Elon Musk getting fired? DOGE chief responds to glaring Atlantic report

Elon Musk reportedly got into an intense shouting match with Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in the West Wing of the White House last month over the selection of the new IRS head. On Wednesday, a profile from The Atlantic detailed the rapid rise and fall of Musk’s influence, which has led to several social media users believing that the tech billionaire might be soon ousted from his position as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE.

The Atlantic noted that Bessent yelled at Musk with President Donald Trump listening to their conversation from a closeby room. “F— you! F— you! F— you!” Bessent reportedly shouted at Musk. The Tesla CEO also lost his calm and accused the Treasury head of running two failed hedge funds.

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“I can’t hear you,” Musk said. “Say it louder.”

The fiery shouting match was first reported by Axios in April. A witness told the media outlet that two ‘middle-aged men thought it was WWE in the hall of the West Wing’.

“The power struggle has become a symbol of Musk’s inability to build support for his approach,” the Atlantic noted. The shouting match reportedly stemmed from Bessent being furious that Elon Musk had ‘gone behind his back’ to push for Gary Shapley to be named acting commissioner of the IRS. Bessent wanted Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender for the job.

Musk responded to the report with an emoji.

The speculation about Musk’s firing comes as the senior adviser is far behind his original goal to slash $2 trillion from federal spending through DOGE. According to the DOGE website, the figure stands at around $170 billion. The department has already caused chaos by letting go several federal workers and shutting down key funding chains.

Musk is currently a ‘special government employee’, a title that requires him to step down after 130 days. Rushab Sanghvi, general counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees, told Atlantic that he has been ‘kicked out of town’ already.

“If he had stayed in the shadows and done his stuff, who knows how bad it would have been? But no one likes the guy.”