President Trump now says his cabinet secretaries will be the ones to make staffing decisions,

not Elon Musk and his doge entity. But is that how things are really going to work?

I'm Scott Simon. I'm Ia Jorosko, and this is up first from NPR News.

I want the cabinet members to keep good people.

I don't want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut.

That's what the president said, but there have already been some big cuts.

We'll look at who's actually calling the shots.

We'll also hear how federal employees at one agency feel about those efforts.

Plus, five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we'll look at the efforts to treat

long COVID. So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. President Trump said he wants to work with his captain secretaries to work with Elon Musk on

staffing decisions. It almost sounds like he might be stripping some of that power away from

Musk and his Doge entity.

But is he? NPR senior editor and correspondent Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks for being with us.

Good to be with this, Scott. Well, what are we seeing? Are they putting a leash on that doge?

It's been sold that way, like it's Trump siding with his cabinet over Musk. But if you listen to that clip we just

heard, it still seems that Musk gets to come along, batting cleanup, and deciding whether

the cabinet secretaries and other Senate-confirmed officials have done enough. So who decides

what's enough? Is it Musk or is it Trump himself? And do we know whether that's really a

difference? The New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan have reported that there

have been clashes between Musk and members of the cabinet, including Secretary of State Marco

Rubio, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, both of whom were reported to have been scolded by Musk for not

cutting enough and for having too many DEI hires still working for their departments.

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