Elon Musk wants a government shutdown so it's easier to fire federal workers: report

Elon Musk wants the government to shut down so it's easier for his DOGE team to get ax hundreds of thousands of federal workers, according to a new report.

WIRED cited four anonymous government sources for the story that comes as the House is set to vote on a spending bill in order to prevent a shutdown. Democrats have said they're against the stopgap measure, claiming it threatens entitlements like Social Security.

A Republican "familiar with the situation" told WIRED, “A shutdown has been his preference. I think he’s boxed in there by the president. I think it would be really hard for him to get around that.”

The report quoted a second Republican source as saying that "the billionaire’s goal is for the continuing resolution (CR) to tank, if only to achieve a brief government shutdown," while a third Republican source told the outlet, "You know none of this is about saving money, right? It’s all about destroying a liberal power base.”

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The report claimed that federal employees have been worried that even a temporary shutdown could lead to permanent cuts. “There are concerns anyone deemed nonessential will be DOGE’d,” a State Department employee told WIRED.

"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," the reporters wrote.

"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," the report said, citing a Musk interview from February when he said, “If the job is not essential, or they are not doing it well, they obviously shouldn’t be on the public payroll.”

WIRED quoted a professor of public policy as saying, "A shutdown is aligned with the goals of DOGE. In the president's executive order, he told DOGE to focus on nonessential employees, which is to say employees who are designated as nonessential during government shutdowns.”

WIRED said Musk and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Read the WIRED article here.