Buffalo Bills Training Camp Countdown: The “Double Trouble” Tight Ends Threat

Plans by the Donald Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), helmed by billionaire Elon Musk, to dismantle the Social Security Administration, were trashed by a former Democratic senator on Wednesday morning.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," ex-Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said the staffers working DOGE, with an assist from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), hope to slash half the Social Security staffers.

That, she claimed, would not only backfire, but is a sign they have no idea what they are doing.

ALSO READ: 'Absolutely unconscionable': Ex-Republican demands Trump removed from office after fight

With "Morning Joe" regular Elise Jordan pointing out, "We were talking off camera about just how often you, when you were in office, you had to utilize the local social security offices to really get issues resolved by a caseworker who was local and in person. And I mean, just in terms of practicality, people who are on Social Security tend to be a little bit older. They aren't necessarily going to be as web savvy and immediately able to use the internet to solve whatever problem they have," McCaskill weighed in:

"I would like Elon Musk to sit down with a woman who is struggling with her benefits after her husband has died and trying to reconcile an error in the documents" the Missouri Democrat replied. "I would love him to sit down and talk to one of those people, instead of just assuming that tech can solve everything."

"It's so naive, it's so stupid," she bluntly stated.

You can watch below or at the link right here.

- YouTube youtu.be

Financial markets are still reeling from this week's back-and-forth with the United States' key trade partners, as President Donald Trump announced and then almost immediately withdrew crippling new tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Tuesday down another 478 points, down 1.1%. Trading on the S&P 500 closed after a decline of 0.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.2%, for the worst day of trading since September according to Yahoo Finance. The stock market has been sliding amid fears that consumer spending would contract in response to tariffs Trump announced would be going into effect on Canada and Mexico in particular. While those tariffs have been reversed for now, Trump has indicated that 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from Canada will still go into effect early Wednesday morning at midnight.

ALSO READ: 'Absolutely unconscionable': Ex-Republican demands Trump removed from office after fight

Trump has attempted to boost investor confidence by walking back his previous comments to Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo in which he didn't rule out a recession happening as soon as this year. But Politico reported Tuesday that one of his top Cabinet secretaries may be "forced to take the fall," with "few friends in the administration" left to defend him.

According to the outlet, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — who co-chaired Trump's presidential transition team along with former World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon (now Trump's secretary of education) — could be out of a job if the fallout over Trump's tariffs continues to roil markets. One unnamed source "close to the administration" told Politico that Lutnick was lately "trying to be a mini-Trump."

“I don’t think he got the memo that only Trump gets to be Trump,” the source said. “It just reinforces that he doesn’t really know how to do the job.”

Politico additionally reported that administration officials are "growing increasingly frustrated" with the commerce secretary, complaining that he often gets "out in front" of Trump and has "contradicted his messaging." They add that he has "a lack of understanding of even the basics about how tariffs and the economy work."

Last week, Lutnick made headlines after telling CNBC that "prices are going to rise" as a result of tariffs, but that companies can avoid tariffs by making their products in the United States. When hosts reminded him that companies offshore production because labor costs are lower, Lutnick proclaimed that manufacturing jobs would be done by "robots."

Click here to read Politico's report in its entirety.