Federal workers, Democrats and even some Republican lawmakers want to believe that President Donald Trump clipped billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s wings Thursday.
But many of them aren’t counting on it.
After Trump privately told his Cabinet that they are in charge of their departments and Musk does not have the authority to fire government workers — a stunning shift in their alliance should it pan out — rank-and-file federal employees said they were skeptical in light of weeks of confusing and contradictory guidance. None of the more than a dozen federal workers POLITICO spoke to reported being told by their supervisors or labor unions that anything had changed directly due to Trump’s Cabinet meeting and subsequent comments.
“I don’t really expect them to necessarily start implementing what they say they will,” said David Casserly, an employee at the Department of Labor who said he was speaking in a personal capacity. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
The news of Thursday’s Cabinet meeting set off rampant speculation within the federal workforce about the true intent of Trump’s comments, which come amid growing legal and political scrutiny. A pair of lawsuits argue that the empowerment of Musk within the Trump administration is so far-reaching that, barring confirmation from the Senate, it exceeds constitutional limits.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture worker chalked up Trump’s comments to “damage control” after the president said in his joint address to Congress Tuesday that Musk is the “head” of the Department of Government Efficiency. That could prove to be a legal liability after Trump’s White House previously argued in court that Musk was not the leader of DOGE and had no authority to make distinct policy decisions himself.
Musk’s popularity is also sinking in polls, and Republicans in Congress have faced angry constituents at town halls who have complained about DOGE’s slash-and-burn approach to cutting the bureaucracy.
“It’s total bullshit. I don’t know what else to say,” quipped a second Labor Department employee. “I don’t trust a word of it,” said a third federal worker, who described it as Trump “attempting to insulate himself a bit from the court losses and the shift in public opinion, but I don’t think it will change anything.”
While DOGE has excited the GOP base that is eager to chop down government waste, the Trump administration has been dogged by headlines about essential employees, like nuclear safety workers and bird flu response aides, being fired and then hastily re-hired. Republicans have also faced blowback over veterans being laid off and questions over reported plans to cut tens of thousands of staffers at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In a post on the social media platform Truth Social Thursday, Trump broke rhetorically with Musk’s aggressive approach to cutting the government. “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet,’” he said. “It’s very important that we cut levels down to where they should be, but it’s also important to keep the best and most productive people.”
But in classic fashion, Trump seemed to contradict himself afterward, telling reporters that Musk would step in if departments didn’t adequately trim the government themselves. “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,” he said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The back-and-forth didn’t go unnoticed by federal workers. At the USDA, employees said they do not believe Trump will enforce new guardrails on Musk or that their day-to-day reality will shift as a result of his remarks.
Ongoing funding freezes at the department have prevented employees from processing payments to farmers across the country, and job cuts at key regional offices have slowed farm loan applications to a snail’s pace. DOGE also froze government credit cards, meaning employees can’t put gas in government trucks needed to perform farm inspections that are required in order to pay out certain cost reimbursements.
“Zero optimism and zero trust,” said one Agriculture Department employee.
“Zero optimism and zero trust.”
An Agriculture Department employee
On Capitol Hill, Democratic lawmakers were similarly skeptical, though they hope Trump carries through with demoting Musk and pulling back dramatic cuts to the federal workforce.
“If that’s true, that’s good news for the country and the separation of powers,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). “But I think it’s reasonable to give it a few business days to see whether any actual change has happened. Because right now there’s lots of evidence of, sort of, mayhem. And if the president wants to get that under control, he can. And if he doesn’t, he won’t.”
In a Friday interview on Fox News, Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that Trump’s remarks at the Cabinet meeting presaged a real shift in governance. But he provided few details and downplayed any tension between the billionaire tech mogul and Trump’s hand-picked officials.
“I think the president kind of did a recalibration yesterday,” he said. “He brought in Elon and he brought in the Cabinet secretaries, and they had a dialogue about the process to formalize more of this.”
Johnson also said some government workers would get their jobs back and that Veterans Affairs “needs employees who are doing this noble work” of taking care of veterans.
“Stay tuned because it’s gonna be corrected,” he said. “And I’ve talked to Elon about this personally, and many of us have. He has completely pure motives. He’s trying to make the government work better for the people, all the people. And the essential employees and the people doing great work will come back.”
But employees throughout the federal workforce said they had not received any instructions from their department heads about what, if anything, had changed after Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.
One employee at the federal Forest Service — an agency that has already seen 3,400 workers fired, in part prompting the agency’s chief to retire, with thousands more planned firings — said there have been no new directives from leadership about the practical impact of Trump’s decree because “nobody knows what to trust these days, whether it’s bluster or not.”
“There is a lot of low morale, fear and anxiety every day with employees,” the person added.
The administration has faced setbacks in court and elsewhere as it works to slash the government, including when a federal board recently ordered USDA to reinstate more than 5,600 workers for at least 45 days.
“There is a lot of low morale, fear and anxiety every day with employees.”
An employee at the Forest Service
“Many federal employees who survived the firings can’t do our jobs because of executive order and DOGE restrictions,” said a different USDA worker. “I’ll believe they aren’t letting Elon Musk run the show when staff are able to deliver on their agency mission and the people we serve can access our resources without disruption.”
It is unclear whether unions that represent federal workers are alerting their members of any changes in the wake of Trump’s comments to his Cabinet. The American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union did not immediately respond to questions about whether they provided any guidance to workers on his remarks or if their legal strategy would shift as a result.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent termination letters to hundreds of employees — several of whom were working on laboratory safety and improving testing for critical public health threats — in February, only to undo the decision for dozens this week. One employee, who was terminated and then un-terminated, said that Trump’s crackdown on DOGE does not make them feel more secure that they won’t be part of another round of firings.
“It feels like there may still be targeting of probationary employees that are trying to build their careers,” the employee said in a message. “Now that I am rehired, everyone is just talking about the upcoming reduction in force every day. I in no way feel like I will be immune.”
One CDC employee who was not rehired was also unimpressed with the move, calling it “too little too late.”
“Lives have been upended. Americans have been harmed,” the former employee wrote in a message to POLITICO.
Like other jaded federal employees, officials at the State Department, where an overhaul is expected in the wake of the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, are not willing to trust that Musk and the DOGE aides are facing new limits.
“I don’t think it’s real,” a State Department official said in a text message. “The ‘if they don’t cut, Elon will’ comments show who’s really in charge.”
Liz Crampton contributed to this report.
