Earlier this week, the IRS investigator turned whistleblower, Gary Shapley, who'd led an ill-fated probe into Hunter Biden's alleged tax crimes, was named as the interim commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

Just a few days later, however, Shapley was removed from that role by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and was subsequently replaced by Treasury's Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender, according to the Associated Press.

The leadership shakeup is reportedly the result of a clash between Bessent and tech billionaire Elon Musk, a top advisor to President Donald Trump, and does not reflect poorly on Shapley, whom Bessent later confirmed would continue to serve in a senior advisory role.

Musk bypassed Bessent to push for Shapley

The New York Times was the first to report on Friday that Shapley had been replaced as the interim IRS commissioner by Faulkender at Sec. Bessent's request, a move that multiple unnamed sources said stemmed from a "power struggle" between Bessent and Musk.

Per the sources, Bessent complained to President Trump that Musk, in his role as nominal head of the Department of Government Efficiency, had done an "end run" around his authority to push at the White House for Shapley to be promoted to be the interim IRS commissioner, and Trump reportedly agreed that Bessent should be able to pick who he wanted for that position.

Notably, it was just a few weeks ago that former IRS supervisory special agent Shapley had been promoted to serve as the deputy chief of IRS criminal investigations, where he would have oversight of more than 2,000 IRS investigators spread out over 20 field offices and 14 foreign posts.

Reportedly at Musk's urging, Shapley was named the interim commissioner earlier this week to replace Melanie Krause, the former interim commissioner who'd resigned in protest over an arrangement reached for the IRS to provide data on illegal alien taxpayers to federal immigration authorities, according to the AP.

Krause had just ascended to that role in February to take over for former Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell, who abruptly resigned in protest against DOGE gaining access to IRS systems and records.

Bessent confirms he replaced Shapley with Faulkender

The IRS leadership change was confirmed in an X post on Friday from Sec. Bessent, who wrote, "Trust must be brought back to the IRS, and I am fully confident that @TreasuryDepSec Michael Faulkender is the right man for the moment."

"Gary Shapley's passion and thoughtfulness for approaching ways by which to create durable and lasting reforms at the IRS is essential to our work, and he remains among my most important senior advisors at the @USTreasury as we work together to rethink and reform the IRS," he continued.

The secretary added that "after" Shapley and fellow IRS whistleblower Joseph Zeigler, who also called foul on how the Hunter Biden investigation was handled by the Biden-Harris administration, "complete their ongoing year-long investigation, I will ensure they are both in senior government roles that will enable the results of their investigation to translate into meaningful policy changes."

White House downplays reported conflict

In response to the high-level personnel change and reported head-butting between Bessent and Musk, the New York Post reported that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "It’s no secret President Trump has put together a team of people who are incredibly passionate about the issues impacting our country."

"Disagreements are a normal part of any healthy policy process, and ultimately everyone knows they serve at the pleasure of President Trump," she added.

The Post further noted that all of this upheaval is only temporary, in that whoever serves as the interim commissioner of the IRS is only filling that role until Trump's pick for that position, former Rep. Billy Long (R-MO), can be vetted and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.