Top Treasury officials have complained about disruption. The secretary of state has pushed back on staff cuts. Inside the Education and Health and Human Services departments, political appointees have been informed - not consulted - about canceled grants and contracts,

Trump praised Musk's efforts to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy and then called on him to do even more.

The decision to fire Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star fighter pilot, broke a tradition in which the Joint Chiefs chairman remains in place with a new president.