U.S. President Trump said that about 1 million federal employees who did not respond to Musk's request for a report were at risk of losing their jobs. "The million people who haven't responded to Elon yet, they're hanging," Trump told reporters on Wednesday at the first Cabinet meeting of his second term. "I don't think we're excited about it."
Trump's remarks came after the White House on Wednesday asked federal agencies to submit plans for "massive layoffs" by March 13 at the latest.
Trump also said he would task cabinet secretaries to establish teams within their respective departments to study the possibility of cutting spending. Musk said he was confident his team could "find a trillion dollars in savings; that would be about 15% of the $7 trillion budget."
(From left) U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
"This can only be accomplished with your support," Musk told Cabinet officials, "so this is a very urgent support function for the president."
Still, Trump played down any differences before the meeting. "All members of the Cabinet are very pleased with Elon. The media will see this during the Cabinet meeting this morning!!!" the president wrote on his social media site. At a Cabinet meeting, Trump asked ministers if they were dissatisfied with Musk's work and jokingly threatened to fire anyone who said yes.
The heads of various departments present at the meeting responded with warm applause.