Inside the explosive meeting where Trump officials clashed with Elon Musk

The meeting was a potential turning point after the frenetic first weeks of Trump’s second term. It yielded the first significant indication that Trump is willing to put some limits on Musk, whose efforts have become the subject of several lawsuits and prompted concerns from Republican lawmakers, some of whom have complained directly to the president.

Cabinet officials almost uniformly like the concept of what Musk set out to do – reducing waste, fraud and abuse in government – but have been frustrated by the chainsaw approach to upending the government and the lack of consistent co-ordination.

Thursday’s meeting, which was abruptly scheduled the evening before, was a sign that Trump is mindful of the growing complaints. He tried to offer each side something by praising both Musk and his cabinet secretaries. (At least one, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has had tense encounters related to Musk’s team, was not present.) The president made clear he still supported the mission of the Musk initiative. But now was the time, he said, to be a bit more refined in its approach.

From now on, Trump said, the secretaries would be in charge; the Musk team would only advise.

It is unclear what the long-term impact of the meeting will be. Musk remains Trump’s biggest political financial supporter – just this week his super political action (PAC) committee aired $US1 million ($1.5 million) worth of ads that said, “Thank you, President Trump” – and Musk’s control of social media website X has made administration staff members and cabinet secretaries alike fearful that he will target them in public.

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A ‘scalpel’ not a ‘hatchet’

But if nothing else, the session laid bare the tensions within Trump’s team, and news of the sharp clashes spread quickly through senior ranks of cabinet agencies after it was over. This account is based on interviews with five people with knowledge of the events.

In a post on social media after the meeting, Trump said the next phase of his plan to cut the federal workforce would be conducted with a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet” – a clear reference to Musk’s scorched-earth approach.

Musk, who wore a suit and tie to the meeting instead of his usual T-shirt after Trump publicly ribbed him about his sloppy appearance, defended himself by saying he had three companies with a market cap of tens of billions of dollars, and that his results spoke for themselves.

But he was soon clashing with members of the cabinet.

Just moments before the blow-up with Rubio, Musk and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy went back and forth about the state of the Federal Aviation Administration’s equipment for tracking aircraft and what kind of fix was needed. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, jumped in to support Musk.

Duffy said the young staff of Musk’s team were trying to lay off air-traffic controllers. What am I supposed to do? Duffy said. I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?

Musk told Duffy that his assertion was a “lie”. Duffy insisted it was not; he had heard it from them directly. Musk, asking who had been fired, said: give me their names. Tell me their names.

Duffy said there were not any names because he had stopped them from being fired. At another point, Musk insisted that people hired under diversity, equity and inclusion programs were working in control towers. Duffy pushed back and Musk did not add details, but said during the longer back and forth that Duffy had his phone number and should call him if he had any issues to raise.

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The exchange ended with Trump telling Duffy that he had to hire people from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as air traffic controllers. These air traffic controllers need to be “geniuses”, he said.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins has been dealing with one of the most politically sensitive challenges of all the cabinet secretaries. Musk’s cuts will affect thousands of veterans – a powerful constituency and a core part of the Trump base. Collins made the point that they should not wield a blunt instrument and cleave off everyone from the VA. They needed to be strategic about it. Trump agreed with Collins, saying they ought to retain the smart ones and get rid of the bad ones.

In response to a request for comment from The New York Times, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement: “As President Trump said, this was a great and productive meeting amongst members of his team to discuss cost-cutting measures and staffing across the federal government. Everyone is working as one team to help President Trump deliver on his promise to make our government more efficient.”

Tammy Bruce, a spokesperson for the State Department, responded, “Secretary Rubio considered the meeting an open and productive discussion with a dynamic team that is united in achieving the same goal: making America great again.”

A Department of Veterans Affairs spokesperson said, “As President Trump has said, it’s important to increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy while keeping in place the best and most productive federal employees. VA is working with DOGE and the rest of the administration to do just that.”

A Transportation Department official would not comment.

Musk, who later claimed on X that the cabinet meeting was “very productive”, seemed far less enthused inside the room. He aggressively defended himself, reminding the secretaries that he had built multiple billion-dollar companies from the ground up and knew something about hiring good people.

Most cabinet members did not join the fray. Musk’s anger directed at Rubio in particular seemed to catch people in the room by surprise, one person with knowledge of the meeting said. Another person said Musk’s caustic responses to Duffy and Rubio seemed to deter other members, many of whom have privately complained about the Musk team, from speaking.

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But it remains to be seen how long this new arrangement will last.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.