The good-faith interpretation of Musk's actions goes something like: "All of these cuts are consistent with the overall goal and eventually planned. So, Musk is just cutting things as he thinks of them." Unfortunately, it means that the best way to avoid getting cut, for now, is just to avoid drawing Musk's attention, for any reason. The ISS thing from yesterday [1] is a clear example - something that was already planned and has just been bumped up.

To be clear, I don't really buy this interpretation, especially since over the years Musk has shown himself to be quite vindictive.

[1]: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/elon-musk-iss-deorb...