Trump Tells Cabinet That They, Not Musk, Should ‘Go First’ In Cutting Workers

Trump cabinet — President Donald Trump signs two executive orders and speaks to the press in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 30. (Kent Nishimura/For The Washington Post)

By Emily Davies, Dan Diamond, Lena H. Sun, Hannah Natanson and Salvador Rizzo

President Donald Trump directed Cabinet members Thursday to be more involved in deciding which government workers are shed, rather than waiting for directives from Elon Musk, a subtle but important shift in the overhaul of the federal workforce that he and his billionaire adviser have championed.

Trump held the Cabinet meeting after weeks of growing tensions between his top political officials, who sometimes had little or no foreknowledge of U.S. DOGE Service’s actions, and Musk, who has touted his powers to make sweeping cuts across the government. The president emerged saying he wanted his Cabinet members to “go first,” keeping those they deemed effective at their jobs and firing others, while warning that Musk still held significant authority.

“I don’t want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut,” Trump said after the meeting, from the Oval Office. He added, “Elon and the group are going to be watching them, and if they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”

The government’s human resources agency this week sent memos and emails regarding this point to agency heads who previously were commanded to terminate wide swaths of probationary workers, documents obtained by The Washington Post show. Agency heads also were explicitly told they may choose how they will require staff members to handle weekly emails Musk engineered seeking lists of their accomplishments, the documents show. Still, one of Trump’s recent executive orders required “DOGE Teams” to be installed at each agency and help carry out “the President’s DOGE Agenda.”

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