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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has addressed reports that he had an explosive argument with Elon Musk in the West Wing earlier this year — and responded to rumors that he gave a black eye to the world’s richest man.
Bessent clashed with Musk at the end of April over the choices for next leader of the Internal Revenue Service, according to The Atlantic and subsequent media reports. The pair reportedly traded jabs and fired off expletives near the Oval Office. One witness described the fight as “two billionaire, middle-aged men thinking it was WWE in the hall of the West Wing,” Axios reports.
MAGA ally Stephen Bannon even told The Washington Post the pair exchanged blows. Musk rammed his shoulder into Bessent’s ribcage “like a rugby player,” and Bessent hit him back, Bannon recounted. Multiple people then intervened to break up the fight, the Post reported. Weeks later, Musk arrived at the White House with a black eye.
Bessent, in a lengthy interview with Bloomberg published Monday, addressed what had happened with Musk but offered few details. He did, however, confirm he didn’t give the SpaceX founder a black eye.
“I can 100 percent say I did not give him the black eye,” Bessent said.
Musk has also told reporters he got the black eye from his five-year-old son, “Lil X.”
“I said go ahead and punch me in the face and he did,” the billionaire said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed reports that the altercation turned physical in June, explaining she wouldn’t have described it as a “fistfight.”
“It was definitely a disagreement…we’ve moved on from it,” she said.
The April fight began when Trump sided with Bessent’s choice for the acting IRS commissioner, the Post reported.
Musk and Bessent walked into a hallway outside the Oval Office and started exchanging insults, according to the Post. Bessent then brought up that Musk, who was heading the Department of Government Efficiency at the time, had not been successful in cutting $1 trillion in government spending as promised.
“Scott said, ‘You’re a fraud. You’re a total fraud,’” Bannon told the Post.
“President Trump heard about it and said, ‘This is too much,’” he added.
Bessent, a 62-year-old from South Carolina, was confirmed as Trump’s treasury secretary in January after working for years as a top hedge fund manager.