(Updates headline)

By Alexandra Ulmer, Gram Slattery and Nandita Bose

Feb 14 (Reuters) - As tech billionaire Elon Musk expands

his influence over more than a dozen U.S. federal agencies,

frustration is growing among some top aides to President Donald

Trump, who want more coordination from Musk's team as he slashes

the U.S. government, according to four people aware of the

tensions.

Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and her team have at times

felt out of the loop as Musk's so-called Department of

Government Efficiency seeks to fire thousands of federal workers

while accessing sensitive data and disrupting operations, the

four people said. Wiles and some of her top aides spoke to Musk

recently about the issues, according to one of the sources.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Musk

projected alignment between himself, his tight-knit group of

DOGE staffers and Trump. But underlying tensions with some White

House officials highlight potential difficulties for Trump in

balancing his core team with Musk's DOGE staff as they upend

agencies in a sweeping restructuring that has challenged

congressional authority and faced a series of lawsuits.

In the recent conversation, Wiles and her staff delivered a

message to Musk: "We need to message all this. We need to be

looped in," according to the source familiar with the encounter.

Reuters was not able to determine the specific date they spoke

or what, if any, changes Musk made after that conversation. The

source added that Trump himself continued to speak positively

about Musk to donors and others.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment. The White House

declined to comment. An official with knowledge of the matter

pushed back at the sources' description of tensions, saying

initial "operational hiccups" had been smoothed out. Musk sends

reports to Wiles at the end of each day and they speak by phone

almost every day, the official said.

The official added that it was Musk's idea to speak with

reporters on Tuesday at the Oval Office with his four-year-old

son by his side. "He showed up with his kid. We rolled with it,"

the official said.

On Tuesday, Trump issued an executive order that expanded Musk's

power over the federal bureaucracy, requiring federal agencies

to work with DOGE to make large workforce reductions and limit

hiring. The order calls for DOGE to station a "team lead" at

every government agency who will oversee all hiring decisions.

"This is a unified team," White House press secretary Karoline

Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday. "Elon Musk is serving at

the pleasure of the president, just like everybody else on this

team. He takes directives directly from the president of the

United States."

In a subsequent statement to Reuters on Friday after this

story was published, Leavitt said: "This story is complete

bullshit from unknown sources who have no idea what they are

talking about."

At the Oval Office news conference, with Trump beside him, Musk

defended his role as an unelected official who has been granted

unprecedented authority by the Republican president to dismantle

parts of the U.S. government. He told reporters he speaks to

Trump nearly every day, saying his work is in the interest of

the public and democracy.

"The people voted for major government reform, and that's what

people are going to get," said Musk. "All of our actions are

maximally transparent."

DOGE, however, has operated in deep secrecy. It has provided

almost no information on whom it employs, where it is operating

or what actions it is taking inside government agencies. It

posts little information about its work, providing only dollar

figures for purported cuts in specific agencies and little

concrete detail. It has stunned federal employees, sending its

members into at least 15 agencies and gaining access to

sensitive data. As a "special government employee," Musk's

financial disclosure filings will not be made public, the White

House has said.

One of the four sources said that Wiles was not upset with

Musk's efforts to dismantle government agencies and downsize the

federal workforce, but rather with his approach. Wiles, one of

the two managers of Trump's 2024 election campaign, wants Musk

and DOGE to keep her team informed and work in a more orderly

fashion, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the

matter.

"There is some frustration, but it's overblown to say it's a

rift," the source said.

The fourth source, an associate of high-ranking White House

officials, described the friction as more serious and said

Wiles' subordinates had expressed discomfort over information

that Musk released on his social media platform X before it had

been vetted by senior White House staff. "They're definitely

finding things out on Twitter."

CONCERN OVER EMAILS

One point of contention is a series of emails that Musk

associates began sending out to federal employees, including a

January 28 message offering two million federal workers

financial incentives to quit. Wiles and her team did not sign

off on some of those emails, according to one of the four

sources and a separate, fifth, source close to Trump.

To be sure, many of Trump's close allies and White House aides

appear to revel in Musk's uncompromising style of governance.

But his backing is far from unanimous, according to Reuters

interviews.

Musk, the world's richest person, spent over a quarter of a

billion dollars to help Trump win last year's presidential

election. After Trump's November victory, Musk began to spend

extended periods of time with Trump, who has called Musk

"fantastic" and praised DOGE staffers as a group of "super

geniuses."

As chief of staff, Wiles is one of Washington's top power

brokers. Under her management, Trump's latest presidential

campaign was widely praised as his most disciplined to date. She

has a reputation for being self-effacing, turning down an

invitation from Trump to speak to the crowd on the night he won

the election. Multiple White House officials said they've never

heard her raise her voice. She is often spotted by Trump's side

while traveling on Air Force One. On a recent trip to

California, when the cameras turned in her direction, she moved

away.

Musk, meanwhile, is known for his intense, freewheeling approach

to work and his enthusiasm for the limelight. He often posts

dozens of times a day on his social media platform X, takes

suggestions from site users and touts his propensity to work

through the weekend.

(Ulmer reported from San Francisco. Slattery and Bose reported

from Washington. Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve

Holland. Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jason Szep)