Bessent Reportedly Threatens to Punch Out a Co-Worker

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent may come off as a low-key guy in public, but he's apparently got an ornery side in private. Earlier this year, he got into a heated clash with Elon Musk at the White House. Now, Politico reports on a new confrontation, this time with another top economic official: federal housing agency director Bill Pulte. At a swanky private dinner with other bigwigs and donors, Bessent confronted Pulte and accused him of bad-mouthing him to the president, writes Rachel Bade. (President Trump wasn't at the dinner.)

"I'm gonna punch you in your f---ing face," the story quotes Bessent as saying. When a third party intervened, Bessent suggested to Pulte that they go outside so Bessent could "f---ing beat your a--." In the end, they didn't go outside, and the evening proceeded without fisticuffs and the men at opposite ends of the room.

• "Maybe switch to decaf?" snarks Washingtonian magazine.
• "Scott Bessent Really Wants to Beat Up His Co-workers" is the headline on a piece in New York about the argument. For the record, the magazine thinks the 63-year-old Bessent would best the 37-year-old Pulte because he has "the advantage of a longer reach and the fire in his belly to wreck his co-workers."
• Pulte may be best known for leading the push to oust Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.