Inside the Explosive Meeting Where Trump Officials Clashed With Elon Musk

Simmering anger at the billionaire’s unchecked power spilled out in a remarkable Cabinet Room meeting. The president quickly moved to rein in Mr. Musk.

Marco Rubio was incensed. Here he was in the Cabinet Room of the White House, the secretary of state, seated beside the president and listening to a litany of attacks from the richest man in the world.

Seated diagonally opposite, across the elliptical mahogany table, Elon Musk was letting Mr. Rubio have it, accusing him of failing to slash his staff.

“You have fired nobody,” Mr. Musk told Mr. Rubio, then scornfully added that perhaps the only person he had fired was a staff member from Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Mr. Rubio had been privately furious with Mr. Musk for weeks, ever since his team effectively shuttered an entire agency that was supposedly under Mr. Rubio’s control: the United States Agency for International Development. But, in the extraordinary cabinet meeting on Thursday in front of President Trump and around 20 others — details of which have not been reported before — Mr. Rubio got his grievances off his chest.

Mr. Musk was not being truthful, Mr. Rubio said. What about the more than 1,500 State Department officials who took early retirement in buyouts? Didn’t they count as layoffs? He asked, sarcastically, whether Mr. Musk wanted him to rehire all those people just so he could make a show of firing them again. Then he laid out his detailed plans for reorganizing the State Department.

President Trump watched the exchange intently, arms crossed, his expression unreadable. While he had long appreciated Mr. Musk’s business acumen and influence, he was also aware of growing frustrations within his administration regarding the tech mogul’s outsized sway over government policy.

Other officials in the room exchanged glances as tensions escalated. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows remained silent, while Defense Secretary Mark Esper occasionally scribbled notes. Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien seemed eager to jump in but held back.

The confrontation underscored the shifting power dynamics between the Trump administration and Musk, whose reach extended far beyond Silicon Valley into aerospace, defense, and even international diplomacy. His Starlink satellite network had become a crucial asset in global communications, giving him leverage over matters of state that few private individuals had ever wielded.

At one point, Mr. Trump finally spoke. “Elon, Marco, let’s cut the theatrics,” he said, his tone even but firm. “We need solutions, not a shouting match.”

Mr. Musk, leaning back in his chair, gave a slight smirk. Mr. Rubio, still fuming, took a deep breath before continuing.

What followed was a tense but productive discussion on government efficiency, technological innovation, and the role of private enterprise in shaping policy. But the meeting left no doubt: the uneasy alliance between the Trump administration and Musk was fraying, and the battle for control over the future of governance was just beginning.