WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Lazy Susan: Kennedy’s HHS and Musk’s Role

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Lewis and Paden recap Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s first week as HHS Secretary, and the meaning of Elon Musk in Trump’s first cabinet meeting.Week of February 24.

You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7FN. And this is The Lazy Susan. I'm Peyton Hughes. And I'm Lewis Thune. On The Lazy Susan, we highlight happenings in the cabinet on a weekly basis. We were out last week due to illness. So let's dive back in. What's happening in the cabinet, Lewis?

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of commerce, nominee Howard Lutnik, and FBI director, Cash Patel, all officially confirmed by narrow votes, leaving a mere two vacancies in the Trump cabinet in education and labor, as his first month in office draws to a close. The respective nominees, Linda McMahon and Lori Chavez-Daremer, have both cleared committee and McMahon has secured cloture in the Senate. She now awaits an imminent confirmation vote. What's catching your eye this week, Peyton? Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Department of Health and Human Services

have been hard at work. After a Monday meeting with the department high-ups, he released a statement outlining his goals for the HHS, which includes restoring trust, ensuring transparency, and returning health to the people. On Tuesday, Secretary Kennedy met with doctors from the American Osteopathic Association. They discussed whole patient and patient-first care. Later the same day, Kennedy followed through on his goal for transparency, securing President Trump's signature on an executive order to mandate clear, accurate, and actionable health care pricing. Kennedy is just getting started in his endeavors to make public health care as public as possible. What else is going on, Lewis?

There's no official rules concerning cabinet meetings, and President Trump embraced that this week when he held the first one of the term with Elon Musk present. Musk occupied a central role in the meeting, suggesting the Trump administration isn't wavering in its commitment to work beside Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. Musk stressed the need for budgetary cuts and firings across departments, an initiative potentially endangered by a recent situation in which Musk's employees reportedly blocked a foreign aid payment approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to the public ire of Republican representative from Tennessee, Tim Burchett. Also of note as we approach a new week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio followed through on a Trump campaign promise to officially regard foreign cartels as terrorist organizations. This was made all the more meaningful after an alleged informant within the Department of Homeland Security warned members of a Venezuelan gang of an impending raid on their location in Aurora, Colorado.

But Immigration and Customs Enforcement Chief, Tom Holman, now claims the informant is known to DHS. And that'll do it for this week's edition of The Lazy Susan. I'm Louis Thune. And I'm Peyton Hughes. We'll see you next time.