Musk’s Washington

A close look at how Elon Musk is trying to transform the government.

Good evening. Tonight, we’ve got the details of a major confrontation between Elon Musk and some of Trump’s cabinet secretaries — and we consider what it might mean for the future of his unconventional role in government. Let’s start with the news.

Always the bride

Yesterday, President Trump did something he’s seemingly been loath to do in the first seven weeks of his new administration: He reined in Elon Musk.

My colleagues Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman have the details of the extraordinary cabinet meeting where everything unfolded, and you’re going to want to read every word. After Musk berated Secretary of State Marco Rubio for having fired “nobody,” Rubio pushed back while Trump watched. Musk scoffed that Rubio was merely “good on TV.”

Sean Duffy, a former star of MTV’s “Real World” who knows what it means to be good on television — and is now the secretary of transportation — played his own role in the conflict earlier in the meeting, when he spoke in defense of air traffic controllers, some of whom, he said, Musk’s aides were trying to fire.

What was clear was that some of the nation’s cabinet secretaries had hit their breaking point with Musk’s efforts to steamroll the federal government. And while Trump said he still supported Musk’s mission, he gave his secretaries something they wanted. As Jonathan and Maggie wrote:

From now on, he said, the secretaries would be in charge; the Musk team would only advise.

The encounter stood as the first indication that Trump is willing to put some limits on the billionaire, even if those limits would do little more than bring the realities of Musk’s wide-ranging role more in line with how the administration’s lawyers have described it in court.

But the limits, if they hold, could raise bigger questions about the role Musk will play in the government going forward — especially if his history in the business world is any guide.

Ryan Mac, a colleague of mine who covers big tech, has reported on Musk for a long time. Today, I asked him if Musk had ever been content with an adviser-style role, one in which he doesn’t run the show.

Ryan’s answer was simple: No.

Musk has never liked being one voice among many, Ryan explained. Vivek Ramaswamy, who was initially going to be Musk’s partner in leading the Department of Government Efficiency, is long gone. Musk doesn’t sit on a lot of boards. And throughout his corporate history, whenever he hasn’t initially had control over a company, he’s tended to seek it.

At Tesla, where he was an early investor, he became the chief executive. Before he bought Twitter and renamed it X, he almost joined the company’s board. Then he decided to acquire the company outright, fire its board of directors and executives and become the chief executive. (He later named a new C.E.O. but retains considerable control over the company.)

Not all of Musk’s bids for control have worked. Decades ago, for example, he was forced out as the chief executive of PayPal. His effort to get control of OpenAI — a nonprofit he co-founded in 2015 — failed, as did his more recent bid to buy it.

Musk, it seems, prefers to be the bride, not the bridesmaid. The question now is whether he’ll stick to Trump’s directive that he simply advise — and whether he’ll be content if he does.

AGENCY REPORT

Getting fired, and then rehired

Musk has promised to take a chain saw to the U.S. government. But when it comes to federal jobs, it’s looking a bit more like a yo-yo.

Even as the Trump administration continues to slash federal jobs, several federal agencies have begun to reverse course.

In some cases, essential workers — including those who maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal — have been rehired. In others, public opposition has resulted in some fired workers getting called back. And lawsuits have also resulted in temporary reversals.

My colleagues on the graphics team are tracking the back-and-forth, and they laid out this timeline of firings and reinstatements:

The New York Times

You can see more here.

More on government agencies

MEANWHILE ON X

Seeking reassurance in a poll

Musk is using his X account as a megaphone. My colleague Kate Conger, the co-author of the book “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter,” took note of one post in particular.

Elon Musk used X on Friday to poll his 219 million followers on their support for his cost-cutting maneuvers at the Department of Government Efficiency. The poll asked, “Do you support @doge savings bot reducing government waste & fraud?” Users could respond with “No,” “Yes” or “Super Yes.”

Musk sometimes uses polls to gut-check his instincts, and he tends to abide by their results. In late 2022, after X users objected to some of his content-moderation decisions, he launched a poll that asked whether he should remain as chief executive of the social media company. Users voted against him, and Musk agreed to step down once he found a suitable replacement — which he did the next year.

He also used a poll to decide to reinstate Trump’s account.

Musk’s decision to launch a poll about the Department of Government Efficiency suggests he’s feeling some pressure against his chain-saw approach to slashing the federal budget. But as of Friday evening, “Super Yes” had received about 43 percent of the vote. Musk might take that as a sign of support for his efforts after his sparring with Marco Rubio and other members of Trump’s cabinet.

— Kate Conger

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A PARTING THOUGHT

Musk boards the privatization train

Amtrak, a perennial money-loser replete with antiquated technology and chronic delays, has long been in the sights of presidential administrations. George W. Bush contemplated privatizing it. Ronald Reagan asked Congress to sell it. A first-term Trump proposed deep cuts to it. Now, the federally owned, 21,000-mile intercity rail service has seemingly found its way to Musk’s to-do list.

My colleague Tim Balk reports that Musk, speaking at a tech conference this week, labeled Amtrak “embarrassing” and a “sad situation,” and added that only privatization would fix it.

Such a move would require congressional approval. On Wednesday, Amtrak, which reported record revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, published a white paper arguing against privatization.

“It is not clear what problem Amtrak privatization proposals are intended to solve,” the railroad wrote.

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