Maura Gillespie, a former deputy chief of staff for ex-Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), told CNN on Tuesday that it sounds like President Donald Trump is getting antsy to shove billionaire Elon Musk out the door.
During a segment about Musk's controversial tenure as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, host Kate Bolduan pointed out that Trump this week told reporters that he thought Musk was "amazing" before adding that "I also think he's got a big company to run, and so at some point, he's going to be going back."
Gillespie pointed out that Musk has said in the past that his work with DOGE was scheduled to end next year regardless, and she said that this could be an indication that Trump is either anxious to push up the timetable for his departure or is looking to set up Musk as a scapegoat.
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"What you could read into that if you wanted to is that he's looking for an escape valve," she said. "And so if things don't go well and aren't looking great for 2026, well, that should have already been ended by then. So who will he then blame? So I don't know if he's trying to prolong it so that he can then blame him after the midterms."
Elsewhere in the panel, Democrat Bakari Sellers made the case that Trump should be eager to give Musk the boot.
"He's unelected," he said of Musk. "He has no accountability to anyone, and he's out there doing the job of legislators. And at the end of the day, when we come on air and continuously call him the speaker of the House or the president of the United States, that wears thin on lawmakers because Elon Musk is the one who's running the federal government right now. He's also running it into the ground."
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