Elon Musk starts talking about layoffs and raises tension in the US public sector

Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s new government efficiency chief, will meet with Republican lawmakers next week to cbegin discussing the tech billionaire’s new commission tasked with cutting billions of dollars in federal spending.

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said in a post on co-director of Trump’s newly announced “Department of Government Efficiency,” Vivek Ramaswamy.

The pair “will discuss important reform ideas to achieve regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings,” Johnson said, praising Trump for making possible a revival of the “principle of limited government.”

Although Trump and Musk have stated that Potentially $2 trillion could be saved most experts believe this is unrealistic without cuts to crucial services or benefits.

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who also owns X, said in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that DOGE, which is not an official department and has no legal authority, would work to cut federal regulations and make administrative changes. important.

“We are businessmen, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not as federal officials or employees,” the world’s richest man wrote in an article co-written with Ramaswamy.

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A new House subcommittee working closely with the panel will be led by far-right lawmaker Marjorie Taylor-Greene.

“We’ll look at everything from government-funded media programs like (National Public Radio) that spread nothing but Democratic propaganda,” he told Fox News on Sunday.

“We’re going to participate in grant programs that fund things like sex apps in Malaysia, toilets in Africa, all kinds of programs that do not help the American people.

As part of its role in saving billions of dollars in federal spending, Elon Musk considers laying off some employees whose functions he considers would not be necessary in the new government of Donald Trump.

A week ago, through the X social network, Musk revealed some names of officials from the current Joe Biden government that he would fire. More specifically, of four women working in roles linked to climate change.

Although the publications were in response to information from public databases, he agreed with what they said.

For example, Musk commented on a November 19, 2024 post by user datahazard that reads: “American taxpayers should not be paying Nancy Pelosi’s niece $186,648.00 for being the “climate advisor at HUB.” United States, for its acronym in English).

Before the publication, Musk responded: “But maybe your advice is wonderful” and he ended his message with two faces of laughter.”.

The other three federal employees who have been mentioned in some way by Musk, according to CNN, are: The Department of Energy’s Climate Director in its lending programs office, the senior advisor on Environmental Justice and Climate Change at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and a senior climate advisor at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).”

According to CNN, One of these women pointed out by Musk had to delete her social media accounts due to the multiple criticisms she received.

The tension over possible layoffs of federal employees has escalated to the point that, CNN reports, several current public officials “fear that their lives will change forever (including that they will be physically threatened).”