The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service is being replaced after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained to President Trump that the latest leader of the agency had been installed without his knowledge and at the behest of billionaire Elon Musk, according to five people with knowledge of the change and the sensitive discussions that precipitated it.
Mr. Bessent believed that Mr. Musk had done an end run around him to get Gary Shapley installed as the interim head of the I.R.S., even though the tax collection agency reports to Mr. Bessent. Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pushed the appointment through White House channels, but Mr. Bessent was not consulted or asked for his blessing, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
Mr. Bessent got Mr. Trump’s approval to unwind the decision. The next acting head of the I.R.S., which has seen a conveyor belt of temporary leaders under Mr. Trump, is expected to be the deputy secretary of the Treasury, Michael Faulkender. He would hold the role until the president’s nominee for the permanent role, former congressman Billy Long, if approved by the Senate, takes over.
Mr. Shapley, a longtime I.R.S. agent, was lauded by conservatives after he publicly argued that the Justice Department had slow-walked its investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.
Mr. Trump picked Mr. Shapley on Tuesday to run the agency after the previous I.R.S. interim head, Melanie Krause, decided to resign. Ms. Krause quit after the Treasury Department agreed to use I.R.S. data to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement deport undocumented immigrants. After telling colleagues on April 8 she would take the administration’s deferred resignation offer, Ms. Krause remained in the role until Mr. Musk forced the change on Tuesday.
In a statement responding to The New York Times, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, did not address the details of the dispute.
She said, “It’s no secret President Trump has put together a team of people who are incredibly passionate about the issues impacting our country. Disagreements are a normal part of any healthy policy process, and ultimately everyone knows they serve at the pleasure of President Trump.”
The I.R.S. declined to comment.
The clash was the latest instance of Mr. Musk’s influence in the Trump administration alarming top officials, and has deepened the turmoil that has engulfed the I.R.S. The agency has been under pressure from Mr. Trump to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, an attempt to politicize the agency that has deeply troubled current and former officials. Mr. Shapley was working from the I.R.S. commissioner’s office on Friday morning, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The feud between Mr. Musk and Mr. Bessent went public late Thursday night, when Mr. Musk elevated an attack from the far-right researcher Laura Loomer questioning Mr. Bessent’s pro-Trump bona fides.
Mr. Musk amplified on X, the social-media website he owns, a post from Ms. Loomer accusing Mr. Bessent of colluding with a “Trump hater” he had met with earlier this month. Ms. Loomer helped push out several officials from the National Security Council earlier this month, after meeting with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office.
“Troubling,” Mr. Musk wrote over her post about Mr. Bessent’s meeting, which she called a “vetting failure.” The person with whom Mr. Bessent met was John Hope Bryant, the chief executive of the nonprofit Operation HOPE. Mr. Bryant is working on a broad financial literacy initiative with Treasury officials and is not a government employee, as her post suggested.
In a post on the social media platform Threads after his meeting with Mr. Bessent, Mr. Bryant said that he did not discuss politically fraught matters such as tariffs with the Treasury secretary and that he hoped that he would be a positive influence on the Trump administration.
Mr. Bessent is not the first Trump adviser whom Mr. Musk has attacked publicly. In the last two weeks, Mr. Musk used X to criticize Peter Navarro, a top Trump trade adviser who is a vocal proponent of tariffs. Mr. Musk, whose company Tesla will be severely harmed by the tariffs, has opposed the president’s policy.
Mr. Musk was initially opposed to Mr. Bessent becoming Treasury secretary and promoted the candidacy of Howard Lutnick, who despises Mr. Bessent and competed with him for the role. Mr. Lutnick ultimately became the commerce secretary.
Ahead of the Treasury selection, Mr. Musk posted on X that Mr. Bessent was the “business-as-usual choice” and that Mr. Lutnick would “actually enact change.”
Mr. Trump ultimately selected Mr. Bessent, and told advisers he thought Mr. Lutnick had tried to steer the transition process toward his own selection for treasury, according to two people with direct knowledge of his comments.
Jonathan Swan is a White House reporter for The Times, covering the administration of Donald J. Trump.
Andrew Duehren covers tax policy for The Times from Washington.
Alan Rappeport is an economic policy reporter for The Times, based in Washington. He covers the Treasury Department and writes about taxes, trade and fiscal matters.
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
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