A certain kind of image has become a feature of the Trump administration: the president sitting stoically behind his desk as more energetic and dynamic-seeming personalities hold court in the Oval Office beside him. First was last month's DOGE-themed press conference with Elon Musk, followed by this week's appearance of an ostentatiously dressed Kid Rock. As Democrats begin gaining traction in state and local elections and congressional Republicans face dissent within their ranks, is Trump content to sit back and let others steal his spotlight? Or is he embracing the freedoms that come with letting others hog the public's attention? 

Rafi Schwartz
The Week Digital

After initially claiming that a conservative loss in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in which he personally invested tens of millions of dollars could "determine the fate of Western civilization," Elon Musk is brushing off liberal Judge Susan Crawford's resounding statewide victory. He pivoted, saying yesterday's results were both inevitable and a tactical victory for himself. "I expected to lose," Musk said on X. "But there's value to losing a piece for a positional gain."

The race was the "first major test of the political impact of Musk," said The Associated Press. Crawford's victory, then, is a "worrying early sign" for Republicans anxious over the "intense spotlight on Musk's influence" within the party, said NBC News. Looking ahead, the Wisconsin results, as well as Democratic overperformance in two Florida congressional special elections they ultimately lost, will "likely give the Democrats a jolt and validate their efforts to target Musk" in future elections, said Fox News. 

Nine members of House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) caucus bucked party leadership this week to join a bipartisan effort allowing lawmakers who have just had a child to vote by proxy. Johnson had used "strong-arm tactics" in an "extraordinary" display of the speaker's powers to attempt to derail the measure, said The New York Times, ultimately earning a "public rebuke that left him without a strategy for moving ahead." By blocking Johnson's effort to derail the proxy voting effort, Republicans have staged a "stunning rebellion within the majority's own ranks," delivering an "embarrassing defeat" for a speaker atop a "fractious conference," said The Washington Post. 

Johnson has argued that proxy voting, even for elected officials who are new parents, is "unconstitutional" and a "slippery slope," said NPR. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), one of the leaders of the GOP rebellion against Johnson's effort to block the measure, resigned from the House Freedom Caucus yesterday after other members of the group encouraged Johnson to be "more aggressive in trying to kill her measure," said The Hill. In her resignation letter from the caucus, Luna said that "respect" within the group had been "shattered" in the fight over the proposal.

The Trump administration's long-expected layoffs across Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Health and Human Services Department arrived this week, as thousands of employees began receiving notices of dismissal. Some "arrived at work Tuesday morning and discovered their security badges had been disabled," said CBS News. The layoffs, expected to reach 10,000 people, are part of Kennedy's broader plan to "reshape the federal public health infrastructure and dismantle traditional institutions," including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, said NBC News. 

The mass layoffs will ultimately result in "lopping off nearly a quarter" of HHS staff when combined with the thousands of former employees who "took early retirement and voluntary separation offers," said The Associated Press. The cuts are expected to net approximately $1.8 billion in savings out of the HHS budget of nearly $2 trillion, the "majority of which pays for benefits for Americans covered by Medicaid and Medicare," said NPR. "They may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), "because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy."

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