Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs With surprising speed and the support of President Trump, the billionaire Elon Musk and the employees of his newly created cost-cutting outfit have laid off thousands of federal workers, gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development, and put on hold dozens of health research efforts.Many of those swift changes to the federal bureaucracy are being challenged in court. And over the weekend some Republican members of Congress faced angry constituents during visits to their districts.Reporters from The Times asked dozens of people of both parties and around the country about Mr. Musk’s role in the government so far. Here are some of the responses, from those who welcomed the swift actions, others who expressed concern and questioned Mr. Musk’s authority, and some who seemed baffled by what the unelected businessman was doing.Damian Conley, 51, Caledonia, Wis.Voted for Trump in 2024“If he’s doing what he says he’s doing — looking for government cuts and waste — I’m all for it, because our deficit can’t keep going the way it’s going again,” Mr. Conley said of Mr. Musk.“If he’s, I don’t know, skirting the system and trying to cut stuff that doesn’t need to be cut, then I’m going to have problems with it.” Mr. Conley, who voted for Barack Obama before sitting out 2016 and 2020, said he was still waiting and watching. “It’s too early in the presidency to know what’s going happen.”Matt Shockley, 54, Tucker County, W.Va.Voted for Trump“He’s just an employee,” said Mr. Shockley of Mr. Musk: if he does a bad job, they’ll fire him. “Pay attention to what he’s doing, not what he’s saying and some stupid chain saw he’s running around with.”Emily Ainaire, 33, Dover, N.H.Voted for Kamala Harris“I don’t understand why there aren’t more people questioning it and just letting it happen,” she said. “He was just dropped in there and everybody said, ‘Sure.’”David Hite, 63, Bay Area, Calif.Voted for Harris“Is he the right guy or the wrong guy for that job? I don’t know, but decisions have got to be made to reduce debt and spending,” Mr. Hite said. “I’d just like to see those decisions be made transparently, really well-explained, and the data that they’re seeing more proactively available.”Michael Borg, 61, Loudoun County, Va.Voted for Trump“I think he’s highlighted some things, like with U.S.A.I.D. and other agencies that are important, but I also think that there are things that U.S.A.I.D. has done that are good,” said Mr. Borg, who initially opposed Mr. Trump in 2015 before supporting him in 2024. “There’s got to be a balance. So, the pendulum for decades was in one direction, now it’s swung to another. And I think there’ll be a balance.”Scott Meyer, 62, Davis, W.Va.Voted for Trump“I laughed so hard that they scream like they do about the ways that Elon’s got access to your information,” said Mr. Meyer. “Did people forget he did PayPal and all that stuff, and everything else that they just freely gave up? They didn’t think about like when you signed up on Zelle to put money in your phone. You just gave it all up, and you give it up daily, without a care in the world.”Maggie Keane, 32, Thomas, W.V.Voted for Harris“He’s not an elected official. It’s very much overstepping. Elon is just a rich guy who’s taking control of things, and that doesn’t feel like democracy to me.”Katrina Co, 43, Norcross, Ga.Voted for Harris“He has no business gutting our government the way he is doing. He and Donald Trump are actively dismantling the government for their own twisted reasons.”Dannie Hinton, 60, Louisville, Ky.Voted for Trump“I am torn,” said Mr. Hinton, adding that while he trusts Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk sometimes scared him. “He is a business man and a genius, but I don’t know what his intentions are. Everybody in politics needs to be more clear about what they want.”Elliot Baker, 75, Portsmouth, N.H.Voted for Harris“Elon Musk is a brilliant man, and we need brilliant men. He’s a creator. He’s created a bunch of stuff which has benefited us. But he has, I think, gotten caught up in his own comic book. And power, it does corrupt.”Ken Gordon, 64, Monterey, Calif.Did not vote“If they didn’t do it how they’re doing it, would we have gotten anywhere?” said Mr. Gordon, who voted for Mr. Trump in 2016, Mr. Biden in 2020, and did not vote in 2024. “Or would we just be sitting around a table with everybody hemming and hawing and talking about doing something versus just going in there and slashing and burning what we need to slash and burn?”He added: “If we’re gentle, I don’t know if it would work.”Bob Beaudette, 79, Phoenix, Ariz.Voted for Trump“If he’s really finding all this fraud, more power to him. Finding Social Security payments to people who are over 100 years, if someone still getting a paycheck, that’s ridiculous,” he said, acknowledging that some claims about abuse, such as the checks to centenarians, had been disputed. “Hopefully the truth will emerge.”Noah Beljaars, 21, Flagstaff, Ariz.Voted for Harris“My dad voted Republican and has a more optimistic view of Musk. I think what he’s doing is unconstitutional at best and he’s borderline fascist.”Tim Schock, 58, Spring Valley, Calif.Did not vote“So it’s OK for us to go and get audited, but it’s not OK for the government to get audited? Too bad. Because I’m the employer, and they’re the employees,” said Mr. Schock, who said he would have voted for Mr. Trump but was out of state during the election. “If I’m getting 45 cents out of every dollar I make going over to this and this project and that and that project, well, I have the right to know why, and where it’s going. And if I don’t like it, then don’t send it.”Mariana Cardenas, 43, Chula Vista, Calif.Did not vote“I believe he’s a very smart man for what he does. But I don’t think he belongs where he’s at right now,” said Ms. Cardenas, a green card holder who immigrated from Mexico in 2000. “Like my grandma used to say, shoemaker needs to be making shoes. Shoemaker, go back to making shoes!”
