Many individuals perceive government employees as part of a nameless bureaucracy, holding comfortable jobs that seem to lack purpose.
While it’s accurate that the federal workforce has grown excessively and requires downsizing, the political dynamics surrounding Elon Musk’s mass terminations are evolving, leading President Trump to adjust his stance on the DOGE initiative.
A key driver of this change is the unfavorable media scrutiny, which Trump closely monitors. It’s not a coincidence that he recently stated budget reductions should be executed with a “scalpel” instead of a “sledgehammer.” He is highly receptive to the mounting backlash against the extensive job cuts—such as the 80,000 at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Many news reports, both on television and in print, follow a pattern: they start with an individual who has been laid off or adversely affected by the actions of Musk and his team, putting a personal touch on the narrative with a real person whose life has been disrupted.
Take, for instance, this piece from the New York Times:
“At the Veterans Affairs facility in Pittsburgh, researchers dedicated months to preparing for a clinical trial of a new drug intended to treat advanced cancers of the mouth, throat, and voice box.
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“They were set to begin enrolling patients last month—veterans whose cancer had metastasized and who had exhausted all treatment alternatives.
Then complications emerged.
“The hospital faced challenges renewing the position of a crucial team member involved in managing the study, a typically straightforward task hindered by a hiring freeze established under the government-reduction initiative led by President Trump and Elon Musk. Consequently, the clinical trial has been postponed.
“‘They were ready to start enrollment,’ said Alanna Caffas, CEO of the Veterans Health Foundation, which oversees the trials. ‘They had the lab kits ready. They had the medication to distribute. But they couldn’t renew the clinical research coordinator’s position.’”
Here’s a report from the Washington Post based in Texas:
“Jaylee Williams needed a place to deliver her child.
The 19-year-old knew far more about barrel racing with her horse, Bet-n-pep, than the intricate details of health insurance. However, relief came when she and her boyfriend, Xander Lopez, discovered that Medina Regional Hospital—a mere 15 minutes from their house—accepted Medicaid, the joint federal-state program for covering medical expenses for low-income Americans. ‘Provider groups an hour away in San Antonio refused to accept the insurance,’ she recalled while cradling little Ryker. ‘You never know when an emergency might arise,’ Williams said, with Lopez adding, ‘I don’t know where we would have gone without Medina Regional Hospital.’
But the lifeline that the 25-bed critical-access hospital provided to Williams and Lopez might soon vanish in Hondo and similar communities.”
This is due to rural hospitals fearing “substantial cuts to Medicaid,” as they heavily rely on the federal-state program. Trump promises there will be no cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security; however, the only way Republicans could manage to save a claimed $80 billion would be through such cuts. Approximately 72 million people rely on Medicaid.
In an article for the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire notes that Trump’s change of course on DOGE began on February 19.
“Jesse Watters, one of the co-hosts of the Fox News popular show ‘The Five’… shared a surprisingly emotional anecdote about a friend employed at the Pentagon who was about to lose his job due to the sweeping cuts initiated by the Trump administration. ‘I finally identified one person I knew who got DOGE’d, and it struck a chord with me,’ Watters expressed, urging his Fox colleagues to show a bit more compassion.’…
“Trump viewed the segment and inquired of his advisers if it was well-received among his supporter base, according to one of three White House officials I spoke with for this article.”
Lemire adds that “over the following weeks, the president became increasingly dissatisfied with the television coverage of cuts impacting his constituents,” according to two officials, as the White House dealt with calls from Cabinet members and Republican lawmakers expressing frustration regarding Elon Musk.
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Trump decreed that department heads should execute layoffs and reductions, with Musk only stepping in if they failed to act. This strategy may also be a reaction to the ongoing lawsuits against Trump, since Musk is meant to be an adviser rather than a government employee.
Tensions have been escalating behind closed doors (and publicly at town hall meetings, leading the GOP to advise its members to cease such events). As the Times reports:
“Marco Rubio was furious. Here he was, seated in the White House’s Cabinet Room beside the president, listening to a torrent of criticisms from the world’s wealthiest individual.
Across the elliptical mahogany table, Elon Musk was engaging Mr. Rubio directly, accusing him of failing to cut staff effectively.
‘You’ve fired ‘nobody,’ Mr. Musk reprimanded, then mockingly added that the sole individual he had let go was a staff member from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Mr. Rubio had been seething privately at Mr. Musk for weeks, especially since Musk’s team effectively dissolved an entire agency that was meant to be under Mr. Rubio’s supervision: the United States Agency for International Development. Yet, in the unprecedented cabinet meeting last Thursday in front of President Trump and around 20 others—details of which have not been disclosed before—Mr. Rubio finally voiced his concerns.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gives a joint news conference with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader at the National Palace in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
“Mr. Musk was being disingenuous, Mr. Rubio asserted. What about the over 1,500 State Department officials who opted for early retirement in buyouts? Didn’t they count as terminations? He sarcastically questioned whether Musk wanted him to rehire all those individuals just to create the illusion of firing them again. Then he outlined his comprehensive plans for reorganizing the State Department.”
“Mr. Musk remained unimpressed, telling Mr. Rubio he was ‘good on TV,’ clearly implying he was lacking in substantial contributions otherwise.”
The president, who ultimately defended Musk, denied that such a confrontation occurred. “ELON AND MARCO HAVE A GREAT RELATIONSHIP. ANY CLAIMS OTHERWISE ARE FAKE NEWS!!!” he tweeted.
Another source of contention involves Steve Bannon, the former campaign chief and White House staffer whose “War Room” podcast holds significant influence with the MAGA base.
“In mid-February,” a report co-written by Maggie Haberman indicates, “the president requested Mr. Bannon to refrain from criticizing Mr. Musk further and suggested they meet privately, according to two individuals acquainted with the remarks.”
Bannon has called Musk a “parasitic illegal immigrant” and a “truly evil person.” Last month, he stated that he and Musk “have a gap that is likely insurmountable.”
Musk retorted on the X platform he now oversees: “Bannon is a great speaker, but not an effective doer. What did he accomplish this week? Nothing.”
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The proposed meeting remains unheld and may never occur.
More significant than the behind-the-scenes banter is Trump’s shifting perspective on the DOGE campaign as the human consequences become evident.
One topic Trump has avoided, directly related to his tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, is the stock market, which has plummeted thousands of points recently.
The president told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo that the stock market shouldn’t be the focal point, even though he frequently boasts about it when it rises.
On her Sunday broadcast, Bartiromo inquired if Trump anticipated a recession in the coming year.
“I hate to predict things like that,” he replied. “We’re undergoing a transition period, as what we’re implementing is very substantial.”
President Trump on Sunday Morning Futures. (Sunday Morning Futures)
In journalistic terms, this has been characterized as TRUMP REFUSES TO RULE OUT RECESSION, yet he merely sidestepped the query. (However, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed on “Meet the Press” that “there’s going to be no recession in America.”)
The DOGE campaign’s standing has also suffered due to a series of glaring missteps. Musk has admitted to terminating the Ebola prevention team before realizing the error and reinstating them. He also dismissed bird flu specialists and personnel managing nuclear weapon maintenance, only to have to bring them back as well.
Additionally, Musk’s team was found to be falsely claiming savings by canceling contracts that had actually expired years prior.
Would such a track record be permissible in the private sector?
Tesla’s stock has been in a downward spiral for several days, alongside the market, experiencing a 16 percent drop yesterday. According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth has decreased by $121 billion since mid-December. Nevertheless, he remains the world’s wealthiest individual.
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When X experienced a global outage for hours yesterday, it felt symbolic of Elon Musk’s challenges. He later claimed that the site formerly known as Twitter had been subjected to a “massive cyberattack.”
Eliminating government jobs, particularly with identifiable individuals affected, is a stark contrast to letting go software engineers, and the ensuing backlash was predictable. This is why Donald Trump is now applying the brakes to the entire initiative.
