Trump tells Cabinet secretaries they make final staff decisions—Elon Musk, DOGE make recommendations

On Thursday, President Donald Trump told Cabinet members they were in charge of their departments, not Elon Musk. The president explained—with Musk in the room—that the DOGE head and his team have been tasked with making recommendations to the departments, but final staffing and policy decisions will be decided by Cabinet executives.

The matter was first reported on by Politico, citing two Trump administration officials. The president's guidance comes as there has been some uncertainty with how much authority DOGE and Musk have. Trump said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its staff serve as advisors, while Cabinet members make final agency decisions.

Musk participated in the discussion, according to a source familiar with the meeting, and expressed his agreement with Trump's directive. The president emphasized that his administration has a desire to retain competent and hardworking federal employees as there have been thousands of mass firings over the last few weeks.

The firings, however, have also faced some legal pushback, where a federal judge ruled that some of the terminations may have violated civil rights laws as they were not tied to performance issues. The president discussed the meeting in a post on Truth Social and explained a similar meeting would be held bi-weekly.

"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," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "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."

Trump later told reporters that Cabinet members should "keep all the people you want, everybody that you need." However, he emphasized that he wanted there to be cuts to staffing in the federal government.

Musk discussed the meeting on X, calling it "very productive."