U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed reports that his top advisor, billionaire Elon Musk, had a fiery argument with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a White House meeting.
The New York Times reported that Musk had an argument with Rubio and also with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at a cabinet session led by Trump on Thursday.
Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been leading the charge in cutting government expenditures and reducing staff, reportedly clashing with departmental heads. Regardless, Trump promised journalists that there was no such serious dispute.
“No conflict. I was there,” Trump replied when questioned regarding the supposed conflict. He also made it a point to say that both Musk and Rubio were “both doing a superb job” and asserted that “they both get along tremendously well.”
Policy Differences Regarding Cutbacks
The Times article reported on a back-and-forth exchange in which Musk attacked Rubio’s management of cost-cutting measures at the State Department, charging that he had not laid off sufficient numbers of workers during the administration’s first 45 days.
Rubio responded by pointing out that 1,500 State Department workers had volunteered for early retirement and jokingly asked if he should “hire them back just to sack them again more spectacularly.
In another showdown, Duffy was said to have accused DOGE of trying to lay off critical air traffic controllers in the wake of investigations into recent aircraft crashes. Musk was said to have reacted by calling Duffy’s accusation a “lie.”
Trump eventually intervened to calm tensions, proposing that future air traffic controllers be recruited from the “geniuses” at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Escalating Tensions Over Musk’s Cost-Cutting Agenda
Ever since Trump took office, his government has eliminated or planned to axe tens of thousands of federal jobs as part of a hard-line efficiency campaign.
There are reports of increasingly strained tensions between Musk and senior government officials, who complain Musk’s Silicon Valley-hired DOGE team have been exceeding their powers. Yet despite these challenges, Trump has expressed continued confidence in both Musk and Rubio’s leadership.