized the private staffers who ran the aimless ship that was the Biden presidency after four decades of being under their control. That includes Cabinet members and contenders who work with President Trump to advance his” America First” goals while keeping the public informed.
Trump aims for internet supremacy
Mere hours after he was sworn into office, Trump headed to Capital One Arena in downtown , Washington, D. C., where thousands of adoring supporters waited for him to sign the first round of executive orders he would unleash upon the nation.
“I’ll revoke nearly 80 destructive and radical executive actions of the previous administration, one of the worst administrations in history”, Trump said as the crowd, who weren’t able to attend the inauguration at the U. S. Capitol, cheered him on throughout the multiple order signings.
The crowd’s applause was Trump’s first indication that his executive actions would be used as a platform for public spectacle.
More than two weeks later, at the White House, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports. This time, a group of schoolgirls wearing sports uniforms and adult women applauded and thanked him for bringing an end to” the war on women’s sports.”
” Now you’re gonna go out and win those events”, Trump told a young girl standing by him.
Another instance of Trump using an executive order to rule over cultural groups, which made the GOP appear to be the party of women through visuals.
” The president, whoever he or she is at any given moment, is the news-maker in chief. So if the president does something, it’s new. When he goes into the Oval Office and announces that he’s signing these things and holds up the thing, that is basically a made for television, made for cameras, sort of moment”, said Christopher Galdieri, a political scientist at Saint Anselm College.
” And I think that plays into Trump’s view of political power, which is something that plays out in the public eye”, he continued. ” He likes the signing. He doesn’t like the back-and-forth over what’s going to be in the document. He enjoys holding the press conference with the foreign leader. He is uninterested in the months of negotiations that typically come before that.
Trump signed at least 64 executive orders during the first weeks of his second administration, compared to former President Joe Biden, who signed 162 orders in four years of office. During his first term, former President Barack Obama signed 147 orders, and 129 more recently.
During Trump’s first term in office, he signed 220 orders, more than any other single four-year term of a president since Jimmy Carter, who signed 320 orders in his one term in the White House.
A recent CBS News-YouGov poll showed that 69 % of participants viewed Trump as” tough”, 63 % viewed him as “energetic”, 60 % viewed him as “focused”, and 58 % viewed him as “effective”.
According to one expert, even Musk’s appearance at the Oval Office is meant to signal Trump’s display of dominance over his government and country.
” What he seems to want to do is flagrantly demonstrate his power, his authority and his control, his dominance over Congress, his dominance over the bureaucracy, or the federal workforce”, said Tom Hollihan, a University of Southern California professor who studies political campaign communication. He wanted to show that he could rule over Musk. Time]magazine ] had put Musk at the resolute desk. So, in that interview, Trump is at the resolute desk, and Musk is standing at his side making his case. So, I think it’s all about a demonstration of Trump’s authority and power”.
Legal challenges to Trump’s orders
Of the 63 legal challenges the Trump administration faces over executive actions, at least 14 pertain to Musk’s work through DOGE, according to Just Security.
Federal judges have either blocked or temporarily paused the president’s orders on birthright citizenship, DOGE’s access to sensitive records, and a federal funding freeze on grants.
However, Trump won in court last week after a federal judge granted the agency’s deferred resignation offer to continue and another federal judge clarified that Trump may pause federal spending if it complies with current laws and regulations.
With the Supreme Court’s influence on Trump’s judicial branch’s influence coming from these decisions, a showdown could ensue.
Trump said,” I always abide by the courts”, on Tuesday when asked about the court rulings blocking his orders. Karoline Leavitt, a press secretary for the White House, alleged that judges had a role in Trump’s behavior.
Leavitt stated during Wednesday’s briefing that the real constitutional crisis is occurring within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal districts across the country are abusing their legal authority to unilaterally obstruct President Trump’s basic executive authority.
Leavitt added that although the administration will follow federal law,” we will also continue to seek every legal remedy to ultimately overturn these radical injunctions and ensure President Trump’s policies can be enacted.”
Trump’s executive actions have not been slowed down by the rulings, nor have they spooked the federal workforce as it navigates the president’s orders.
According to Jacob Neiheisel, a specialist on political communication and campaigns at the University at Buffalo,” there is some evidence that suggests people believe what you say you’re going to do and are less interested in what you do.”
” I think it still creates the impression that they are very active and that they are trying to do everything that they said they were going to do very quickly,” Neiheisel said.” Even if you know that the courts stop up a large portion of the agenda, which seems likely outside of the areas where the enumerated powers of the office are pretty clear, you’re doing something,” even if you know you’re doing it, you’re doing it,” Neiheisel continued
A warning sign for the Trump administration
At the beginning of his second administration, Trump enjoyed high approval ratings, but experts warned against overrelying on public spectacle to lessen economic worries.
Galdieri cited Trump’s press conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic, which lacked the effectiveness to avert public concern and ultimately led to his 2020 presidential defeat.
” If you start to see an economic slowdown, if you start to see inflation hit the same sort of levels it was at in 2021, if gas prices go up, I mean, these are the things, as we’ve seen, bring down presidencies”, he said.
During the peak period following the Trump administration’s attempt to reduce funding for medical research through the National Institutes of Health, Holihan’s university, where she teaches, is denying admission to doctoral students.
Some Republican lawmakers are diplomatically urging Trump to reconsider, whose states are likely to be hit hard by the funding cut for medical research. Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL ) pushed for a “targeted approach” to funding cuts in an effort to prevent Alabama’s top universities from losing billions in funding for research.
Even if some of Trump’s executive orders are permanently overturned, the president will still have caused some long-lasting harm, despite a federal judge’s ban on the administration’s ability to suspend the plan to cut funding.
” He’s making cuts with a blowtorch rather than a scalpel, and it’s certainly going to leave scars”, Holihan said.
Also adding to a possible future problem are Musk’s attention-seeking habits.
If Musk’s efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency to reduce federal spending and reduce the federal workplace are met with opposition, it may be a threat to his relationship with Trump if it undermines the president.
Musk met with , Indian , Prime Minister , Narendra Modi before the foreign leader met with Trump at the White House on Thursday, an example of the billionaire tech grabbing headlines.
Trump’s Cabinet members will likely have to walk a fine line between using their broadcast abilities to dominate social media platforms and using them to overshadow him.
The secretaries “want to project some sort of images of strength and MAGA rebelliousness and that they are destroying the deep state,” they said. They’re destroying a woke culture”, said Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University. And yet they must guard against overdoing and overshadowing Trump, which I believe is one of the risks we’re currently seeing with Musk. … Musk gets so much attention, he goes so kind of off the rails and starts doing a lot of damage”.
