How Trump achieves the wildest dreams of conservatives | The Excerpt
On Monday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Paste BN Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page discusses President Donald Trump's triumphs with conservatives. Mass layoffs at the Department of Veterans' Affairs will begin as early as June. Elon Musk loses billions as Tesla shares drop. Paste BN Economy Reporter Rachel Barber talks about the anxieties immigrant caregivers are feeling amid deportation threats. Mark Carney will replace Justin Trudeau as Canada's next prime minister.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Monday, March 10th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, we check in on Trump's triumphs for conservatives, plus what we're expecting when it comes to layoffs at the VA, and we discuss the concerns from immigrant caregivers amid deportation threats.
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Today marks just seven weeks since President Donald Trump took office, and in those 49 days, Trump has successfully accomplished what some conservatives have been dreaming about for decades. So how is he doing it? My colleague, Dana Taylor sat down with Paste BN Washington Bureau chief, Susan Page to hear her insights.
Dana Taylor:
Susan, thanks for joining me.
Susan Page:
It's my pleasure.
Dana Taylor:
Let's start with the executive order we're expecting he'll sign as soon as today. What's in it and just how long has this been a target of conservatives?
Susan Page:
We don't know exactly what will be in this executive order, but we know it is part of the president's effort to dismantle the Department of Education, and that has been a cause since the Department of Education was created in 1979. Since then, Republicans have been trying to get rid of it, and Donald Trump is determined to do just that.
Dana Taylor:
You credit at least some of Trump's success as chutzpah. What do you mean by that?
Susan Page:
He's doing some things other presidents wanted to do but didn't because they thought it was against the law or because it seemed inappropriate. And those are not restraints that Donald Trump seems to feel. So he is willing to again and again press the limits of presidential authority in an effort to get things done. And that has, of course, thrilled his supporters and alarmed his opponents.
Dana Taylor:
Susan, your piece implies that some of these wins were relatively easy since they were unpopular targets to begin with. How so?
Susan Page:
The Trump administration hasn't started by trying to cut Social Security, which is a very popular program. They started by tackling foreign aid, which is a less popular program. They started by firing people who work for the IRS. That's not a very popular agency either. And so, in some ways, that has made it harder to marshal opposition to the things he's doing because he's targeting agencies that a lot of Americans don't much like.
Dana Taylor:
And what are the Democrats doing, if anything, to stop him?
Susan Page:
Democrats are in a pickle. They don't have a base of power. They don't hold the White House or the House or the Senate, and they have really struggled to get a toehold on how to effectively oppose Trump, on how to prevent him from doing some of the things he's been trying to do. And I think you saw that at his speech to a joint session of Congress last week when some Democrats sat on their hands and some walked out of the chamber and one got himself escorted out when he heckled the president. Not really a consistent, coherent message from Democrats so far.
Dana Taylor:
And then there are the courts. Have the courts been a factor in slowing Trump down at all?
Susan Page:
The courts have been a factor. We've seen more than 100 lawsuits filed against the Trump administration for various steps the president has taken. In more than 40 cases, federal judges have temporarily paused whatever action it is the president was taking. But it's going to take months, probably years for these cases to work their way through the court. And only then will we know if the president overstepped his bounds when he took these initial actions.
One thing the White House knows is even if there turns out to be a ruling that says you didn't have the power to do this, if this has been in place for months and years, if people have been fired and programs discontinued, that's going to have an effect that's going to be hard to undo.
Dana Taylor:
Okay, we will stay tuned to this unfolding saga, Susan. Susan Page is Paste BN's Washington Bureau chief. Thanks so much for joining us.
Susan Page:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
The Department of Veteran Affairs will begin mass layoffs as early as June according to a memo reviewed by Reuters. The memo dated last week, directs the department's HR team to begin reviewing operations. Veterans groups, Democrats, and some Republicans have voiced concerns about the cuts. There could be more than 80,000 workers laid off from the agency that takes care of military veterans, a group that typically sees wide bipartisan support nationwide.
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Elon Musk is losing billions as Tesla shares are losing ground. Forbes, which maintains a real-time billionaire wealth tracking tool, estimates he was worth $342.4 billion at the close of business Thursday, down a whopping 121.2 billion from its all-time high of around 464 billion set in mid-December. That estimate is in line with one from Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which put Musk's wealth at 330 billion as of the close of business Friday when Tesla stocks sunk even lower. Shares are down 35% from the start of the year. Meanwhile, though, Musk remains the richest person in the world.
Tesla has become a symbol for Americans frustrated with Musk and his role in shrinking the American government through his unelected post in President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency. But the broader stock market has also struggled in recent weeks amid investor concerns about a growing trade war and consumers who are pulling back on spending.
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Some immigrant caregivers are worried amid President Donald Trump's plans, many of which are already underway for deportations. I spoke with Paste BN economy reporter, Rachel Barber for more. Rachel, thank you so much for hopping on The Excerpt tonight.
Rachel Barber:
Thanks so much for having me, Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
So Rachel, let's just start with this. I mean, can you update us on the latest actions from the Trump administration surrounding immigration, especially, Rachel, as it pertains to this temporary protected status program?
Rachel Barber:
So I mean, we hear a lot of big headlines about mass deportation promises, ICE raids, maybe not so much about TPS or temporary protected status. So just to give a quick definition, TPS is given to immigrants who came to the US usually after some sort of natural disaster or some other extraordinary circumstance. It gives them legal status and work authorization, but some people, including a woman I spoke to for this story, have had it for decades and they don't have any other clear path to citizenship.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, so tell us a little bit more about this home care worker you spoke with. I know it was through a translator, and we're calling her Julia to protect her identity. What can you tell us about Julia?
Rachel Barber:
Julia is a home health aide. She wakes up each morning at 3:30 AM. She has usually a more than 10 hour work day. She cares for two patients throughout the day. One of them is a 92-year-old woman with dementia. The other is a disabled US Iraq War veteran. She makes $18 and 50 cents an hour, and she herself receives no healthcare or other benefits, but she told me that she loves her job. But she's a TPS holder from El Salvador and she worries that she may be next in line for deportation and what that might mean for her patients.
Taylor Wilson:
And what are some of the other real anxieties in this moment that many immigrants are facing, Rachel?
Rachel Barber:
There are many immigrants across the United States that contribute to our economy. I mean, that's well documented. They wake up, they go to work, they take care of our children, our aging parents, and people with disabilities. They also pay taxes. Many of them have been here for decades, but they worry under the new administration with one executive order that that could all be over for them. So they plan for the worst case scenario, but those that I spoke to, including Julia, said that the thought of leaving their friends and families and communities behind makes them very sad.
Taylor Wilson:
Rachel, can you just help us understand this caregiver industry and what happens to it really without immigrants?
Rachel Barber:
Sure. I mean, I think that there's a lot of people in the sandwich generation in particular that understand the cost for child care is astronomical, the cost for caring for your aging parents is also astronomical. Experts told me that without these immigrants, they say that the cost of child care or care for those seniors or those with disabilities will skyrocket. And also some studies show that the quality of care could go down as well.
So some stats to sort of back that up is that although immigrants make up 17% of the total American labor force, they make up a sizable portion of residential care aides and nursing assistants and 31% of the home care workforce. But not all of those immigrant caregivers are undocumented. You're looking at a much smaller percentage there. But other portions are DACA recipients and TPS holders whose legal status here is pretty fragile.
Taylor Wilson:
So it's well established at this point, kind of what the Trump administration is setting out to do when it comes to migration. We established some of this at the top, but how are other lawmakers potentially pushing back here, Rachel? What are they working on?
Rachel Barber:
Yeah, I mean, lawmakers have been trying to set a solution to this for years, really dating back to 2017 with the DREAM Act. They've been trying to set out a path to lawful permanent resident status for DACA recipients and TPS holders, and it really just hasn't worked. However, Representative Sylvia Garcia, she's a Democrat from Texas, she recently reintroduced the American Dream and Promise Act of 2025, which if passed would do exactly that, provide a path to lawful permanent resident status for these workers. It needs to make it through both the Republican controlled House and Senate before it even lands on the president's desk, which seems unlikely, but it's not impossible.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. This was a great piece and an important one in this moment. Rachel Barber covers the economy for Paste BN. Thank you, Rachel.
Rachel Barber:
Thank you, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Former central banker, Mark Carney will become the next prime minister of Canada after winning the race to lead the country's governing Liberal Party yesterday. Carney previously served as governor of the Bank of Canada and later the Bank of England. He'll lead his country while it's locked in a bitter trade war with the US, its largest trading partner. Carney is a political outsider who has never held office. He'll succeed Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation as prime minister in January, facing low approval ratings after nearly a decade in office.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.