WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has dismissed reports that his senior adviser, billionaire Elon Musk, clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a White House meeting, insisting there was no dispute despite claims of tensions over government cost-cutting measures.
According to The New York Times, Musk argued with Rubio and separately with Transport Secretary Sean Duffy during a cabinet meeting chaired by Trump on Thursday.
Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a drive to slash costs and cut jobs across government departments, reportedly leading to tensions with department heads.
After the meeting, Trump announced that cuts would continue but with a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet,” implying that he had taken the opportunity to rein Musk in.
However, when asked by reporters on Friday about the reported dispute, the president dismissed it, declaring: “No clash. I was there.”
He went on to insist that Musk and Rubio were “both doing a fantastic job … they both get along fantastically well.”
According to the Times report, Musk scorned Rubio’s cost-cutting record at the State Department, accusing him of having fired “nobody” in the administration’s first 45 days.
Rubio countered that 1,500 State Department officials had accepted early retirement and sarcastically asked whether he should hire them back just to sack them again more spectacularly.
In another exchange, Duffy accused DOGE of having tried to sack vital air traffic controllers while he was dealing with the aftermath of several plane crashes, prompting Musk to accuse him of a “lie,” according to The New York Times.
Trump reportedly intervened to halt the argument and suggested that, henceforth, the controllers be hired from the “geniuses” studying at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Since coming to office, Trump’s administration has sacked or announced the departure of tens of thousands of federal employees in a scorched-earth efficiency drive.
Several US media outlets have reported friction between Musk and senior officials, who accuse his young team of DOGE officials—recruited from Silicon Valley—of exceeding their authority.
