Trump isn't closely monitoring Musk as he does the 'dirty work' for him
Trump isn't closely monitoring Musk as he does the 'dirty work' for him
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Musk, the richest person in the world, has amassed wide-ranging authority without having a formal government role or congressional approval. President Donald Trump and his right-hand man, billionaire Elon Musk, are using a divide-and-conquer technique to reshape the federal government, with the tech CEO being permitted to carry out controversial decisions without supervision, according to reports. Musk, who was initially tapped to co-chair an external advisory committee, has quickly amassed authority inside the federal government, with his team taking control of the Treasury Department’s payment system, sending out buyout memos to federal workers and more. Officials who raised concerns about his access to sensitive systems were put on leave or retired.
![[Marco Rubio announced Monday that he was “acting director” of USAID, soon after it came under intense attacks from Elon Musk.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/03/14/51/PANAMA-US-RUBIO-sstb832g.jpeg)
Trump is not closely monitoring Musk’s decisions as he views the tech billionaire as doing “the dirty work,” and taking the heat for controversial decisions, an unnamed sources close to the president told the Post. While Trump spent the weekend at his Florida golf club, threatening to issue sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico and ordering airstrikes on an ISIS leader in Somalia, Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency chipped away at the federal government as they aim to cut $4 billion a day.
On Saturday, Musk and his team reportedly obtained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, which sends out money from the federal government. The move could potentially present Musk and his team a way of cutting out agencies and directly taking over the mechanism for paying or not paying bills and grants, according to the Post. That decision arrived after more than two million federal workers received an email about offering buyouts to anyone who voluntarily leaves their job last week. The email was allegedly sent without approval from officials in the Office of Personnel Management, an HR-type agency for federal employees.
