Scott Bessent trolled as he calls himself a ‘ninja’, Elon Musk a ‘viking’ while addressing reported brawl

Scott Bessent calls him­self a ‘Nin­ja’ while address­ing rumored phys­i­cal fight with Elon Musk (Get­ty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC: Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Scott Bessent offered a wry response to mount­ing spec­u­la­tion about a report­ed phys­i­cal con­fronta­tion with Elon Musk out­side the Oval Office — brush­ing off the inci­dent while paint­ing him­self as a stealthy oper­a­tor com­pared to the Tes­la tycoon’s bom­bas­tic per­sona.

Appear­ing on the lat­est episode of ‘Pod Force One’ with host Miran­da Devine, Bessent didn’t con­firm whether Musk had actu­al­ly body-slammed him, as The Wash­ing­ton Post pre­vi­ous­ly report­ed.

How­ev­er, he acknowl­edged “dis­agree­ments” with Musk dur­ing their tenure in Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s cab­i­net.

Scott Bessent downplays Elon Musk clash, compares himself to a ‘ninja’ on podcast

“We have had dis­agree­ments, but we both want to get to the same place,” Bessent shared. “We both want to elim­i­nate the waste, fraud and abuse in gov­ern­ment.”

The Sil­i­con Val­ley mode of oper­a­tion is move quick­ly and break things. I always say here at Trea­sury we move delib­er­ate­ly and fix thing,” he said, adding, “Elon prob­a­bly fan­cies him­self more of a viking. I think I’m more of a nin­ja. Sort of the sub­ma­rine that sur­faces, fires, and goes back under.”

Ten­sion between the two pow­er play­ers report­ed­ly boiled over in mid-April after they pitched com­pet­ing can­di­dates to head the IRS.

Accord­ing to a source quot­ed by Steve Ban­non in The Wash­ing­ton Post, the argu­ment esca­lat­ed in the West Wing hall­way, cul­mi­nat­ing in Musk alleged­ly ram­ming his shoul­der into Bessent “like a rug­by play­er.” Bystanders were said to have inter­vened to deesca­late the moment.

On the ‘Pod Force One’ episode, Bessent side­stepped direct­ly address­ing the rumored body slam inci­dent. Instead, he kept things vague, not­ing that every­one involved is “very pas­sion­ate” about doing the best they can for both Trump and the coun­try.

White House Senior Advi­sor, Tes­la and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (L) speaks dur­ing a cab­i­net meet­ing held by U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump at the White House on March 24, 2025 in Wash­ing­ton, DC (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Pressed fur­ther about whether he called Musk a “total fraud,” Bessent firm­ly denied it. “Absolute­ly not,” he replied.

While the White House ini­tial­ly described the inci­dent as noth­ing more than a “robust dis­agree­ment,” insid­ers say ten­sions had been build­ing for weeks as Musk’s brash style clashed with oth­er mem­bers of the admin­is­tra­tion.

Musk for­mal­ly left his short-term gov­ern­ment role in May after reach­ing his legal 130-day lim­it as a ‘spe­cial gov­ern­ment employ­ee’.

Scott Bessent prais­es Elon Musk’s lega­cy at DOGE despite fall­out with Trump

At the end of May, Musk qui­et­ly exit­ed his advi­so­ry role with the com­mis­sion as his tem­po­rary gov­ern­ment employ­ee sta­tus expired. His out­spo­ken crit­i­cism of the president’s “big, beau­ti­ful bill” sparked a very pub­lic clash between the two, mark­ing a turn­ing point in their once-ami­ca­ble rela­tion­ship.

Internet reacts as Scott Bessent calls himself a ‘ninja’ after brawl with Elon Musk

Scott Bessent’s unex­pect­ed self-pro­claimed “nin­ja” moment after his report­ed scuf­fle with Elon Musk has sparked a flur­ry of mock­ery and dis­be­lief across social media, with users roast­ing the trea­sury secretary’s choice of words.

One user summed up the col­lec­tive cringe, “Viking and Nin­ja. Hilar­i­ous. And pathet­ic.”