Today’s portion of the ongoing “legacy” media meltdown over the role of Elon Musk and DOGE in the current administration centered around Musk’s participation in the Cabinet meeting. Musk drew scrutiny in a way that escaped Jill and Hunter Biden as when they attended similar meetings.
The most tonally representative coverage comes via ABC World News Tonight, with its customary overwrought David Muir introduction to a Mary Bruce report:
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
2/26/25
6:32 PM
DAVID MUIR: But we do begin tonight with the scene playing out with President Trump and his Cabinet, and Elon Musk called on first. It was the president's first Cabinet meeting. The president inviting cameras in for more than an hour. His Cabinet secretaries sitting around the table, largely silent. The president first turning the floor over to Elon Musk, who defended his demand that some two million federal workers list what they’ve done in the last week, or risk being fired. And tonight, President Trump's new message to the million workers who haven't responded. ABC's Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce was in the room, she leads us off.
MARY BRUCE: Elon Musk didn't have a seat at the table at President Trump's first Cabinet meeting, the world's richest man sitting off to the side. Still, Trump making it clear Musk is the MVP, calling on him first.
The general gist of the media’s reporting on Elon’s appearance at the Cabinet meeting was mean girl hissing at his presence there. At ABC, there appears to be more of an effort to sow discord between President Donald Trump and Musk:
BRUCE: Sources tell us Musk has ruffled feathers within the Cabinet. Today, the president all but daring secretaries to speak up.
TRUMP: Let the Cabinet speak just for a second. (CROSSTALK) …unhappy with Elon. If you are, we'll throw them out of here. Is anybody unhappy? [ Applause ] I have a lot of respect for Elon and that he's doing this, and some disagree a little bit, but I will tell you for the most part, I think everyone's not only happy, they're thrilled.
BRUCE: But several Cabinet secretaries have objected to Musk's order to the more than 2 million federal workers: “send an email listing five things you accomplished last week or lose your job.” Several departments telling workers it's voluntary, or instructing them not to respond at all.
ABC’s report ended with awe at “the power of Elon Musk”, which was “on full display” according to Bruce. Over at CBS, the anchor introductions foretold more of a focus on the cuts than on Elon in the Cabinet meeting:
JOHN DICKERSON: The president signed yet another executive order today, this one giving still more power to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, to cut costs. The White House says the order is meant to, among other things, ensure that government employees are accountable to the American public.
MAURICE DUBOIS: That would be those government employees who are still employed, because Nancy Cordes at The White House tells us a lot more cuts are coming.
Nancy Cordes would go on to spotlight the coming cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, and examine the legality of firing of the Special Counsel. Her reporting ended with a reversion of sorts at the VA.
NBC took a similar path to ABC, highlighting Elon at the Cabinet meeting and attempting to drive a wedge:
LESTER HOLT: Good evening and welcome. Elon Musk was the headliner at President Trump's first Cabinet meeting today. The president surrounded by those at the seat of power in his administration. But it was Musk who held the floor, defending his work at DOGE as the president's budget cutter-in-chief, saying it was the president who encouraged him to be more aggressive. Warning the country is heading for bankruptcy, and admitting mistakes while promising to fix them. Meantime, given a chance to inject some clarity into whether federal workers could actually lose their jobs for failing to respond to that email asking employees to account for their accomplishments, President Trump instead answered with another loosely veiled threat, while Musk tried to downplay the email as a pulse check. It’s where we start here in Washington tonight, with NBC’s Garrett Haake.
Garrett Haake’s reporting was more of the same but included some items on Ukraine and Gaza, making the story more of a roundup instead of the Elon hate so prevalent these days.
If these reports are any indication, the media’s collective derangement over Musk and DOGE shows no signs of abating.
Click “expand" to view transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective evening newscasts on Wednesday, February 26th, 2025:
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
2/26/25
6:32 PM
DAVID MUIR: But we do begin tonight with the scene playing out with President Trump and his Cabinet, and Elon Musk called on first. It was the president's first Cabinet meeting. The president inviting cameras in for more than an hour. His Cabinet secretaries sitting around the table, largely silent. The president first turning the floor over to Elon Musk, who defended his demand that some two million federal workers list what they’ve done in the last week, or risk being fired. And tonight, President Trump's new message to the million workers who haven't responded. ABC's Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce was in the room, she leads us off.
MARY BRUCE Elon Musk didn't have a seat at the table at President Trump's first Cabinet meeting, the world's richest man sitting off to the side. Still, Trump making it clear Musk is the MVP, calling on him first.
DONALD TRUMP: So, I'm going to ask if it's possible to have Elon get up first and talk about DOGE.
BRUCE: As Cabinet secretaries looked on, Musk standing to address the cameras.
ELON MUSK: The overall goal here with the DOGE team is to help address the enormous deficit. We simply cannot sustain, as a country, a $2 trillion deficit.
BRUCE: Sources tell us Musk has ruffled feathers within the Cabinet. Today, the president all but daring secretaries to speak up.
TRUMP: Let the Cabinet speak just for a second. (CROSSTALK) …unhappy with Elon. If you are, we'll throw them out of here. Is anybody unhappy? [ Applause ] I have a lot of respect for Elon and that he's doing this, and some disagree a little bit, but I will tell you for the most part, I think everyone's not only happy, they're thrilled.
BRUCE: But several Cabinet secretaries have objected to Musk's order to the more than 2 million federal workers: “send an email listing five things you accomplished last week or lose your job.” Several departments telling workers it's voluntary, or instructing them not to respond at all.
MUSK: I think that email perhaps was misinterpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. Do you have a pulse?
BRUCE: The White House says more than 1 million employees have responded, roughly half of all federal workers.
Does that mean that the remaining 1 million or so federal employees now risk being terminated?
MUSK: I guess there was a- like last week, the president encouraged me via Truth Social and also via a phone call to be more aggressive and I was like, okay. You know? Yes, sir, Mr. President, we -- we'll indeed do that. Our goal is not to be capricious or unfair. It’s- we want to give people every opportunity to send an email. And the email could simply be: “what I'm working on is too sensitive or classified to describe.”
BRUCE: Then, the president jumping in.
TRUMP: I'd like to add that those million people that haven't responded, though, Elon, they are on the bubble, you know, I wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it. They -- maybe they're going to be gone.
BRUCE: It comes as Trump and Musk lay the groundwork to dramatically downsize the federal workforce. The administration today directing all federal agencies to submit plans for large scale layoffs and restructuring by March 13th. The president saying the Environmental Protection Agency could cut a full 65% of its workforce. The president fielding questions for over an hour, but only calling on three other Cabinet secretaries, and briefly the vice president. But Trump did make one thing clear. When he gives an order, he expects his team to follow it.
TRUMP: Oh, yeah, they'll follow the orders, yes, they will.
REPORTER: No exceptions.
TRUMP: No excep- well, let's see. Let me think -- oh, she'll have an exception. Of course no exceptions. You know that.
BRUCE: And the president today signing more executive orders to expand DOGE's cost-cutting efforts. David, in that room today, the power of Elon Musk in this administration on full display. David?
MUIR: Mary Bruce, who was in that meeting today. Mary, thank you.
CBS EVENING NEWS
2/26/25
6:36 PM
JOHN DICKERSON: The president signed yet another executive order today, this one giving still more power to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, to cut costs. The White House says the order is meant to, among other things, ensure that government employees are accountable to the American public.
MAURICE DUBOIS: That would be those government employees who are still employed, because Nancy Cordes at The White House tells us a lot more cuts are coming.
DONALD TRUMP: We have a lot of people that were scamming our country…
NANCY CORDES: Surrounded by his Cabinet, President Trump warned that far deeper cuts are coming than the ones imposed so far. Including, potentially, a 65% budget cut at the Environmental Protection Agency, which safeguards the nation's air and water.
TRUMP: This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting, and incompetently run.
CORDES: Just before he spoke, a memo went out to all government agency heads, instructing them to undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force, consistent with applicable law.
What is applicable law? Can they just fire anyone they want?
JIM EISENMANN: No, they can't just fire anyone they want.
CORDES: Jim Eisenmann is a labor lawyer who represents federal workers.
EISENMANN: Agencies are allowed, in certain circumstances, to conduct reductions in force. There’s a lack of money, lack of resources, lack of work. The longer you have been in a job, the greater the chance you have of staying in a job.
CORDES: In federal court today, U.S. Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger argued Trump hasn't followed the rules for firing newer workers. Dellinger's job is to protect federal employees, but The White House is trying to fire him.
HAMPTON DELLINGER We believed that this mass firing of probationary employees, based on the first complaints that we received about it, is in violation of the law.
CORDES: At his Cabinet meeting today, President Trump lavished praise on Elon Musk, who has rankled some Cabinet members by making cuts in their agencies without their buy-in.
TRUMP: Is anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, we'll throw ‘em out of here. [Laughter] Is anybody unhappy?
CORDES: Musk argued his work has come at a personal cost.
MUSK: I’m taking a lot of flak and getting a lot of death threats, by the way. But if we don't do this, America will go bankrupt. That's why it has to be done.
DICKERSON: And Nancy joins us now from Washington, and at The White House. Nancy, give us a sense of the timeline for this next wave of cuts.
CORDES: Well, John, according to this memo from the OMB, the agencies only have about two and a half weeks to submit their reduction-in-force plans, which is a very tight time frame when you consider that most of these Cabinet secretaries have only been on the job a couple of weeks themselves. They are still getting to know their agencies. Then they are going to have a proposed 30 days to plan for the cuts, and then by law they have to give employees 30-60 days notice of the reduction in force, so if they stick to the schedule we could be looking at major cuts as soon as May or June.
DUBOIS: Nancy, Musk said today, you know, “we are going to make mistakes and we're going to correct them”, but a main criticism of these firings is that they’ve been simply too fast, all of which brings us to what happened at the VA today.
CORDES: Right, so it was just a couple days ago that the VA secretary was touting $2 billion worth of cuts to contracts. But now all of those cuts have been put on hold after lawmakers complained that they were going to affect everything from veterans’ cancer care to doctor recruiting. Going forward, the VA now says they will only be cutting things that are not mission critical.
DICKERSON: Nancy Cordes at The White House. Thank you, Nancy.
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
2/26/25
6:31 PM
LESTER HOLT: Good evening and welcome. Elon Musk was the headliner at President Trump's first Cabinet meeting today. The president surrounded by those at the seat of power in his administration. But it was Musk who held the floor, defending his work at DOGE as the president's budget cutter-in-chief, saying it was the president who encouraged him to be more aggressive. Warning the country is heading for bankruptcy, and admitting mistakes while promising to fix them. Meantime, given a chance to inject some clarity into whether federal workers could actually lose their jobs for failing to respond to that email asking employees to account for their accomplishments, President Trump instead answered with another loosely veiled threat, while Musk tried to downplay the email as a pulse check. It’s where we start here in Washington tonight, with NBC’s Garrett Haake.
GARRETT HAAKE: Tonight, President Trump converting his first Cabinet meeting into a rolling press conference.
DONALD TRUMP: Illegal border crossings have plummeted.
HAAKE: Touting progress.
TRUMP: We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to. We're bloated, we’re sloppy, and we have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job.
HAAKE: And immediately turning the spotting not on a Cabinet member but on Elon Musk, head of his Department of Government Efficiency, to defend his controversial directive that all federal workers email a list of five accomplishments from last week, or face termination.
ELON MUSK: I think that email perhaps was misinterpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. If you have a pulse and two neurons you can respond to an email. This is, you know, I think not a high bar.
HAAKE: Musk was surrounded by several Cabinet members who pushed back on his order and instructed employees not to respond. Musk insisting that was fine.
MUSK: We're going to send another email. Our goal is not to be capricious or unfair. It could be just that I'm working on sensitive materials I can't describe .And the email could simply be: “what I'm working on is too sensitive or classified to describe.” Like, literally, that would be sufficient.
HAAKE: The president publicly backing Musk.
TRUMP: Elon, let the Cabinet speak just for a second. Is anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, we'll throw him out of here.
HAAKE: And warning federal workers who have not responded remain at risk of losing their job.
TRUMP: Those million people that haven’t responded though, Elon- they are on the bubble. Maybe they don't exist, maybe we're paying people that don't exist.
HAAKE: It comes as a new budget office memo obtained by NBC News instructs federal agencies to prepare for mass layoffs, as the Trump administration focuses on reducing federal spending.
MUSK: If we don't do this, America will go bankrupt.
HAAKE: While Musk acknowledging DOGE made mistakes, including cutting funding for ebola prevention.
MUSK: When we make a mistake, we’ll fix it very quickly. We restored the ebola prevention immediately. And there was no interruption
HAAKE: The president also making headlines on Ukraine, revealing President Zelenskyy will visit The White House Friday for the signing of an agreement to jointly develop the country’s valuable rare earth minerals to recoup billions in U.S. aid sent to Ukraine. The president suggesting the deal would form its own kind of security guarantee for Ukraine.
TRUMP: It’s sort of automatic security. Because nobody’s going to be messing around with our people when we’re there.
HAAKE: And saying for the first time Russian president Putin will have to make concessions.
TRUMP: He will. He’s going to have to.
HAAKE: Vice President Vance heading off a question about what exactly those concessions would be.
JD VANCE: We're not going to do the negotiation in public with the American media. He's doing the job of a diplomat.
HAAKE: The president also speaking about the Middle East, after posting this AI-generated video featuring his name and face in a future redeveloped Gaza, a reference to his controversial plan to take over and rebuild it, opposed by key Arab allies. The president today slamming Hamas for how it's handled the latest release of dead hostages as the ceasefire deal moves into a potential second phase.
TRUMP: This is a vicious group of people, and Israel has to decide what they're doing.
HOLT: And Garrett, late today President Trump signed another executive order regarding DOGE. What did it say?
HAAKE: Yeah, Lester, this new order is aimed at cutting more spending and mandates, with some expectations, that employees’ government credit cards are frozen for 30 days, and that nonessential travel has to be justified and publicly posted when possible. Lester.
HOLT: All right. Garrett Haake, thank you.