Only a complete automaton or a complete partisan would think "Hey, they're telling me to shut down Medicaid!".

What they thought was, "Hey, no one vetted this language - so now I have an order from OMB that defines the programs that have to be shut down in a way that includes Medicaid, even if that's not what they meant to tell me to do." But they also know that they have to follow the OMB's actual instructions - not just decide on their own what the Administration's priorities "ought" to be. So everyone was in chaos.

Are you a complete automaton if you think you're supposed to follow the directions that OMB has issued? You're supposed to do that. The Administration has gone so far as to direct federal employees to inform on other federal employees that don't totally and 100% follow the directions that the Administration sends them. They are requiring that federal employees act like automatons when it comes to implementing the Administration's instructions.

You don't have to defend everything they do. Even if this had been a good idea, it was poorly worded and terribly executed.

As we saw in their first Administration, if you move fast and take your time to check your work, your policies won't get implemented. This is yet another example of that, suggesting they didn't learn from the first go around. The federal government is just too big to try to make massive changes with a two page memo - you have to take your time, think through the details and all the possible pitfalls and complications, and then act. Ready, fire, aim is going to end up moving more slowly than a little more thought and attention up front.