Trump just made his 'first significant move' to rein in Elon Musk
Elon Musk walks on the day of a meeting with House Republicans to discuss the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 5, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
Amid mounting legal pushback that threatens to upend his plan to deconstruct the federal government, eliminate hundreds of thousands of employees, and slash budgets, President Donald Trump has been facing a critical question: Who’s in charge of this?
On Thursday, Trump appeared to try to get the message straight.
“President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet in person on Thursday to deliver a message: You’re in charge of your departments, not Elon Musk,” Politico reports, noting: “Trump to Cabinet: Musk has no authority to fire workers.”
“According to two administration officials, Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy. Musk was also in the room.”
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Politico adds that this is “the first significant move to narrow Musk’s mandate. According to Trump’s new guidance, DOGE and its staff should play an advisory role — but Cabinet secretaries should make final decisions on personnel, policy and the pacing of implementation.”
Earlier this week, Trump came under fire from the left when he declared, “the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over,” during his address to a joint session of Congress—given that Musk, a billionaire tech entrepreneur and federal government contractor, at least appeared to have been heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
During that speech Tuesday night, Trump, in fact, actually credited Musk with leading the organization.
“I have created the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE — perhaps you’ve heard of it,” Trump said, as NBC News reported. The President then added, “Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.”
Federal judges have questioned Musk’s and DOGE’s authority, and the constitutionality of the operation, as The New York Times reported, leading to them to pause some mass firings.
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Tuesday night, Trump’s remarks on Musk heading DOGE almost immediately showed up in a court filing, as MSNBC’s and Just Security’s Adam Klasfeld quickly reported:
Despite the mass firings of countless thousands of federal government workers, Politico reports, “Trump stressed that he wants to keep good people in government and not to eject capable federal workers en masse.”
“But his administration has in recent weeks fired tens of thousands of federal workers across numerous agencies in a series of blanket terminations. A federal judge and the chair of a federal civil service board have both concluded that the terminations were not tied to performance issues — and may have violated civil service laws.”
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