Trump admin moves to rehire workers fired by DOGE under Musk amid fallout

Musk, who exited DOGE on May 28, was responsible for this newly established department. It was meant to bring down federal spending by slashing jobs at the federal agencies

US President Donald Trump’s administration is now attempting to undo the damage done by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), previously headed by billionaire Elon Musk, who was once a Trump ally, by rehiring some of the previously fired workers.

 

Musk, who exited DOGE on May 28, was responsible for this newly established department, which was meant to bring down federal spending by slashing jobs at the federal agencies.

 

Nearly 50 workers were fired by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Office of Regulatory Policy earlier this year; however, they were later asked to return to the office with just a day's notice, the Washington Post reported. Similarly, thousands of probationary employees were dismissed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on account of ‘performance’ issues, were asked to come back to work in late May.

 

 

This comes at a time when media reports have shown that the power of the Elon Musk-led department is diminishing as cabinet members and senior staffers are taking back control of the organisation.

 

What did DOGE do? 

To restructure federal operations, Musk used an aggressive approach, including slashing jobs at federal departments and seeking mandatory weekly reports from those working at these agencies. According to a report, over 60,000 federal employees were let go, and more than 110,000 people left through a deferred resignation programme DOGE launched, according to SkyNews.

 

DOGE also announced significant budget cuts and targeted the US Agency for International Development (USAID), leading to a reduction of $8 billion in funding for global health programmes, including those combating HIV, AIDS, and malaria

 

 

Trump Musk fallout 

Prior to his exit from DOGE, Musk criticised Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, calling it a “wasteful abomination” and a spending package that would undermine the efforts made by DOGE during his tenure. Things escalated when Trump responded and expressed his disappointment with Musk, while responding to the reporters at the Oval Office. What followed was an intense war of words, with each taking to social media platforms including X and Truth Social to hit out at each other. While Trump threatened to cancel government contracts to Musk’s companies, he dared the US President to go ahead with it, adding that he would decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft immediately, currently the only US vehicle capable of carrying astronauts to the International Space Station.

 

Signs of mending ties

 

However, the White House advised Trump not to criticise Musk publicly and stated that a call was arranged between the two. Earlier today, Musk took to X to express regret regarding some of the tweets he made against Trump, adding that he “went too far”.

 

Musk also accused Trump of being named in the Epstein files and shared a tweet showing Trump with Jeffrey Epstein. He further went on to claim that the Epstein files have not been made public, only because they included Trump’s name.