As President Donald Trump has been trying to keep House Republicans in line over a continuing resolution to keep the government open through the fall, Elon Musk has expressed a desire for a government shutdown, four sources familiar with his position tell WIRED.
Sources also tell WIRED that Musk has wanted a government shutdown—an aim that runs contrary to the White House’s stated desire to avoid one—in part because it would potentially make it easier to eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, essentially achieving a permanent shutdown. The sources, whom WIRED has granted anonymity, specifically asked to be described generically because information about Musk’s support for a shutdown is closely held.
“A shutdown has been his preference,” says one Republican familiar with the situation, referring to Musk. “I think he’s boxed in there by the president. I think it would be really hard for him to get around that.”
A second Republican who had heard about Musk’s desire for a government shutdown tells WIRED that the billionaire’s goal is for the continuing resolution—a spending bill to temporarily fund the government—to tank, if only to achieve a brief government shutdown.
“You know none of this is about saving money, right?” says a third Republican familiar with the behind-the-scenes push from Musk. “It’s all about destroying a liberal power base.”
Musk and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The possible shutdown looms as Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has slashed its way through the government, eliminating the positions of an estimated tens of thousands of workers. If a government shutdown occurs, many federal agencies and programs would be essentially put on ice. Agencies like the FBI and others with law enforcement and security functions would largely continue to operate as normal—albeit with some government workers not being paid until after the end of the shutdown—and critical functions like the issuance of Social Security checks would not be directly affected. Every department has a shutdown plan, though, and most would be impacted.
Ahead of a shutdown, federal employees are effectively classified into essential or nonessential work, with nonessential employees furloughed and not allowed to work until the shutdown ends. According to federal agency contingency plans compiled by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service in 2023, when a federal shutdown was narrowly averted, the pool of workers who would be subject to being furloughed then numbered about 850,000, with about 410,000 of those being outside the Department of Defense.
Federal personnel costs, including military spending, amount to about $340 billion annually, so even laying off all of the third or so of federal workers considered nonessential could possibly save about $110 billion a year—a fraction of the $1 trillion in annual federal spending Musk has claimed he wants to eliminate.
Musk has spoken about removing so-called nonessential workers—many of whom perform critical tasks like inspecting food, processing applications for benefits programs, and collecting weather data—before. “If the job is not essential, or they are not doing it well, they obviously shouldn’t be on the public payroll,” Musk told reporters in late February, according to The New Yorker.
