A major shouting match took place last week in the West Wing, involving two influential figures—Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, and Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary responsible for overseeing the country’s economy.
The argument, described by onlookers as akin to a professional wrestling match, centered on who would take charge of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The dispute began when Musk reportedly bypassed Bessent to urge President Trump to appoint Gary Shapley, a former IRS agent who had previously leaked details about Joe Biden’s son’s taxes, as the acting IRS commissioner.
Musk made this request on April 16, hoping to push Shapley into the role until Trump’s permanent nominee is confirmed by the Senate.
Bessent, who oversees the IRS, had other plans. He had hoped for his deputy, Michael Faulkender, to take the acting commissioner role until the Senate confirmed Billy Long, a former congressman, for the job. However, Musk’s push for Shapley didn’t sit well with Bessent, leading to a confrontation between the two men.
According to sources, the argument escalated during a meeting in the West Wing, where tensions between the two men boiled over.
“F bombs started to fly,” a witness said, describing the scene as loud and intense. The shouting was so dramatic that one person compared it to “two billionaire, middle-aged men thinking it was WWE in the hall of the West Wing.”
Bessent, who is typically calm and composed, reportedly took a jab at Musk over the perceived failure of his cost-cutting initiative at the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk, in turn, accused Bessent of being a “Soros agent,” a reference to an antisemitic conspiracy theory involving billionaire investor George Soros.
The argument became so heated that a White House aide had to step in to separate the two men. “They were not physical in the Oval, but the president saw it, and then they carried it down the hall, and that’s when they did it again,” said one witness who spoke to Axios.
This wasn’t the first time Musk and Bessent clashed. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that the tension between the two had been building for a long time, dating back to when Musk unsuccessfully lobbied for Trump to appoint Howard Lutnick, the ex-CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, to the Treasury Department. Instead, Trump chose Bessent, a decision that left Musk unhappy.
Despite their apparent animosity, sources close to Bessent claimed that he was handling the situation professionally. “That goes pretty deep and pretty far back. But he’s acting like a grown-up about it,” one ally of the Treasury Secretary told Axios.
While the White House didn’t deny the argument, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement acknowledging that disagreements are a natural part of any policy process.
“Disagreements are a normal part of any healthy policy process, and ultimately everyone knows they serve at the pleasure of President Trump,” Leavitt said.
The heated argument between Musk and Bessent reveals the intense personalities behind major decisions affecting the U.S. economy and the ongoing power struggles within the Trump administration.
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