UNITED States (US) Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and billionaire White House Adviser to President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, clashed during a cabinet meeting, as the President watched over the level of staff cuts that Rubio had carried out.
The drama reportedly unfolded at a meeting where Trump told his cabinet heads that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing and policy at their agencies.
According to the New York Times, Musk, who was assigned by Trump to eliminate large parts of the federal bureaucracy, accused Rubio of having fired nobody and resisting his push for large staff reductions.
But pushing back, Rubio said at least 1,500 State Department employees had taken early retirement buyouts and asked sarcastically whether Musk wanted him to rehire all those people just so he could make a show of firing them again.
The meeting was reported to have been convened amid complaints about the Musk operation’s blunt-force approach from agency heads to top White House officials, including Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.
The White House Office of Legislative Affairs has been inundated with calls in recent days from frustrated Republican members of Congress all over the country, some of whom have faced anger from constituents at home.
Meanwhile, Trump denied there was a clash when asked about it during a session with reporters in the Oval Office, saying to the reporter who asked the question: “No clash, I was there, you’re just a troublemaker.
“Elon gets along great with Marco and they’re both doing a fantastic job. Marco has done unbelievably as Secretary of State, and Elon is a unique guy and has done a fantastic job.”
