Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shares his thoughts next to President Trump during an executive order signing at the White House on February 11.
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Every Friday morning, we’ll summarize important updates from the first 100 days of the Trump administration. Sign up for the NPR Politics newsletter for more insights.
In his attempts to reduce the federal government’s size and expenditures, President Trump has enlisted tech magnate Elon Musk as a pivotal ally. Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, initially envisioned as an external review of government functionality but has transformed into an insular entity within the White House, gaining unrestricted access to federal agencies and wide-ranging authority to overhaul purchases, programs, and staff.
As we highlighted last week, DOGE has been very active, encouraging federal employees to resign, advocating for the closure of USAID — which manages about half of U.S. foreign aid — and reviewing access to agency records, including sensitive financial information from Treasury. Last week maintained that same vigorous pace. Here’s a closer look at the ongoing developments regarding how the world’s wealthiest man is utilizing his influence granted by Trump to reshape America, amidst concerns regarding the lack of oversight for his actions, as well as the potential conflicts of interest benefiting his businesses from these reforms.
During a virtual appearance at the 2025 World Governments Summit in Dubai on Thursday, donning a “tech support” shirt, Musk claimed he is assisting what he refers to as “America, Inc.” in a corporate restructuring effort that may involve eliminating entire agencies.
“It’s akin to removing a weed; if you don’t eliminate the roots, the weed can easily regrow,” he remarked. “However, if you remove the roots, it won’t culminate in a permanent eviction of weeds, but it makes it much more challenging.”
This week’s updates on Musk and DOGE:
- Musk was in the Oval Office on Tuesday with the president, elaborating on DOGE and responding to journalists’ inquiries. NPR’s Elena Moore has further details on that meeting, which included Trump signing an executive order that detailed how federal agencies should roll out the DOGE-led workforce reductions.
- Confirmations have emerged that initial layoff notifications are being dispatch, targeting employees who were recently onboarded and are still undergoing probation. In the 2024 fiscal year, federal employee compensation surged to approximately 3 percent of the federal budget, according to governmental data.
- A federal judge has refused to halt the Trump administration’s deferred resignation initiative aimed at federal workers, which the Office of Personnel Management had circulated late last month to 2 million federal employees with the subject line reading “A Fork in the Road”, as detailed by NPR’s Andrea Hsu. This plan largely mirrors Musk’s attempts to drastically downsize the workforce of the social media platform Twitter, now designated as X, following his acquisition.
- In relation to X, Musk’s company revealed last month that it would collaborate with Visa to launch a mobile payments service named the “X Money Account,” which would be regulated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. According to NPR’s Bobby Allyn, this agency is now next in line to be fundamentally dismantled by DOGE. Acting Director Russ Vought has instructed staff to cease almost all operations, following Musk’s posting of “CFPB RIP” on his X account last week. This scenario exemplifies how Musk’s broad business engagements with the federal government could conflict with his aggressive agenda of dismantling federal agencies on Trump’s behalf.
- The suspension of operations at the CFPB has contributed to a flurry of legal challenges that have arisen within the opening weeks of Trump’s administration against the DOGE initiative and the president’s radical transformation of the federal bureaucracy. A union representing federal employees has labeled the directive to cease operations as unlawful and has filed a second lawsuit contending that DOGE’s access to CFPB systems infringes upon the Privacy Act. On Thursday, a judge paused the Trump administration’s directive to place numerous U.S. Agency for International Development employees on paid leave.
- In other legal matters, federal judges have restricted DOGE’s access to sensitive Treasury payment systems, instructed federal health agencies to restore abruptly pulled websites and datasets, found the administration unlawfully freezing specific federal funding, and reinstated the top whistleblower advocate after Trump allegedly dismissed him illegally. As federal agencies gear up for Trump’s workforce reduction plan executed by DOGE, NPR’s Shannon Bond and Jenna McLaughlin reported that the General Services Administration, responsible for managing federal real estate and contracts, intends to halve its budget and increase monitoring of remaining personnel — a model that could soon extend to the majority of federal agencies.
- Amidst the overwhelming pace and breadth of these transformations, Musk stated during his Oval Office meeting that DOGE’s initiatives were transparently operated. Nonetheless, there exists a lack of transparency and overstated claims surrounding the billions pocketed in less than a month’s time. You can view my analysis of several public data sources, including USASpending.gov and the Federal Procurement Data System, which highlight discrepancies, omissions, and persistent questions regarding the accuracy and magnitude of the substantial savings claimed by DOGE in recent times.
