President Trump said on Thursday that the next phase of his plan to cut the federal work force would be conducted with a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet” in what appeared to be a step aimed at restraining Elon Musk.
In a meeting earlier in the day, Mr. Trump directed his cabinet secretaries to work with his jobs-cutting guru, Mr. Musk, while also assuring his agency leaders that they have a say in the firings and should keep “good people.”
The move — to both publicly support Mr. Musk and also reel in some of his indiscriminate approach — reflects a growing unease among Republicans with the chain saw that Mr. Musk has taken to the federal government and the disdain he conveys not just for the bureaucracy but the work force itself.
Some cabinet members have voiced concerns to the White House about the chaotic nature of Mr. Musk’s “ready, fire, aim” method of cuts, according to multiple people briefed on the matter, and his approach has dominated news coverage.
Some of Mr. Trump’s allies have privately pointed out that his own voters are part of the federal work force, including veterans. And some of his most loyal supporters depend on Social Security benefits, which Mr. Musk has derided as a Ponzi scheme. Republicans are facing such animosity at town halls in their districts over the cuts that House members have been instructed to stop holding them in person.
And the administration has had some losses in court related to Mr. Musk’s role at the Department of Government Efficiency, which is leading the federal overhaul.
Still, Mr. Musk and his team are pushing their way into buildings and issuing orders with outsize power. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump insisted that his promise of deference to agency leaders in personnel decisions was not an indication that Mr. Musk had overstepped by directing agencies to fire tens of thousands of employees.
“I think they’ve done an amazing job,” he said of Mr. Musks group.
The group has carried out mass firings, eliminated watchdogs charged with oversight and made drastic cuts to foreign aid. Thousands of veterans have been swept up in the purge, causing blowback for Republicans in Congress who have largely been quiet about the Trump administration’s approach.
On Thursday, members of the DOGE team had to be escorted by federal marshals to enter the U.S. African Development Foundation, whose workers had blocked their entry the day before. Earlier this week, the I.R.S. began preparing to cut as much as half of its work force after Mr. Musk’s team went in.
The firings have drawn lawsuits and sown confusion across agencies and programs.
Mr. Trump targeted probationary employees in his early firing plans because they do not have the same protections as people who have been in their jobs longer.
But most of the probationary employees, while relatively new to their positions, are highly skilled and often have years of experience in government. Their firings, which they argue were illegal, have also caused consternation inside agencies because the workers were hired based on merit to perform specific, necessary roles.
In some cases, the workers were swiftly rehired, including employees charged with maintaining and securing the country’s nuclear warheads.
The next phase of cuts, a so-called reduction in force, is a time-consuming process that happens when an agency is restructured, and managers need a deep understanding of the employees and the jobs that they are eliminating.
“I want the cabinet members to keep good people,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Thursday. “I don’t want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut.” He said he told his cabinet to “keep all the people you want, everybody that you need.”
Mr. Trump has ordered agencies to turn in their personnel reduction plans by March 13, but said he told his cabinet secretaries that there would be meetings every two weeks to discuss “this very necessary job.”
Mr. Trump and his supporters say the voters gave him a mandate to shrink the federal bureaucracy. And the president repeatedly says the firings are part of an effort to weed out waste, fraud and abuse.
“We have many people that don’t work. We have many people, probably, that aren’t even living, that are getting checks, and we’re finding all of that out,” Mr. Trump said Thursday, without providing evidence. The government’s human resources arm, the Office of Personnel Management, has not offered examples of dead people on the federal payroll either.