NYT: Rubio, Musk Clash at Trump Cabinet Meeting

Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with tech billionaire and close Trump adviser Elon Musk during a contentious Cabinet meeting hosted by President Trump.

Musk, the world’s richest person who helms six major companies, tore into Rubio, scolding the former senator for not firing much of the workforce at the State Department and that he is only “good on TV,” but barely for anything else, The New York Times reported Friday, citing interviews with five people with knowledge of the events.

Rubio, privately, has been “furious” with Musk for some time, particularly after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) set its sights on shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development, the agency that administers billions of dollars of security, humanitarian and development assistance in more than 100 countries, the Times reported.

During Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did not attend, Rubio pushed back.

The secretary of State contended that Musk was not telling the truth. He asked if more than 1,500 State Department workers who went into early retirement should be brought back only to be fired in order to count as layoffs, the newspaper reported.

After the increasingly heated back-and-forth, Trump stepped in to defend Rubio. The president praised the nation’s top diplomat for doing a “great job” and said he is dealing with a loaded schedule, packed with media appearances and still has to oversee the State Department, the Times reported.

Trump was asked about the explosive report Friday. He denied that Rubio and Musk went at it and praised both for doing a good job.

“No clash, I was there, you’re just a troublemaker,” Trump said. “And you’re not supposed to be asking that question because we’re talking about the World Cup.”

“Elon gets along great with Marco, and they’re both doing a fantastic job. There is no clash,” Trump added, with FIFA head Gianni Infantino standing beside him.

Minutes later, the president was again asked about the Thursday meeting, a question he did not directly address.

“They both get along fantastically well,” Trump told reporters. “Marco has done unbelievably as secretary of State. And Elon is a unique guy, he’s done a fantastic job.”

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told the Times that Rubio “considered the meeting an open and productive discussion with a dynamic team that is united in achieving the same goal: making America great again.”

During the meeting, Trump reiterated that Cabinet secretaries should be the ones greenlighting jobs and budget cuts, but Musk is there to be an adviser.

“I want the Cabinet members, go first, keep all the people you want. Everybody that you need,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

“I want them to do the best job they can, when we have good people that’s precious, that’s very important and we want them to keep the good people,” the president added. “So, we’re going to be watching them. Elon and the group are going to be watching them. If they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”

Rubio was not the only Cabinet secretary he butted heads with on Thursday.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Musk, who heads aerospace giant SpaceX, clashed over the conditions of the gear the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) utilizes to track aircraft and what is necessary to improve it, The Times reported, adding that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick backed Musk in the exchange.

Duffy said that DOGE staffers attempted to terminate air traffic controllers, a claim that Musk said was a “lie,” according to The Times.

The Department of Transportation secretary, a former House lawmaker, said Musk was wrong. The billionaire then asked Duffy to list out names of the traffic controllers that DOGE workers attempted to lay off, the Times reported.

Duffy also fired back at Musk’s claim that control towers at airports were staffed with workers who were hired through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

The blowup ended, again, with Trump interjecting, telling Duffy he has to bring “geniuses” from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work as air traffic controllers, the newspaper reported Friday.

After the Times’s Friday report, Duffy issued a statement where he thanked Trump for hosting a “productive” meeting and praised the work DOGE so far has done.

“DOGE is doing incredible work helping agencies identity inefficiencies as well as advising us as we work on the critical upgrades to our air traffic control system,” Duffy wrote.

Duffy also wrote that during the Thursday meeting, the officials discussed air travel safety, “particularly at the FAA and with air traffic controllers,” adding that FAA’s DEI department was gutted “on day 2.”

Duffy praised Trump’s approach to cutting the federal workforce as “revolutionizing” and said the DOT will work “closely” with Musk and DOGE to “revolutionize the way government is run.”

Earlier this week, the Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins confirmed the department plans to gut around 72,000 jobs — or 15 percent of its workforce. The push has sparked backlash from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and across the country.

Trump came to an agreement with Collins during the meeting that the department should take a measured approach when it comes to cutting jobs at the department, with Trump adding the VA should keep the “smart ones” and remove the “bad ones,” the Times reported.

The president said in a Thursday Truth Social post that the Cabinet meeting was “positive, telling Cabinet secretaries to “work with DOGE” on cost-cutting initiatives to retain the “best” and “most productive” people.

“We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’ The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level,” Trump wrote.

“As President Trump said, this was a great and productive meeting amongst members of his team to discuss cost cutting measures and staffing across the federal government. Everyone is working as one team to help President Trump deliver on his promise to make our government more efficient,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Hill.