Musk defends cuts at Trump Cabinet meeting

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday ordered federal agencies to undertake more large-scale layoffs of workers, while the president allowed downsizing czar Elon Musk to take a starring role at his first Cabinet meeting and discuss his ambitious budget-cutting targets.

A new memo instructed agencies to submit plans by March 13 for a "significant reduction" in staffing. The federal workforce is already reeling from waves of layoffs and program cuts by Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The memo did not specify the number of new layoffs.

The memo represents a major escalation in Trump and Musk's campaign to slash the size of the US government.

Thus far, the layoffs have focused on probationary workers, who have less tenure in their current roles and enjoy fewer job protections. The next round would target the vastly bigger pool of veteran civil servants.

At the Cabinet meeting, Trump said Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, plans to cut up to 65 percent of his more than 15,000 employees.

Musk is not a Cabinet-level official, and faced no approval from the Senate.

As Cabinet secretaries looked on, Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, wearing a black "Make America Great Again" baseball cap and a T-shirt reading "tech support", expressed confidence he can cut the $6.7 trillion budget by $1 trillion this year. That extremely ambitious target would likely entail significant disruption of government programs.

Trump made it clear he backed Musk's effort, giving him the floor at the start of the meeting and later asking the gathered officials, "Is anyone unhappy with Elon?" There were scattered laughs.

So far, Trump and Musk have failed to slow the rate of spending. According to a Reuters analysis, the government spent 13 percent more during Trump's first month in office than during the same time last year, largely due to higher interest payments on debt and rising health and retirement costs incurred by an aging population.

Trump reiterated his promise to refrain from cutting popular health and retirement benefits, which account for nearly half of the budget.

"We're not going to touch it," said Trump.

Trump is simultaneously pushing Congress to extend his 2017 tax cuts, set to expire at year's end. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the 2017 cuts added $2.5 trillion to the nation's debt, now $36 trillion, and that extending the tax cuts could cost more than $5 trillion over a decade.

Republicans are weighing cuts to healthcare and food aid for the poor to help pay for the tax cuts, though specifics have not yet emerged.

Agencies - Xinhua