Trump 'clearly' threatening his own people in public: CNN analyst

CNN political analyst Mark Preston on Thursday said that President Donald Trump appeared to be openly threatening his own cabinet officials not to get in the way of X owner Elon Musk's efforts to take a wrecking ball to the federal government.

During an interview with host Sara Sidner, Preston said that Trump's first gambit to shut down the United States Agency for International Development looks like just the opening salvo in a broader attack on the government as a whole.

"I think this spells trouble, because this is going to be the first step in really Donald Trump successfully dismantling the government," he said. "Now, everything that he does try to do, Sarah, is not going to be successful but in this first step, he appears to be successful."

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He then pointed to footage from Wednesday's White House cabinet meeting in which cabinet officials were made to sit and smile as Musk talked up plans to engage in mass firings at key government agencies.

"Look at them all, just clapping and smiling and thinking to themselves... 'We better get on board,'" he said. "You know, it's very interesting. Donald Trump not only issues directions through social media, he also issues his threats to his own people in public and that's clearly what we saw yesterday."

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