Elon Musk will be the subject of the drama as President Donald Trump convenes his earliest Cabinet meeting on Wednesday because he has far more authority than his bare White House adviser name suggests.
Trump has officially supported Musk and his founder, the Department of Government Efficiency, despite the administration’s efforts to make him and Trump appear in public in court documents even though the billionaire entrepreneur is not a member of the cabinet.
Musk is essentially a specific government staff and not the DOGE executive, but whatever his position, he’s sucked up media protection over the past month — , sometimes to the chagrin of White House officials.
WHITE HOUSE INSISTED, AMY GLEASON WAS NOT MUSKED, AFTER WHITE HOUSE INSISTED IT WAS NOT MUSK.
One press secretary in the White House’s press office was overheard yelling” F***ing Elon” as the group watched a writer ask a question about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s questions during her first press event earlier this month.
Musk’s appearance in Washington, and his closeness to the Oval Office, has even driven a rift through Democratic political employees. In order to stifle the administration’s efforts to reduce alleged useless or false spending, one group claims that the president is essentially using Musk as a” protect” or “lightning pole” to attract the media’s attention. The other tent, however, believes that Musk’s time in the spotlight is souring his connection with the chairman.
” I think it’s now an issue. It becomes a question of whether Trump has any strength”, one GOP strategist told the , Washington Examiner , following Musk and Trump’s unexpected Oval Office hit convention earlier this month. ” I just don’t understand how Trump gets rid of him”.
Musk’s elevated position has lead to many quips from the president’s reviewers, including” President Musk” or the” dark leader”. Trump spoke with him for the first time in his first shared interview, moving ahead of Vice President JD Vance, and Musk has already tensed himself with Trump’s cabinet members that he’ll attend on Wednesday for the meeting.
Trump is scheduled to make a speech before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, and it appears he will use it as a chance to highlight his accomplishments a fortnight into business. Despite the fact that Trump has appointed and confirmed nearly all of his Cabinet members at a traditional pace, as have White House officials repeatedly stated in recent days, Expand continues to be the headlines in Washington, including the” What did you do next month?” question. federal workers ‘ emails were sent over the weekend by Musk and his team, in addition to his actual responsibilities and duties.
After many of them criticized his increasing demands on federal workers to maintain jobs, Wednesday’s meeting will be the public’s second chance to learn directly from the Cabinet secretaries or cabinet-level department heads who have already been confirmed.
Some company faces issued an order to their individual workforces not to listen to the emails from the White House itself that contained a number of confusing and conflicting statements.
The first common backlash came from FBI Director Kash Patel, just confirmed last Thursday, who told his people to “please delay any reactions”.
” The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures”, Patel wrote. ” When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses”.
Similar messages from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio followed Patel’s message.
When asked to compare his first and second Cabinets, Trump said to reporters on Tuesday during an executive order signing in the White House’s Oval Office,” I think it’s better because it’s deeper.” ” I had some people that I didn’t really like too much in my Cabinet, but I didn’t know Washington. I was a New York person. I knew New York intimately, but I had to rely on people”.
He added,” Look, we got the biggest tax cuts in history. I rebuilt the military. And we did so much”.
The White House has been repeatedly asked for clarification on the subject in the days since the initial Musk email, which has in turn put the uncertainty surrounding DOGE’s leadership under the microscope.
The administration claimed in court last week that Musk has no authority over other senior White House advisors, only acting as Trump’s” senior adviser” and as a” senior adviser” to Trump. Musk can only work for the government for a short amount of time, but he is self-reporting his conflicts of interest to Trump and is only required to do so for a short while.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was unable to confirm the name of DOGE’s administrator during Tuesday’s briefing, but a later official informed the Washington Examiner that Amy Gleason was in charge of the agency acting-wise.
Leavitt argued in the briefing that responding to the email was not difficult for federal employees, revealing that 1 million people have done so so far, including herself, as other recipients continue to claim that they should not be fired for failing to respond.
In response to rumors that DOGE and the Cabinet were at odds with one another, both the president and the press secretary supported Musk on Monday.
” Let me be very clear: The president and Elon and the entire Cabinet are working as one unified team, and they are implementing this very competently”, she said.
And Trump, during an Oval Office signing ceremony, signed off yet again on Musk’s five things emails from days prior.
” It’s somewhat voluntary, but it’s also, if you don’t answer, I guess you get fired”, he told reporters. ” If people are working, it’s easy. I could tell you five things I did last, or five things I did six weeks ago, no? If they’re there, and they we’re working, they’re able to say they did five things during work”.
The first Cabinet meeting for Trump’s second administration to be held on Wednesday is the first since his first term, which convened 25 of these sitdowns. The meetings were frequently depicted as televised loyalty tests where Cabinet officials profusely praised the president.  ,
At the same time, Trump’s Cabinet during his first administration experienced historic turnover. During those four years, Trump had 15 Cabinet officials resign voluntarily or under pressure, the most during the first term of any of the past four administrations.
TRUMP PUTS EUROPE ON ITS TOES,” DECISIVE BREAK” FROM PAST US FOREIGN POLITICS, WHILE DISCOVERING IT.
With 18 confirmations in 31 days, Trump’s cabinet has been confirmed by the Senate for his second administration at a similar historic pace. Following a majority in the chamber’s vote on Wednesday for Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Secretary of Commence Howard Lutnick, Pastel was confirmed on Thursday.  ,
Cabinet officials expected to be in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting include Lutnick, Loeffler, Rubio, Hegseth, Bondi, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Office of Management and Budget Administrator Russell Vought, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and chief of staff Susie Wiles.
