President Donald Trump moved Thursday to curtail Elon Musk's influence over federal workforce reductions, shifting primary authority for staffing decisions to his Cabinet secretaries while maintaining DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) in an oversight role.

In a significant policy shift announced after a Cabinet meeting on March 7, Trump directed that department heads, not Musk, will have final say over personnel decisions. "It's very important that we cut levels down to where they should be, but it's also important to keep the best and most productive people," Trump stated on Truth Social [1].

The president emphasized a more surgical approach to workforce reductions, saying agencies should use a "scalpel rather than the hatchet" [1][3]. While Cabinet secretaries will lead staffing decisions, DOGE will maintain monitoring authority and can intervene if departments fail to achieve sufficient cuts.

This change comes amid mounting legal challenges to DOGE's actions. A federal judge recently ruled that the Office of Personnel Management likely acted illegally in directing agencies to fire thousands of probationary employees [5]. The administration faces over 30 lawsuits challenging various DOGE initiatives [3].

The workforce reduction program has already impacted thousands of federal employees. On the East Coast alone, about 16,000 healthcare providers in the military's Tricare program have gone unpaid for months [1]. Some agencies have had to recall critical personnel in areas such as nuclear weapons security after hasty dismissals [6].

While Trump praised Musk's efforts, saying "they've done an amazing job," [1] the administration appears to be responding to growing pressure from Republican lawmakers and court challenges by implementing more structured oversight of the reduction process.