• Trump says he wants his Cabinet to lead his federal overhaul, not Elon Musk.
• Musk has had broad authority to reshape the government, but Trump now appears to be tightening his leash.
• Lawmakers and judges express concern over DOGE's rapid cuts and unclear leadership.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he wants his Cabinet to lead the overhaul of the federal government, not DOGE's de facto leader, Elon Musk.

"I had a meeting, I said I want the Cabinet members to go first, keep all the people you want, everybody you need," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "It would be better if they were there for two years instead of two weeks, because in two years they'll know the people better. I want them to do the best job they can."

Trump appears to be trimming Musk's mandate after essentially allowing the White House DOGE office unrestrained authority to reshape the federal government. Musk has frequently bragged about all the things he's done as the unofficial leader of DOGE to gut the federal workforce, like offering millions of staffers a buyout, and to reduce government spending, like "feeding USAID into the "wood chipper."

It doesn't mean Trump is upset with Musk. Trump told reporters the billionaire is doing "an amazing job" and rejected the idea that the DOGE office was moving too quickly. At the same time, Trump still wanted his Cabinet to assert more power when it comes to cutting staff.

Although DOGE was originally Musk's idea, now that the task force has an official administrator, Trump is distancing the billionaire from it, at least in some public channels.

"We say the 'scalpel' rather than the 'hatchet,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level."

Lawyers suing the DOGE office noted Trump's comments during his address to Congress on Tuesday when he twice called Musk the "head" of DOGE. A White House official had previously declared in court that Musk is not leading the DOGE office.

Members of Congress, including some Republicans, have expressed unease with the extent and speed of DOGE's cuts. Some of those lawmakers had received an earful from their constituents when they returned home. Federal judges have also taken issue with some of the DOGE-linked cuts.

Multiple times Justice Department lawyers haven't been able to answer who leads the DOGE office or whether that command structure had changed. These questions still remained after the White House named Amy Gleason as acting administrator of the DOGE office. Trump has blurred that line repeatedly by saying Musk leads DOGE, even though the world's richest man isn't a DOGE office employee.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Instagram has a new app to rival TikTok's editing app CapCut.
• The "Edits" app launches on March 31, and some creators already have access.
• A new tag will appear for videos that are edited in the app.

Instagram's battle with TikTok has entered the video editing realm.

In January, the Meta-owned platform announced it would launch "Edits," a separate app for editing videos, this year. It's a clear move to compete with TikTok parent ByteDance's own editing app, CapCut, which could also stop operating in the US due to a divest-or-ban law.

This week, Instagram began adding a label to some videos with a "Made with Edits" tag on posts. When you click on the tag, it prompts you to pre-download the Edits app, which is slated to launch on March 31. On TikTok, videos edited in CapCut using templates have a similar tag directing users to CapCut.

If a video is edited in the Edits app and someone posts the video to Instagram from Edits, the tag will appear.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri, Instagram's top executive, posted reels with this tag this week. The "Made with Edits" label will soon appear on more videos as Instagram onboards creators who have been given early access to test the app. One talent manager told BI that one of their creator clients already had access.

Reels made in Edits will also be optimized for higher-resolution video — up to 2K resolution. (Last month, some users spotted this language in the Instagram app when posting reels: "Reels made with Edits are optimized for high-quality playback on Instagram.")

You may be asking: Will this affect how reels perform or are ranked on Instagram?

As of now, Instagram is not giving preferential ranking to reels with the "Made with Edits" tag, the company confirmed to BI.

• Sam Bankman-Fried's crisis PR rep didn't know about his interview with Tucker Carlson.
• The rep, Mark Botnick, resigned from the role on Thursday.
• The crypto scammer is reportedly seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump.

Tucker Carlson's jailhouse interview with Sam Bankman-Fried came as a surprise to everyone — including the crypto scammer's crisis manager.

Mark Botnick, who had represented Bankman-Fried since the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November 2022, resigned from his role on Thursday after learning of the interview.

He told Business Insider that he had no involvement in planning the interview with Carlson, which was posted to social media outlets on Thursday afternoon — Bankman-Fried's 33rd birthday.

"As of today, I no longer represent SBF," Botnick told BI.

Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty in 2023 of an $11 billion fraud and money-laundering scheme through his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.

Botnick is a seasoned public relations operative, having worked on several political campaigns for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He represented Bankman-Fried through the turbulent waves of his criminal case, including when he violated the terms of his bail and was jailed ahead of his trial due to witness tampering.

In recent weeks, Bankman-Fried has gone off-script. He posted messages on X offering advice on the Trump administration's efforts to fire federal employees. Botnick told BI that he was not involved in those X posts and is unsure who posted them on his behalf.

Bankman-Fried's conversations with journalists have gotten him in trouble before. His interviews with The Financial Times, Bloomberg News, and Vox were cited in his criminal trial as evidence of how he misled FTX investors and customers.

Botnick referred additional questions about Bankman-Fried to his criminal appeals attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, who didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

A representative for the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Bankman-Fried is incarcerated, declined to comment on his interview with Carlson. A representative for Carlson's media company didn't respond to a request for comment.

The former crypto mogul — who once had an on-paper net worth of over $26 billion — has been fishing for a pardon from President Donald Trump, Bloomberg News reported.

Trump and Bankman-Fried may have some perceived enemies in common, although Bankman-Fried didn't raise the issue with Carlson, a staunch Trump ally.

The federal judge who oversaw Bankman-Fried's trial and sentenced him, Lewis Kaplan, also oversaw two cases that the writer E. Jean Carroll successfully brought against Trump. Danielle Sassoon, the lead prosecutor in Bankman-Fried's criminal case, resigned as the acting head of the US Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York after refusing a demand from a Trump-appointed Justice Department official to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Carlson raised the question of a potential pardon in the interview.

"If you are not pardoned, how old will you be when you get out?" he asked Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried said he'll be in his late 40s.

During FTX's collapse, in 2022, Bankman-Fried had considered an interview with Carlson, a Fox News host at the time, to "come out as a republican" and rail "against the woke agenda" as a way to restore his reputation, he wrote in a Google Document that became public as part of his criminal case.

"Note: these are all random probably bad ideas that aren't vetted," Bankman-Fried wrote at the top of the document.

Austin Cindric was handed a $50,000 fine and deducted 50 points for his wreck with Ty Dillon at COTA.

Barrett and Roberts have signaled a willingness to act, at least at times, as a check on Trump's efforts to expand his power.

WWE Evolution 2 could soon become a reality.

We predict the most likely characters to guest star in 'Daredevil: Born Again.'

The animal rescue believes the 9-year-old dog would do best in a home where she is the only dog.

Musk has recently been under fire for spearheading mass firings of federal workers and other cost-cutting measures.

The president said it is a "50-50 issue" while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

• GOP senators got a hold of Elon Musk's cell phone number this week.
• They don't want to talk about it.
• Having a direct line to Musk is a hot commodity in the age of DOGE.

Republican senators just got their hands on Elon Musk's cell phone number, giving them a direct line to the man who's been reshaping the federal bureaucracy at President Donald Trump's behest.

Many of them don't want to talk about it.

"I'm not gonna answer that question, okay? What's your next one?" Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said. "I don't think it's anyone's business."

Business Insider approached half a dozen Republican senators at the Capitol on Thursday to ask them if they've had any text conversations with Musk, or whether they anticipate doing so in the future. Only one — Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — confirmed CNN's reporting that Musk gave out his number during a lunch with most Senate Republicans on Wednesday.

"I haven't texted with him. I don't have a need to do that," Tillis told BI, adding that if DOGE is "going into any areas where we're looking at potential job impacts or other impacts, I know I can give him a call."

Having the power to call up Musk is a precious commodity in the age of DOGE, with the promise of influencing the man who's been working with a team of lieutenants to shutter whole agencies, access sensitive systems, and choke off streams of federal funding — all without the formal input of Congress. At times, his power has seemed to exceed that of Cabinet secretaries and rival that of Trump himself.

Perhaps that's why some GOP senators don't want to even acknowledge whether they were offered his number.

"I'm not getting into all that. If you have a policy question, I'm happy to answer that," Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told BI. "That's all I got for you. Sorry."

"I'm not gonna confirm or deny that," Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri told BI. "I've met with him twice in the last two weeks. He's been very accessible."

There's also an awareness of the power that Musk — not just the de facto head of DOGE, but the owner of what may be the world's most important communication platform, X — holds relative to them. And some of them don't hide their own sense of awe at the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.

Sen. Ted Cruz did not confirm or deny that Musk gave out his number on Wednesday. But the Texas Republican said he's had Musk's number for years and that he's a "good friend." When asked what the billionaire businessman is like over text, Cruz launched into a two-and-a-half minute-long disquisition about Musk's brilliance and business acumen.

"If you assume that intelligence is distributed on a bell curve there are roughly 8 billion people on Planet Earth, somebody has to be at the bleeding edge of the bell curve, and his name is Elon," Cruz said. "I have been blessed to know many really smart people. I've never met anyone remotely like Elon Musk."

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — who said his own hypothetical text communication with Musk would "remain private" — said that he and his colleagues were being coy about having Musk's number because they're "sensitive about people having access" and the potential for "abuse."

Then he also offered some unsolicited praise for Musk.

"I think he's a remarkable individual. He's probably one of the more brilliant, accomplished, effective human beings ever to walk the face of the Earth," Johnson said, adding that he's "very appreciative of the fact that he's willing to devote his very expensive time" to DOGE.

Wednesday's lunch with GOP senators was just one of several meetings that Musk has had with congressional Republicans in the last two weeks. Later that day, he met with a larger group of House Republicans, plus a smaller meeting with the Republicans on the DOGE subcommittee. That's on top of a meeting last Thursday with the Senate DOGE Caucus and a meeting on Tuesday night with House Speaker Mike Johnson.

It comes as some Republicans grow anxious about the lack of congressional input over DOGE's spending decisions, with some urging the White House to send federal spending cuts to Congress in the form of a "recission" bill, as required under the Impoundment Control Act. Sen. Johnson told BI he wanted to see votes on recissions "every few weeks."

For now, it appears that Musk is only giving out his cellphone number to senators. Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, the chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, told BI that Musk didn't read out his number during his meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday night.

"I probably would have been writing it down if he did," Harris said, even as he insisted that he didn't feel slighted. "He's readily available, he's a day-to-day person who's dedicated to bringing the Trump agenda to fruition. So I'm perfectly happy with that. I don't need a phone number."

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, a Republican DOGE subcommittee member, told BI that he's "not going to comment" on whether he had Musk's number. But he also said he wouldn't be texting him.

"I'm not going to be one of those that bothers him," Burchett said.

Bay Hill once again proved to be a tough test of golf for everyone in the Arnold Palmer Invitational field, and Keegan Bradley summed it up perfectly.

MLB spring training continues on Thursday in Grapefruit League action as the Houston Astros face Juan Soto and the New York Mets.

The health insurance industry has been under intense scrutiny in the months following the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he has discussed moving student loans to either Treasury or Commerce or the SBA.

The powerful synthetic opioid was responsible for more than 107,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2023.

A few months later he learned the shell he picked up was venomous.

President Trump has been highly critical of the Department of Education since his return to office.

Senator Lisa Murkowski said that layoffs are being handled in a "confusing and callous" manner.

The Cleveland Guardians re-signed a free agent with eight years of MLB experience as an outfielder as he attempts to convert to pitching.