Richard Arnold: US Correspondent on Trump's tariffs, Elon Musk leaving DOGE

Elon Musk’s time in the US Government has come to an end.   

He's posted on his platform, X, saying the mission of the Department of Government Efficiency —or DOGE— will only strengthen over time. 

A White House official has confirmed Musk's departure. 

US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking there’s been mixed reviews about his work. 

Musk was only able to find $9 billion in savings, despite his pledges to cut at least $2 trillion, which tech journalist Kara Swisher says means his efforts were a failure.  

She says he did a lot more showmanship than he did work. 

On the other hand, Trump aide Stephen Miller says what DOGE has done is “among the most valuable services ever rendered to Government”. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
State side. Richard Arnold, good morning, good morning. So where
do we go here with these courts? Good question?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
He Trump White House is reacting furiously after a trade
court initially blocked the Trump tarifs. In the second court
short time ago, a district court just endorsed that ban.
Trump's top adviser, Stephen Miller, is calling what is happening
a judicial coup. The first court in question is one
of the few people even heard of. It sat as
a three judge panel on the Court of International Trade.

(00:27):
One of that trio of judges was appointed by Trump
and the others by Reagan and Obama. So there's the mix. Now,
the Trump team has gone ballistic, saying it should not
be left to unelected judges to decide how to address
a national emergency, in suggesting judges are members of some
deep state conspiracy. The judges produced a forty nine page decision.

(00:47):
By the way, now Trump intends to ask the US
Supreme Court to pause this trade court's tariff ban. Typically,
taris have to be approved by the legislators in the
Congress here, but the lawmakers shelved all their responsibility on
that when Trump argued the trade deaf as it was
a national emergency Liberation Day and all of that, and
that Trump as president should have complete control. Well, as

(01:08):
court now has said, what Trump did was exceeding his
authority was illegal. Financial markets are during the court ruling.
They don't much like the tariffs or all of the
economic confusion we've been seeing. This tariff court ruling effects
the sweeping tariffs that Trump imposed on many countries last month,
doesn't affect these specific industry tariffs like those on cars,
which remain in effect. The Trump team says they are

(01:30):
also looking in other ways to proceed, so the tariff game,
they suggest, is not done with yet. At the White House,
Trump was angered to hear from a question that some
on Wall Street are branding him as Taco Taco, meaning
they suggest Trump always chickens out, said Trump, Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Then checking out, I've never heard that.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
You mean, because they reduced China from one hundred and
forty five percent of and you ask a nasty question
like that, it's called negotiation. Well, the Trade Court now
to give him the White House ten days to issue
new orders reflecting their tariff ban, as Trump aids are
slamming the judges and previously, Trump has criticized other judges
who rule against him as crooked, radical and monsters.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Right, then we come to Musk, who's back at the
car yard, and so what did he do? What happened there?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, it's been a long goodbye and it's a good question,
isn't it. Elon made an official late last night the
Washington exit after one of the most turbulent and sometimes
bizarre stints in the Capitol. He can firmed his departure
with a post on exits social media site late in
the night after the interview which he which he sampled yesterday,
where he criticized from Trump policies, including Trump's so called

(02:42):
big beautiful budget plan, with Musk saying of that, I
think a.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Book can be big or it can be beautiful.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
I don't know if it could be both. I had
to play that again.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
It's tested to become a classic line I record. So
what's the assessment of the Musk and Doge minions team?
Trump aid Stephen Miller says, what Doge has done is quote,
among the most valuable services ever rendered to government end quote?

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Musk came in saying he would trim with budget chainsaws
at the ready two trillion dollars nine billion in cuts
have been forwarded to the Congress. Here a bit of
a gap nine billion, two trillion, says Kara Swisser, a
tech reporter who's known Elon Musk for many, many years.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
I think he found a lot more difficulty in finding
real cuts and everything else. And I think they're only
sending nine billion dollars in DOGE cuts to which is nothing.
It's a drop in the bucket, which means pretty much
his effort was a failure.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
She argues that Mask's boss of the company style was
a big part of the problem.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
I think Elon thought, because the way he runs his
own companies, that he could just come in and trample everybody.
I think that was one of the problems. I think
he bullied cabinet members. I think he ran over things.
He took a lot of Lion's share of the attention
the whole chainsaw thing, and I think he he did
a lot more swmanship than he did actual work.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
So, yeah, as you say, it's back to the car
lot and the space pad.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Have a good long weekend, mate, see Wednesday. Richard Arnold state, So,
by the way, the whole bond thing in America, you know,
people are freaking out about America. There was a bond
auction this week in Japan. People are starting to freak
out about Japan because the forty year bonds were not
particularly sold heavily because the demand wasn't there. People with money,
i e. Gold, they're parking gold literally now in Singapore

(04:29):
seems to be. There's a place called the Reserve, which
is a sixth story building I'm reading about this week
where you park your gold and silver. They've got a
billion and a half coming in started the year. There's
an eighty eight percent increase in orders to store gold
and silver. So the world's on edge at the moment.
A little bit.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
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