Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Describes His “Fight” With Elon Musk

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Two weeks ago, it was rumored that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Elon Musk’s feud got so heated it led to a physical altercation.

The rumors that Bessent and Musk got into a physical altercation stemmed from Steve Bannon.

Watch here:

Now Bessent has addressed those claims.

In his latest interview, Bessent downplayed his alleged physical altercation with Musk and instead described himself as a “ninja” and Musk as a “Viking.”

The Hill had more on the story:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent downplayed his reported feud with tech billionaire Elon Musk in a new interview, arguing that the two men merely have different operating styles.

“We have had disagreements, but we both want to get to the same place,” Bessent told New York Post columnist Miranda Devine in an episode of her “Pod Force One” podcast released Wednesday. “We both want to eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse in government.”

The Treasury secretary compared his view of Musk as embodying Silicon Valley’s “move fast, break things” mindset versus his own self-described deliberate “fix things” approach.

“I think Elon probably fancies himself more of a Viking; I think I’m more of a ninja,” Bessent said.

After Musk’s dramatic and public fallout with President Trump earlier this month, longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon told The Washington Post that the Tesla CEO and president had a heated exchange that led to a physical altercation, which the White House denied.

“Look, everybody’s very passionate about doing the best job for President Trump and the American people,” Bessent told Devine.

Bannon claimed that the Treasury chief called Musk “a total fraud” in a heated confrontation about the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts to cut government spending, which Bessent also denied — even as the South Carolina native took an apparent swipe at South African-born Musk during a recent congressional hearing.

“I’ll take South Carolina over South Africa any day,” Bessent told lawmakers who prodded him about the reported clash.

Watch Bessent here:

The Times of Israel had more details to share on the rumored fight:

As Elon Musk’s tenure as a senior US government official was reaching its end in April, the billionaire reportedly had a physical altercation with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that required intervention.

According to The Washington Post, following a meeting between the two and US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in mid-April in which each official advocated for his preference for acting IRS commissioner, an argument broke out between the two in the hallway, during which they hurled insults at one another.

The report said that, according to Trump’s far-right ally Steve Bannon, Bessent called Musk “a fraud” because the tech mogul did not uncover $1 trillion in wasteful and fraudulent government spending as he claimed he would in his capacity as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an agency created especially for Musk after Trump returned to power in January.

Musk then thrust his shoulder into Bessent, Bannon said in an interview, “like a rugby player.” Bessent struck Musk back in response, the report said, and multiple people had to break up the two men.

“President Trump heard about it and said, ‘This is too much,’” Bannon was quoted as saying, indicating that the brawl led to Musk’s departure from the White House at the end of May.



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