On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s administration targeted bank regulators, rocket scientists, and tax enforcers for dismissal, as a federal judge approved its unprecedented remaking of the United States civil service, at least for the time being.
With Trump’s blessing and praise, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has swept through federal agencies, slashing thousands of jobs since Trump took office last month and appointed Musk, his largest campaign donor, to lead a major overhaul of government.
On Tuesday, Trump claimed without evidence that the endeavour would save “hundreds of billions of dollars” and praised Musk as a patriot. Musk’s team claims to have saved $55 billion so far, which is less than 1% of the annual $6.7 trillion federal budget.
Republicans have applauded the campaign for reducing a federal workforce that they see as bloated, corrupt, and insufficiently loyal to Trump, while also targeting government agencies that regulate big business and collect taxes.
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Democratic critics have expressed concern that Trump is exceeding his constitutional authority and undermining popular and critical government programmes at the expense of millions of middle-class families.
They claim Musk has acted as an unchecked freelance operator, gaining access to sensitive government data.
On Tuesday, the downsizing spread to NASA, where 1,000 new hires, including rocket scientists, were expected to be laid off, according to two people familiar with the agency’s plans. Additional cuts were deemed possible.
“People are afraid and don’t speak up to express dissent or disagreement,” said one employee at the 18,000-person agency who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Musk stated that the complaints were evidence that DOGE was working.
“All we’re really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president, and what we’re finding is that there’s an unelected bureaucracy… that is implacably opposed to the president and the cabinet,” Musk told Fox News in an interview taped on Friday and aired Tuesday.
The White House has not stated how many people it intends to fire, nor has it provided numbers for mass layoffs. So far, the information has come from federal agency employees.
The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the civil service, set a deadline of Tuesday for all government departments to provide a list of probationary employees who have been terminated and those who wish to be retained, according to an OPM spokesperson.
It was unclear whether the numbers would be disclosed.
COURT BATTLES
Approximately 20 lawsuits filed in various federal courts challenging Musk’s authority have yielded mixed results.
In one of the more significant cases, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a request to impose a temporary halt on DOGE. Instead, she allowed the campaign to continue while the underlying litigation was being resolved.
However, Chutkan expressed concerns about Musk’s authority as an independent operator, writing, “Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight.”
Congressional Democrats claimed that requests for information from oversight committees went unanswered, calls to agency officials were not returned, and details of new policies needed for constituent casework were difficult to obtain.
“This is not normal,” a Senate committee aide said of the lack of response.
On Tuesday, Trump asserted even more executive authority, issuing an order to rein in independent agencies and claiming presidential supervision and control over the entire executive branch with the exception of the Fed.
The White House named the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as agencies that “have exercised enormous power over the American people without presidential oversight.”
The job cuts continued apace.
According to one person familiar with the situation, senior IRS officials have identified at least 7,500 employees for dismissal.
According to an email seen by Reuters, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which oversees banks, announced the firing of an unknown number of new hires.
According to sources, layoffs are also expected at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which handles flood insurance and disaster response, and its parent, the Department of Homeland Security.
Among the employees affected by the overhaul of dozens of agencies are those investigating Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink.
According to Reuters, Musk’s role has called into question the fate of at least 20 federal investigations and regulatory actions involving his business empire.
On Tuesday, Trump stated that Musk would not be allowed to participate in any space-related government decisions.
