During an extraordinary Cabinet Room meeting, simmering resentment over the billionaire’s unbridled authority erupted. The president acted swiftly to control Mr. Musk.
Marco Rubio felt furious. The secretary of state was sitting next to the president in the White House’s Cabinet Room, listening to the wealthiest man in the world launch a barrage of criticism.
Elon Musk was letting Mr. Rubio have it while seated diagonally across the circular mahogany table, accusing him of not slashing his staff.
After telling Mr. Rubio that he had fired “nobody,” Mr. Musk mockingly added that it was possible that the only person he had let go was a member of his Department of Government Efficiency staff.
Since his team essentially shut down the United States organisation for International Development, a whole organisation that was purportedly within Mr. Rubio’s authority, Mr. Rubio had been secretly incensed at Mr. Musk for weeks. However, in front of President Trump and around 20 other people, during Thursday’s emergency cabinet meeting—details of which have not yet been made public—Mr. Rubio vented his frustrations.
“What about the more than 1,500 State Department officials who took early retirement in buyouts? Didn’t they count as layoffs?” Mr. Rubio, mockingly, asked if Mr. Musk wanted him to rehire all those people just so he could make a show of firing them again. “Mr. Musk was not being truthful,” he said. He then outlined his comprehensive plans for restructuring the State Department.
It did not impress Mr. Musk. He told Mr. Rubio that he was “good on TV,” with the obvious implication that he wasn’t very good at anything else. The president reclined back in his chair, arms folded, as though he were watching a game of tennis, during all of this.
Mr. Trump ultimately stepped in to defend Mr. Rubio, saying he was doing a “great job,” after the disagreement had gone on for an awkward while. The president remarked that Mr. Rubio has a lot on his plate. He has an agency to manage, travels constantly, and appears on TV. Therefore, cooperation is all that is required.
Following the hectic first several weeks of Mr. Trump’s second term, the encounter may have been a turning point. It produced the first meaningful indicator that Mr. Trump was prepared to impose some restrictions on Mr. Musk, whose actions have been the focus of multiple lawsuits and raised worries among Republican senators, some of whom have voiced their grievances to the president personally.
