A rare internecine conflict between Trump administration officials erupted into an expletive-laced threats of violence by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent against Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte during a private party in Washington, DC.
According to a Politico report sourced from “one eyewitness and four other people familiar with what happened,” the occurrence happened during a dinner last Wednesday at Executive Branch, described as “the ultra-exclusive Georgetown club created by and for Trump world’s uberrich,” that featured multiple members of the administration. The report claimed Bessent learned that Pulte was badmouthing him to President Trump and confronted Pulte by declaring, “Why the f*** are you talking to the president about me? F*** you. I’m gonna punch you in your f***ing face.”
Pulte was taken aback by Bessent’s outburst, which forced club co-owner Omeed Malik to intervene. Bessent insisted that Pulte be expelled or he would take him outside to pulverize him.
Ultimately, there was no violence – Bessent and Pulte were seated at opposite ends of the dinner table and there was no further disruption.
Politico claimed Bessent and Pulte have been at odds over housing and financial policies, most notably in how to approach the privatization of the government-sponsored enterprises and the administration’s relationship with the Federal Reserve. The private clash was also a switch from the men’s public personas, with Bessent coming across as soft-spoken and professorial in his television appearances while Pulte has been more pugnacious in calling out the administration’s detractors with crass name-calling and demands for their resignations.
Now this is not good for the Trump administration. Pulte is trying to deflect some of the conflict on him as a result of his loud mouth criticisms of the Federal Reserve and others. I hope the President stopped Pulte in his tracks when he allegedly turned his focus on Bessent. I like Scott Bessent. He’s a smart and capable individual that is helping the Treasury Department significantly as its leader. Something has to give here soon. Any resignations or firings of people Trump appointed won’t look particularly good on his administration but we can’t have people, like Pulte, running around with his kind of behavior.