President Donald Trump's cabinet appeared unified in executing his vision of cutting the size of the federal government, combating illegal immigration and tackling inflation.
The cabinet secretaries joined Donald Trump at the White House for their first meeting of his second term on Wednesday.
"I think we have really great people on every front. I'll let you know if they're not good, but I think they really are," Trump said as he opened the meeting in front of members of the press.
A few minutes later, Trump asked Elon Musk, who is not an official member of the cabinet as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, to speak about his efforts to help make the federal government more efficient.
"I actually just call myself humble tech support here ... as crazy as it sounds, that is almost a literal description of what DOGE is doing, is helping fix the government computer systems," Musk said. "Many of the computer systems are extremely old, they don't communicate, there are a lot of mistakes in the systems. The software doesn't work," Musk said.
While Musk appears to be leading DOGE, there's been confusion about his official role. The administration revealed in a court filing that Musk is not the administrator of the agency. Moreover, the White House said this week that a woman by the name of Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of the agency.
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Asked about the conflicting message, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields told Scripps News that Musk is a special government employee.
"He works on behalf of the president of the United States as an adviser to the president of the United States to ensure that, yes, DOGE is doing the will of what the President wants, but also a lot of other things," Fields said.
He added, "Elon Musk is an amazing brain here. He's a bit of an unusual suspect in Washington, D.C., right? You're not used to having CEOs come into Washington D.C. and make sure that the government is working like a business. That's exactly what the American people want."
The Trump administration says DOGE has been working with agencies across the federal government to streamline. Agencies received a memo from the Office of Management and Budget that requires them to reduce their budget while increasing productivity.
"We're cutting waste, cutting fraud, we're cutting abuse," Fields said. "We're looking under the hood, which really hasn't been done in American history, and taking proper stewardship of the American taxpayer dollars."
Thousands of jobs across the federal government have already been cut in Trump's first few weeks back in office, and more could be on the way. President Trump expressed support for an email that asked federal workers what they accomplished last week. Musk initially said those who didn't respond by Monday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern would lose their jobs. While Musk said he would give them a second chance to respond, President Trump essentially said their job security is on shaky ground.
"Those million people that haven't responded, though Elon, they are one the bubble," Trump said during the meeting. "I wouldn't say that we are thrilled about it."
RELATED STORY | Trump: People who didn't respond to 'what did you do' email are on the bubble
