slash

They worried companies would pass on the extra labor costs to customers through higher product prices, and would try to save money by laying off staff, slashing employee hours and replacing workers with automation.

These include lowering energy costs through more fossil fuel production and appointing the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, to slash government spending.

A week after the election, news broke that Musk has been chosen by Trump to co-lead an ill-defined “Department of Government Efficiency” with an evident mission to slash the public sector.

But Ms Gupta is among current and prospective international students who have been swept up in a panic caused by the Australian government’s plan to slash foreign student numbers.

The department was announced by Trump as a cost-cutting bureau focused on slashing "wasteful expenditures," with few details about how his administration intends to make the department an official government body.