Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). In a dramatic showdown in the White House Cabinet Room, tensions between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and multi-billionaire Elon Musk boiled over and erupted into a public spat – an incident that reveals the deep fissures in the Trump administration.
The scandal, which highlights the deep fault lines just weeks into Trump’s second term, detailed in a report by Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman in the New York Times (NYT) on March 7. But it Trump’s unexpectedly skillful intervention that finally calmed the storm, according to the NYT. Demonstrating an ability to balance competing egos while maintaining his broader agenda, Trump surprised everyone so much that the NYT devoted an entire, prominently placed article to the event.
The conflict began when Musk, seated diagonally across from Rubio at the elliptical mahogany table, unleashed a scathing critique. “You didn’t fire anyone,” Musk accused Rubio, with a contemptuous tone that implied that the only employee Rubio fired may have been one from Musk’s own Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Rubio, who has been seething internally for weeks after Musk’s team effectively shut down the United States Agency for International Development – an agency under Rubio’s watch – countered sharply. “Mr. Musk was not telling the truth,” Rubio countered, referring to the more than 1,500 State Department employees who had accepted early retirement offers. “Don’t those count as layoffs?” he asked sarcastically, adding whether Musk wanted him to “rehire all those people just to fire them again spectacularly.”
Musk was not impressed and took a biting swipe at Rubio, which the NYT reported as follows: “He [Musk] told Mr. Rubio he looked ‘good on TV,'” with the clear message that he saw Rubio’s skills as superficial and not substantive. As the argument escalated, Trump sat back, arms crossed, watching the verbal back-and-forth like a spectator at a tennis match. The room, filled with about 20 Cabinet members, grew tense, and the clash revealed a broader dissatisfaction with Musk’s “chainsaw approach” to cutting government waste – a mission that Cabinet members supported in principle but found messy in implementation.
After an uncomfortably long time, Trump intervened with a mixture of praise and pragmatism that defused the dispute. “Mr. Rubio has a lot on his plate,” the president said, defending his secretary of state. “He’s very busy, constantly traveling and on television, and he has an agency to run. So everybody has to work together.” With those words, Trump deftly redirected the momentum, acknowledging Rubio’s efforts and signaling a refocusing of Musk’s role. “From now on,” Trump declared, “the ministers will be in charge – the Musk team will only advise.” This directive, a departure from Musk’s previous unchecked authority, was a clear response to mounting complaints from cabinet members and Republican lawmakers DOGE’s reckless tactics.
Trump’s handling of the situation was a masterpiece of political navigation. By praising both Rubio – “doing a great job” – and Musk’s overarching mission to fight waste, fraud and abuse, he offered some credit to both sides. His later social media post, which promised a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet” approach to future job cuts, underscored this conciliatory tone. The move not only preserved Musk’s influence – bolstered by his financial backing and control over X – but also reassured cabinet ministers who distrusted Musk’s power. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later stated, “It was a great and productive meeting among team members to discuss cost-cutting measures and personnel issues in the United States federal government.”
The long-term impact remains uncertain. Musk’s sharp reactions, including a spat with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy over air traffic controller layoffs, hinted at ongoing tensions. But Trump’s intervention marked a potential turning point, signaling his willingness to set limits on Musk’s dominance while maintaining unity in his administration. For now, the episode underscores the delicate balance Trump must maintain between his fractious ally and his traditional Cabinet – a challenge he has handled gracefully, according to the NYT.
However, so much praise for Trump from the New York Times is suspicious. After years of a spiteful media campaign by the “quality media” against Trump, the NYT seems to be trying to suck up to the new power in the White House with this about-face. Whatever the motive for praising Trump, Trump’s mediating words between Musk and Rubio seem to have had a stunning success.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) – a rogue agency captured by the Deep State – will cancel most of its programs after a six-week review, and the State Department will oversee and investigate the remaining programs still in operation.
“The 5,200 contracts that are now being terminated have spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, and in some cases harmed, the core national interests of the United States,” Rubio said. He continued, “In consultation with Congress, we intend that the remaining 18 percent of the programs we keep [about 1,000] will now be more effectively managed under the State Department.”
Rubio thanked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for this “overdue and historic reform” of USAID. The U.S. Agency for International Development has been notorious for its inefficiency and bloated bureaucracy, wasting tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money on programs that undermine American interests, such as funding radical woke programs around the world.
