Bessent says report he called Musk ‘a fraud' is ‘fake news'
Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent addressed his reported clashes with Elon Musk during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, rejecting claims that he called Musk a 'fraud' as 'fake news.'
After Musk's explosive fallout with President Trump last week, longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon told The Washington Post that the tech billionaire and Bessent had a physical altercation, which the White House denied, and that Bessent called Musk 'a total fraud' in a heated exchange about the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) efforts to cut government spending.
Bannon led the conservative outlet Breitbart News for several years until his ouster from the site in 2018, following a brief stint in Trump's first administration.
'I know Elon Musk body checked you at the White House,' Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) said to Bessent during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the Treasury Department.
'You know that?' Bessent shot back. 'You believe what you read on Breitbart, that's what you are telling this Congress.'
Coincidentally, Bessent recently quoted a Breitbart article on the social platform X in response to mass protests in Los Angeles against Trump's immigration crackdown.
Gomez continued in the hearing, 'If it's too sensitive for you, I won't ask that question,' prompting a retort from the South Carolina native with an apparent strike at South African-born Musk.
'I'll take South Carolina over South Africa any day,' Bessent said.
Trump confirmed that Musk and Bessent had 'a little bit of a shouting match' but denied it turned violent.
'They did have an argument, but I didn't see a lot of physicality there,' the president told reporters at the White House on Monday.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
South African president to brave second meeting with Trump following Oval Office mauling
Cyril Ramaphosa has said he will meet Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit next week, less than a month after the South African president was ambushed in the Oval Office. Mr Ramaphosa said his main aim was to reset relations with the White House during the summit in Canada. 'I am going there to have bilaterals with the chancellor of Germany, the prime minister of Canada and, of course, I will also be meeting President Trump, who we met at the White House,' he told reporters in Pretoria. He had the merest hint of a smile before addressing one of the reporters directly and breaking into laughter: 'You were there when they started dimming the lights...' Once the lights were dimmed, that White House meeting became a video screening about violent crime in South Africa, with the president holding aloft a sheaf of news cuttings about the persecution of white farmers in Mr Ramaphosa's country. The Trump administration has welcomed families of Afrikaner farmers to the US as refugees. And Mr Trump used the visit of his South African counterpart to make the case that they were the victims of racist violence. 'We have many people that feel they're being persecuted, and they're coming to the United States,' he said. 'So we take from many ... locations, if we feel there's persecution or genocide going on.' He screened a video showing rows of opposition leaders making incendiary speeches and rows of white crosses which Mr Trump claimed were the graves of murdered white South Africans. He also brandished printouts of news stories describing violence and murder in South Africa, although some eagle eyed observers noticed that a picture supposedly showing a burial site was actually from a report about women being killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, Mr Ramaphosa told reporters the meeting had been a success and that he wanted to use his trip to Canada to discuss trade relations. 'It's important for us to reposition ourselves in the turbulent geopolitical architecture,' he said. World leaders from the world's most developed economies are due to begin arriving in Alberta on Sunday. Mr Trump and his trade policies will cast a long shadow over the two days of meetings. Mr Ramaphosa is due to host world leaders at the G20 later in the year and has invited the American president to attend. 'We are going to use it as a platform to begin to consolidate what we want to achieve in November, when the G20 leaders' summit takes place here,' he said. 'I am hoping that when we meet with the various other leaders of various countries who are part of the G7, we will be able to interact meaningfully with them.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Dem lashes out at Bessent during heated committee hearing exchange: 'Excuse me'
Del. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, lashed out at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a tense House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday. "Ma'am, that's incorrect," Bessent said in a response to a chart displayed by Plaskett, which was referencing the cost of living, but the chart only went until February of this year. "Excuse me. Let me get something straight with you first here. I've seen you interrupt everyone. When you come to someone's house, you respect their rules. And in this house, we don't interrupt individuals. And you're not going to interrupt my time," Plaskett said. "I'm going to give you time to respond. You may want to jot down some notes about things you don't agree with me on so you can respond to them at that time. But while I'm speaking, as the person holding this time, you will refrain from speaking, sir, until I'm done, until I'm done, then I will give you time to speak, OK?" she continued. Democrat Congresswoman Draws Boos Over 'Shameful' Sexism Remark In Committee Hearing With Treasury Secretary "I look forward to facts," Bessent replied. Read On The Fox News App "Thank you. I'll look forward to your response whether they're factual or incorrect either," Plaskett replied. Later on, Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, asked Bessent, "Where did [Plaskett] go wrong in her statement?" "Well, first of all, I would fire the staffer who did that chart, because it stopped in February 2025 and prices are down substantially since then. But that's an inconvenient truth. Secondly, the S&P, if the congresswoman would care to check Bloomberg. The stock market is judged by the S&P, which is the most widely held index by American 401ks is up on the air, up," Bessent said. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Denies That Tariff Pause Is Due To Market Declines When Plaskett attempts to interject, Moran says, "Excuse me, ma'am, it's my time." "And we don't interrupt, excuse me, we don't interrupt is what I learned," Bessent clapped back. "Since Jan. 1, it is my business for 40 years to know what the stock market does, and it is up in the air." After the hearing, Plaskett received a range of criticism, including a remark from an X user saying, "Do all these twats have their PMS cycle synced? Someone needs to ship a case of Midol to the Capitol this afternoon." Small Businesses Barely Survived Biden. They Can't Wait For Tariffs To Fix Things Plaskett replied to the user's response with an explicit comment. "Excuse you!! This twat, [c--t], pum pum whatever you want to call it represents an organ that gives LIFE and is resilienr [sic] so thanks for the compliment. I can take one interruption but Bessent was out of control. And…. I know I look good for my age but baby I'm post menopausal and it still works," she replied, with emojis of cherries and a drop of water. The primary focus of the committee hearing was on trade and tax policies, both of which have sparked serious debate as Congress works through the reconciliation bill, and as the administration negotiates trade deals with other nations. As for Bessent, he'll be on Capitol Hill again on Thursday testifying before the Senate Finance article source: Dem lashes out at Bessent during heated committee hearing exchange: 'Excuse me'
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
US lawmakers approve $9 billion of Elon Musk's federal cuts
US lawmakers on Thursday approved a White House request to claw back $9.4 billion from funding already allocated by Congress in a victory for President Donald Trump as he pushes to lock in spending cuts spearheaded by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The vote in the Republican-led US House of Representatives was seen as the first test of how easily Congress could usher into law savings sought by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) -- just days after his acrimonious exit from the government. But the saved funds -- targeting public broadcasting and foreign aid -- were unpopular in some sections of both parties, and Republicans in the House of Representatives shoehorned the bill through a razor-thin 214-212 vote. "Under President Trump's leadership, your taxpayer dollars are no longer being wasted," House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. "Instead, they are being directed toward priorities that truly benefit the American people." Legislation to grab back money already approved by Congress -- known as a "rescissions package" -- is extremely rare and no such measure had passed in decades. The vote was the first in what Johnson has touted as a potential series of packages codifying the cuts made by DOGE. Musk was tasked by Trump with leading the task force after spending $290 million helping the Republican get elected. The SpaceX boss boasted that he would be able to save $2 trillion in federal spending -- but left the White House under a cloud earlier this month as he feuded with Trump over deficits and spending. DOGE acknowledges that it has saved taxpayers just $180 billion -- and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous inaccuracies in its accounting. The recissions package slashes $8.3 billion in foreign aid, with much of that approved for humanitarian organization USAID, one of DOGE's first targets. The text also eliminates $400 million in funding allocated to health programs including the lifesaving PEPFAR global AIDS program, created by then-president George W. Bush. The package also targets $1.1 billion to be taken back from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), as well as more than 1,500 local radio and television stations. Conservatives often accuse PBS and NPR of bias, and Trump signed an executive order in May to cease federal funding for both networks. "For decades, Republicans have promised to cut NPR, but have never done it, until now," Trump said on Truth Social as the vote got underway. "NPR and PBS are a Radical Left Disaster, and 1000% against the Republican Party!" Democrat Dan Goldman and Republican Mark Amodei, co-chairs of the congressional public broadcasting caucus, said cutting the funding will not meaningfully reduce the deficit, but instead dismantle "a trusted source of information for millions of Americans." The package now moves to the Republican-led Senate, where it needs the support of only a simple majority -- 51 members -- rather than the 60 votes usually required. ft/jgc
