President Donald Trump convened a Cabinet-level meeting Thursday morning to tell the heads of the agencies that they are in charge of the agencies and departments they oversee — not Elon Musk, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Musk was in the room for the meeting when Trump told top officials that Musk’s role is to make recommendations and not unilateral decisions — whether it be about staffing decisions or policy matters, the sources said.
Musk posted on X that the meeting was “very productive.”
The meeting comes as his own Cabinet secretaries have privately expressed frustration about Musk and the mandates he has been giving that have caused mass confusion among the federal workforce.
Despite not being a member of the Cabinet, Musk has outsized influence in the administration as he oversees the Department of Government Efficiency’s work to reduce the size and scope of the government. Musk attended Trump’s first Cabinet meeting — at times taking center stage.
Musk ruffled feathers when he posted on X last month that all federal employees would receive an email demanding details of their work from the past week — a move that caught some in the Trump administration off guard and caused widespread confusion, sources told ABC News. It created tension among members of Trump’s Cabinet, as multiple agency heads told their employees to hold off on replying until they themselves were briefed on the situation.
Through DOGE, Musk has overseen cuts of thousands of federal government employees. Recently, DOGE claimed a total government savings of $105 billion — though the figure remains unverifiable.
Trump discussed the Cabinet meeting Thursday afternoon after he signed an executive order that paused tariffs on Canada and Mexico. He said it was a “really good meeting” that focused on “cutting.”
He said he instructed his Cabinet members to “go first” and look at the people they can cut in their own agencies, but “keep the good people.”
“Keep all the people you want, everybody that you need, and it would be better if they were there for two years instead of two weeks, because in two years they’ll know the people better,” Trump said. “But I want them to do the best job they can. When we have good people … that’s precious, that’s very important. And we want them to keep the good people.”
However, he said he warned the Cabinet members that if they didn’t make necessary cuts to reduce “bloat” in the federal government, Musk and DOGE would take over.
“We’re going to be watching them, and Elon and the group, we’re going to be watching them,” Trump said. “And if they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”
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