Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

President Donald Trump has put Elon Musk in charge of getting government workers to leave their posts and jobs. Already, the Office of Personnel Management has said that 75,000 federal employees accepted a deferred resignation proposal. 

There are pending freezes for funding to government agencies, including money that funds critical research and money that would otherwise fund programs and services related to food, housing, healthcare and infrastructure. 

Today on The Metro, we’re looking at whether Trump’s actions are good-old fashioned conservative values in action or if there’s something fundamentally different and dangerous. 

Guests: 

• Denise Elias:The executive director of the Oakland County Republican Party. 
• Tom Wraight: A lecturer in Political Economy at Queen Mary University of London.
• Lucan Way: A distinguished professor of Democracy at the University of Toronto.

Hear the conversation using the media player above.

More headlines from The Metro on Feb. 26:

• Under the leadership of Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency is slashing jobs across more than a dozen agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs. Ten year Marine Corps veteran Andrew Lennox joins the show. He was working as an administrative officer in the primary care department in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor, and is now without a job due to DOGE cuts. 

• Court-ordered minimum wage and sick leave laws were set to take effect Friday, but Michigan lawmakers struck a deal changing the laws again. The President of One Fair Wage Saru Jayaraman joins the show to discuss how supporters of the court-ordered laws are feeling. The organization is advocating for a 15 dollar minimum wage for workers nationally. 

• NASA scientists determined that Asteroid 2024 YR4 had little to no chance of hitting Earth, but the moon should watch out. Recently, the news of a possible asteroid impact on Earth in 2032 sent folks into a frenzy. Michigan Science Center CEO Dr. Christian Greer joins the show to let us know what’s up with asteroids and our solar system. 

Tomorrow’s question: What’s your neighborhood connection spot? 

Join the conversation by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app. 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

President Donald Trump’s first day in office was a flurry of activity. 

It included dozens of executive orders, as well as pardons for 1,500 people convicted or charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021 — with a number of those pardoned from Michigan.

Trump signed more executive orders on his first day in office than any president before him, and today on The Metro, we dig into some of these orders and discuss the boundaries of presidential power.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Former Republican candidate for Michigan governor Ryan Kelley was among the individuals who received a pardon for their role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Riot. Kelley pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to the incident and served two months in prison.

The Metro producer Sam Corey spoke with Kelley about how it felt to be pardoned by the president.

“I have already served 60 days in a federal prison, paid the fine, went through all the stuff they wanted me to,” Kelley said. “So you can’t get any of that back, but it feels good to have received the pardon from the president.” 

Executive orders signed by Trump are already facing challenges in court, Legal expert Barb McQuade said. 

“You can’t change the constitution or a statute with an executive order, and some of these executive orders appear, at least to me, to cross those lines,” McQuade said.

We asked our listeners:

“What do you make of President Trump’s first few days in office?”

Anthony in Westland said: “It’s extremely disheartening, in a sense. [Trump] promised a number of these different things, and sure enough, he is proving to be extremely competent in doing those things, much to the dismay of people like myself and a number of others.”

More headlines from The Metro on Jan. 24, 2024:

• On Thursday, a federal judge in Seattle temporarily struck down Trump’s new order that would end birthright citizenship. It would mean people born in the U.S. to parents who aren’t U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents would no longer have citizenship. It’s now the subject of multiple lawsuits — including one filed by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel — along with attorneys general in 21 other states. Christine Sauve of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. joined the show to discuss what all this means for local residents.
• Michigan Public Radio Network capitol reporter Colin Jackson joined the show to share the latest news coming out of Lansing.
• The Detroit Land Bank was created in 2008. According to the Land Bank, 90,000 properties went into the bank and about 60,000 are left. Detroit City Council would like to change their contract with the Land Bank, but Detroit Documenter Ben Haddix and Coordinator Lynelle Herndon joined the show to explain.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

The city of Detroit is overflowing with cultural riches — from Motown to techno, street art to Detroit jit, the city has no shortage of shiny cultural exports.

So why hasn’t the rest of the country caught on to this? Today on The Metro, we speak with some of the city’s cultural pioneers and commentators — including WDET’s own Ryan Patrick Hooper and Waajeed — about how Detroit can better market itself to the world. 

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Detroit has transformed immensely over the past few decades. Today, it boasts stunning parks, a vibrant riverfront, world-class museums and an ever-growing cultural scene.

It has always been a city of innovation and reinvention, grit and hustle, fueled by those who have stayed, fought and built a community that is as diverse as it is resilient. It is a place where kindness and determination coexist, and where respect is earned through action.

Hooper, host of WDET’s five day a week music program In The Groove, shared how — when visiting cities like Nashville and Austin — he couldn’t help but compare them to Detroit.

“It was hard for me to go to those places, being a Detroiter, being like, ‘wait a minute, we’re the greatest music city on the planet,’” Hooper said. “But unfortunately, I think on so many different levels, from City Hall to educating our own citizens, sometimes we don’t even know what we make here, what is created here. It’s not broadcast — except here on WDET of course.”

Waajeed, acclaimed music producer, DJ and host of WDET’s The Boulevard agreed, adding that improved communication between artists and cultural or municipal leaders in the city could help to amplify awareness around its rich cultural accomplishments.

“There’s not enough of a conversation that’s happening between the creatives and the folks that are immediately connected to the arts and culture, conversations with the folks that are downtown, that can provide a better opportunity for this to be known — not just amongst the world — but amongst us Detroiters,” he said.

Imani Mixon, a journalist, screenwriter and founder of Mixon Media, also joined the show. She has written extensively about Detroit and Detroiters, including Aretha Franklin, Aaliyah, and the creators of techno. The role of marketing and telling Detroit’s stories is often left to the people that call Detroit home. 

“I also think we need to be realistic about the powers that be and like what their goals are, and realize that it has to be some actual structural changes in order for Detroit to be a fully realized place, that not only attracts but also retains talent,” Mixon said. 

Detroit cinematographer Stephen McGee, who’s working on a documentary about Detroit called “Resurgo,” added that the creative talent here is going to keep finding inspiration and championing the city. 

“Detroit has a massive bank of creative capital here. I mean people, especially the stories for Detroiters for the past 40 to 60 years,” McGee said. “I mean, there’s so much untapped, you know, beautiful moments, kind of like Imani was talking about, that I think need to come at the highest level.”

We also asked our listeners:

“What’s your slogan for Detroit?”

Sabrina Nelson from Detroit said: “My slogan would be ‘Heart, hands, head’ or you know ‘Work hard, play hard, create hard.’”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation, and other stories from “The Metro.”

More stories from The Metro on Jan. 16, 2025:

• Stacie Clayton, director of community affairs at Wayne State University, joined the show to highlight the university’s 25th annual Tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taking place on Friday in celebration of Dr. King’s life and legacy. 
• After several weeks of painstaking negotiations, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal to pause the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, multiple officials announced Wednesday. Amer Zahr,  a local attorney, comedian and pro-Palestinian activist, joined the show to share his reaction to the ceasefire and what it means for the Palestinian community. 
• Justice Oshiyoye is the founder of DUHTROIT magazine. He and his team of creatives started the magazine last year to provide an avenue to express his creativity and support the work of other artists across the region. He joined The Metro to discuss the work and some of the other reasons he decided to create this project.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

The social media platform TikTok could be banned in the U.S. as early as this week if the Supreme Court upholds a law requiring its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to cut ties with the platform by the Jan. 19 deadline set by Congress.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The law was passed by bipartisan majorities and signed by President Joe Biden in April, citing national security concerns over the risk of user data and other sensitive information falling into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Still, the company and many of the app’s users say the law restricts the free speech of its 170 million U.S. users.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to the statute last week.

Today on The Metro, we dig into the free speech and national security concerns surrounding the potential U.S. TikTok ban.

Richard Harknett, director of the School of Public and International Affairs and chair at the Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy at the University of Cincinnati, joined the show to help us better understand the national security threat that China poses to the U.S.

“The main concern is that China has a specific national security law that requires tech companies, both domestic and foreign, to share a lot of stuff with the Chinese Communist Party, you know, the Chinese government,” Harknett said. 

Elizabeth Stoycheff, associate professor and head of the journalism program at Wayne State University, also joined the conversation to discuss how a TikTok ban in the U.S. could impact free speech, censorship and democracy.

She says the issue comes down to whether foreign companies have first amendment protections. 

“Now, in the U.S., we have large organizations like the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, who are saying that this is a violation of free speech because the threat to our national security is not severe, it’s not imminent,” Stoycheff said. “There is no – it’s very hypothetical. And so they’re saying it’s not enough to justify the suppression of expression on this platform.”

We also asked WDET listeners:

“Should TikTok be banned in the U.S.? Are you worried about China’s cybersecurity abilities?”

Ellen in Madison Heights said: “I’m actually more concerned over Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s questionable intentions behind his active role in lobbying for the removal of TikTok. I will say we can speculate about ByteDance about what they’re doing with our data, but we know for sure that our data is not safe with Meta.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation, and other stories from “The Metro.” 

More stories from The Metro on Jan. 15, 2025:

• Source Booksellers owners Janet Webster and Alyson Jones Turner joined the show to talk about the bookstore’s programming, author discussions and other events where avid readers and new readers can connect.
• The Detroit chapter of PeacePlayers works with young people to help erase the cultural, ethnic and racial lines that often divide us. Now PeacePlayers Detroit is teaming up with the Detroit Pistons to give young people more ways to rethink conflict resolution. Director of PeacePlayers Detroit Jasmine Cooper joined the show to discuss the initiative.
• In southeast Michigan, there are a few places where home construction is growing a little faster. The “exurbs,” Lyon, Milford and Commerce townships, recorded some of the highest number of housing permits last year. President of RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan Jeanette Schneider joined The Metro to shed light on this new wave of construction.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.