As President Donald Trump has been working to maintain cohesion among House Republicans regarding a continuing resolution aimed at keeping the government operational through the fall, billionaire Elon Musk has signaled a preference for a government shutdown, according to four sources familiar with his stance, as reported by WIRED.
Sources inform WIRED that Musk has advocated for a government shutdown—an objective that conflicts with the White House’s expressed intention to prevent one—partly because it might simplify the process of eliminating the jobs of hundreds of thousands of federal employees, effectively leading to a permanent shutdown. The sources, who have been granted anonymity by WIRED, specifically requested a general description due to the sensitive nature of Musk’s support for a shutdown.
“A shutdown is what he prefers,” says a Republican familiar with the matter, referring to Musk. “I think he’s constrained by the president. It would be quite challenging for him to navigate around that.”
Another Republican, who was privy to Musk’s inclination toward a government shutdown, stated that the billionaire’s aim is for the continuing resolution—a temporary funding measure for government operations—to fall through, even if it only leads to a short-lived government shutdown.
“You do realize none of this is about cost-cutting, right?” remarks a third Republican acquainted with Musk’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering. “It’s all about dismantling a liberal power structure.”
Neither Musk nor the White House responded promptly to requests for comments.
The potential shutdown comes as Musk’s self-proclaimed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already trimmed the federal workforce by tens of thousands of positions. Should a government shutdown take place, numerous federal agencies and programs would effectively halt operations. Agencies like the FBI and others involved in law enforcement and security would continue to function at a baseline level—though some employees may not receive pay until after the shutdown concludes—and critical services such as Social Security payments would remain largely unaffected. Each agency has established a shutdown plan, but most agencies would still feel the impact.
In anticipation of a shutdown, federal workers are categorized as either essential or nonessential, with nonessential employees furloughed and prohibited from working until the resumption of operations. As per federal contingency plans compiled by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service in 2023, when the risk of a federal shutdown was narrowly mitigated, the number of employees likely to be furloughed was approximately 850,000, with around 410,000 of those outside the Department of Defense.
Annual federal personnel costs, which include military expenditures, total about $340 billion, meaning that even if all of the one-third of federal workers deemed nonessential were terminated, it could potentially save around $110 billion a year. This amount is a small fraction of the $1 trillion in annual federal spending that Musk has indicated he wishes to cut.
Musk has previously discussed the idea of eliminating so-called nonessential employees—many of whom carry out vital tasks such as food inspections, processing applications for assistance programs, and gathering weather data. “If a job is not essential, or if they aren’t performing well, they certainly shouldn’t be on the public payroll,” Musk remarked to reporters in late February, according to The New Yorker.
