Elon Musk threw a tantrum after his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was dealt a series of legal setbacks, immediately calling for the impeachment of federal judges.
“Without judicial reform, which means at least the absolute worst judges get impeached, we don’t have real democracy in America,” Musk said on X.
He reacted after federal agencies were ordered on Thursday to immediately reinstate tens of thousands of federal workers with probationary status who had been laid off by DOGE as part of its sweeping government cost-cutting efforts, dealing a blow to Musk, as he seeks to eventually reduce the deficit by $1 trillion.
ADVERTISEMENT
Musk has been on a mission since President Donald Trump returned to the White House to overhaul the federal workforce, and has claimed to have slashed tens of billions in wasteful spending so far—partly by firing thousands of federal workers across multiple agencies.
A multistate lawsuit had accused the federal government of unlawfully firing tens of thousands of probationary employees and claimed the terminations occurred without transparency, placing excessive strain on state unemployment support systems and causing economic damage.
In response, an order by Judge James Bredar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland—which expires March 27—requires that 18 federal agencies must offer jobs back to the probationary workers affected since Trump took office. They have until 1 p.m. Monday to rehire their terminated employees, The Washington Post reported.
Earlier on Thursday in California, federal Judge William H. Alsup ruled that laid off probationary hires at the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, and the Department of the Treasury must be rehired.
“It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said during a court hearing Thursday.
He said the government was clearly hiding something after it refused to let Chad Ezell, the head of the Office of Personnel Management, testify in the case.
“That’s a sham,” he said before handing down his ruling.
DOGE has claimed to have slashed $115 billion in wasteful spending since Jan. 20, through a combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.
Tech billionaire Musk and the Trump administration have been on a campaign to discredit federal judges who stand in the way of DOGE’s cost-cutting quest, Reuters reported on March 6, citing several judges with knowledge of the matter.
The news agency noted that since the end of January, Musk has lashed out at judges in more than 30 posts on X, calling them “corrupt,” “radical,” and “evil,” after they dealt DOGE legal blows.
Some federal judges who spoke with Reuters said they have concerns over their safety in light of Musk’s social media threats.
