STORY: President Donald Trump ordered U.S. agencies on Tuesday to work closely with top adviser Elon Musk’s effort to shrink the federal workforce.

“You can’t have an autonomous federal bureaucracy, you have to have one that is responsive to the people”

Trump directed agencies to identify government employees who can be laid off and functions that can be eliminated entirely.

Before the order was signed, Musk stood alongside Trump in the Oval Office and fielded questions from reporters.

REPORTER: “Can you talk a little bit about how closely you’re working with agency heads as you’re directing these cuts? How much input do agency heads have when you’re making these decisions?”

MUSK: “You know, we work closely with the agency heads. So there are sort of check in place. So it’s not just us going in and doing things well, you know, it’s in partnership with the agency heads.”

The world’s richest man defended his role as an unelected official who has been granted unprecedented authority by the president to dismantle parts of the U.S. government.

“Well, first of all, you couldn’t ask for a stronger mandate from from the public. The public voted. You know, we have a majority of the public vote voting for President Trump.”

The newly-created Department of Government Efficiency that Musk leads has thus far provided no information on whom it employs, where it is operating or what actions it is taking inside government agencies.

DOGE posts few actual results from its work, providing only dollar figures for cuts it’s claiming to make in particular agencies with few specific details.

However, Musk pushed back at criticism that he and his team there have operated largely in secrecy.

“I fully expect to be scrutinized and get a daily proctologist exam basically. Might as well just camp out there. So it’s not like I think I can get away with something.”

Trump’s executive order sets forth rules requiring government agencies to hire no more than one employee for every four workers who leave.

It compels agencies to work with Musk’s team to identify large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components may be eliminated outright.

The order exempts from cuts those employees whose work is critical to national security, public safety, law enforcement and immigration enforcement.

The push toward mass layoffs comes after the Trump administration attempted to cajole federal workers into accepting buyout offers.

That effort has been blocked by a federal judge.