Trump says Cabinet secretaries, not Elon Musk, are in charge of agency cuts

President Trump told his Cabinet members on Thursday that they are in charge of staff reductions, not Elon Musk, amid continuing questions over the billionaire adviser’s role in a drastic reshaping of the federal government.

Trump said he’d told his Cabinet as much in a closed-door meeting with most of his secretaries, which Musk also attended.

“I don’t want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut. 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, etc., those people can be cut,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“If they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut then Elon will do the cutting,” the president said.

Musk is the public face of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash federal spending and staffing through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which despite its name is not an actual federal agency. However, the White House says Musk is not the administrator of DOGE but instead a “special government employee” who advises the president and has no power to set policy.

The opacity over who is leading DOGE and what authority Musk wields has fueled criticism and legal challenges to DOGE and to mass firings carried out at many agencies. Trump himself added to the confusion when he said in his address to Congress this week that DOGE is “headed” by Musk.

Trump’s comments Thursday mark a rare instance of the president publicly reining in Musk. That’s after lawmakers of both parties raised concerns that Cabinet secretaries, not Musk, should be the ones calling the shots over hiring and firing.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told CNN that while Musk’s goals and objectives are right, agency leaders are “probably better attuned to the individual programs.”

The Trump administration is planning further widespread reductions in force across federal agencies. In a social media post on Thursday, Trump wrote: “[N]ow that we have my Cabinet in place, I have instructed the Secretaries and Leadership to work with DOGE on Cost Cutting measures and Staffing. As the Secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various Departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go. We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.'”

Trump added: “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.”