By Nicole Silverio, Daily Caller News Foundation | February 05, 2025
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley predicted on Wednesday that President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s “well thought out” buyout plan will withstand Democrats’ legal challenges in court.
Democrats have brought forth legal challenges to Trump’s 45 executive orders, including his administration’s offer to pay government workers for an 8-month period if they agree to resign over their opposition to returning in-person work full time. Turley said these legal challenges will likely not hold up in court, arguing it is an attempt to “micromanage” the president’s attempt to reduce the government’s size.
“Good luck with that,” Turley said. “A lot of what they’re trying to do is micromanage the decision of the president to try and reduce government. He came into office on a campaign pledge to cut the government down in size. The best way to do that, by the way, is to get people to remove themselves voluntarily. That is something that Musk knows something about after he took over Twitter. But what you’re witnessing is a well thought out plan, you know, the fact is if you throw a badger into a crowded car, I guarantee you people are going to get out. Elon Musk is that badger and the idea is to try to get people to remove themselves from the government, restructure it and potentially hire some people back.”
Turley said Trump’s plan is similar to Musk firing around 80% of Twitter’s staff after he acquired the company in 2022, arguing the company survived after being reduced and remodeled. He argued that Musk’s model at Twitter, which has since been renamed X, has been emulated by other tech companies such as Meta in order to achieve more efficiency.
The law professor further stated that Trump wants to see some opposition to his restructuring of the federal government throughout his second term.
“Trump in his first term felt that he was stymied for a very long time by agencies resisting changes,” Turley said. “He’s structured the second term to avoid that and this is clearly part of his plan to defibrillate the federal government. He wants to shock it into a new shape, a smaller, more efficient shape. Now that’s gonna cause problems, and you’re seeing it right now. But in some ways, this is the type of opposition that Trump wants. He wants to see opposition to the shrinking of government, the effort to reframe it.”
Several government workers have raged over Trump’s buyout offer, with many having called it “insulting,” perplexing … and dangerous.” An estimated 5-10% of government employees were predicted to accept the president’s offer, according to Axios and NBC News.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the offer during her first press briefing on Jan. 28, stating that an employee should choose a different line of work if they do not want to return to the office.
Nicole Silverio is a media reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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