President Donald Trump’s tumultuous first term was characterized by extraordinary levels of senior staff turnover. The historic churn was exemplified by the tenure of Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director in 2017, which led to pundits adopting “Scaramuccis” as a measure of time equaling 11 days.
As the turmoil continues in Trump’s second term, the Scaramucci may have just been made obsolete, replaced by an even shorter unit. Today we learned that Trump is replacing the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service just three days after naming him to the post.
Trump picked Gary Shapley on Tuesday to serve as acting commissioner of the tax agency. Shapley had gained prominence in conservative circles as a whistleblower who alleged in 2023 that the Justice Department was slow-walking an investigation into Hunter Biden. Shapley was named to replace Melanie Krause, the previous acting IRS chief, who resigned after the agency agreed to a controversial deal to help immigration officials deport undocumented immigrants.
But the Shapley appointment reportedly triggered a clash between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Elon Musk, the billionaire leading the new Department of Government Efficiency, who has riled multiple members of Trump’s Cabinet. Bessent reportedly had not been consulted about the Shapley appointment, even as the IRS part of Bessent’s department.
“Mr. Bessent had complained to Mr. Trump this week that Mr. Musk had done an end run around him to get Mr. Shapley installed as the interim head of the I.R.S., even though the tax collection agency reports to Mr. Bessent,” The New York Times reported Friday.
Trump approved another change atop the agency. Michael Faulkender, who was just sworn in as deputy treasury secretary, will now be the new acting IRS commissioner. He will be the agency’s fifth leader since January and its third acting leader this week.
Shapley lasted less than a third of a Scaramucci.
The agency has also lost a slew of other top officials in recent weeks.
“Trust must be brought back to the IRS, and I am fully confident that @TreasuryDepSec Michael Faulkender is the right man for the moment,” Bessent said in a statement posted on X Friday afternoon. “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.”
Bessent had previously brought Shapley and another IRS whistleblower, Joseph Ziegler, into the Treasury and had said that he would give the pair “a year to investigate the wrongdoing that's going on at the IRS.” Bessent said Friday that he will ensure that both men are in “senior government roles that will enable the results of their investigation to translate into meaningful policy changes.”
Trump’s choice to lead the IRS on a permanent basis, former Rep. Billy Long, has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.