Marco Rubio was incensed. Right here he was within the Cupboard Room of the White Home, the secretary of state, seated beside the president and listening to a litany of assaults from the richest man on the planet.
Seated diagonally reverse, throughout the elliptical mahogany desk, Elon Musk was letting Mr. Rubio have it, accusing him of failing to slash his workers.
You’ve got fired “no one,” Mr. Musk advised Mr. Rubio, then scornfully added that maybe the one particular person he had fired was a workers member from his Division of Authorities Effectivity.
Mr. Rubio had been privately livid with Mr. Musk for weeks, ever since his DOGE crew successfully shuttered a whole company that was supposedly below Mr. Rubio’s management: the US Company for Worldwide Improvement. However, within the extraordinary cupboard assembly in entrance of the president and round 20 others — particulars of which haven’t been reported earlier than — Mr. Rubio bought his grievances off his chest.
Mr. Musk was not being truthful, Mr. Rubio stated. What concerning the greater than 1,500 State Division officers who took early retirement in buyouts? Didn’t they depend as layoffs? He requested, sarcastically, whether or not Mr. Musk wished him to rehire all these folks simply so he might make a present of firing them once more. Then he laid out his detailed plans for reorganizing the State Division.
Mr. Musk was unimpressed. He advised Mr. Rubio he was “good on TV,” with the clear subtext being that he wasn’t good for a lot else. All through all of this, the president sat again in his chair, arms folded, as if he have been watching a tennis match.
After the argument dragged on for an uncomfortable time, Mr. Trump lastly intervened to defend Mr. Rubio as doing a “nice job.” Mr. Rubio has so much to take care of, the president stated. He’s very busy, he’s at all times touring and on TV, and he has an company to run. So everybody simply must work collectively.
The assembly was a possible inflection level after the frenetic first weeks of Mr. Trump’s second time period. It yielded the primary important indication that Mr. Trump is keen to place some limits on Mr. Musk, whose efforts have turn out to be the topic of a number of lawsuits and prompted issues from Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have complained on to the president.
Cupboard officers nearly uniformly just like the idea of what Mr. Musk got down to do — decreasing waste, fraud and abuse in authorities — however have been pissed off by the hacksaw strategy to upending the federal government and the shortage of constant coordination.
Thursday’s assembly, which was abruptly scheduled on Wednesday night, was an indication that Mr. Trump is conscious of the rising complaints. He tried to supply both sides one thing by praising each Mr. Musk and his cupboard secretaries. (At the very least one, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has had tense encounters associated to Mr. Musk’s crew, was not current.) The president made clear he nonetheless supported DOGE’s mission. However now was the time, he stated, to be a bit extra refined in its strategy.
Any longer, he stated, the secretaries can be in cost; the Musk crew would solely advise.
It’s unclear what the long-term affect of the assembly will probably be. Mr. Musk stays Mr. Trump’s greatest political monetary supporter — simply this week his tremendous PAC aired $1 million price of advertisements that stated, “Thanks, President Trump” — and Mr. Musk’s management of the social media web site X has made administration workers members and cupboard secretaries alike fearful that he’ll goal them in public.
But when nothing else, the session laid naked the tensions inside Mr. Trump’s crew, and information of the sharp clashes unfold rapidly by way of senior ranks of cupboard businesses after it was over. This account is predicated on interviews with 5 folks with information of the occasions.
In a put up on social media after the assembly, Mr. Trump stated the following section of his plan to chop the federal work power can be performed with a “scalpel” somewhat than a “hatchet” — a transparent reference to Mr. Musk’s scorched-earth strategy.
Mr. Musk, who wore a swimsuit and tie to Thursday’s assembly as a substitute of his standard T-shirt after Mr. Trump publicly ribbed him about his sloppy look, defended himself by saying that he has three corporations with a market cap of tens of billions of {dollars}, and that his outcomes communicate for themselves.
However he was quickly clashing with members of the cupboard.
Simply moments earlier than the blowup with Mr. Rubio, Mr. Musk and the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, went backwards and forwards concerning the state of the Federal Aviation Administration’s tools for monitoring airplanes and what sort of repair is required. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, jumped in to help Mr. Musk.
Mr. Duffy stated the younger workers of DOGE was attempting to put off air site visitors controllers. What am I speculated to do? Mr. Duffy stated. I’ve a number of aircraft crashes to take care of now, and your folks need me to fireside air site visitors controllers?
Mr. Musk advised Mr. Duffy that his assertion was a “lie.” Mr. Duffy insisted it was not; he had heard it from them immediately. Mr. Musk, asking who had been fired, stated: Give me their names. Inform me their names.
Mr. Duffy stated there weren’t any names, as a result of he had stopped them from being fired. At one other level, Mr. Musk insisted that folks employed below variety, fairness and inclusion packages have been working in management towers. Mr. Duffy pushed again and Mr. Musk didn’t add particulars, however stated throughout the longer backwards and forwards that Mr. Duffy had his telephone quantity and will name him if he had any points to lift.
The change ended with Mr. Trump telling Mr. Duffy that he needed to rent folks from M.I.T. as air site visitors controllers. These air site visitors controllers have to be “geniuses,” he stated.
The secretary of veterans affairs, Doug Collins, has been coping with one of the crucial politically delicate challenges of all the cupboard secretaries. Mr. Musk’s cuts will have an effect on 1000’s of veterans — a robust constituency and a core a part of the Trump base. Mr. Collins made the purpose that they need to not wield a blunt instrument and cleave off everybody from the V.A. They wanted to be strategic about it. Mr. Trump agreed with Mr. Collins, saying they should retain the sensible ones and eliminate the dangerous ones.
In response to a request for remark from The New York Occasions, Karoline Leavitt, the White Home press secretary, stated in an announcement: “As President Trump stated, this was an amazing and productive assembly amongst members of his crew to debate cost-cutting measures and staffing throughout the federal authorities. Everyone seems to be working as one crew to assist President Trump ship on his promise to make our authorities extra environment friendly.”
Tammy Bruce, a spokeswoman for the State Division, responded, “Secretary Rubio thought of the assembly an open and productive dialogue with a dynamic crew that’s united in attaining the identical purpose: making America nice once more.”
A Division of Veterans Affairs spokesman stated, “As President Trump has stated, it’s essential to extend effectivity and cut back forms whereas conserving in place one of the best and most efficient federal workers. V.A. is working with DOGE and the remainder of the administration to just do that.”
A Transportation Division official wouldn’t remark.
Mr. Musk, who later claimed on X that the cupboard assembly was “very productive,” appeared far much less enthused contained in the room. He aggressively defended himself, reminding the cupboard secretaries that he had constructed a number of billion-dollar corporations from the bottom up and knew one thing about hiring good folks.
Most cupboard members didn’t be a part of the fray. Mr. Musk’s anger directed at Mr. Rubio particularly appeared to catch folks within the room without warning, one particular person with information of the assembly stated. One other particular person stated Mr. Musk’s caustic responses to Mr. Duffy and Mr. Rubio appeared to discourage different cupboard members, lots of whom have privately complained about DOGE, from talking.
But it surely stays to be seen how lengthy this new association will final.
