Recently, the New York Times broke the story of an infighting at a recent White House cabinet meeting.
Secretary of State Rubio, who is the top Cabinet official, and Musk, who is the richest man in the world and the most popular person in the White House, fought a war of words in front of Trump over the issue of federal layoffs, and the two sides were at loggerheads and did not give way to each other.
When Silicon Valley’s algorithmic revolution hit Washington’s bureaucratic Iron Curtain, this Silicon Valley technology fanatic and the White House bureaucratic veterans of the face to face tearing, not only tore down the veil of the Trump Cabinet decent, but also let Musk and the U.S. establishment political forces contradictions were once again put on the stage.
There was a verbal altercation at the scene.
White House Cabinet meeting, Musk and Rubio can be described as you and me back and forth argument heated, once made the meeting into a stalemate. Finally, Trump had to personally intervene to temporarily calm the storm.
Musk lashed out.
At the meeting, Musk pointed his finger directly at the State Department, sharply accusing Rubio of failing to meet layoff targets and contemptuously mocking the fact that the only State Department staffer fired was from the Department of Government Efficiency.
To prove his point, Musk produced graphs and charts of data from the Department of Governmental Efficiency, emphasizing that the State Department was lagging far behind other federal agencies in layoffs.
Musk derided Rubio for being good on TV, implying that his record was limited to being in front of the camera and not good at anything else.
Rubio shot back on the spot.
In the face of Musk’s attack, Rubio calmly said that the State Department’s functions are complex and sensitive, unlike other agencies, and must not take a simple and brutal approach to layoffs.
Rubio also countered that at least 1,500 State Department employees have already accepted buyout packages, and asked Musk if he wanted the State Department to rehire them so he could pretend to fire them again.
In response to Musk’s questioning of his competence, Rubio responded with a detailed plan to reorganize the State Department in an attempt to prove his ability to execute.
Trump rests his case.
According to the New York Times, Trump had his arms folded across his chest as if he were watching a tennis match. As the argument heated up, Trump intervened, saying Rubio was doing a good job and that everyone needed to stick together.
After the meeting, Trump denied any infighting and repeatedly emphasized that Musk and Rubio were on good terms.
In the media meeting, Trump even repeatedly interrupted reporters to ask questions, disliked the media reporter is the trouble maker, trying to minimize the impact of the incident.
On March 8, Trump posted a message on the real social platform he created, saying that the two had a good relationship and that any other description was fake news.
On March 8, Trump posted that the two had a good relationship.
Although Trump vigorously denied that his two beloved generals had a fierce conflict, but from past indications, Trump’s rumor has a taste of this place is not silver three hundred and two, this Mario infighting incident is feared to be true.
Exposing deep-seated conflicts.
The Mario implosion reflects that Trump’s cabinet is not ironclad, and the contradictions and differences between different factions are being exposed at an accelerated pace.
Layoff concept conflict.
Musk insists on a business mindset to push for drastic layoffs with the goal of cutting the $2 trillion deficit. This quantitative performance-oriented stance is essentially measuring government operations against corporate efficiency standards.
Rubio, on the other hand, advocates a diplomatic approach to gradual layoffs, arguing that the State Department needs to maintain stability in order to conduct its business, and that it should gradually expand its scope through a buyout program to avoid weakening its influence by laying off staff in haste.
The fundamental differences in philosophy make it difficult for the two to get along.
Traditional forces are red in the face.
Trump’s governing team has changed significantly from when he was first elected. The factions of power around Trump are now significantly more diverse than before, when he relied on his family and the far-right wing of the Republican Party.
While Trump is doing his best to maintain a balance of power among the political factions around him, Musk, who has transformed himself from a tech elite into a red-top businessman, has upset that balance of power.
Since Trump came to power, Musk has been with him at all times, and has received Trump’s continued support on issues such as government reform, and is undoubtedly the first red man in Trump’s eyes.
Recently, Musk has been attending Trump’s Cabinet meetings as a special government employee and senior advisor to the president, making him a member of the Cabinet who is not a member of the Cabinet. See also the article Government Efficiency Changes, Musk Down, Musk Up.
This kind of special privilege, far beyond the ordinary, will inevitably cause envy and jealousy among those around Trump, further intensifying the anti-Musk sentiment of traditional political forces.
Ideological differences.
Mario The root of the quarrel lies in the deep-rooted ideological differences between the tech nouveau riche and the traditional establishment orthodox MAGA group.
The tech nouveau riche, represented by Musk, switched to Trump in last year’s election, and by throwing away a lot of money to get into power, they advocate emulating the entrepreneurial management model in government management, replacing political governance with business logic, and attempting to use technological means to solve systemic problems.
The traditional establishment represented by Rubio, on the other hand, is the defender of the existing system and vested interests, emphasizing the stability of the political and social system, opposing excessive political change and radicalism, and pursuing the sound and orderly operation of the government and economic system.
The orthodox MAGA group represented by Vice President Vance, as Trump’s voting base, is characterized by anti-establishment national conservatism and populism, and advocates making America great again through policies such as trade protectionism, restricting immigrants, and preserving traditional Christian values.
The huge ideological differences between the three groups inevitably lead to conflicts.
The future is not yet known.
As the saying goes, there is no turning back, and the current reforms led by Musk are already on a one-way street to success or failure.
Although Trump is still frequently expressing support, but with the opposition of all parties and encirclement continue to increase, whether Musk can successfully retreat is still uncertain.
Damaged parties are restless.
After Trump took office, he set off a storm of reforms across the United States, strongly impacting the federal bureaucracy, laying off government employees on a large scale, and drastically cutting spending, while Musk acted as the pioneer of this reform.
With Trump’s support, Musk has led the Department of Governmental Efficiency to kill four sides, and has conducted reviews of 19 federal agencies, terminated 199 federal contracts, and laid off nearly 100,000 federal employees.
In recent times, unemployed government employees and their implicated interests are building an anti-Musk coalition through judicial lawsuits, union protests, and media campaigns, setting up anti-Musk marches and demonstrations in many parts of the country.
In the anti-Musk protest marches, people are holding up the message that no one elected Elon Musk.
The old rivalry backfires.
Musk’s reforms have been so radical that his three-pronged approach is killing the Democrats.
He has closed down the United States Agency for International Development and other agencies, frozen 70 billion dollars of foreign aid funds, the Treasury Department, the Department of Defense, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other open knife, the spearhead of the Democratic Party directly to the pocketbook.
The Democratic Party, which is not willing to sit still and fight back vigorously, is striking back vigorously by means of legal proceedings, public denunciation, state-level confrontation and voter mobilization.
Last month, 14 state attorneys general jointly sued the Department of Governmental Efficiency, alleging that its delegation of authority process is unconstitutional and seeking to enjoin Musk from issuing executive orders.
Musk, who is at the center of a maelstrom of continued speculation about President Musk by the traditional media outlets that serve as mouthpieces and sow discord in the relationship, has been subjected to numerous death threats.
Trump loose.
Trump, who is accustomed to being a hegemonic president, is headstrong and autocratic, and is prone to conflicts with the powerful officials around him. In his first term of office, he turned from love to hate for Pence, Bannon and others, and eventually became a deadly rival.
At present, the power of Trump, who has just come to power, is solid, and internal conflicts are still manageable. As Trump’s reform blade, Musk can still charge for him, so in the short term, the two will still maintain close cooperation, and the relationship between Trump and Musk will remain in the honeymoon period for some time to come. See also the article How long will the Trump-Musk honeymoon last?
However, once Musk’s reform dividend is exhausted and the power struggle within the Trump team reaches its peak, and the voices against Musk become mainstream, we cannot rule out the possibility that Trump will give up the car to protect the commander-in-chief and use Musk as a scapegoat.
Recently, Trump’s support for Musk seems to have loosened a bit.
On the same day that Musk and Rubio had a quarrel, Trump said on social media that the federal government’s cutbacks should be as precise as the use of a scalpel, rather than the sloppy approach of a big axe. That statement was clearly more on Rubio’s side.
How long will Trump’s brotherhood with Musk last, let’s wait and see.
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