Trump jokes he created a monster in Treasury chief Bessent

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent yelled profanities at John Hurley, one of his top deputies, during a January meeting at the department, loudly enough for staff working nearby to hear, and Hurley left weeks later for an ambassadorship.

The account appeared on Tuesday in a Wall Street Journal investigation of Bessent's tenure by Brian Schwartz, Josh Dawsey, Philip Wegmann and Gregory Zuckerman, drawing on more than 30 current and former officials and associates. Bessent disputed some of the incidents the paper described.

Trump has only pulled Bessent closer, according to the Journal, and calls him almost daily. At a roundtable in Las Vegas in April, the president took credit for turning his Treasury secretary into a "big star." "I created a monster," Trump joked.

The Hurley confrontation

Trump had asked Bessent to investigate allegations of fraud in Minnesota's Somali community, and Bessent believed Hurley, the agency's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, was moving too slowly. He confronted Hurley at the January meeting in front of aides, unleashing profanities, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Weeks later, Bessent discussed with aides the idea of finding Hurley, who had been confirmed by the Senate for his position, a job outside the department. Hurley left to become U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Bessent has dressed down senior advisers and junior staffers alike over issues large and small since he became Treasury secretary in early 2025. In 2025 he grew so angry about the way his daily briefing book was organized that he picked up the binder and threw it at a wall, people familiar with the matter said. Bessent denied the account.

He has shouted at staff for not moving fast enough to implement his ideas and for failing to combat unfavorable media coverage, some of the officials said.

The vacancies at Treasury

Seven Senate-confirmed officials had left the Treasury Department by the end of August, according to data from the Partnership for Public Service.

Bessent's behavior was a factor, and sometimes the most important one, in the departures of multiple key officials, the Journal reported. The four previous administrations each lost zero to two Senate-confirmed officials over a comparable stretch. Dozens of officials who did not require Senate confirmation have also left or been fired, and only one of the seven confirmed vacancies has been filled.

Several people have turned down Treasury jobs after hearing accounts of how Bessent treats his staff. Aides check with colleagues on his mood before going in to see him, and they trade advice on how to stay clear when he is angry. Some officials said they are relieved when he is out of the office.

A Treasury spokesman told the Journal that Bessent "has high expectations of the United States Treasury's performance" but did not address the secretary's treatment of his staff.

Bessent had to be separated from Elon Musk after the two got into a shouting match in the West Wing early in the administration over who should run the Internal Revenue Service. Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist, told The Washington Post that Musk thrust his shoulder into Bessent's rib cage like a rugby player.

One former Treasury official said Bessent has been intent on projecting a tough-guy image. The Journal reported that he confronted Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, at a private dinner in September 2025 and physically threatened him over allegations that Pulte was undermining him with Trump. Bessent later made light of the confrontation on CNBC.

The scene at Reveler's Hour

In December 2025, members of the activist group CodePink heckled Bessent while he ate at Reveler's Hour, a Brazilian-influenced Italian restaurant in Washington, D.C., where a starter of grilled carrots cost $19. The demonstrators encouraged other diners to give him a mock toast.

Olivia DiNucci, an organizer with the group, addressed the other diners as the Treasury secretary sat with his meal in front of him.

So let's give it up for the man who is eating in peace as people starve across the world based on his sanctions, which are economic warfare

Bessent raised his glass sarcastically and called the protesters ignorant, then erupted at the restaurant's owner for not removing them, spat in his own food and left, according to people including the owner who spoke to the Journal. A Treasury spokesperson did not respond to the spitting allegation when the Daily Beast asked about it.

What his backers say

Steve Bannon, who has known Bessent for nearly a decade, defended him to the Journal while conceding the short fuse. "He's a good person, but he's got a tripwire and he's got a temper," Bannon said. He told the paper the work is mission oriented and that anyone whose feelings are hurt should leave.

The targets and the results

Bessent advised Trump to pursue a 3-3-3 policy: cutting the budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2028 and spurring GDP growth of 3%. The third target was an additional three million barrels of oil a day. His backers say his hard-charging style gets results, and he has projected unwavering confidence about the economy.

Growth has been around 2%. Oil production has increased less than a million barrels a day since Trump took office. The budget deficit is now over 6% of GDP, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and U.S. debt overall topped $40 trillion in August.

A lot of people in the investment community had hoped he was the adult in the room

Myrow, a former Treasury official, said investors are starting to see Bessent as acting more and more like Trump, and that the shift is shaking confidence in him. Bessent has become increasingly emboldened, making unilateral decisions that have confounded even some of his longtime allies, the Journal reported. He has dismissed Wall Street critics as "Bloomberg terminal bros" and quipped, "I am the house now."

What the White House says

The White House defended Bessent's leadership in a statement to the Journal. "The level of professionalism and accountability Secretary Bessent has instilled department-wide is one of the great accomplishments of this administration," spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said. A Treasury spokesperson told the Daily Beast that the American people elected Trump to make Washington work for them and that Bessent has tirelessly carried out that mandate.

Trump has told advisers he thinks Bessent is adept at calming the markets, and he has encouraged him to help figure out a way to lower interest rates. Bessent has also been tasked with ending the war in Iran with a sweeping sanctions plan.

Yields on the 10-year Treasury note have reached highs last seen in 2002, despite a stepped-up buyback program Bessent set in motion to contain the increase. The result is higher borrowing costs for Americans. Government debt is piling up quickly, and inflation has been pushed up by gas prices.

A senior administration official who has worked with Bessent told the Journal that the president's entire economic policy agenda sits on the Treasury secretary's shoulders. Twenty months into his tenure, Bessent faces skepticism on Wall Street and an economy that could hurt Republican chances in November's midterm elections.