Trump to Cabinet: You’re ‘Out’ if You’re Unhappy With Musk

That's it! I quit! Oh I forgot, I'm not in the cabinet.

Talking about being FOS. Musk has and will not cut more than a few percent from the federal budget. He and Voldemort aren't touching the 84% of the budget that isn't entitlement.

Trump to Cabinet: You’re ‘Out’ if You’re Unhappy With Musk

The president spoke at the White House during his first meeting with cabinet secretaries

By Natalie Andrews and Annie Linskey, WSJ

Feb. 26, 2025 12:44 pm ET

Elon Musk joined President Trump’s first cabinet meeting and said that America would go bankrupt without DOGE’s aggressive cost-cutting moves.

WASHINGTON—President Trump defended billionaire adviser Elon Musk on Wednesday and raised the possibility that some of the more than one million federal workers who didn’t respond to an email asking what they accomplished last week could be fired.

“Those people are on the bubble, as they say, maybe they’re going to be gone,” Trump said at the White House in the first cabinet meeting of his new term. The president also said that some of the people who didn’t respond may be dead or don’t exist. The White House said that one million workers responded to the email, or more than 40% of the federal workforce of roughly 2.3 million.

Musk, who is running the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting initiative, said he is confident he can find $1 trillion in savings across the government’s roughly $7 trillion in annual spending, or a cut of 15%.

Trump praised Musk’s efforts and asked his cabinet if anyone was dissatisfied with Musk’s efforts. No one responded.

“Some disagree a little bit, but I will tell you, for the most part, I think everyone’s not only happy, they’re thrilled,” Trump said. He added later, addressing his cabinet, “Is anyone unhappy with Elon? If you are, we’ll throw them out of here.”

Several senior agency officials instructed federal workers to pause or not respond to Musk’s email asking federal workers for a bullet point list of five things they accomplished last week.

The U.S. president said his ultimate goal was to balance the government’s budget, “maybe by next year or the year after.” The last time the U.S. government had a budget surplus was 2001.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin hopes to cut the agency’s budget by 65%, Trump said, adding that he plans to shift the responsibilities of the Education Department to the states.

Trump declined to say whether he would stop China from taking Taiwan by force. “I never comment on that,” Trump said, “because I don’t want to ever put myself in that position.”