'Power struggle': Trump 'trying to reel in Musk' as he tells Cabinet members they’re in charge

CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak on Friday discussed President Donald Trump’s meeting with Cabinet members Thursday, where he outlined how they ultimately will have the final decision when it comes to hiring and firing, not Elon Musk – but insisted the billionaire SpaceX founder still has his support.

Liptak said, “What Trump is trying to do here is he's trying to clarify exactly who has the power in the federal government to cut the government down to size,” Liptak reported. “What he's saying here is, yes, he still supports Musk, but it will be the Cabinet officials, the Senate confirmed heads of these agencies and departments, who will have the ultimate say.”

“[He’s] trying to reel in Musk to temper some of how he has gone about what has, so far, been this indiscriminate attempt to cut the federal government down to size,” the reporter added.

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Liptak told CNN Musk’s approach “has been causing so much concern among Republicans, who have been facing heat from their own constituents, but also from these Cabinet members who, by and large, do support the overall mission but had some real questions about how Musk was going about it.”

“They certainly had begun voicing some of those concerns to some senior officials here in the White House,” the reporter continued. “That all culminated Thursday in this 90-minute meeting in the Cabinet room. Trump said, with Musk sitting there nearby, that it would be these Cabinet officials who had the ultimate decision making power on the staffing within their own government,” the reported noted.

Liptak said, “Trump was quoted on social media saying ‘We say the scalpel rather than the hatchet.’ Now, how this works in practice, I think, remains to be seen. We heard president Trump in the oval office shortly after this, saying that Musk would still be making recommendations.”

As Politico reports, Trump told reporters he wants his Cabinet secretaries to “keep all the people you want, everybody that you need.”

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"We're going to be watching them and Musk and the group are going to be watching them," Trump said. "And if they can cut, it's better, and if they don't cut, then Musk will do the cutting.”

“So you hear Trump there essentially putting these Cabinet members on notice that yes, they have the final decision making power, but Musk will still be looking over their shoulder to ensure this is all going according to plan. so you can easily see how that could turn into a power struggle down the line," Liptak reported.

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