Elon Musk reportedly “squared up” to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent amid a “WWE-style shouting match” over who should lead the IRS.
The chaotic incident is reported to have happened in front of US President Donald Trump in the White House.
“Elon was shouting and rambling and Scott just wasn’t putting up with it,” a political source said.
“It was two … middle-aged men thinking it was WWE in the hall of the West Wing.”
A source told political news website Axios: 'Elon was shouting and rambling and Scott just wasn’t putting up with it.'
GETTY
According to a spokesman, while the incident didn’t turn physical in the Oval Office, the President witnessed it before it continued down the hallway.
A second witness described the scene as extremely loud and chaotic.
Bessent allegedly shouted “f*** you” at Musk, according to political news site Axios, to which the billionaire replied: “Say it louder”.
Bessent reportedly complained to Trump that Musk had bypassed him to appoint Gary Shapley as acting IRS commissioner.
MORE LIKE THIS:
In response, the US President agreed to replace Shapley with Michael Faulkender, one of Bessent’s deputies at the Treasury Department.
The clash marks the latest row between Musk and a member of Trump’s cabinet, with tensions between the mogul and Bessent said to be particularly intense.
Commenting on the confrontation on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed disagreements were “part of the healthy debate process”.
She added: “There are disagreements amongst the president’s staff and cabinet sometimes … everybody knows that, ultimately, President Trump is the decision-maker.”
The world’s richest man has been vocal in his opposition to Trump's hardline tariff policy, which Tesla claimed has hurt its supply chain and raised costs
TESLAOn Tuesday, Musk announced plans to “significantly” scale back his involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) following a decline in profit and sales reported by Tesla in its first quarterly update of the year.
Addressing Tesla investors, Musk said he would be dedicating much more of his time to the company, but affirmed his commitment to combating fraud and abuse in the federal government for “as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it’s useful”.
The world’s richest man has been vocal in his opposition to Trump's hardline tariff policy, which Tesla claimed has hurt its supply chain and raised costs.
A few weeks ago, Musk branded Trump’s trade advisor, Peter Navarro, a “moron” after Navarro claimed the Tesla mogul was “not a car manufacturer” but a “car assembler, in many cases”.
Most read
More
