Politics
NEW: Trump Dismisses Reports Of ‘Tensions’ Between Elon Musk, Cabinet Officials
President Donald Trump has responded to reports of “tensions” between Elon Musk and cabinet members by dismissing them as false and misleading. Both Trump and Musk have previously accused mainstream media outlets of launching a coordinated propaganda campaign to create tensions between them.
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that there have been an increasing number of disagreements between Musk, who is heading up the “DOGE” initiative that provides budget recommendations to lawmakers, and members of President Trump’s cabinet. The report named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a specific example of a point of tension.
According to the report, which cited anonymous sources, Rubio and other Trump officials “clashed” with Musk during an “explosive” White House meeting. Musk allegedly pressed Rubio for failing to make staffing changes that were recommended by DOGE, leading to an argument between the two that went on for a lengthy period of time.
The anonymously-sourced report went on to claim that Trump then interjected to state that Rubio was doing a “great job.”
When asked about the reports in the Oval Office, the president unequivocally denied them and stated that there are no questions of loyalty within his cabinet. “There was no clash, I was there,” Trump told NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez. “You’re just a troublemaker and you’re not supposed to be asking that question because we’re talking about the World Cup. Elon gets along great with Marco and they’re both doing a fantastic job. There is no clash.”
While speaking with MSNBC, Semafor White House Correspondent Shelby Talcott doubled down on the New York Times report by citing the outlet’s own reporting. “Listen, I think that there has been a tension between Elon Musk and a lot of Donald Trump’s allies for a long time now. And there’s been growing confusion, we’ve talked about it on this show before, over what exactly Elon Musk’s role is and what the agency’s role in this. So I’ve heard over the past few weeks that agencies are taking the lead on this, but agencies don’t seem clear that they’re taking the lead on this,” she said.
“And this has sort of begun bubbling over into the public eye and that’s why Donald Trump held this meeting last week and now he says that he’s going to be holding this meeting every two weeks. So there’s certainly some tensions between these cabinet officials and Elon Musk.”
Rubio has not yet responded to the report, though he did praise Musk’s Starlink and defended him against false allegations from a Polish government official who accused the U.S. of shutting down Starlink capabilities in Ukraine. “Just making things up. No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink,” Rubio wrote in an X post.
“And say thank you because without Starlink, Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now.”
