Further details have emerged about the shouting match between Scott Bessent and Elon Musk at the White House, showing just how fed up the Treasury Secretary was with the tech mogul.
A profile from The Atlantic detailing the rapid rise and fall of Musk’s influence in President Donald Trump’s world opens with a dramatic quote that Bessent is alleged to have yelled at Musk during a heated exchange last month over who should lead the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“F*** you! F*** you! F*** you!” Bessent reportedly shouted at Musk. In retaliation, Musk squared up to Bessent and accused him of running two failed hedge funds. “I can’t hear you,” Musk said. “Say it louder.”
The fiery confrontation, believed to have taken place within earshot of Trump, was first reported by Axios in April. One unnamed witness who saw the near-physical altercation described it as “two middle-aged men thinking it was WWE in the hall of the West Wing.”
The dispute reportedly stemmed from Bessent being furious that Musk had gone behind his back to push for Gary Shapley to be named acting commissioner of the IRS. Bessent wanted Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender for the job, who eventually replaced Shapley after just three days.
The Atlantic framed the incident as another example of Musk burning bridges inside the Trump administration while essentially heading up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
For months, Musk’s leadership of the federal cost-cutting mandate made him arguably the most influential person in Trump’s orbit. So much so that people began asking if the billionaire, who regularly appeared at Cabinet meetings and press events alongside Trump, was the real president.
But following a string of setbacks, including Musk’s heavily endorsed candidate getting trounced in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court election and polling suggesting he’s increasingly unpopular, it appears Musk is retreating from his government role.
He’s also far behind on his original goal to slash $2 trillion from federal spending through DOGE. According to his own department’s website, the figure stands at around $170 billion after months chaos, gutting of agencies and mass firings.
In April, Trump announced that Musk would be “going back home to his cars” and shifting focus to companies like Tesla over his work in the White House.
Musk’s official designation as a “special government employee” requires him to step down after 130 days regardless. But Rushab Sanghvi, general counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees, suggested that Musk’s unpopularity helped speed up his exit.
“We kicked him out of town,” Sanghvi told The Atlantic. “If he had stayed in the shadows and done his stuff, who knows how bad it would have been? But no one likes the guy.”
Matt Calkins, CEO of software company Appian, which has worked with the federal government for decades, said Musk’s approach to running his tech companies didn’t translate well in Washington.
“He came with a playbook that comes from outside government, and there were mixed returns on that,” Calkins said.
“He comes in with his idealism and his Silicon Valley playbook, and a few interesting things happened. Does the ‘move fast and break things’ model work in Washington? Not really.”
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