By Nandita Bose and Joseph Ax
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump told his cabinet members on Thursday that they – not Elon Musk – have the final say on staffing and policy at their agencies, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The billionaire Tesla CEO and his Department of Government Efficiency will play an advisory role only, Trump said, according to the source. Musk was in the room and told the cabinet he was good with Trump’s plan, the source said.
The meeting was convened following complaints about DOGE’s blunt-force approach from agency heads to top White House officials, including chief of staff Susie Wiles. The White House Office of Legislative Affairs has been inundated with calls in recent days from frustrated Republican members of Congress all over the country, some of whom have faced anger from constituents at home.
“I want the cabinet members to keep the good people, and the people that aren’t doing a good job, that are unreliable, don’t show up to work, et cetera, those people can be cut,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after the meeting.
Trump’s message to his department chiefs was his first notable effort in public to restrain Musk, who has wielded unprecedented authority in implementing mass firings, canceling billions of dollars in contracts and programs and gaining access to sensitive computer systems.
The president posted about Thursday’s cabinet meeting on social media platform Truth Social, saying he and Musk had a positive meeting with most of the cabinet secretaries.
“It’s very important that we cut levels down to where they should be, but it’s also important to keep the best and most productive people,” Trump wrote in the post. “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.'”
During an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, Musk took the stage carrying a chainsaw, a symbol of his drive to slash government.
Thursday’s meeting was a sharp departure in tone from Trump’s first full cabinet meeting last week, when he allowed Musk to deliver a monologue about DOGE at the start of the meeting and later asked, “Is anybody unhappy with Elon?” to scattered laughter.
DOGE’s effort, which has cut more than 100,000 employees from the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce, has created uncertainty and anxiety among workers.
In some cases, the government has scrambled to rehire critical staffers in areas such as nuclear weapons security and bird flu research.
More than 30 lawsuits have been filed by unions and other advocacy groups challenging DOGE’s actions.
There have been isolated signs of tension between Musk and Trump’s cabinet secretaries, most notably when the SpaceX CEO unexpectedly sent an email to all federal workers demanding that they provide a list of their accomplishments for the week.
Failure to reply, Musk said on X, would be taken as a resignation.
Reuters reported last week that top White House aides were struggling to contain disputes across the administration following Musk’s ultimatum.
The email caused mass confusion, with some departments instructing workers to respond and others telling staff members that the demand was optional.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Doina Chiacu and Ryan Jones; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Ross Colvin, Colleen Jenkins, Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)
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