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With Trump's blessing and praise, tech billionaire Elon Musk's DOGE has swept through federal agencies slashing thousands of jobs
Published : 19 Feb 2025, 09:28 AM
President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday targeted bank regulators, rocket scientists and tax enforcers for dismissal as a federal judge gave him the green light to continue with the unprecedented remaking of the US civil service - at least for now.
With Trump's blessing and praise, tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has swept through federal agencies slashing thousands of jobs since Trump became president last month and put Musk, his biggest campaign donor, in charge of a drastic overhaul of government.
Trump claimed without evidence on Tuesday the endeavour would save "hundreds of billions of dollars" and heaped praise on Musk as a patriot. Musk's team has said it has saved $55 billion so far, less than 1% of the annual $6.7 trillion federal budget.
The campaign has delighted Republicans for culling a federal workforce they view as bloated, corrupt and insufficiently loyal to Trump while also taking aim at government agencies that regulate big business and collect taxes.
Democratic critics in turn have raised concerns that Trump is exceeding his constitutional authority and hacking away at popular and critical government programs at the expense of legions of middle-class families. They complain that Musk has operated as an unchecked freelance operator who has seized access to sensitive government data.
On Tuesday the downsizing extended to NASA, where 1,000 new hires including rocket scientists were expected to be laid off, according to two people familiar with the US space agency's plans. More cuts were deemed possible.
"People are scared and not speaking up to voice dissent or disagreement," said one employee at the 18,000-person agency who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The White House has not said how many people it plans to fire and has given no numbers on the mass layoffs so far. The information to date has come from employees of federal agencies.
The Office of Personnel Management, the government agency that manages the civil service, set a deadline of 8 p.m. Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday) for all government departments to provide a list of probationary employees who have been terminated so far and those they want to retain, according to an OPM spokesperson.
It remained unclear whether the numbers would be disclosed.
COURT BATTLES
Around 20 lawsuits have been filed in various federal courts challenging Musk's authority, leading to mixed results.
In one of the more consequential cases, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday denied a request by state attorneys general from across the country to place a temporary hold on DOGE. She instead allowed the campaign to continue while underlying litigation plays out.
But Chutkan raised flags about Musk's authority as an independent operator while ruling that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate they would suffer irreparable harm, the standard for issuing a temporary restraining order.
"Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight," Chutkan said in her ruling, referring to Musk.
Congressional Democrats said oversight committee requests for information have gone unanswered, calls to agency officials are not being returned, and granular details for new administrative policies - essential for constituent casework - difficult to come by.
"This is not normal, at all," one Senate committee aide said about the unresponsiveness.
Meanwhile, Trump asserted even more executive authority on Tuesday, issuing an order to rein in independent agencies within the government and claiming presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch except for the Federal Reserve.
The job-cutting continued apace.
Senior officials at the IRS identified at least 7,500 employees for dismissal, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which oversees banks, said it has fired an unknown number of new hires, according to an email seen by Reuters.
Layoffs were also expected at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which handles flood insurance and disaster response, as well as its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, sources said.
The Trump administration plans to fire hundreds of senior DHS employees this week, according to an administration official and a second source familiar with the matter. The planned firings would target people viewed as not aligned with Trump, the sources said.
Among the workers swept up in the overhaul of dozens of agencies are those reviewing Musk's brain implant company Neuralink.
Musk's role has raised questions about the fate of at least 20 federal investigations and regulatory actions affecting his business empire, Reuters reported last month.
Trump said on Tuesday he will not let Musk take part in any space-related government decisions, while also addressing the attorneys general court filing claiming that Musk was not a government employee and thus lacked decision-making authority,
"Elon is, to me, a patriot," Trump said. "So you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant. You could call him whatever you want, but he's a patriot."
