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The mask called Musk

Published: 11 Mar. 2025, 00:05

Jung Kang-Hyun

The author is a Washington correspondent of JTBC.

It was an inevitable clash between Elon Musk, head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The setting: a Cabinet meeting presided over by former President Donald Trump on March 6. Musk fired the first shot.

U.S. President Donald Trump walks by Elon Musk during the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, November 14, 2024. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

“Why on Earth is the State Department not firing anyone?” he scoffed. His voice was dripping with derision. Rubio shot back with equal sarcasm. “Fifteen hundred have already taken early retirement. Should we put on a show of rehiring them just to fire them again?”

According to The New York Times, that day’s Cabinet meeting quickly turned into a Musk-bashing session. Understandably so. Musk is not a government official by title. Yet, he wields the axe over federal employees. The billionaire entrepreneur sees things in stark terms: “The government is bloated and inefficient. Just fire civil servants the way you lay off workers in the private sector.”

But those who have taken on Cabinet roles know better. The government is not a profit-driven corporation. Blindly slashing civil service jobs risks upending essential public services. Cabinet members, responsible for keeping the machinery of governance running, are seething. Even those appointed based on their loyalty to Trump have begun to push back against Musk, whom the former president so staunchly defends.

During a recent dinner with a seventh-year federal employee, P, a curious term came up: the “Department of Everything.” Typically, this phrase is used in jest to refer to the oversized budgets and workforce of the Pentagon. But these days, it’s being used to mock Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — the agency now wielding sweeping authority to fire public employees.

P also shared a troubling pattern they had observed in the layoffs. The priority order for dismissals, they claimed, was as follows: (1) probationary employees, (2) military veterans, (3) long-tenured staff and (4) underperformers. If efficiency were truly the goal, performance would be the primary criterion. But here, it sits dead last. In other words, Musk is engaged in layoffs for the sake of layoffs, with the simplistic goal of cutting government spending.

The mastermind behind this mass purge, of course, is none other than Trump himself. But by placing Musk as a human shield, the president conveniently evades direct blame. While he has urged Musk to refine his execution, he has not stripped him of his authority.

Elon Musk holds up a chainsaw he received from Argentina's President Javier Milei, right, as they arrive to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, in Oxon Hill, Md. [AP/YONHAP]

In recent weeks, vacancies have skyrocketed in the Washington area. Laid-off federal employees — caught off guard by Musk, or rather, by Trump — are packing up and moving out in a hurry. The number of those targeted for dismissal could reach a staggering 470,000. Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters — many now suddenly find themselves jobless, unsure of how they will make ends meet.

A president slashing the civil service with reckless abandon, with no regard for the impact on public services —what a chilling sight. Perhaps the most chilling of all.

Translated using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.