A billionaire who likes to have control could face some limits.
Yesterday, President Trump did something he’s seemingly been loath to do in the first seven weeks of his new administration: He reined in Elon Musk.
My colleagues Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman have the details of the extraordinary cabinet meeting where everything unfolded, and you’re going to want to read every word. After Musk berated Secretary of State Marco Rubio for having fired “nobody,” Rubio pushed back while Trump watched. Musk scoffed that Rubio was merely “good on TV.”
Sean Duffy, a former star of MTV’s “Real World” who knows what it means to be good on television — and is now the secretary of transportation — played his own role in the conflict earlier in the meeting, when he spoke in defense of air traffic controllers, some of whom, he said, Musk’s aides were trying to fire.
What was clear was that some of the nation’s cabinet secretaries had hit their breaking point with Musk’s efforts to steamroll the federal government. And while Trump said he still supported Musk’s mission, he gave his secretaries something they wanted. As Jonathan and Maggie wrote:
From now on, he said, the secretaries would be in charge; the Musk team would only advise.
The encounter stood as the first indication that Trump is willing to put some limits on the billionaire, even if those limits would do little more than bring the realities of Musk’s wide-ranging role more in line with how the administration’s lawyers have described it in court.
But the limits, if they hold, could raise bigger questions about the role Musk will play in the government going forward — especially if his history in the business world is any guide.
Ryan Mac, a colleague of mine who covers big tech, has reported on Musk for a long time. Today, I asked him if Musk had ever been content with an adviser-style role, one in which he doesn’t run the show.