President Donald Trump said on Thursday in the Oval Office that he wants his Cabinet to “keep good people” – and earlier behind closed doors, he reportedly made his most forceful separation from Elon Musk’s effort to make sweeping cuts to the federal government.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has wielded unprecedented authority as a special government employee in implementing mass firings, canceling billions of dollars in contracts and programs and gaining access to sensitive computer systems.
Multiple news outlets reported that Trump held a Cabinet-level meeting Thursday morning and told high-level officials that they are in charge of their agencies and departments, and not Musk.
Still, during Trump’s later Oval Office remarks, he issued a clear warning that “we’re gonna be watching” federal officials and that “if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”
“We want them to keep the good people,” Trump said. “And so, we’re gonna be watching them. And Elon and the group are gonna be watching them. And if they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”
The Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts have cut more than 100,000 employees from the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce. In some cases, the government has scrambled to rehire critical staffers in areas such as nuclear weapons security and bird flu research.
Trump said from the Oval Office, “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.”
His comments came as the president also posted about Thursday’s Cabinet huddle – and his ongoing approach to slashing the federal government, a key campaign promise – on his social media platform Truth Social.
“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.'”
Contributing: Reuters
