Loading summary
Transcript6 lines
- [00:01]
Shopify Advertiser
This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Upgrade your business with Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet. Shop pay boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning fewer carts going abandoned and more sales going cha ching. So if you're into growing your business, get a commerce platform that's ready to sell wherever your customers are. Visit shopify.com to upgrade your selling today.
- [00:23]
Amazon Music Advertiser
Hey prime members, are you tired of ads interfering with your favorite podcasts? Good news. With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad free top podcasts included with your prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free or go to Amazon.com ad freepodcasts. That's Amazon.com ad free podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the.
- [00:47]
Michael Popak
Ads A war has broken out in the Trump administration. On one side, those that oppose Elon Musk and his attempts to fire workers by way of an email that tells them to justify their existence in a return email with a whole group of cabinet members for Donald Trump, Tulsi Gabber, Pete Hegseth, Cash Patel and others telling their workers ignore it. And so embarrassing with egg on their face that the Trump administration, in the face of a new lawsuit filed over that same email, have basically said, yeah, that's all aspirational. You got a lot more time. Don't worry about that particular email. You see this one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing and it's leading to this level of failing and corruption that we're reporting on right here on the Midas Dutch network and on Legal af. I'm Michael Popak. Thank you for joining me. Let me give you the timeline of what's happened here. I think it's very good. Forbes actually did a very good breakdown of this timeline. It starts with a February 22nd. Hard to believe it's only few days in the making, which Musk sent out through his Office of Personnel Management email from a cowardly email address of hrpm.com nothing like HR email to fire up your day and and in a cowardly way try to fire you. It he told his team that they need to justify to 12 million workers, or sorry, 2 million workers their existence. But by the later that Same Night on February 22, major cabinet level departments had already told their employees to ignore Musk. So you had Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, and Pam Bondi at Justice and Patel at FBI telling their employees to pause. You know they love that word pause in this administration. Pause responding to the email because they'll be in charge of the review process. Most of them later said, we'll respond on behalf of the department. You don't have to do individual responses. Then Musk had a take to the airwaves the next day. On February 23, he defended the email on his Twitter account, on his X account by saying, it's just a very basic pulse check to see if we have any non existent. No show no work jobs where they're collecting payments or payroll, but he has no evidence that any of that is happening. Then the Department of Defense on that same day, led by Pete Hegseth and the federal judiciary, all told their employees not to respond. Tulsi Gabbard, the head of the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence, said the same thing, told her staffers not to respond because of their inherently sensitive and classified nature of their work. Later that same day, the American Federation of Government Employees and AFL CIO labor union, the largest labor union representing the federal workers, sent a letter to the Office of Personnel Management telling them that their email from Musk that was received was plainly unlawful and an insult. They then used that same email later this week, just a couple of days ago, to amend their lawsuit in San Francisco to say that this is illegal, arbitrary and capricious and that he has. I thought Elon Musk had no power, he had no authority to fire people. Well, not according to the emails that he's sending out. By the same day. On the 23rd, Kristi Noem @ Homeland Security directed her workers not to respond to the Musk email. We then move on to 24 February, where Elon Musk doubles down on the email. So you got this total disconnect. You know, he's jumping up and down like a 1 inch tall person wanting to get attention and saying, look at my email, you're going to get fired if you don't look at my email. While every cabinet level person in the Trump administration in really, who's really in the administration? Not a special advisor, senior advisor, tells their employees, ignore that guy in the corner. So by the 24th of February, he's defending it and we'll get it all sorted out and a lot of people are in for a rude awakening, Musk said, and a strong dose of reality. But by that time later, about four or five hours later, the Department of Transportation head Sean Duffy also ordered his employees first ordered his employees to respond to the email. He's the only one so far, even though the unions representing the air traffic controllers have said, we got enough on our hands with planes falling out of the sky. We don't want to have to respond to emails. Then later that same day on the 24th, 100 House Democrats sent a letter to 24 federal agency heads telling them not to respond to the email. The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, run by Scott Bessant, also on the 24th, directed their employees to respond to the email, but that they shouldn't, but that they shouldn't do it immediately, they should do it at a later time. Then Trump, when he's being interviewed, co interviewed with President Macron in his office, he said a lot of agencies shouldn't respond, like FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He said that was really more aspirational in a friendly manner. He then tried to defend the email. He said he thought it was great. A lot of people aren't answering because they don't exist. That's another another Trump lie. But by a half an hour after the press conference with Macron, the Trump administration officially tells federal agencies, who are all already not complying that the email from Musk was voluntary and that they will not be fired if they don't respond and that they should refer themselves to their each agency for their own decision making. But then five hours later, Musk says says that subject to the discretion of the president that he purportedly works for, federal workers who don't respond to the email will get a second chance.
- [07:06]
Uplift Desk Advertiser
Izio Chiropractic and massage therapy are all great resources for when you need them, but going to these appointments every few months does not give me the ultimate results I'm looking for when it comes to my well being. It's taking daily, even hourly opportunities to move my body that makes the biggest difference. This has only been made possible for me with this episode's sponsor, Uplift Desk. Uplift Desk is at the forefront of ergonomic solutions promoting better posture and and health through adjustable standing desks designed to help you live a healthier lifestyle. Plus they have all kinds of accessories to keep you moving throughout the day, even if you work for only a few hours at your desk. For me, I love the Bamboo Motion X board. It makes me feel like snowboarding without waiting for the lift. Standing while I work gives me the room to move and helps me get the creative juices flowing. Moving throughout the day helps me focus and stay productive and I'm way more alert when I'm using my standing desk and I have more energy. A desk should fit the user, which is why Uplift Desk has a lot of customization options. So you can build your perfect workspace with more than 200,000 configurations. Uplift Desk allows you to tailor your workspace to perfectly suit your style and needs, empowering you to create an environment that inspires productivity and creativity. For me, I built the custom standing desk of my dreams from Uplift for my Pope POC Media offices where I make a lot of my hot takes and content for Legal af. And so I went all out with a heritage oak top and their advanced angled keypad for the lift part. Make this year yours by going to upliftdesk.com legalaf and use our code legal af to get four free accessories, free same day shipping, free returns and an industry leading 15 year warranty that covers your entire desk and an extra discount off your entire order. That's U P L I F T d e s k.com legalif for a special offer and it's only available at our link start 2025 right stand move thrive with Uplift Desk.
- [09:23]
Michael Popak
I mean, nothing says I'm a failing administration like this shit show. That's a legal term that's going on right now. You got Bannon attacking Musk, right? You've. And you know, and if he didn't, if Trump didn't like Bannon attacking Musk and saying that he's a parasite that should be immediately deported, he would have told him to stop doing it. So Bannon is out bashing Musk. The real cabinet heads are telling their employees to ignore it, except for Sean Duffy at Transportation, who's the ultimate lapdog. And then you've got them trying to fix again. This is why lawsuits are so important at the intersection of law and politics. Because you got the lawsuit brought by the labor union that says, yeah, Judge, you see the latest email we just got from Elon Musk telling us that if we don't tell him what we did in the last week, we need to go. That's also arbitrary and capricious, a violation of the Administrative Procedures act and a violation of the separation of powers and the rest. And that's just more evidence. Elon Musk is generating evidence against the Trump administration in courtrooms. And at the same time, I'm not done. At the same time, the Trump administration, realizing that they got a losing hand in the courtrooms, are telling their, their federal employees, 2 million of them ignore the email. Okay. You know, if you can't figure out, if the Trump administration can't figure out Elon Musk's power and role, what he. Somebody should send. Here's an idea. Somebody should Send Elon Musk the email back to him, asking him to say what he did, five top things he did last week and what power and authority he had to do those things under the Constitution. Because he's not a Senate confirmed member of the cabinet or ahead of a federal agency. He's some sort of free radical that Donald Trump uses as a tool. Cuz he is a tool to, you know, as a distracting tool to do his bidding. That's where we're at. Nobody knows what Elon, even the Trump administration doesn't know what Elon Musk does on a daily or hourly basis. They don't know what Doge is. They don't know what the power of Doge is. They don't know what Elon Musk's power is. That's why they can't, they can't speak straight in court. And they get tongue tied when a judge asks them, like Judge Chutkin in the most recent hearing said, what does, what does Elon Musk do? What are his powers? Oh, he's just a special advisor. He doesn't even work for Doge. He's not the administrator of Doge. He doesn't really because when he sends out emails and texts, they seem to be completely counter to the positions taken in the court of law. It's going to be up to judges to hold this administration accountable because they play fast and loose with the facts, mainly lie to the American people and hope they won't get caught while they move on to the next topic. Very little of what Donald Trump says out loud when he starts spouting a quote, unquote fact. Very little of what he says is true. And Elon Musk is worse. You know, I used to joke that I had friends that whatever they told me was completely believable and true. I had other friends. I had to give them what I call a truth discount. You know, maybe 80% of what they told me was true and the rest was a little bit embellished other friends. 50% discount. That's about as low as I go after that. I'm like, you know, why am I talking? Why am I listening to this person at all? But with Trump and, and Musk, it's a 95% truth discount. Most of what they say to justify their policies and procedures are our lie, our complete lie. We'll continue to follow it. It's important that we do on a daily, on an hourly basis right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal af. While you're here, hit the subscribe button for Midas, but help us continue to build the pro democracy channel we call Legal af. Legal AFMTN for the Midas Dutch network. Let's do that together. Let's get that to a million before the year is over. We're already at almost 500,000. We got two weeks to go to our half birthday. It's hard to believe we formed it in September. And then follow me, Michael popach on legal af Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8pm eastern time. And then I got a new show, Popak Live on Tuesday nights. I'm. It's 45 minutes of just me, sometimes an interview, but just me. Right? We have about four or five hundred thousand people that get together with me every week and and do that at the intersection of law and politics. So until my next reporting, I'm Michael Popak in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network. We just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories. The intersection of law and Politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe @legalafmtn. That's eagleafmtn.
- [14:11]
Amazon Music Advertiser
Find your AmEx card and earn rewards on everyday purchases like points on groceries. See if you pre qualify with no impact on your credit score. Learn more about our offers@americanexpress.com check 4 offers. Your credit score may be impacted if you submit an application. Terms apply.