President Donald Trump has offered a timeline for when the Department of Government Efficiency’s mass firings and budget cutbacks could ease.
Trump said he will be satisfied with the agency’s work — led by Elon Musk — within the next few months during a cabinet meeting Monday.
“We’re getting down to a point we think probably over the next two or three months, we’ll be pretty much satisfied with the people that are working hard and want to be members of the administration and our country,” Trump said.
“Our country was riddled with fat, and we’re getting rid of the fat,” he added.
Trump went on to praise Musk’s efforts, calling him a “friend” and a “patriot.”
“He’s a patriot more than anything else,” he said. “He has never asked me for a thing he could have. I always say, I wonder if he’s ever going to ask me for something, and that’s always subject to change, and if it does change, I’ll let you know about it.”
Much of the cabinet meeting focused on Musk, with almost every cabinet member mentioning DOGE’s work and praising it.
DOGE has fired at least 24,000 federal probationary employees so far, according to recent court filings. A federal judge has ruled that DOGE fired at least 16,000 of these employees illegally, but the Trump administration is appealing the decision to the Supreme Court.
Some agencies have also backtracked on firings after realizing they parted ways with key employees.
Last month, the Department of Energy rehired hundreds of nuclear bomb specialists after firing them. The Department of Agriculture made a similar move after firing employees working on bird flu prevention.
The IRS is also bracing for a $500 billion drop in revenue in the wake of DOGE layoffs after noticing “an uptick of online chatter from individuals declaring their intention to not pay taxes this year,” The Washington Post reported, citing three people with knowledge of tax projections.
The sources noted that individuals were “wagering that auditors will not examine their accounts” amid DOGE’s plans to downsize the IRS by nearly 20 percent by May 15.
