WASHINGTON: Members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet will likely move to limit the influence of Department of Government Efficiency employees and reassert control over budgets and staffing once Elon Musk steps back from DOGE, two government sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The Department of Government Efficiency, created by executive order the day Trump took office and helmed by billionaire Musk, has spearheaded efforts to shrink the federal workforce and slash the deficit via mass firings, contract cancellations and reduced services to Americans across the federal government.
But Musk confirmed plans on Tuesday (Apr 22) to reduce his government time commitment to one or two days a week to focus on his battered car company Tesla, raising questions about the future of the agency’s work. As a special government employee, his mandate appeared due to expire at the end of May.
The billionaire has provided the White House with political cover while DOGE pursued a cost-cutting drive that has made it deeply unpopular among career staffers. Cabinet secretaries view DOGE employees as encroaching on their traditional authority to hire and fire, and some have been reluctant to do its bidding.
In recent weeks, tensions had escalated within the Trump administration over the authority granted to Musk. During a March Cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with Musk, accusing him of undermining USAID and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confronted Musk over proposed layoffs of air traffic controllers amid aviation safety concerns, sources familiar with the situation said.
Cabinet secretaries have consistently pushed for greater control over budgetary decisions, and without Musk’s high-profile presence as a counterbalance, their efforts to implement targeted spending cuts – rather than sweeping reductions – are likely to move forward with fewer obstacles, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss things they are not authorised to talk about.
The most significant shift will be the increased authority of the Cabinet itself. Agency heads will now have the final say on which proposals move forward, solidifying their role at the centre of federal efficiency and spending strategy.
The Cabinet will have more autonomy and will no longer need Musk’s sign-off on every decision, said one of the sources.
