Elon Musk’s chaotic four-month stint in the Trump administration ended with a shouting match in April. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent erupted furiously at Musk after the tech billionaire tried to install IRS agent Gary Shapley without approval.
“F**k you! F**k you! Fk you!” Bessent reportedly screamed as the confrontation spilled through the West Wing. Shapley was removed within 72 hours.
“The fight had started outside the Oval Office; it continued past the Roosevelt Room and toward the chief of staff’s office, and then barreled around the corner to the national security adviser’s warren,” The Atlantic reported Wednesday.
Tensions had been brewing for months. In March, Musk faced off with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others in a meeting Trump arranged. “Bring them all in here, and we’ll have at it,” Trump reportedly said. Officials felt Musk was overstepping into their agencies.
While Musk’s “chainsaw” approach shut down some departments and pushed out federal workers, it backfired. His Silicon Valley-style reforms—like weekly bullet-point reports—were dropped. “How many people were fired because they didn’t send in their three things a week or whatever the f**k it was?” one Trump adviser said.
Another insider admitted, “It’s different when you… don’t even have the buy-in of the agency you’re setting on fire.”
Even supporters soured. “We probably didn’t need the chainsaw. We needed the chisel,” said Appian CEO Matt Calkins.
Behind the scenes, Trump officials found Musk insufferable. “He always tries to be funny. And he’s not. At all,” said one senior official. Another called him “the most irritating person” they’d ever dealt with.
(Source: newrepublic.com, rewritten for brevity.)