Co-president Elon Musk has had a bit of a setback in his masterminding of Donald Trump and our federal government. As The New York Times reported, Musk’s pick for acting IRS commissioner is being ousted after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained to Trump the appointment had been made without Bessent’s approval.
More from The Times:
Mr. Bessent believed that Mr. Musk had done an end run around him to get Gary Shapley installed as the interim head of the I.R.S., even though the tax collection agency reports to Mr. Bessent. Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pushed the appointment through White House channels, but Mr. Bessent was not consulted or asked for his blessing, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
Mr. Bessent got Mr. Trump’s approval to unwind the decision. The next acting head of the I.R.S., which has seen a conveyor belt of temporary leaders under Mr. Trump, is expected to be the deputy secretary of the Treasury, Michael Faulkender. He would hold the role until the president’s nominee for the permanent role, former congressman Billy Long, if approved by the Senate, takes over.
Mr. Shapley, a longtime I.R.S. agent, was lauded by conservatives after he publicly argued that the Justice Department had slow-walked its investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.
It’s another indication that Trump can’t be bothered to do his job. Either he didn’t know that Bessent oversees the IRS or he simply allowed the unelected and unconfirmed Musk to make such a key staffing choice on his own. Or both.
The Times reports that Trump appointed Musk’s Shapley on Tuesday only to remove him within the same week after Bessent complained. However, “Mr. Shapley was working from the I.R.S. commissioner’s office on Friday morning, according to two people familiar with the matter,” The Times said. Presumably, Shapley will be out of that office before long.
Or maybe he’ll stage a Musk Mutiny and refuse to leave.
In any event, Musk, who belongs in a deportation hearing, not the White House, is very put out by this undermining of his – uh, authority. You know, the authority nobody elected him to grab.
Overnight, Musk used his social media platform to validate a misinforming rant by Trump gal pal and completely unqualified national security advisor, Laura Loomer.
More from The Times:
Mr. Musk amplified on X, the social-media website he owns, a post from Ms. Loomer accusing Mr. Bessent of colluding with a “Trump hater” he had met with earlier this month. Ms. Loomer helped push out several officials from the National Security Council earlier this month, after meeting with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office.
“Troubling,” Mr. Musk wrote over her post about Mr. Bessent’s meeting, which she called a “vetting failure.” The person with whom Mr. Bessent met was John Hope Bryant, the chief executive of the nonprofit Operation HOPE. Mr. Bryant is working on a broad financial literacy initiative with Treasury officials and is not a government employee, as her post suggested.
Grab the popcorn!