Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made tremendous strides in the attempt to slash government waste, which included eliminating tens of thousands of government jobs.

However, according to the Daily Mail, the time has come for Musk to take more of an observation and recommendation role as President Donald Trump pumped the brakes -- to some degree -- on the government cuts.

Trump, during a meeting with Musk this week, said that it's now time to leave the hiring and firing to his Cabinet heads, but is still able to make recommendations to those department heads as he sees fit.

The move also comes as some Senate Republicans have suggested in recent days that Musk and DOGE need to go through Congress to make the level of cuts they're continuing to make.

What's going on?

The aforementioned Senate Republicans don't necessarily dislike what Musk is doing, but warned that it'll be more legally sound to go through Congress to make cuts to avoid the constant stream of legal battles.

Musk's cuts, which have been approved by the president, have been met with extreme legal resistance and have even reached the steps of the U.S Supreme Court with unfavorable outcomes.

"I don’t want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut," Trump said, after Musk promised at a CPAC event to take a "chainsaw" to government bureaucracy.

"Elon and the group are going to be watching them, and if they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting," Trump added.

The Daily Mail noted:

The president also made billionaire Elon Musk's role very clear – he is not in charge of hiring and firing, but rather can make recommendations to agency heads.

Trump told his top leaders that they need to be more selective if they continue to conduct clear-outs of their workforce. Instead of taking a 'hatchet' approach to trimming the fat, Trump wants his secretaries to use a 'scalpel' for 'surgical' precision over who they dismiss.

Musk's cuts have sent the left into hysterics, serving only to ramp up their Trump Derangement Syndrome to new levels of crazy.

More battles to come

Musk is already facing a mounting resistance effort on the left.

The Daily Mail noted:

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are introducing a pair of resolutions demanding the Trump administration turn over documents about the billionaire adviser's potential conflicts of interest and the firings of federal workers.

Still, millions of Americans fully support Musk's efforts to trim the extreme amount of fat on the belly of the government, and many hope Trump will continue to listen to his advice.

Only time will tell how much money Musk saves the American taxpayer, but undoubtedly it will be a staggeringly high number.