Rubio during the meeting sarcastically asked Musk if he wanted him to rehire those already sacked so he could make a show of it
By Kehinde Okeowo
Billionaire White House adviser, Elon Musk and United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio clashed during a recent Cabinet meeting.
The incident occurred in a meeting President Donald Trump called to discuss staff cuts that Rubio has carried out so far.
The parley was said 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.
A drama, however, reportedly unfolded after 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, assigned by Trump to eliminate large parts of the federal bureaucracy, during the meeting accused Rubio of having fired nobody and resisting his push for large staff reductions.
Pushing back, Rubio said at least 1,500 State Department employees had taken early retirement buyouts.
He went on to sarcastically ask whether Musk wanted him to rehire all those people just so he could make a show of firing them again.
Meanwhile, President Trump denied that there was a clash when asked about it during a session with reporters in the Oval Office.
“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,” he told a reporter who asked about the report.
