With its shoot-first style, Trump team often shoots itself in the foot

A telling moment early in President Donald Trump’s second term foreshadowed how the administration is often now operating.

A telling moment early in President Donald Trump’s second term foreshadowed how the administration is often now operating. Appearing at a Cabinet meeting in late February, Elon Musk said the Department of Government Efficiency had “accidentally canceled” Ebola prevention programs. “We will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect. But when we make a mistake, we’ll fix it very quickly,” Musk said. “So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately. And there was no interruption.” It wasn’t the first time Musk – who has since left the government – had acknowledged he and his team would make mistakes. But it was especially striking given the subject matter. Ebola prevention is literally a matter of life and death, but Musk mentioned it off-hand as if it were just some anecdote about DOGE’s growing pains. (Musk’s claim that there was “no interruption” has also been called into question.) In the months since, though, that attitude has become emblematic of the Trump administration’s approach to the country’s business. Over and over again, it has employed shoot-first mentality with its public pronouncements and actions.