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A tense meeting took place at the White House, during which Elon Musk got into a heated argument with Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the issue of massive layoffs in the administration. According to The New York Times, Musk accused Rubio of not cutting staff and “not firing anyone”, adding that the only person he may have fired was an employee of the Government Performance and Results Department.
Rubio replied that more than 1,500 diplomats had already resigned voluntarily and asked if Musk wanted to rehire them only to be able to fire them a second time. During the argument, Trump did not intervene and only watched, but after a long discussion, he sided with Rubio, saying that he was doing a great job.
Musk also clashed with Transport Secretary Sean Duffy over the reduction of air traffic controllers. This meeting was the first serious signal that Trump may set certain restrictions on Musk, who had previously had a significant impact on the administration’s policies.
After the meeting, Trump said that staff reductions would no longer be carried out chaotically and that instead of taking radical actions using an “axe”, the administration would take a more balanced approach, comparing it to a “scalpel”. This decision was a response to numerous complaints from government officials about Musk’s haphazard approach to reorganising the government.
