President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet in person on Thursday to deliver a message: You’re in charge of your departments, not Elon Musk.
Roles and Responsibilities
According to two administration officials, Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy. Musk was also in the room.
The meeting followed a series of mass firings and threats to government workers from the billionaire Tesla founder, who helms the Department of Government Efficiency, that created broad uncertainty across the federal government and its workforce.
DOGE’s actions have faced ferocious resistance in court and criticism from Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans.
Policy Shift
The president’s message represents the first significant move to narrow Musk’s mandate. According to Trump’s new guidance, DOGE and its staff should play an advisory role — but Cabinet secretaries should make final decisions on personnel, policy, and the pacing of implementation.
Musk joined the conversation and indicated he was on board with Trump’s directive. According to one person familiar with the meeting, Musk acknowledged that DOGE had made some missteps — a message he shared earlier this week with members of Congress.
Government Workforce
Trump stressed that he wants to keep good people in government and not eject capable federal workers en masse, according to one of the officials. It is unclear whether the new guidance will result in laid off workers getting rehired.
The timing of the meeting was influenced by recent comments from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who said on CNN Tuesday that Cabinet secretaries should retain the full power to hire and fire, according to one official. The official said Trump has been flooded with similar concerns from other lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries.
Legal Implications
The president’s admonition to agency heads could impact mounting legal scrutiny facing DOGE.
Judges have increasingly expressed frustration and bewilderment at the Trump administration’s inability to explain who is in charge of the bureaucracy-culling effort and whether Musk himself is playing any role in ordering up the steep cuts to programs and jobs.
Complicating the matter further, Trump declared during his address to Congress Tuesday that Musk is indeed the “head” of DOGE, a label that immediately reverberated in several of the Musk-focused court cases. Trump’s assertion conflicted with the White House’s representation in court last month that Musk had no independent authority to make policy decisions.
Legal Challenges
Judges will now have to decide whether Trump’s after-the-fact characterization of Musk’s role resolves the already-existing legal challenges to DOGE’s work.
It comes just as some of those lawsuits reach a new fact-finding phase that could produce more clarity on the SpaceX boss’ involvement in running the government.
A federal judge last week ordered sworn testimony from some DOGE officials and affiliates to more fully understand the group’s work. And two lawsuits aimed at stopping Musk himself — one in Washington, D.C. and one in Maryland — are reaching crucial milestones as well.
Those lawsuits allege that Musk has been exercising an unconstitutional degree of power for a government official who has not been confirmed by the Senate.
