Musk Makes Jaw-Dropping Claim About Who’s to Blame for Mass Firings
Elon Musk tried to distance his federal spending task force from the Trump administration’s firings of thousands of civil servants during meetings with Republican lawmakers, according to multiple reports.
The billionaire Tesla CEO and White House adviser is the de facto leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), putting him at the center of the administration’s efforts to cut costs and dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce.
Musk recently threatened federal employees who did not respond to an Office of Personnel Management email demanding they justify their roles with termination. He also reportedly had a hand in the administration’s efforts to fire thousands of probationary employees across federal departments and agencies, which a judge halted last week.
DOGE, meanwhile, is associated with President Donald Trump’s efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Musk called a “criminal organization.”
Despite all of that, the president’s billionaire benefactor told Republicans he and DOGE are not responsible for all of the controversial cuts that have rocked the federal bureaucracy, instead blaming federal department heads.
House Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) reported that Musk told GOP members of the lower chamber that it “wasn’t a DOGE decision” to axe 70,000 positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to CNN.
He also said Musk suggested to lawmakers that DOGE’s expectation is that “individual departments” were ultimately responsible for the cuts, and that the administration expected them to fire people who were “unproductive” and “reward the people that are being productive.”
Nevertheless, he acknowledged his task force’s role in some cuts, including ones that were deemed unnecessary.
Using a baseball term for perfect hitting, Musk told the Republican house members he “can’t bat a thousand all the time,” multiple attendees of the meeting told Politico.
“He said he’s making mistakes,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told the news outlet. “He’ll correct them, but his mission is to uncover where our tax money is. Let the chips fall where they may.”
Norman added to Politico that Musk said Congress will get to “decide” what ultimately gets cut.
Among the main blunders Musk’s DOGE has been linked to were the firings of nuclear safety staff working on weapons programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration and Department of Agriculture staff working on a response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak.
Both cases triggered frantic efforts to rehire the workers.
Several Republicans have been excoriated by members of the public over DOGE cuts at meetings with constituents, leaving some within the party fold antsy.
A handful of GOP lawmakers have openly called on Musk to abandon DOGE’s early days slash-and-burn approach and make more considered decisions about cuts.
“We support the underlying efforts here and the goals, but we want to impress upon him how that we should be more strategic,” Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) told CNN.
The network reported that Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said in advance of a meeting with Musk and members of the upper chamber that he wanted the DOGE leader to explain how mistaken cuts will be remedied.
And Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told CNN that the Trump administration should be more sympathetic to the people losing their jobs, urging officials to “pay attention to the aftermath of that and how it impacts people. I mean, these are real people.”
Meanwhile, House GOP leaders are currently trying to corral members to back a funding plan that would maintain current federal spending levels until September, avoiding a March 14 government shutdown in the process. It does not enshrine DOGE’s cuts.
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DAILY BEAST
