Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that Elon Musk “can’t and won’t do” anything without “our approval” amid intense backlash he faced for gutting several government departments over the past few days

Donald Trump told reporters that Elon Musk “can’t and won’t do” anything without “our approval” as he answered questions about Musk’s controversial plans to gut several government departments in his new role as the co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The comments seemed to reel Musk in a bit after he announced plans to completely shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) after they refused to hand over classified material to his team of government inspectors.

That refusal resulted in President Trump placing the top officials who refused to hand over the documents. That itself led to intense backlash from Trump’s and Musk’s adversaries, who declared the move a risk to national security and shut down the office completely on Monday.

The president signaled that Musk doesn’t have as much control as he seems to think he does ( 
Image:
Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Newly appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio then announced on Monday that the entire agency would be merging with the State Department, effectively placing him in charge of it amid intense budget cuts that Musk also called for.

John Voorhees and his deputy, Brian McGill, were reportedly the employees placed on administrative leave after they said they were legally bound to deny access to the documents due to the DOGE teams having insufficient security clearances, The Associated Press reported.

Ultimately, DOGE’s teams were able to gain access to the classified data. The merger and budget cuts were announced shortly thereafter. And they weren’t the only cuts Musk has been behind in recent days.

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The richest man in the world, who is the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and also owns X, formerly known as Twitter, announced plans on Monday to cut 70% of staff from the Office of Personnel Management.

Two senior staff members of the department were reportedly directed by a top Musk lieutenant to prepare for a 70% cut in the workforce, with managers told that 30% of their teams would likely need to be cut in the near future as they were told to identify those that will be cut first.

That order, according to CNN, came from Brian Bjelde during a senior staff meeting on Friday, the source said, but there were no further details given about when exactly the cuts would take place. Bjelde is reportedly not only a senior adviser at OPM but is also listed on his LinkedIn as Vice President, People Operations at SpaceX.

OPM reportedly employs about 3,000 people and has historically been driven by career officials who have worked across administrations in both parties. Now, it appears as though Musk’s cronies are calling the shots. And some of Washington’s top attorneys seem to be on Musk’s side.

Some top federal prosecutors wrote in a letter posted to X that they had asked Musk to report any threats against DOGE or its employees to them so they can look into each incident.

All of this comes just days after the news broke that Musk allegedly pressured the former director of the Federal Aviation Administration to quit — meaning the FAA didn’t have a permanent leader during two deadly plane crashes that rocked the nation late last week.

The first crash took place near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the nation’s capital after American Airlines flight AA5342 was struck by a military Black Hawk helicopter form Fort Belvoir in Virginia while it attempted to land at the busy domestic airport.

Both aircraft plummeted into the Potomac River, resulting in the death of the collective 67 passengers on board both aircraft. There had been three soldiers flying the Sikorsky chopper and 60 passengers and four crew members on the commercial flight.

Two days later, on Friday evening, a medical jet carrying six individuals, including an 11-year-old girl, her mother, medical personnel and pilots, crashed into a busy intersection in Philadelphia, killing all six on board as well as a seventh individual who was sitting in their car on the road. An additional 24 were injured, though how severely remains unclear.

Trump also announced the cutting of aid to South Africa, a country he said is “treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” referring to white people there, like Elon Musk, who grew up there.