Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent swerved past a question on his alleged West Wing brawl with Tesla boss Elon Musk, choosing instead to make a joke about the source of the story.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that after making competing pitches to President Donald Trump about who should lead the Internal Revenue Service in a mid-April meeting, Musk and Bessent left the Oval Office and began arguing.
After hurling expletives at one another, the then-DOGE chief slammed his shoulder into Bessent’s rib cage “like a rugby player,” Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon told the paper, and bystanders had to break up the fight.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt played down the reports, saying there have been “healthy disagreements” between Musk and members of Trump’s Cabinet.
During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday, Bessent passed on an opportunity to comment directly on the report. Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) began his questioning by asking Bessent how he was doing.
“So far, so good,” Bessent replied.
“OK. I was just curious, because I know Elon Musk body-checked you at the White House. No animosity to Elon Musk, right?”
“You know that?” Bessent demanded.
“That’s what I heard,” Gomez said with a smile.
“So you believe what you read on Breitbart is what you’re telling us, Congressman,” Bessent replied, also smiling.
Bannon co-founded Breitbart News Network in 2007 as an alt-right platform and served as its chief executive until 2018. Although it was the Post that broke the story, Bessent was apparently referring to Bannon as the newspaper’s source.
Just days before he dragged the outlet, Bessent had cited a Breitbart News article on social media during a tirade about California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“I didn’t know if it was too sensitive for you,” Gomez said. “I won’t ask that question, but let me move on.”
“I will take South Carolina over South Africa any day,” Bessent joked, referring to his home state and Musk’s home country.
Bannon told the Post that Musk and Bessent’s fight contributed to the messy dissolution of the bromance between the president and his top donor turned cost-cutting advisor.
Tensions poured out into the open last week as the former allies traded a series of increasingly hostile—and personal—threats and insults.
Musk has since publicly apologized and tried to come crawling back, but so far the president has said he’s not even thinking about the world’s richest man, who poured more than $250 million into the president’s re-election campaign last fall.
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