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Notes -
Even if Trump wants to back Musk over the department heads, firing a senate-confirmed department head is a politically expensive to Trump because he has to get a replacement confirmed. In addition, Trump knows that running a revolving-door administration was part of why he got so little done in his first term.
So the newly-confirmed appointees have a degree of power in their own right. Musk's power, on the other hand, is entirely borrowed (unless he has rooted enough government systems that he is able and willing to blow up the government in classic "don't fire the sysadmin until his replacement is in post" style.)
We are in full agreement! I endorse your elaboration.
The premise that DOGE can fire anyone derives from a misreading of the USAID takedown. That created confusion / alarm, but the idea that Musk had firing authority over anyone, even Trump's appointees, is a misreading.
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