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In the White House cabinet room, officials’ grudges about the billionaire’s unrestrained power finally broke out.Trump quickly took action to restrain Musk.
Cabinet officials generally agree with Musk’s philosophy of reform—reducing government waste, fraud and abuse—but are deeply frustrated by his way of drastic subversion of government structures and lack of coordination.
Marco Rubio was furious.As Secretary of State, he is sitting in the White House cabinet conference room, next to the president, listening to a series of attacks by the world’s richest man.
Diagonally across from the oval mahogany conference table, Elon Musk was taking turns to bombard Rubio, accusing him of failing to lay off employees significantly.
“You didn’t fire anybody,” Musk told Rubio, then added contemptuously that perhaps the only one he fired was a staff member of the Ministry of Efficiency under Musk.
The secretary of state has been privately dissatisfied with Musk for weeks since Musk’s team actually shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which should be under Rubio’s jurisdiction.But at the unusual cabinet meeting on Thursday, with President Trump and about 20 people attending (no details were disclosed before), Rubio finally made the grievance public.
Rubio said Musk’s words were untrue.Are those more than 1,500 officials who have left the State Council through early retirement plans considered layoffs?He asked sarcastically whether he would rehire these people just to let Musk see him fire again.Then he elaborated on the State Council’s restructuring plan in detail.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been privately dissatisfied with Musk for weeks.Photography: Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
Musk was unmoved.He commented that Rubio was “very good at making shows”, and the implication was that nothing else was left.Throughout the process, the president leaned on the back of the chair and watched with his arms around him, as if he was watching a tennis game.
After the embarrassing debate lasted for a long time, Trump finally came forward to defend Rubio, calling his work “very outstanding”.The president said that Rubio is busy with business trips, on TV frequently, and has to manage a department, and everyone must work together.
The meeting marks a possible turning point in the chaos in the first few weeks of Trump’s second term.This is an important signal that Trump has made it clear that he is willing to set limits on Musk.Musk’s reforms have sparked multiple lawsuits and have caused concerns from Republican lawmakers, and some even complained directly to the president.
Cabinet officials almost unanimously agree with Musk’s goal of reducing government waste, but are deeply frustrated by its “chainsaw” reform approach and lack of coordination.
Thursday’s meeting, which was suddenly called Wednesday night, showed Trump has noticed escalating complaints.He tried to balance both sides, praising both Musk and cabinet ministers (at least one Treasury Secretary Scott Besent, who had a tense relationship with Musk’s team, was not present).The president made it clear that he still supported Musk’s reform mission, but stressed that the strategy needs to be adjusted now.
From now on, the heads of various departments will lead the work, and Musk’s team only provides advice.
The long-term impact of the meeting is not yet known.Musk remains Trump’s biggest political funder—just this week, his super PAC put up a million-dollar ad, saying “thanks to President Trump.”And the social media platform X, which he controls, has both government officials and cabinet ministers worried that it will be the target of its public attack.
This cabinet meeting showed for the first time that Trump is willing to put restrictions on Musk.Photography: Eric Lee/The New York Times
But at least, the meeting exposed tensions within the Trump team.After the meeting, news of the fierce conflict quickly spread at the top of the cabinet organization.This article is based on interviews by five people familiar with the matter.
After the meeting, Trump said on social media that the next phase of the federal government’s layoff plan would use a “scalpel” instead of an “axe” – which is obviously an allusion to Musk’s radical means.
Musk attended the meeting in an abnormal manner (Trump had previously publicly teased him for dressing casually).He defended himself that he managed three companies with a market value of tens of billions of dollars at the same time, and his achievements were obvious to all.
But soon he had a dispute with several cabinet members.
Not long before the clash with Rubio broke out, Musk and Transport Minister Sean Duffy confronted the Federal Aviation Administration’s current status and improvement plans for aircraft tracking equipment.Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik stood up to support Musk.
Duffy said young members of Musk’s team were trying to fire air traffic controllers.”What should I do?” said Duffy. “There are many crashes to be dealt with now, and your people are asking me to fire the controller?”
In Arlington, Virginia, a crane is salvaging the wreckage of an American Airlines passenger plane that crashed in January.Photography: Al Drago/The New York Times
Musk called Duffy’s statement a “lie”.Duffy insisted that the news came from the other team.Musk asked the other party to provide the fired person’s name and “tell me their name.”
Duffy said he had no specific name because he prevented layoffs in time.Musk also claimed that there were employees employed in the control tower through diversity, equity and inclusion programs.Duffy refuted that Musk did not provide details, but said during the dispute that Duffy had his phone number and could contact him directly if he had any questions.
The debate ended with Trump’s request for Duffy to hire MIT graduates as controllers.The president said these controllers must be “geniuses”.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins faces one of the most sensitive political challenges in the cabinet.Musk’s layoff plans will affect thousands of veterans — a strong constituent group and a core supporter of Trump.Collins pointed out that it is not possible to lay off Veterans Affairs staff in a “one-size-fits-all” way, and strategies must be paid attention to.Trump agreed, saying that excellent employees should be retained and those who fail should be eliminated.
“As President Trump said, it was an excellent and productive meeting, with team members discussing cost cuts and federal staffing. Everyone is working together to help the president deliver on its commitment to improve the efficiency of the administration.”
“Secretary of State Rubio believes it is a candid and productive discussion, and the dynamic team is united and collaborated under the common goal of ‘making America great again’,” said State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce.
“As President Trump said, it is crucial to improve efficiency and reduce bureaucracy while maintaining efficient federal employees. The Department of Veterans Affairs is working with the Department of Efficiency and other departments to advance this matter.”
Transport Secretary Duffy praised Trump and Musk’s team’s work on X platform Friday, saying it was a fruitful cabinet meeting.”The FAA’s DEI department was revoked the next day,” he added, and Trump’s strategy of using scalpels instead of an axe, and strengthening the coordination between the minister and the Ministry of Government Efficiency is the right path to revolutionizing the way the government works.”
Musk later claimed on X platform that the meeting was “very productive”, but according to people on the scene, his attitude in the conference room was far from so positive.He defended strongly, reminding the cabinet ministers to start from scratch and build many multi-billion-dollar companies, and are well aware of the ways to employ people.
Picture: Labor group members protest against Musk and the Ministry of Efficiency.Photography: Valerie Plesch/The New York Times
Most cabinet members are not involved in the dispute.Musk’s fierce accusations against Rubio were particularly surprised by those present, a person familiar with the matter said.Another person said Musk’s sarcastic response to Duffy and Rubio made many cabinet members who privately complain about their team choose to remain silent.
But how long this new power structure can last remains to be seen.
Author Profile: Jonathan Swan is a White House reporter covering the Donald J. Trump administration.Maggie Harberman is a White House reporter who covers Donald J. Trump’s second term non-reelection.This article was published in the New York Times printed edition on March 8, 2025, with the title:Anger at Musk Erupts In Cabinet Room Clash With Key Trump Aides.
