Musk to loom large at Trump's first cabinet meeting

U.S. President Donald Trump holds his first cabinet meeting Wednesday, joined by billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who is in charge of radically downsizing the US government and wields more power than anyone else in Trump's inner circle.

Musk is not part of the cabinet and did not have to go through Senate confirmation.

Yet as the force behind his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the Tesla and SpaceX chief has been given a free hand to enact unprecedented -- and brutally abrupt -- cuts to government programs and staffing.

His presence at the formal White House meeting alongside Trump's actual department heads follows signs of growing tension within the government over his dominance.

Trump downplayed this shortly before the meeting, posting on his social media platform: "ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON."

"The Media will see that at the Cabinet Meeting this morning!!!" Trump wrote.

The cabinet meeting will be a chance for Trump to tout the dramatic start to his second term, while flanked by aides openly chosen in many cases for their lavish declarations of loyalty.

Many of these top figures were successfully confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate despite unusually extensive questions over their experience or behavior.

Among the most contentious are Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has a history of backing Kremlin talking points, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host who has faced allegations of sexual assault.

Trump's Republican Party holds a narrow majority in the Senate, and the refusal of more than a couple Senators to vote against Trump's picks shows his iron grip on the party, where dissenters have largely quit or been cowed.

Former Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell was the sole Republican dissenter to Kennedy's confirmation as health secretary, an appointment that caused alarm among the medical community over his history of promoting vaccine misinformation and vows to suspend research on infectious diseases.

And in a situation with no real parallel in modern U.S. history, all of these powerful officials are overshadowed by Musk, who helped bankroll Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

While classified as a mere "special government employee" and "senior adviser to the president," the South African-born tycoon is seen more often at Trump's side than Vice President JD Vance or even First Lady Melania Trump.

As owner of the X social media platform and a key leader in the US space program, his influence percolates through almost every corner of current Washington politics.

However, Musk has faced some pushback to his slash-and-burn methods that have already seen the gutting of the USAID humanitarian aid department, mass layoffs, and menacing emails sent to all federal employees asking them to justify their jobs.

Government departments on Monday largely told staff to either ignore the latest email or downplayed the risks of not answering it. According to US media reports, senior officials across the government have expressed frustration and anger over what they see as interference in their agencies.

© Agence France-Presse