Elon Musk had a WWE-style “screaming match” with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent feet from the Oval Office—which only ended when they were dragged apart.
The fight was within earshot of President Donald Trump, two eyewitnesses told Axios. An aide had to physically get between the two men to end the fight.
The dispute started in the Oval and the two took it outside to the hall, with Musk calling Bessent, a billionaire in his own right, “failed.” The fight last Thursday was over who should run the IRS.
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The argument stemmed from Gary Shapley—a former IRS agent who was a “whistleblower” on Hunter Biden—being made acting commissioner of the IRS the day before the fight. Shapley was Musk’s choice, while Bessent wanted his deputy, Michael Faulkender, to get the job. Bessent accused Musk of going over his head to see that Shapley was named to the role.
A source told Axios that 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: Shapley was removed Friday and replaced by Faulkender—just three days after being appointed.
Bessent didn’t allude to any behind-the-scenes difficulties in a statement which effectively fired Shapley.
“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.
