It really is Watters’ World.
When the sweeping job cuts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) got a little too close to home for Jesse Watters last month, the Fox News host argued that the agency should use more discretion when deciding on which employees to lay off.
Those comments apparently reached the ear of Donald Trump himself, and likely led the president to rein in Elon Musk last week, according to a new report in The Atlantic.
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On the Feb. 19 broadcast of The Five, Watters said a friend of his—a veteran—who works for the Pentagon told him that he would likely be laid off.
“Veterans should get priority” when it comes to exemptions from layoffs, Watters said, urging his media colleagues to discuss DOGE’s cuts in “less callous” a manner.
“I finally found one person I knew that got DOGE’d and it hit me in the heart,” Watters said.
After Watters’ impassioned plea, Trump asked his advisers if what the Fox News host said was striking a chord with his supporters, The Atlantic reported, citing a White House official.
And in the ensuing weeks, the report continued, Trump wasn’t keen on how the DOGE cuts were playing on television—optics that included Republican members of Congress being confronted by angry constituents during town halls.
His frustration boiled over last Thursday during a Cabinet meeting with Musk present. Trump told the billionaire to replace his “chainsaw” with a “scalpel” in order to more judiciously carry out cuts to the federal government.
His Cabinet secretaries, Trump added, would now have final say on staffing and policy—not Musk.
Still, the Tesla CEO would remain a key presence in the administration, Trump reminded his Cabinet. If they didn’t heed his instructions to cut their departments’ budgets and fire huge chunks of their staffs, Musk would still be there to step in and do it for them.
“I want them to do the best job they can. When we have good people, that’s precious. That’s very important. And we want them to keep the good people,” Trump told reporters, recounting what he had said in the meeting.
“So, we’re going to be watching them. Elon and the group are going to be watching them. If they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”
