Trump's team denies Musk's influence over US government

Thu, February 27, 2025 - 04:30

Photo: Elon Musk (Getty Images)

On Wednesday, January 26, the first meeting of US President Donald Trump's Cabinet of Ministers took place and was attended by Elon Musk, as reported by CNN and NBC News.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday said the first meeting of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet involved a “wide-ranging discussion” while dismissing the idea that Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked with reforming the federal government, is directing Cabinet secretaries on how to run their agencies.

“Elon Musk and President Trump are working together with all of us in the Cabinet to figure out how to run America’s government more like America’s business: efficient, better services, better delivery, more efficiently done,” Wright said.

The energy secretary said following the roughly hourlong news conference that opened the meeting, “there was a wide-ranging dialogue around the table from the Cabinet members, the president and the vice president.”

Wright said he doesn’t believe Department of Government Efficiency-directed cuts to the federal workforce will impair his agency’s initiatives “at all.”

“DOGE is like consultants,” he said. ”They’re like auditors coming into your business to gather data, identify trends for you. And then each secretary is going to use that information differently to make their department leaner, but more efficient and higher output.”

NBC News stated that Trump’s first Cabinet meeting outlined the hierarchy in his administration, with many of his Senate-confirmed department heads spending an hour as audience members after the president gave the floor to Musk at the top of the meeting.

Trump’s secretaries watched as Musk, standing at the edge of a long table, explained DOGE and its work as “a support function for the president and for the agencies and departments to help achieve those savings to effectively find 15% reduction in fraud and waste.”

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