Fox News host Jessica Tarlov on Wednesday offered a blunt assessment of the frenzied start to President Donald Trump ’s second term including the since-rescinded, controversial memo that would have frozen all federal grants and loan disbursements. “It is complete chaos,” said “ The Five ” host of the funding freeze, which had been temporarily halted by a federal judge one day earlier. “It is not being managed in any sort of orderly fashion at all.
” Moments earlier, Tarlov hit back at co-host Jeanine Pirro as she weighed in on the Trump administration offering buyouts to all federal employees and tied the White House’s email to workers to one with an nearly-identical title sent by Elon Musk to Twitter employees in 2022. “And Elon Musk reduced the workforce at X and yet he was able to run it just as efficiently,” Pirro said. “I’m not sure about the ‘running it as efficiently,’ he obviously got rid of a lot of engineers and certainly the fact-checking folks there,” Tarlov noted.
She went on to argue that the Trump administration’s proposal is having the “opposite reaction that they intended” and pointed to federal workers on Reddit who have declared that the buyouts made them “more motivated to do their job.” Co-host Jesse Watters — after Tarlov read a comment from someone “motivated” to stay to defend the Constitution — sarcastically responded, “Great,” before letting out a chuckle. Tarlov swiftly replied, “Acting as if ever.
