CNN
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Elon Musk’s presence at President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday will solidify his power in the administration — and how quickly he’s amassed it despite not being elected or Senate confirmed.
But Musk’s attendance at the meeting comes as his attempts to gut the federal workforce and reshape it in Trump’s image, including giving sweeping orders to employees across the government, has begun to grate on Cabinet secretaries and members of Congress, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Those frustrations were escalated when Musk delivered a six-word directive that resulted in rippling chaos throughout the government.
White House officials insisted they were not caught off guard by a Saturday email from the Office of Personnel Management sent at Musk’s direction, which asked: “What did you do last week?”
But Cabinet officials and members of Congress weren’t given a heads up.
The email — and Musk’s subsequent threats that those who do not respond promptly would be fired — surprised several agency heads and top Trump administration officials, the sources said, swiftly setting off questions over who has the authority to issue directives to employees across different departments.
“A lot of agencies weren’t given a heads up, which caused some headaches,” a senior White House official told CNN, noting that several agencies quickly informed the White House and their employees that the confidential or sensitive nature of their work would prove problematic in responding to the email.
A Trump administration official said the move led to “some annoyance” among not only top officials, but even some Cabinet secretaries, adding that the secretaries “are in charge of their own agencies and need to conduct their own reviews for where cuts may be needed.”
Part of that frustration stemmed from the secretaries only recently being sworn in (some have yet to even have their Senate confirmation votes), and not having time to thoroughly examine their own workforce or properly assess their needs before the threats of firing began.
Another area of concern arose from the notion that perhaps Musk had the power to terminate workers’ employment if they didn’t follow an order that the secretaries themselves had not signed off on.
Heads at the FBI and departments of State, Justice, Energy, Homeland Security and Defense all told their employees not to respond to the email given the sensitive nature of their work. And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made clear on Tuesday that Musk, a special government employee, does not have the power to hire and fire federal workers and that Trump would defer to his Cabinet secretaries on how best to proceed with the email.
“Everybody is working as one team,” Leavitt told reporters. “The president respects the decisions of his Cabinet secretaries to tell their staff not to respond to that email because they did so out of interest of national security and they don’t want to obviously risk confidential information.”
Meanwhile, those working in the executive office of the president, for example, were told they do not have to respond and are considered exempt from the email.
But the controversy around the directive is the latest in a string of DOGE moves that have begun to grate on top administration officials, the sources said, who have expressed quiet skepticism over the way in which Musk is carrying out his priorities.
The decision to issue the directive came as Musk and his top advisers working with the Department of Government Efficiency have been popping their heads into offices in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building — where Musk has his own office — as well as at different agencies asking employees what they do for the government.
Musk has virtually unfettered access to the West Wing, and often walks over from the EEOB unannounced, sources told CNN. He meets occasionally with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, but their staff often meets to coordinate future plans.
Musk has a list of ideas he has “kicked around” and contemplated having DOGE try to implement, an administration official told CNN.
The email demanding government employees list five things they did last week was one of those that Musk ultimately asked Anthony Armstrong, a banker who worked with Musk to take over Twitter and is now stationed at OPM, to move forward with, according to the source.
In conversations with current and former Trump administration officials, many acknowledged there is likely bloat in the government, and they generally approve of DOGE’s broader efforts to root out waste and abuse. But they also noted concerns with the swift ‘cut and ask questions later’ strategy Musk is using.
Musk, however, has yet to get under the skin of the one person who matters most: Trump.
The president personally believes Musk is bringing the type of disruption to the government that he wants, sources close to Trump told CNN. He also appreciates the fast-paced nature of Musk’s actions, and has told those close to him that he doesn’t want people to wait to take action, he simply wants them to act, the sources said.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
