U.S. President Donald Trump told his cabinet members on Thursday that they - not Elon Musk - have the final say on staffing and policy at their agencies, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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.