In a surprising turn of events, Donald Trump appears to be scaling back Elon Musk’s power. He reportedly told his Cabinet members that Musk isn’t allowed to fire federal workers anymore and can only advise on layoffs.
His clarification of Musk’s role seems to have come a little late, considering Musk, through his so-called DOGE department, has already laid off thousands of federal workers. In the name of government savings, he has purged employees from multiple departments and agencies ranging from USAID to the FAA to the National Park Service. Musk appeared to circumvent department heads and HR, allowing him to “accidentally” dismiss vital workers for the Nuclear National Security Administration and USDA employees working on the government’s response to bird flu and potentially compromise CIA agents by demanding a list of agents’ names for layoff purposes. He even threatened to personally fire anyone across the government who didn’t respond to an email demanding they justify their jobs. However, he later walked back that threat after departments pushed back, including Trump’s cabinet members Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard.
Trump, though, finally seems to be recognizing the murky legal water Musk is wading into with his indiscriminate mass firings.
Donald Trump reins in Elon Musk
Trump has reportedly informed his Cabinet that Musk is no longer allowed to carry out federal workforce layoffs. Two administration officials told Politico the message was relayed in a meeting with his Cabinet, in which Trump reminded them they’re in charge of their departments, not Musk. According to the sources, Musk was also present for the meeting and seemed to agree with the directive.
During the meeting, he allegedly told his Cabinet that Musk is only to serve an “advisory” role in the government. Hence, he can provide guidance and recommendations to these departments, but it’s ultimately up to department heads to make final decisions on “personnel, policy, and the pacing of implementation.” On TruthSocial, Trump confirmed that the Cabinet meeting took place. He also mentioned that DOGE’s indiscriminate mass firings may come to an end, as he mentioned wanting Secretaries to use a “scalpel” instead of a “hatchet” when firing workers and to choose who to let go in a more “precise” manner.
Given that Trump just a few weeks ago signed an executive order giving DOGE more power, many are likely wondering what changed in his perspective of Musk. The most probable explanation is that legal advisors finally convinced him he was in hot water with Musk. The American government has rules to prevent un-elected bureaucrats from gaining power, such as requiring an act of Congress to create departments or requiring all Cabinet nominees to go through the Senate for approval. However, Trump blatantly defied all these rules when he created an unofficial government department, DOGE, and made Musk the head of it, giving him Cabinet-level power (or, as some may argue, even presidential-level power) without any input or oversight from the other branches of government.
Unsurprisingly, Trump was sued by 14 states and over a dozen USAID employees for the illegal power he gave Musk. The White House has been slowly pursuing damage control, claiming that Musk isn’t the head of DOGE and is just a presidential advisor. However, this is the first time Trump actually laid out rules limiting Musk to an advisory role with his top administration officials.
The new directive still has a huge, glaring problem: Musk has already fired tens of thousands of federal workers. It remains unclear if all of these workers will be rehired now or if the Trump administration will start claiming that Musk and DOGE just advised all these people to be indiscriminately fired but didn’t actually make the final decision.
Published: Mar 6, 2025 05:26 pm