Elon Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had an argument last Thursday at the White House that turned into a shouting match in front of President Donald Trump.
The Details: According to an Axios report, Musk and Bessent were chest-to-chest while shouting at each other within earshot of President Trump in the West Wing.
Witnesses said the dispute between the men was "quite a scene" and very loud.
"It was two billionaire, middle-aged men thinking it was WWE in the hall of the West Wing," one witness said of the argument last Thursday.
The trouble reportedly began on April 16, when Trump named Gary Shapley as acting commissioner of the IRS. Bessent wanted Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender in the position, while Shapley was Musk's choice.
At a meeting in the White House last Thursday, Bessent confronted Musk about going behind his back to have Shapley appointed. A source told Axios that's when "the F bombs started to fly."
Bessent said Musk overpromised and underdelivered on budget cuts with DOGE, and Musk responded by accusing Bessent of having run a "failed hedge fund" and calling him a "Soros agent."
"It wasn't a fight about right or wrong. It was about control," an administration official familiar with the disagreement told Axios.
Ultimately, Bessent got his way when on Friday it was reported that Shapley was out as acting commissioner of the IRS and Faulkender was in.
What Else: Musk told $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ analysts and investors on a conference call Tuesday that he would be spending "significantly" less time at DOGE beginning next month.
It is unclear if his choice is related to the incident with Bessent, other disagreements within the administration or if the CEO just wants to spend more time running his company – but Tesla investors reacted positively to the news that Musk would be less distracted by politics ahead.
