Trump gives Musk an Oval Office sendoff | The Excerpt
On Saturday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Paste BN White House Correspondent Bart Jansen discusses President Donald Trump's sendoff for Elon Musk. Plus, Bart tells us about an obscure provision in the House bill that threatens enforcement of court rulings on Trump. President Trump will double tariffs on foreign steel to 50%. The Supreme Court lets Trump revoke a safe-haven program for Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans. The CDC still recommends childhood COVID vaccines, despite an RFK announcement earlier in the week. Former President Joe Biden is 'optimistic' about his treatment plan for Stage 4 prostate cancer. Paste BN National Correspondent Marco della Cava has the latest from Diddy's trial and whether President Trump would or could pardon him.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Saturday, May 31st, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, Trump and Musk mark the end of his time as a government worker. Plus, we check in on the question of whether Diddy could be pardoned. And former President Biden is optimistic about his cancer treatment plan.
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President Donald Trump marked the end of Elon Musk's tenure as a government employee with an event in the Oval Office yesterday where he thanked the billionaire for his work leading the Department of Government Efficiency. I spoke with Paste BN White House correspondent Bart Jansen for more.
Thanks for joining me, Bart.
Bart Jansen:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So starting here, Bart, what did we learn from this New York Times reporting?
Bart Jansen:
The Times had a big story Friday describing Elon Musk as using a number of drugs a lot more heavily than was understood during the 2024 campaign. He hasn't spoken about it or confirmed it, but they were saying that the different substances included psychedelic mushrooms, ecstasy, other stuff, but that among the drugs was ketamine, which is an analgesic but can also lead to some hallucinogenic effects.
He has acknowledged in the past using a prescription for ketamine every one or two weeks in a small amount; he acknowledged during a interview in early 2024. But this story in The Times, which built on some previous reporting in The Wall Street Journal, suggested that his use of it was much heavier than previously acknowledged and that the heavier use led to some health concerns, including some concerns with his bladder.
Taylor Wilson:
We saw this presser yesterday. What did Trump say about Musk in the wake of this report?
Bart Jansen:
Well, Trump called the news conference in the Oval Office as a prestigious way to thank Musk for his service as a top presidential advisor. He was called part of the Department of Government Efficiency, which isn't really a department, but it was an advisory group that recommended ways to dismantle some federal agencies, fire tens of thousands of federal workers, and search for what they called waste, fraud, and abuse to reduce government spending.
Musk said on Friday that they were able to identify about $160 billion worth of cuts and that he thought the number would continue to grow as other staffers will remain as part of the Department of Government Efficiency. But Musk had been hired as a special temporary employee, and so basically his 130 days ran out. But despite that, both Trump and Musk said that he's expected to pop in a bit in the future at the White House to continue monitoring how things are going and to continue to look for savings in federal spending.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. So you touched on this point a little bit, Elon saying as much there. Did we hear any specific comments from him as far as this drug report?
Bart Jansen:
We did not. Trump praised Musk in addition to saying that he did a fantastic job in a significant government overhaul, but he just spoke obliquely about saying that Trump had suffered outrageous abuse, lies and attacks, and suffered slings and arrows. And Musk joked that some of the slingers were there in the room in the Oval Office. But when a reporter asked Musk directly about The New York Times article, he derided The New York Times, he said that they had gotten information false about Russian interference in the 2016 election; of course, a subject near and dear to President Trump who won that election. And so he then closed by saying, "Let's move on."
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Well, separately, while I have you, Bart. I know you also wrote this week about how this House-passed bill of Trump priorities could limit the power of court orders against Trump policies. Tell us a little bit about this provision and how significant this might be if the Senate keeps it in the bill.
Bart Jansen:
The legal experts who keep an eye on this sort of thing say it could have a profound change in how lawsuits are handled against the federal government. What it is is an obscure provision in an 1100-page bill that says basically that judges cannot enforce their blocks on government policy. So for instance, a judge prevents the President from deporting certain types of immigrants until those immigrants have a chance to challenge their deportations in court. That judges wouldn't be able to enforce those kinds of orders through their contempt proceedings, which can result in fines or even jail time in the most serious cases, if an official doesn't obey their orders. The provision would take away that authority unless they had imposed a bond.
Well, a judge in just one of the hundreds of cases against the Trump administration that was trying to block his refusal to provide grant money to hundreds and hundreds of organizations, it was a nonprofit group that filed the lawsuit. The judge said that the bond in that case could total trillions of dollars in federal grants that would be at stake, depending on how the case turned out, and that judge refused to impose the bond.
Well, that's the kind of stakes that we're talking about. If this provision in the legislation was approved in the Senate, as it was in the House, you'd take away that hammer of contempt that judges have by forcing litigants to post bonds. And the presumption is a lot of people couldn't afford to post those kinds of bonds, particularly if it's trillions of dollars. I don't know how much you have laying around.
Taylor Wilson:
I'll point the listeners to a full version of that story with a link in today's show notes. Bart Jansen covers the White House for Paste BN. Thanks, Bart.
Bart Jansen:
Thanks for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
President Trump says he's doubling tariffs on foreign steel to 50%, making the announcement during a visit to a US steel facility in Pennsylvania yesterday. The move comes after Trump previously reversed his threat to impose 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada. Trump bulked up tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum after retaking office, restoring the 25% levy that had been weakened by country exclusions and quotas and thousands of product-specific exclusions. Trump said the higher tariffs will further secure the steel industry in the United States.
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The Supreme Court yesterday said the Trump administration can revoke for now the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans living in the country. The court previously allowed the administration to strip more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants of temporary protected status involving a different program. In this case, the administration wants to cut short a program allowing migrants to live and work in the United States temporarily for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. Lawyers for the migrants said half a million people lawfully in the country will become subject to deportation in what it called the largest mass illegalization event in modern American history. Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center called the move devastating and estimated it could be eight months before the case returns to the Supreme Court for a definitive ruling on the program's termination.
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The CDC is still recommending COVID vaccines for healthy children, according to its latest published immunization schedule. The schedule published this week comes after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., alongside the heads of the FDA and the NIH, earlier this week said the US would stop recommending routine COVID vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. The new guidance said parents who want to vaccinate a child for the coronavirus may receive COVID-19 vaccination informed by the clinical judgment of a healthcare provider and personal preference in circumstances.
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Former President Joe Biden says he is optimistic about the treatment plan for a stage four prostate cancer, which involves taking a daily pill for six weeks.
Joe Biden:
It's good now. We're working on everything. It's moving along. I feel good.
Taylor Wilson:
Doctors found a small nodule on Biden's prostate during a routine exam and the 82-year-old was diagnosed earlier this month, according to a statement released by his office. Speaking to reporters at a Delaware Memorial Day event for the first time since announcing his diagnosis, Biden said that he is being treated by a top doctor in the field and his physician has lived through the same aggressive form of cancer.
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The trial of Sean Diddy Combs continues this week in New York as Combs faces federal sex crimes and trafficking charges. I rang up Paste BN National correspondent Marco della Cava for the latest and a look at whether President Trump would or could pardon the rapper.
Thanks for hopping on, Marco.
Marco della Cava:
Absolutely.
Taylor Wilson:
We've been hearing from a former assistant to Diddy in trial this week. Who is she, and what has stood out from her testimony this week, Marco?
Marco della Cava:
You're referring to Mia. There were others earlier in the week, but Mia is yet another person who worked for Diddy who's being brought to testify, who essentially is describing what a lot of other people have described; essentially an atmosphere filled with quite a bit of violence and quite a bit of fear and even sexual assault. At the same time, you have Diddy's defense attorneys saying, "Hey, you knew that you wanted to work for this guy, and you could have left and you didn't leave. So really, there's nothing for you to complain about here." That's sort of where we are with the two different approaches to these same people who are testifying.
Taylor Wilson:
Okay. And Diddy's legal team is really working to undermine this testimony. Can you talk through some of what we heard from lawyer Brian Steel?
Marco della Cava:
Essentially, he has repeatedly pointed out how these are adults who are going forward of their own free will, in this case to work for Diddy. Many of them sent text messages of support to Diddy if he was down. That they brought a lot of this up in testimony that, "Hey, if you were so put out and horrified by what was happening to you, why did you text these messages of support or compliments to Diddy?" And frankly, a lot of the responses are very straightforward, which is, "I was psychologically abused and I was compartmentalizing things, and I also desperately wanted to make things change, and I constantly thought that maybe if I was nice that this all would stop."
Taylor Wilson:
Marco, a big question that has popped up this week, could President Donald Trump pardon Diddy? He answered a question on that. Let's take a listen.
Donald Trump:
I don't know. I would certainly look at the facts. If I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don't like me, it wouldn't have any impact on me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Marco, I guess I'll just ask you this. Could this happen? What do legal expert say on this point?
Marco della Cava:
Well, it's a really interesting question, which I reported on yesterday, and the short answer is yes, technically speaking, the President of the United States has a lot of leeway when it comes to issuing pardons. Typically, you associate that with a President in his last weeks in office and suddenly pardoning friends and family and things like that. But it actually happens throughout the course of a term, usually with people that nobody's ever heard of.
In this case though, absolutely. Technically, Donald Trump, as long as we're talking about somebody who is facing federal charges, not state charges, which is the case with Diddy, he technically could pardon Diddy. Which, the experts I spoke to said that would essentially shut everything down, and they're probably due to double jeopardy rules and things like that. It would probably be very difficult to re-try Diddy or to bring state charges against him. It might end the whole thing. And obviously you heard the President saying that he knew Diddy back in the day. They're both New Yorkers. But obviously nothing committal there, even though in the news recently there were quite a few pardons that he has issued.
Taylor Wilson:
Right. And as you say, nothing committal there, so the trial continues. What's next? Where does this go from here?
Marco della Cava:
Well, it'll be interesting to see. I mean, essentially I think both sides are trying to make their cases. The prosecution is trying to make the case that all of this abusive behavior is really part of a criminal conspiracy, to keep people afraid, to keep people down. The sexual events that were happening are being painted as sexual trafficking. The flip side is the defense is saying, "Hey, this is not racketeering or sexual trafficking. These are grown adults, perhaps acting in ways that you may disapprove of or be shocked by, but it's not racketeering and that's the only thing you're here to pass judgment on."
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Marco della Cava is a national correspondent with Paste BN. Thanks, Marco.
Marco della Cava:
Thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
For more on the possibility of a Diddy pardon and other surprising pardons, you'll want to tune in on Wednesday afternoon to this feed when we'll be joined by former US pardons attorney Liz Oyer.
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And coming up tomorrow. Was the right to be inspired, to reach for more, to be our best selves baked into our Constitution?
Marc Bamuthi Joseph:
My belief is that in order to be enfranchised in the American promise, yes, you have to have equal protection under the law, but you also have to have equal access to the impulse of creativity and hope. You cannot be an American if you are not inspired.
Taylor Wilson:
That was artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the former artistic director of Social Impact at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. One of several people dismissed from the legendary cultural institution following President Trump's takeover of the board. What do artists have to do with democracy? There are more of my colleague Dana Taylor's compelling conversation with him right here beginning at 5:00 AM Eastern Time tomorrow.
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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you have any comments or questions, you can email us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I'm Taylor Wilson. I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.