This story was updated, Feb. 11, 2025, 7:04 p.m. EST.
Elon Musk joined President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday for the signing of an executive order aimed at shrinking the federal workforce.
Trump’s order aims to “significantly reduce the size of government,” according to a fact sheet the White House shared with POLITICO’s E&E News.
Flanking Trump behind the Resolute Desk, Musk said he wants to add “commonsense controls” to government, according to a pool report. “The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” Musk said. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
The executive order marks the Trump administration’s latest move in part of a broader push to drastically reduce the size of the federal government. The administration has offered incentives to federal employees who resign from their jobs, a move that faces legal challenges.
Trump’s Tuesday order directs agencies to “undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force” and to determine “which agency components (or agencies themselves) may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law,” the fact sheet says.
Trump is ordering agency heads to “coordinate and consult with DOGE” — referring to the Musk-led operation known as the “Department of Government Efficiency” — as they work to shrink the size of the workforce.
The administration also intends to restrict new hiring.
Trump ordered a freeze on federal hiring during his first day in office.
When that order expires, agencies will be able to hire “no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service,” the fact sheet says. That will include exemptions for immigration, law enforcement and public safety.
Trump is “committed to reducing the size and scope of the federal government,” the fact sheet says. “There are too many federal employees.”
