Musk, Rubio Had Volatile Exchange in Trump Meeting

President Trump made a surprise move on Thursday by reining in Elon Musk during a last-minute Cabinet meeting. The upshot is that Trump informed his secretaries that they, and not Musk, would be in charge of cuts within their departments going forward. So just what happened at the meeting? The New York Times reports that Musk had heated exchanges with frustrated Cabinet members, most notably Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Details and related coverage:

• Rubio: The story by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reports that Rubio and Musk argued back and forth, with Musk accusing Rubio of not making enough cuts, and an "incensed" Rubio accusing him of lying. The secretary asked Musk if he should rehire 1,500 staffers who took early buyouts, which would then allow Musk to stage another mass firing of them. Finally, Trump broke in and said Rubio was doing a "great job."

• Plane crashes: Transportation chief Sean Duffy complained that Musk's DOGE was trying to lay off air traffic controllers. "What am I supposed to do?" the story paraphrases Duffy as saying. "I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?" Musk asked for names, and Duffy replied he had none, as he'd blocked the layoffs.
• An answer? The Hill looks back to Trump's first Cabinet meeting, at which Musk was invited to speak at length about his cuts. "There had been an unclear division of power over who controls the federal agencies: the Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretaries or Elon Musk?" the piece notes. This latest meeting appears to have answered the question: It's the secretaries.
• Rubio pressure: Rubio has reportedly been seething about the cuts to agencies ostensibly under his control, including USAID. Semafor reports that some former colleagues in the Senate (including Democrats) who voted for his confirmation have been disappointed at his seeming reluctance to challenge Trump or Musk. They're waiting to see if that changes in the next few weeks.
• Skepticism: Yes, Trump appeared to put a check on Musk's power, but Issie Lapowsky at Vanity Fair wonders how that will translate in the real world. "Musk is still a billionaire with a powerful distaste for authority, access to a global megaphone, and, shall we say, an underdeveloped aptitude for self-restraint," she writes. "It's hard to imagine any of Trump's agency heads mounting a forceful defense against Musk."

(More President Trump stories.)