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After Elon Musk<\/strong> bought Donald Trump<\/strong> a second term in office, the president granted his benefactor the power to indiscriminately fire<\/a> thousands of federal employees under the guise of saving taxpayer money. But as it turns out, letting a \u201cmove fast and break things<\/a>\u201d billionaire can whomever he pleased\u2014including individuals with decades of institutional knowledge\u2014wasn\u2019t the best idea. In fact, one might even go so far as to call it a really bad one!<\/p>\n The<\/em> Washington Post<\/em> reports<\/a> that \u201cacross the government, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire many federal employees dismissed under DOGE\u2019s staff-slashing initiatives after wiping out entire offices, in some cases imperiling key services such as weather forecasting and the drug approval process.\u201d For example, in May, the Food and Drug Administration started sending ridiculously euphemistic emails to fired staff that read, \u201cNotice of Reduction in Force (RIF) issued to you\u2026is officially RESCINDED [and] you will not be separated from employment,\u201d according to the Post,<\/em> which reviewed the message. \u201cYou are expected to return to duty the next business day following your receipt of this notice.\u201d<\/p>\n Other agencies, like the USDA, have similarly attempted to reverse their firings; for instance, a safety inspector told the Post<\/em> that he was called one weekend and told he was being fired over \u201cperformance\u201d\u2014despite his having received positive reviews\u2014only to be told days later that his termination was being canceled. Thousands of probationary employees with the Internal Revenue Service were similarly dismissed for fake \u201cperformance\u201d\u00a0matters, until the agency \u201creversed course and told them to show up to work in late May.\u201d Staffers at the US Agency for International Development\u2014which was wholesale gutted<\/a> by Musk in February\u2014opened their inboxes this month and found \u201can unexpected offer: Would you consider returning\u2014to work for the State Department?\u201d<\/p>\n The rush to rehire employees callously fired by DOGE comes as Musk and Trump go scorched-earth on each other<\/a>, a public feud that shows few signs of abating<\/a>. On Thursday, the president threatened to cancel Musk\u2019s government contracts, and with all kinds of potential retribution<\/a> on the table, it seems more than a little possible that Trump could shutter DOGE as a fuck-you to his backer turned enemy. Will he fall ass-backward into doing a good thing? Stay tuned.<\/p>\n Mike Johnson is disappointed in Elon Musk<\/strong><\/p>\n