‘F*ck You! F*ck You!’ Scott Bessent Shouted Down Elon Musk During West Wing Brawl

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shouted down Elon Musk in an final and explosive curse-filled brawl that rolled through the West Wing just weeks after members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet moved to “ambush” the billionaire tech mogul in an Oval Office takedown.

“Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” Bessent screamed at Musk, according to a new exposé in The Atlantic, confronting him in the halls of the White House in a tirade loud enough to reach the Oval Office.

Bessent was enraged that Musk had attempted to push through Gary Shapley to lead the IRS without his sign-off. Bessent wanted Michael Faulkender. Musk replied by taunting him about failed hedge funds, but Bessent won the battle – Musk’s pick was out after three days.

The clash, however, according to The Atlantic, was emblematic of a larger breakdown detailed by sources inside the White House.

Musk arrived in DC as the chain-saw-wielding disruptor of Trump’s second term, promising to eliminate $2 trillion in waste through his newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Instead, he terrorized civil servants with threats of firings, clashed with cabinet members, and left agencies in administrative disarray. His reforms were gutted by court challenges. His cuts were reversed. His savings, he later admitted, had been “really, really difficult” to find.

Behind the scenes, Trump’s cabinet had grown increasingly fed up, the outlet reported on Wednesday.

One Trump advisor, in a comment to The Atlantic, quipped about Musk’s confusing February demand that government employees file weekly reports via email or risk being fired.

“How many people were fired because they didn’t send in their three things a week or whatever the fuck it was?” the source said. “Everyone is ready to move on from this part of the administration.”

The revolt against Musk’s federal rampage came to a head at a hastily convened Cabinet meeting behind closed doors in March as the secretaries unloaded their frustration in front of Trump.

Trump, tired of the grumbling from Musk and his cabinet, demanded everyone “have at it” and they did. Musk, half-expecting a showdown, was reportedly blindsided by the sheer scale of the takedown, incoming from all corners. He insisted his problem wasn’t firing people, it was not being able to hire “better” ones fast enough.

The meeting also saw Musk berated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others, a spectacle that turned Trump’s opinion. “That was one of the turning points for Trump and Marco,” a source said. “Trump realized Marco had a little spine.”

Then came the Pentagon leak in which Musk was set to receive a sensitive briefing on China. The New York Times exposed the plan. Trump abruptly canceled it. Steve Bannon, MAGA firebrand and long a critic of Musk’s power, told The Atlantic that with this incident, the Musk “fever had broken.”

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