Clash at the White House: Musk "hits" the US Treasury Secretary - who hits back

Elon Musk "bumped" his shoulder against the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bernstein, who hit him back during a confrontation between the two after a discussion about appointing a new head of the Internal Revenue Service. This happened in mid-April when the two were in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, who chose Bernstein's candidate for the position.

According to Steve Bannon, a former Trump advisor, after they left the room, the two began to exchange insults. Bernstein criticized Musk for failing to uncover a trillion dollars in government waste, as he had promised. In response, Musk "bumped him in the shoulder like a rugby player," and Bernstein hit him back, with some of those present intervening to separate them.

This is not the first clash between Musk and Trump's team. In early April, Musk publicly called Trump's trade advisor Peter Navarro an "idiot" after Trump presented his tariff plan, which businessmen, including Musk, criticized. Behind the scenes, Musk tried to convince Trump to cancel the tariffs, but the president refused.

The tension between the two began as early as February, when Musk sent an email to administration officials asking them to list their five biggest accomplishments of the previous week without informing them in advance. This caused discontent that Musk does not understand how the federal government works.

Nevertheless, Trump and his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller continued to support him. But Chief of Staff Susie Wells became increasingly tense due to the conflicts between Musk and his newly created Office of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), as well as with other senior officials.

On April 1, Musk suffered a blow when he invested a lot of money to support Trump's candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but he lost by a large margin. Later in the month, the incident with Bernstein occurred, and at the end of April, Musk announced that he would temporarily leave Washington to focus on Tesla.

During Musk's absence, his opponents in the administration had the opportunity to strike. In the battle over the appointment of a new NASA administrator, Trump's people revealed that Musk's proposed candidate, Jared Eisenkman, had donated money to Democrats - a problem for loyalty in Trump's administration. On Musk's last day of official work, HR Director Sergio Gore handed Trump documents showing Eisenkman's donation, and the president withdrew the nomination.

The tension between Musk and Trump continues. Recently, the two exchanged harsh accusations around the budget bill passed by Congress. However, Trump surprisingly refrained from sharp attacks on Musk on social media, even calling him "one of the greatest leaders and entrepreneurs in human history."