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A clash over Musk’s latest missive may bring a standoff between Elon Musk and huge swaths of the federal government, including Trump-appointed agency leaders. The fate of the latest example of Musk’s brutal management style – having government workers justify their employment by midnight or risk being fired – may reveal the limits of President Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief’s efforts.
For now, please pause any response, a top Pentagon official told employees this weekend, adding that the Defense Department “will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures.” Similar messages went out from Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence; Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I.; the State Department; and more.
What’s notable is that Trump loyalists lead many of those organizations. But The Times reports that many agency leaders are “tired of having to justify specific intricacies of agency policy and having to scramble to address unforeseen controversies” raised by Musk, especially after the billionaire’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency gained unprecedented access to government systems.
It raises the prospect that the Musk approach has its limits. Yes, Musk made a similar move at the social network once known as Twitter. But the federal bureaucracy moves much more slowly than a private company – and has unions who can push back.
The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest such union, declared Musk’s missive “plainly unlawful” and added that the Office of Personnel and Management was being directed by “the unelected and unhinged Elon Musk.”
The Department of Government Efficiency is falling in esteem among voters, at least according to recent polls and a growing number of town halls held by Republican politicians.
Some G.O.P. governors are still defending Musk’s work, even as their own states’ finances are being strained by halts in federal funding and layoffs of government employees.
What will Trump do? The president initially encouraged Musk to be more “aggressive” and bragged about the scale of the tech mogul’s job cuts. He has since stayed quiet about the matter.
Will he seek to rein in his most powerful ally, given growing concerns that the Musk-led cuts are costing the government technical expertise, potential research into artificial intelligence, possible job and economic growth, and potential loss of support for other initiatives, such as sweeping tax cuts?
Musk himself appears unfazed, at least publicly: Government workers “now need to do real work that is of real value to their fellow citizens,” he posted on X on Monday.
Apple pledges to spend $500 billion in the United States over the next four years. The tech giant said it will create 20,000 U.S. jobs and build more products, including A.I. servers, domestically, just days after Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, met with President Trump.
And while Buffett praised stocks, he’s no closer to striking another major deal. His conglomerate has amassed $334 billion in cash and Treasury bills, bigger than the market value of Coca-Cola.
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