Musk, Secretary of State Marc Rubio, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, get in verbal fight.
Simmering Anger Over Musk
The New York Times reports Inside the Explosive Meeting Where Trump Officials Clashed With Elon Musk That’s a free link.
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.
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.
After the argument dragged on for an uncomfortable time, Mr. Trump finally intervened to defend Mr. Rubio as doing a “great job.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has had tense encounters related to Mr. Musk’s team, was not present.
In a post on social media after the meeting, Mr. Trump said the next phase of his plan to cut the federal work force would be conducted with a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet” — a clear reference to Mr. Musk’s scorched-earth approach.
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?
Mr. Musk told Mr. Duffy that his assertion was a “lie.” Mr. Duffy insisted it was not; he had heard it from them directly. Mr. Musk, asking who had been fired, said: Give me their names. Tell me their names.
Mr. Duffy said there were not any names, because he had stopped them from being fired. At another point, Mr. Musk insisted that people hired under diversity, equity and inclusion programs were working in control towers. Mr. Duffy pushed back and Mr. Musk did not add details, but said during the longer back and forth that Mr. Duffy had his phone number and should call him if he had any issues to raise.
The exchange ended with Mr. Trump telling Mr. Duffy that he had to hire people from M.I.T. as air traffic controllers. These air traffic controllers need to be “geniuses,” he said.
The secretary of veterans affairs, Doug Collins, has been dealing with one of the most politically sensitive challenges of all the cabinet secretaries. Mr. Musk’s cuts will affect thousands of veterans — a powerful constituency and a core part of the Trump base. Mr. Collins made the point that they should not wield a blunt instrument and cleave off everyone from the V.A. They needed to be strategic about it. Mr. Trump agreed with Mr. Collins, saying they ought to retain the smart ones and get rid of the bad ones.
Mr. 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 cabinet 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. Mr. Musk’s anger directed at Mr. Rubio in particular seemed to catch people in the room by surprise, one person with knowledge of the meeting said. Another person said Mr. Musk’s caustic responses to Mr. Duffy and Mr. Rubio seemed to deter other cabinet members, many of whom have privately complained about the Musk team, from speaking.
But it remains to be seen how long this new arrangement will last.
Is Musk Supposed to Advise or Dictate?
We all know the answer to that, except apparently Elon Musk.
He wants to fire air traffic controllers just because they were hired under a DEI program, with no regard for public safety. He just wants numbers to brag about.
I have no use for DEI and have stated so many times. But just because someone was hired on a DEI program does not make them incompetent.
And if you get rid of a needed person, then you have to hire someone back. That seems lost on Musk, but not Rubio who sarcastically responded to one of Musk’s outbursts whether Musk wanted him to rehire all the USAID people just so he could make a show of firing them again.
SOTU Provides Opening for Lawyers Challenging DOGE Authority
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump Speech Provides Opening for Lawyers Challenging Musk’s DOGE Authority
Trump referred to Musk as heading DOGE in his speech to a joint session of Congress. In doing so, the president appeared to contradict government lawyers defending DOGE who have characterized Musk’s role as merely advisory.
“To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars,” Trump told lawmakers. “And to that end, I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.”
Where Musk fits into the chain of command has emerged as a central question in lawsuits seeking to curb DOGE’s data access and push to shrink government agencies.
The Trump administration’s lawyers say Musk is a presidential adviser giving recommendations with no binding legal effect, but at least three judges have questioned whether Musk’s powers are more expansive, which could raise constitutional concerns.
Within hours after Trump’s speech, plaintiffs challenging DOGE submitted court filings alerting judges of Trump’s remarks.
“It’s so obvious Mr. Musk is enjoying significant authority that requires Senate confirmation,” said attorney Norman Eisen, who represents a group of current and former employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Musk has sought to dismantle. “The president’s comments last night just reaffirm that.”
Oops.
Now, add to that mess, the White House temper tantrum between Musk and Rubio, and Musk and Duffy.
Musk with his kid on his shoulder should not be in that meeting at all. But he is there, making demands as if he has authority to do so.
Last week, the White House last week identified a little-known healthcare executive, Amy Gleason, as the acting DOGE administrator legally in charge.
So why is Musk at the meeting and not the person allegedly in charge?
The Idea Behind Doge
Just so this is clear, I fully support the idea behind DOGE.
But Musk is best viewed as a braying jackass making demands that are not his to make.
And he is also a reckless liar who exaggerates his accomplishments.
DOGE has not come up with a single idea that was not already understood by Rand Paul and hundreds of bloggers including me.
USAID Cancellation by Trump, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Details
On February 6, I commented USAID Cancellation by Trump, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Details
The Good
Rooting out fraud and ridiculous unauthorized payments is good. Moreover, there is grounds to fire everyone who sent out checks without questioning a single one.
The Bad
Sorry DOGE, but a blanket cancellation of all payments is unconstitutional.
The Ugly
Elon Musk has no power to do anything but advise the President and make recommendations.
The Unfortunate Reality
There is no advantage in releasing Musk in a China shop than releasing George Soros in the same China shop. No good will come from a reckless smashing of plates.
And the unfortunate impact might very well be the courts block everything when some very good things may have happened if Trump took a legitimate case-by-case look.
Lawsuits are pending and Trump will lose. We should not be in this setup.
If you disagree then please tell me how you would have felt if Biden authorized George Soros access to the system to shut down payments he disagreed with.
Hypocrites make excuses. I don’t.
Also note Elon Musk says he and Trump are shutting down USAID
Musk, the head of Trump’s government efficiency initiative, announced the shutdown in the middle of the night in an audio-only appearance on his social media site X.
But Musk has no power to shut down anything.
Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Pause on USAID Payouts
On March 5, I noted Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Pause on USAID Payouts
I thought this could go either way, and the 5-4 vote shows it might have.
Yes I know this will go back to the lower court and may be appealed. I even said so, but judging from comments people cannot read.
As I said on February 6, “The unfortunate impact might very well be the courts block everything when some very good things may have happened if Trump took a legitimate case-by-case look.“
The fact of the matter is Trump tried to cancel USAID entirely and is now arguing about the length of time he can hold up questionable expenses.
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise – Not
On March 6, NBC reported “Trump administration must pay debts to USAID partners by Monday, judge rules”
I had this conversation with my constitutional law expert friend (CLEF).
CLEF: Today’s win was procedural. I.e., the standards for injunctive relief were met and pending a final decision, payments can continue.
Me: If they cannot win on this point, how are they going to win on cancellation?
CLEF: “If you can’t prevent the distribution of Congressionally approved funds, you certainly can’t shut down an agency that Congress has mandated, if that’s what you mean by cancellation.”
Me: Yes, exactly what I mean.
CLEF: All Trump has to do is go to the Republican-controlled Congress and get it to repeal the USAID statute. A President can’t do that, assuming we’re still living in a country governed by the US Constitution.
So here we are.
Had Trump gone about this the way I suggested, they likely could have blocked suspect payments. Instead, nothing.
Also consider DOGE is Careless in Operation and Reckless in Reporting