- President Trump has tempered Elon Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting approach, shifting from sweeping layoffs to a more selective strategy that allows cabinet members to retain valuable employees while still eliminating inefficiencies. Despite this softer stance, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has reportedly already overseen over 62,000 job cuts last month, and Trump insists that reductions will continue under close scrutiny to meet ambitious budget-cutting targets.
President Trump sought to make it clear this week that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are operating under White House oversight—reining in the Tesla CEO after weeks of aggressive federal workforce reductions.
While Musk has taken a blunt approach—wielding what he has called a “chainsaw for bureaucracy“—Trump indicated he prefers a more measured strategy, likening his approach to a “scalpel” when it comes to cutting federal jobs.
The president has so far backed Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, but on Wednesday told reporters he wants Cabinet members to have greater discretion in retaining top talent rather than implementing sweeping workforce reductions.
“I don’t want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut,” President Trump said yesterday. “I want the Cabinet members to keep the good people, and the people who aren’t doing a good job, who are unreliable, don’t show up to work, et cetera, can be cut. “
“I had a meeting and I said I want the Cabinet members [to] go first and keep all the people you want, everybody that you need… I want them to do the best job they can. When we have good people, that’s precious.”
This is a departure from the tough rhetoric adopted by Musk and Trump in the past. Musk, for example, said he would use return-to-office policies to push federal staffers to quit their roles.
Meanwhile , President Trump said early in his administration that the government was “sloppy” and “bloated,” adding, “We have a lot of people who aren’t doing their jobs.”
While the President’s outlook has somewhat softened, the message to department heads was far from fuzzy: He still wants to see inefficiencies ripped out of federal government.
“We’re going to be watching them,” Trump continued. Elon and the group are going to be watching them, and if they can cut it, it’s better. If they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”
The Oval Office address—a clip of which Musk himself reposted on X—was followed up by a supporting post on Truth Social, the platform that President Trump owns.
“DOGE has been an incredible success and now that we have my cabinet in place, I have instructed the secretaries and leadership to work with DOGE on cost-cutting measures and staffing,” the president wrote.
“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.’
“The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level.”
60,000-plus government jobs gone
Critics might argue that it would have been more prudent to wait until the Cabinet and departments could make their own decisions over cuts before giving DOGE free rein.
However, Musk was challenged to cut $2 trillion from the government—a target since revised down to $1 trillion—and seemed determined to hit the ground running.
According to a report released this week by executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the federal government announced 62,242 job cuts across 17 different agencies last month.
The report adds that it has tracked 62,530 roles axed by government departments so far this year, an increase of more than 41,000% compared to the same two months last year, when just 151 cuts were made.
“It remains to be seen how many more workers will lose their federal government roles,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and workplace expert at the firm. “When mass layoffs occur, it often leaves remaining staff feeling uneasy and uncertain. The likelihood that many more workers leave voluntarily is high.”
