Trump and Musk target tax enforcers, rocket scientists, bank regulators for job cuts

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump’s administration targeted bank regulators, rocket scientists and tax enforcers on Feb 18 for dismissal as a federal judge gave him the nod to continue with the unprecedented remaking of the civil service – at least for now.

With Mr Trump’s blessing and praise, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, has

swept through federal agencies slashing thousands of jobs

since Mr Trump took office in January and put Mr Musk, his biggest campaign donor, in charge of a drastic overhaul of government.

Mr Trump claimed without evidence on Feb 18 that the endeavour would save “hundreds of billions of dollars” and heaped praise on Mr Musk as a patriot.

Mr Musk’s team said it has saved US$55 billion (S$73.8 billion) so far, less than 1 per cent of the annual US$6.7 trillion federal budget.

The campaign has delighted Republicans for culling a federal workforce they view as bloated, corrupt and insufficiently loyal to Mr Trump, while also taking aim at government agencies that regulate big business and collect taxes.

Democratic critics in turn have raised concerns that Mr Trump is exceeding his constitutional authority and hacking away at popular and critical government programmes at the expense of legions of middle-class families.

They say Mr Musk has operated as an unchecked freelance operator who has seized access to sensitive government data.

On Feb 18, the downsizing extended to Nasa, where 1,000 new hires, including rocket scientists, were expected to be laid off, said two people familiar with the US space agency’s plans. More cuts were deemed possible.

“People are scared and not speaking up to voice dissent or disagreement,” said an employee at the 18,000-person agency who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mr Musk said the complaints were a sign that Doge was working. “All we’re really try to do here is restore the will of the people through the President and what we’re finding is that there’s an unelected bureaucracy... that is implacably opposed to the President and the Cabinet,” he told Fox News in an interview.

The White House has not said how many people it plans to fire, and it has given no numbers on the mass layoffs so far. The information to date has come from employees of federal agencies.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the government agency that manages the civil service, set a deadline of 8pm on Feb 18 for all government departments to provide a list of probationary employees whose jobs have been terminated so far and those they want to retain, said an OPM spokesperson.

It remained unclear whether the numbers would be disclosed.

Court battles

Around 20 lawsuits have been filed in various federal courts challenging Mr Musk’s authority, leading to mixed results.

In one of the more consequential cases, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Feb 18

denied a request by state attorneys-general

from across the country to place a temporary hold on Doge. She instead allowed the campaign to continue while underlying litigation plays out.

But Ms Chutkan raised flags about Mr Musk’s authority as an independent operator while ruling that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate they would suffer irreparable harm, the standard for issuing a temporary restraining order.

“Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight,” Ms Chutkan said in her ruling, referring to Mr Musk.

Congressional Democrats said oversight committee requests for information have gone unanswered, calls to agency officials are not being returned and granular details for new administrative policies – essential for constituent casework – difficult to come by.

“This is not normal, at all,” one Senate committee aide said about the unresponsiveness.

Mr Trump asserted even more executive authority on Feb 18, issuing an order to rein in independent agencies within the government and claiming presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch except for the Federal Reserve.

The White House identified the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission as agencies that “have exercised enormous power over the American people without presidential oversight”.

The job cuts continued apace.

Senior officials at the Internal Revenue Service identified 7,500 employees for dismissal, said a person familiar with the matter.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which oversees banks, said it has fired an unknown number of new hires, according to an e-mail seen by Reuters.

Layoffs were also expected at the Federal Emergency Management Agency – which handles flood insurance and disaster response – and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, sources said.

The Trump administration plans to fire hundreds of senior Department of Homeland Security employees this week, said an administration official and a second source familiar with the matter. The planned firings would target people viewed as not aligned with Mr Trump, the sources said.

Among the workers swept up in the overhaul of dozens of agencies are those reviewing Mr Musk’s brain implant firm Neuralink.

Mr Musk’s role has raised questions about the fate of at least 20 federal investigations and regulatory actions affecting his business empire, Reuters reported in January.

Mr Trump on Feb 18 said he will not let Mr Musk take part in any space-related government decisions, while also addressing the attorneys-general court filing claiming that Mr Musk was not a government employee and thus lacked decision-making authority,

“Elon is, to me, a patriot,” Mr Trump said. “So you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant. You could call him whatever you want, but he’s a patriot.” REUTERS