Washington – Marco Rubio was furious. There he was in the White House office room as secretary of state, sitting next to the US President and listening to a series of attacks by the richest man in the world.
Sitting diagonally opposite, on the other side of Mahogany’s elliptical table, Elon Musk confronted Rubio, accusing him not to reduce his team.
“You didn’t fired anyone,” Musk told Rubio, adding sarcastically that perhaps the only person he had fired was an employee of the Musk government efficiency department.
Rubio has been secretly annoyed with Musk weeks since his team effectively closed an entire agency that was allegedly under the control of Rubio: the US agency for international development. But at the cabinet meeting, in front of President Donald Trump and about 20 other people – whose details had not been reported so far, ”Rubio said.
Musk was not being honest, Rubio said. And the more than 1,500 state department officials who accepted early retirement in incentive programs? Didn’t they count as cuts? He asked, sarcastically, if Musk wanted him to reject all these people just to fire them again. He then presented his detailed plans to reorganize the State Department.
Musk was not impressed. He told Rubio that he was “good on TV”, making it implicit that it was not good for much more. All the time, the president led to his chair, arms crossed, as if watching a tennis match.
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After the discussion dragged on an uncomfortable time, Trump finally intervened to defend Rubio, saying he was doing a “great job.” Rubio has a lot of what to deal with, said the president. He is very busy, always traveling and appearing on TV, and has an agency to manage. So everyone needs to work together.
The meeting was a possible turning point after the first weeks of Trump’s second term. She brought the first significant indication that Trump is willing to impose some limits on Musk, whose efforts have become the target of various lawsuits and raised concerns between republican legislators, some of which complained directly to the president.
Members of the cabinet almost unanimously like the concept of what Musk proposed – reducing waste, fraud and abuse in the government – but were frustrated by Musk’s drastic approach to destabilize the government and the lack of consistent coordination.
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Thursday’s meeting, which was marked abruptly on Wednesday night, was a sign that Trump is aware of the growing complaints. He tried to please both sides, praising both musk and his office secretaries. (At least one, the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had tense meetings related to the musk team, was not present.) The president made it clear that he still supported the mission of the musk initiative. But now it was time, he said, to adopt a slightly refined approach.
From now on, Trump said, the secretaries would be in charge; Musk’s team would only advise.
It is unclear what will be the long -term impact of the meeting. Musk remains Trump’s largest political financial supporter – this week alone, his Super Political Action Committee displayed $ 1 million in announcements that said, “Thank you, President Trump” – and Musk’s control over social network X has made administration members and secretaries of the office to have them publicly attacked them.
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But the session exposed tensions within Trump’s team, and news about intense confrontations spread rapidly through the high levels of the cabinet agencies after the meeting ended. This report is based on interviews with five people with knowledge of the events.
In a post on social networks after the meeting, Trump said the next phase of his plan to reduce the federal workforce would be conducted with a “scalpel” instead of an “ax” – a clear reference to the radical approach to Musk.
Musk, who wore a suit and tie at the meeting on Thursday instead of his usual T-shirt, after Trump publicly criticized him for his sloppy appearance, defended himself by saying that he had three companies with a dollar billion market value and that his results spoke for himself.
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But he soon clashed with members of the cabinet.
Moments before disagreement with Rubio, Musk and the transport secretary Sean Duffy discussed the state of federal aviation administration equipment for aircraft tracking and what kind of solution was needed. Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, intervened to support Musk.
Duffy said the young musk team was trying to dismiss air traffic controllers. “What should I do?” Said Duffy. “I have a lot of plane accidents to deal with now, and your team wants me to fire air traffic controllers?”
Musk told Duffy that his statement was a “lie.” Duffy insisted it wasn’t; He had heard it directly from them. Musk, asking who had been fired, said, “Give me the names. Tell me the names. ”
Duffy said there were no names, because he had prevented them from being fired. At another point, Musk insisted that hired people under programs of diversity, equity and inclusion were working on control towers. Duffy countered, and Musk didn’t give additional details, but said during the discussion that Duffy had his phone number and should call him if he had something to report.
The exchange ended with Trump telling Duffy that he needed to hire people from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as air traffic controllers. These air traffic controllers need to be “geniuses,” he said.
Veteran Affairs Secretary Doug Collins is dealing with one of the politically sensitive challenges of all the secretaries of the cabinet. Musk’s cuts will affect thousands of war veterans – a powerful base and central part of Trump’s electorate. Collins pointed out that they should not use a gross instrument and cut everyone from the veteran affairs department. They needed to be strategic. Trump agreed with Collins, saying that they should keep the smart and get rid of the bad.
In response to a request for comment The New York TimesKaroline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, said in a statement: “As President Trump said, this was a great and productive meeting among his team members to discuss cost cutting and personnel measures throughout the federal government. Everyone is working as a team to help President Trump fulfill his promise to make our government more efficient. ”
Tammy Bruce, spokesman for the State Department, replied: “Secretary Rubio considered the meeting an open and productive discussion with a dynamic team that is united to achieve the same goal: to make America big again.”
A spokesman for the Veteran Affairs Department said: “As President Trump said, it is important to increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy while we keep the best and most productive federal employees. The veteran matters department is working with Doge and the rest of the administration to do just that. ”
A transport department official declined to comment.
Musk, who later stated in X that the meeting of the cabinet was “very productive”, seemed much less enthusiastic inside the room. He defended himself aggressively, reminding the office secretaries that he had built several billionaire companies from scratch and knew something about hiring good people.
Most of the cabinet members did not enter the discussion. Musk’s anger directed at Rubio, in particular, seemed to take people in the surprise room, said a person with knowledge of the meeting. Another person said that the caustic answers from Musk to Duffy and Rubio seemed to discourage other members of the cabinet, many of whom complained in particular about the musk team of speaking.
But it remains to know how long this new arrangement will last.
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