(The Guardian) Musk squabbled with Trump cabinet secretaries over firings - report
Yesterday, reports emerged that Donald Trump had told cabinet secretaries that they were in charge of hiring and firing at their agencies, and that Elon Musk, whose so-called “department of government efficiency” has ordered disruptive staff cuts, would play an advisory role.
It was a concrete sign of the president looking to rein in Musk in his unorthodox position, and the New York Times reports that the meeting was quite tense. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Musk reportedly went at it for a while in front of Trump: 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 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.
The atmosphere also grew heated again when Musk turned to the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, whose department is dealing with the aftermath of the first major plane crash in 15 years: Just moments before the blowup with Mr Rubio, Mr Musk and the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, went back and forth about the state of the Federal Aviation Administration’s equipment for tracking airplanes and what kind of fix was needed. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, jumped in to support Mr Musk. Mr Duffy said the young staff of Mr Musk’s team was trying to lay off air traffic controllers. What am I supposed to do? Mr Duffy said. I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?
Yesterday, reports emerged that Donald Trump had told cabinet secretaries that they were in charge of hiring and firing at their agencies, and that Elon Musk, whose so-called “department of government efficiency” has ordered disruptive staff cuts, would play an advisory role.
It was a concrete sign of the president looking to rein in Musk in his unorthodox position, and the New York Times reports that the meeting was quite tense. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Musk reportedly went at it for a while in front of Trump: 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 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.
The atmosphere also grew heated again when Musk turned to the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, whose department is dealing with the aftermath of the first major plane crash in 15 years: Just moments before the blowup with Mr Rubio, Mr Musk and the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, went back and forth about the state of the Federal Aviation Administration’s equipment for tracking airplanes and what kind of fix was needed. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, jumped in to support Mr Musk. Mr Duffy said the young staff of Mr Musk’s team was trying to lay off air traffic controllers. What am I supposed to do? Mr Duffy said. I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?
