Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Elon Musk had a face-to-face screaming match last Thursday in the White House’s West Wing, Axios reported Wednesday, citing two witnesses and three sources briefed on the event.
The disagreement, first reported by The New York Times last Friday, stemmed from how Donald Trump had named Gary Shapley to be acting commissioner of the IRS the day prior. Shapley was Musk’s choice, while Bessent had preferred Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender. Bessent accused Musk of going over his head to see that Shapley was named to the role.
Last Thursday, a source told Axios, Bessent confronted Musk about the move, and “the F-bombs started to fly.”
Bessent accused Musk of not fulfilling expectations he had laid out regarding DOGE, while Musk said the Treasury secretary was a “Soros agent” who had run a “failed hedge fund.”
“It was two billionaire, middle-aged men thinking it was WWE in the hall of the West Wing,” a witness told the outlet, which reported that an aide had to separate the two.
A second witness added of the exchange: “It was quite a scene. It was loud. And I mean, loud.”
When asked to comment, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt didn’t deny the dust-up.
“It’s no secret President Trump has put together a team of people who are incredibly passionate about the issues impacting our country,” she said. “Disagreements are a normal part of any healthy policy process, and ultimately, everyone knows they serve at the pleasure of President Trump.”
Since Trump’s personnel announcement, Bessent seems to have won out, as Shapley was removed Friday and replaced by Faulkender—just three days into the role.
In a statement at the time, Bessent didn’t allude to any behind-the-scenes difficulties.
“Trust must be brought back to the IRS, and I am fully confident that Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender is the right man for the moment,” he said. “Gary Shapley’s passion and thoughtfulness for approaching ways by which to create durable and lasting reforms at the IRS is essential to our work, and he remains among my most important senior advisors at the U.S. Treasury.”
Musk, who opposed Bessent’s nomination to lead the Treasury Department, told Telsa investors on an earnings call Tuesday that, amid falling sales at his company, he will only work for DOGE one or two days per week beginning in May.
As a “special government employee,” Musk’s number of work days per year is capped at 130.
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