Musk, Rubio clash in cabinet meeting, New York Times says

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk clashed on Thursday during a Cabinet meeting, as President Donald Trump watched, over the level of staff cuts that Rubio has carried out, the New York Times reported.

The drama unfolded at a meeting where Trump told his Cabinet heads that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing and policy at their agencies, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The Times said Musk, assigned by Trump to eliminate large parts of the federal bureaucracy, accused Rubio of having fired “nobody” and resisting Musk’s push for large staff reductions.

Rubio pushed back, saying 1,500 State Department employees had taken early retirement buyouts, the Times said. It said Rubio asked sarcastically whether Musk wanted him to rehire all those people just so he could make a show of firing them again.

The meeting was convened following complaints about the Musk operation’s blunt-force approach from agency heads to top White House officials, including chief of staff Susie Wiles. The White House Office of Legislative Affairs has been inundated with calls in recent days from frustrated Republican members of Congress all over the country, some of whom have faced anger from constituents at home.

Trump denied the Times report on Friday when asked about it during a session with reporters in the Oval Office.

“No clash, I was there, you’re just a troublemaker,” he told a reporter who asked about the report. “Elon gets along great with Marco and they’re both doing a fantastic job.”

Trump added: “Marco has done unbelievably as Secretary of State. And Elon is a unique guy and has done a fantastic job.”

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Don Durfee and Deepa Babington)