President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet on Thursday to lay out how his administration will be handling cost-cutting measures and staffing moving forward after mounting criticism over Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.

President Donald Trump said he directed cabinet secretaries to use a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet” to make personnel cuts, a directive aiming to quell blowback after waves of job cuts have roiled the federal workforce.

The Trump administration has drawn scrutiny in court for trying to distance Elon Musk from the government’s actions, even as the president has publicly claimed otherwise.