President Donald Trump has moved beyond "American carnage," leaving the nihilistic outlook of his first term behind in favor of gleeful bullying and childish name-calling.
The difference in style between Trump's first and second go-round in the Oval Office was on full display Wednesday when the president called the United States a "bloated, fat, disgusting" country and bashed predecessor Joe Biden during the first meeting with his Cabinet.
Responding to a reporter's question about the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk's controversial attempts to slash the size of the federal government, Trump called Biden a "disgrace."
"I think Elon wants to and I think it’s a good idea because, you know, those people, as I said before, they’re on the bubble. You got a lot of people that have not responded. So we’re trying to figure out — Do they exist? Who are they?" Trump said of emails spearheaded by Musk that asked federal workers to share details of their workweek and carried a tacit threat of being forced out of their jobs. "And it’s possible that a lot of those people will be actually fired. And if that happened, that’s okay, because that’s what we’re trying to do. This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run."
Trump on sending another email to federal workers: "It's a good idea bc those people are on the bubble. You've got a lot of people that have not responded so we're trying to figure out, do they exist? Who are they? It's possible that a lot of those people will be actually fired.… pic.twitter.com/rccWhVf7gH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 26, 2025
Trump went on to say that Biden was "the worst president in the history of our country" and blamed him for ongoing inflation.
"He just left office. I think he's a disgrace," Trump said.
Trump supported Musk's federal workforce decimating machine even after Musk admitted at the meeting that DOGE "will make mistakes."
"For example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was ebola prevention," he said. "But we do need to move quickly if we're to achieve a $4 trillion deficit reduction."
