Joy Ann Reid: Trump ‘Is Happy to Give Free Reign to a Gang of Right-Wing Idealogues to Run the Show to Please the Billionaires’

EXCERPT:

REID: "But we begin tonight with this question: Who exactly is running the government? Just about 36 hours after Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget tried to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans, mostly used to fund programs for Americans in need, the administration reversed course and rescinded the directive after causing widespread chaos and confusion. Surprise, surprise. Even after being president before, Donald Trump still doesn’t know how the government works. He’s happy to give free rein to a gang of right-wing ideologues to run the show to please the billionaires who brought him back to the White House, while Trump himself watches FOX or golfs, or shows up to give speeches festooned by soldiers like he’s the leader of some military dictatorship. Bottom line, he’s just happy to be free of the threat of prison. But if you remember his campaign, not much of what you’re seeing in this first week and a half actually kind of reads like Donald Trump. The freeze on federal funds sounds like something out of Elon Musk’s DOGE plan to slash the government, and Elon’s influence is all over Trump’s other unauthorized gambits. A payout to federal workers to resign with an email subject line 'Fork in the Road' that mirrored Elon’s e-mail to Twitter employees in 2022, when he bought the company.”