White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Sunday downplayed reports Elon Musk “body-checked’’ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a heated meeting, calling their dispute simply a “robust disagreement.’’
Leavitt acknowledged to Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that she wasn’t in the room when the April dust-up took place but contended she wouldn’t call it a “fistfight” based on what she heard second-hand about the scrum — which supposedly included Musk ramming into Bessent’s rib cage “like a rugby player.”
“I certainly wouldn’t describe it as a fistfight, Maria,” Leavitt told host Maria Bartiromo after the journalist characterized it as such. “It was definitely a disagreement, although I was not there. I didn’t witness it with my own eyes.
“When this story originally broke, I said from the podium that there have definitely been healthy disagreements amongst the cabinet and Elon Musk,” Leavitt said.
“There were times in which they got frustrated with one another, but I think that really speaks to the heart of this Cabinet and the president’s team, that they can have these robust disagreements and then still come together to do what’s right for the people they are serving.
“We have moved on from that,” Leavitt said. “The president has moved on from it.
“And the entire administration is focusing on passing this bill,” she added of the proposed sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “Cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government remains a critical component of this administration’s agenda.”
After Musk publicly went nuclear over the bill — and onetime ally President Trump — last week, presidential buddy Steve Bannon claimed the world’s richest man had scrapped with the Treasury secretary two months ago.
“Scott said [to Musk], ‘You’re a fraud. You’re a total fraud,’ ” Bannon told the Washington Post, recalling how Musk then rammed into Bessent’s rib cage “like a rugby player.”
Eventually, multiple bystanders in the room supposedly intervened and pulled them apart.
“President Trump heard about it and said, ‘This is too much,’ ” Bannon added.
Bannon, a former top strategist for Trump who hosts the “War Room” podcast, has publicly called for Musk, a South African native, to be deported and for the president to invoke the Defense Production Act to seize control of his SpaceX company in retaliation for his public broadsides against the president.
Musk has not publicly commented on the alleged altercation, nor has Bessent.
There had been a prior report from the New York Times alleging that the two men got into a shouting match at the same April meeting.
Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback.My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change. Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change… https://t.co/igGLZOJ8wz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2024
During the meeting, both men had pitched different candidates to lead the Internal Revenue Service. The president ultimately backed Bessent’s choice.
Musk had previously publicly backed then-Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick to helm the Treasury Department over Bessent. Trump ended up making Lutnick the secretary of the Department of Commerce.
The day of the April meeting, Bessent also allegedly needled Musk for falling far short of his goal of cutting government spending by $1 trillion with the Department of Government Efficiency.
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