One week after Elon Musk held court before the cameras during President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting, many of the Senate-confirmed leaders of government departments and agencies reconvened in the Cabinet Room on Thursday for a different kind of discussion.

During a nearly 90-minute meeting – this time, without any cameras – Trump delivered a clear message as Musk, one of the most influential members of his administration, sat nearby.

The president told his agency heads that while Musk’s effort to slash the size and spending of the federal government has his full support, they are the ones, not Musk, who are in charge of staffing at their respective agencies.

“Keep all the people you want, everybody that you need,” Trump told his Cabinet, as he recounted to reporters later in the Oval Office.

“I want them to do the best job they can,” the president went on. “Where we have good people, that’s precious, that’s very important, and we want them to keep the good people.”

The meeting on Thursday, which Trump said would be repeated every two weeks, was among the first examples of the president acting to rein in Musk’s broad powers. Instead of a proverbial chainsaw, which Musk held up during a high-profile appearance last month, Trump said the administration would be wielding a “scalpel” to make cuts going forward.

Musk is still expected to make recommendations on the agencies’ cuts. And Trump made clear that if his department heads weren’t making sufficient reductions, the tech billionaire would intervene.

“We’re going to be watching them, and Elon and the group are going to be watching them, and if they can cut, it’s better,” Trump said. “And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”

But ultimately, Trump told his team, it’s the Senate-confirmed Cabinet members who have the final say.

A White House official described the meeting as a check-in after Trump’s address to Congress, where he laid out the work his administration has done over the last six weeks. Aside from the Department of Government Efficiency, aides said, the Cabinet also conferred on national security issues and top priorities. At least six Cabinet members were not present, with many traveling outside of Washington this week for official duties.

But it was Trump’s directive on cuts going forward that appeared the most consequential and provided the most clarification to date on the power dynamics of the second Trump term. Staffing has been one of the foremost concerns for agency heads, some of whom complained last week that their departments were undermanned, according to a person familiar with what transpired in the first Cabinet meeting after reporters left the room.

“Very productive meeting,” Musk posted on X, replying to photographs the White House posted on social media that showed images of the closed-door meeting. After wearing a black hat and t-shirt to the first Cabinet meeting, Musk wore a suit and tie Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune sent an unmistakable signal this week that members of the Cabinet should take the lead in making hiring and firing decisions at their own agencies, telling CNN: “They are going to be better attuned to the individual programs.”

Over the last several weeks, quiet grumbles have emerged from atop agencies as they contended with Musk’s efforts to reshape the federal government.

After Musk issued a directive to all federal employees to recount their workweeks or risk termination, several agency heads advised their own workforces to ignore the request until they could sort out the demand.

Later, a second email request was sent – this time from individual agencies, providing the departments more control over their own personnel.

The closed-door meeting on Thursday, which was not included on the president’s daily public schedule, also stood in stark contrast to the marquee moment earlier this week when Musk rose to his feet in the House chamber and was repeatedly lauded by Trump during his address to a joint session of Congress.

While the richest man in the world basked in applause from Republicans in that prime-time moment, he has also been increasingly working behind the scenes to try and soften the rough edges from some of the more controversial decisions from his Department of Government Efficiency.

For weeks, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been paying close attention to a rising wave of criticism and complaints about Musk from Republicans and business leaders. Wiles has a cordial and businesslike relationship with Musk, people familiar with their dynamic say, and he accepted her suggestion to extend his hand and be more available to members of Congress.

Wiles ducked out of the first Cabinet meeting last week a bit early – a pre-planned exit, long after Musk had finished speaking – to attend a lunch with Senate Republicans. She listened to feedback, acknowledged how she understood some of their angst and explained the nuts and bolts of how the president and Musk work.

“Musk is working directly with the president and the president then works with the Cabinet secretaries,” Wiles said, according to an account from Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, who was at the lunch.

Several attendees said they wanted to learn more and hear directly from Musk. A day later, 22 Republican senators came to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House to meet with Musk. They listened as Musk explained the cuts he was making and posed for a photograph with him after the meeting.

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota called on Musk to better explain how DOGE would fix mistakes they make.

“In a lot of cases, where they are carte blanche making significant cuts, how do we go about making sure that that message gets back and it gets corrected as quickly as possible?” Rounds said.

He said Wiles “offered to be the contact when she’s been in front of us,” but noted “she’s just one person,” so a formal process was needed.

This week, Musk, who has also become one of the biggest political benefactors for Republicans, held forth in back-to-back meetings with members of the House and Senate on Wednesday.

He distanced himself and his team from the widespread firings across the federal government and placed blame on department heads, GOP lawmakers said.

“He just said that they trusted the departments to, you know, instead of using a cudgel to use a scalpel to get rid of people that are unproductive,” said Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Wisconsin Republican. “That’s the whole point.”

To any senators with questions, Musk offered his personal cell phone number. But hours later, as he spoke to House members, he urged them to consult the DOGE website.

“How can I get ahold of you? He said there’s a web site for that,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Florida Republican, told CNN. “No, he didn’t give us his number.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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