WASHINGTON — It’s not his fault.
Billionaire Elon Musk is telling Republican lawmakers that he is not to blame for the firings of thousands of federal workers, including veterans, as pushes to downsize the government. Instead, he said in private talks this week that those decisions are left to the various federal agencies.
The message from one of President Donald Trump’s most influential advisers came as Republicans publicly support Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency digging up waste, fraud and abuse, but are privately raising questions as personnel cuts ripple through communities across the nation.
‘‘Elon doesn’t fire people,‘’ said Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., after a dinner-time pizza meeting with Musk in the basement of the Capitol.
‘‘He doesn’t have hiring and firing authority,‘’ added Hudson, who leads the House Republicans' campaign arm. ‘’The president’s empowered him to go uncover this information, that’s it.‘’
It’s a remarkable shift of emphasis away from the chainsaw-wielding tech entrepreneur whose vast power has made him an admired, revered and deeply feared figure in the second Trump administration.
The Republican president weighed in Thursday after a Cabinet meeting, saying he has instructed department secretaries to work with DOGE but to ‘’be very precise" about which workers will stay or go — using a ‘’’scalpel'" he said in a social media post “rather than the ‘hatchet.’’
‘‘I don’t want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut,‘’ Trump later told reporters in the Oval Office.