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White House - Joaquin Ossorio Castillo
The southern facade of the White House in Washington D.C.
Donald Trump's White House is scrambling to put on a happy face and soothe hurt feelings after billionaire Elon Musk got in the faces of multiple cabinet officials in a contentious meeting last week, the details of which spilled onto the pages of the New York Times.
According to MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire, Trump as well as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt spent part of their weekend painting a portrait of comity in the administration as Musk's star has continued to fall and department heads tire of his demands.
Co-host Joe Scarborough asked Lemire, “What have you found out over the weekend since this explosive meeting?”
“So there are a few things,” Lemire replied. “First of all, a lot of damage control from the White House after that meeting. You just saw President Trump there in the Oval Office talking about it. Secretary [Marco] Rubio and Elon Musk had dinner at Mar-a-Lago. over the weekend. We saw Trump return to Washington last night with Elon Musk on Air Force One. He also defended the two of them on Truth Social, trying to downplay this clash.
“But as I reported this is, this was coming, weeks in the making,” he added. “First of all, President Trump had really soured on some of the bad headlines. Really, we know how much he pays attention to the media coverage of this, dating all the way back from that moment, we've discussed on this show, when Jesse Watters on Fox News sort of almost very emotionally said, 'Hey, be more careful with these cuts,' talking about a friend of his who was going to be eliminated from the Pentagon, a veteran, saying this needs to change how we're approaching this.
“Other Cabinet secretaries for days, for weeks now, have complained to the White House and to their own staff, saying Musk is disturbing our power; they should be our decisions on hirings and firings,” he elaborated.
He then noted, “'I'm told White House officials are seeing these legal challenges, and they've been on the losing end of some of them, in part because there's questions about whether Musk has the authority in DOGE.”
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