Lutnick says Musk was ‘backward’ in cutting government
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said former Trump adviser Elon Musk was “backward” in his efforts to cut government waste through the firings led by the U.S. DOGE Service, the latest example of a rift between the Trump administration and Musk since he left Washington. Lutnick, in an interview published Friday with Axios co-founder Mike Allen, said Musk “got caught up in other people’s objectives,” suggesting the billionaire got ahead of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet secretaries in his efforts to slash the number of federal employees. Lutnick said that going forward he expects government-cutting efforts to focus more tightly on identifying waste rather than broad reductions to the workforce, which accounts for a relatively small percentage of government spending.
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“The focus should have been on cutting the waste, fraud and abuse, and the people you could do over time,” Lutnick said. “I thought he got that backward.”
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The White House and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Musk has previously clashed with other Trump officials, getting into an Oval Office yelling match with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, lashing out at officials he disagreed with on his X social media platform and announcing initiatives that were later backtracked by Cabinet members.
By May, Trump’s relationship with Musk — who was brought into the administration as a “special government employee” and therefore limited to work 130 days in government — unraveled as the men traded barbs over social media over Trump’s signature budget bill. Musk later said he regretted his postings.
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Lutnick has not had a publicly contentious relationship with Musk. During the transition into Trump’s second term, Musk had supported Lutnick over Bessent when he was in the running for the treasury secretary spot. In March, Lutnick urged Fox News viewers to buy Tesla stock when Musk’s car company became a target for Musk critics.
But Lutnick’s comments reflect a sentiment expressed by Trump and others in the administration that Cabinet members rather than Musk should have led the cost-cutting.
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Since Musk’s initial efforts to fire probationary employees and launch massive purges at some federal agencies, the administration has largely moved away from firing sprees, electing to offer more federal workers buyouts to leave government voluntarily in exchange for pay. In some cases, the government has rehired people it fired or moved workers into other jobs.
DOGE staffers still work in agencies, though agency leaders have taken a more direct role overseeing changes.
