Scott Bessent’s volcanic temper laid bare: Trump’s money man hurled binder at wall and screamed profanities at deputy as SEVEN top officials exit

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once grew so enraged over the way his daily briefing book was laid out that he grabbed the binder and hurled it at a wall, according to people familiar with the episode.

He tore into his undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, John Hurley, in January, unleashing a profanity-laced tirade in front of aides that staff working nearby could hear.

The blowup came after Trump ordered Bessent to dig into fraud allegations in Minnesota’s Somali community and the Treasury chief decided Hurley was dragging his feet, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Within weeks Bessent was discussing with aides how to find the Senate-confirmed official a job outside the department. Not long after, Hurley left to become US ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

He is one of seven Senate-confirmed officials who quit Treasury by the end of August. None of the last four administrations had lost more than two by the same stage.

Bessent’s conduct was a factor, and at times the deciding one, in several of those departures, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

More than a dozen current and former officials described Bessent as a boss who berates senior advisers and junior staffers alike. Some aides have even begun checking on his mood before going near him and others admitted relief when he is out of the office.

Bessent denied throwing the binder, while a Treasury spokesman sidestepped questions about his treatment of staff and said only that he ‘has high expectations’ of the department.

The Daily Mail has contacted the Treasury Department for comment. 

The exodus comes as Trump leans on Bessent harder than ever to rescue an economy that could sink Republicans in next month’s midterms.

Bessent has tied his own fate to the war in Iran, privately talking Trump into trading airstrikes for a sweeping sanctions campaign. 

However, the conflict has no clear end and the president has told aides he expects another bombing campaign after the midterms.

Meanwhile, soaring gas prices are keeping inflation stubbornly high and economic growth has stalled at around 2 percent.

A bond selloff has also sent 10-year Treasury yields to their highest level in more than two decades, despite a buyback program Bessent launched to rein them in. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hit 5.35 percent on Wednesday, its highest level since 2002.

The deficit has ballooned past 6 percent of GDP, double the 3 percent target Bessent sold to Trump, and the national debt recently blew through $40 trillion.

Trump, who calls him almost every day, has only pulled him closer, once joking at an event in Nevada: ‘I created a monster.’

Bessent’s outbursts are not confined to Treasury, and early in Trump’s second term he had to be pulled apart from Elon Musk after the pair traded shouts in the West Wing over the IRS.

At the inaugural dinner of the Executive Branch, an exclusive MAGA club in Georgetown, in September 2025, he threatened to punch Bill Pulte, Trump’s housing chief, over claims Pulte was badmouthing him to the president. 

Liberal hecklers from Code Pink confronted Bessent at a Washington restaurant in December, and he turned his fury on the owner for failing to throw them out.

He then spat in his own food before walking out, according to the owner and a diner sitting nearby.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers hit back, calling the professionalism and accountability Bessent has brought to Treasury ‘one of the great accomplishments of this administration.’

Even Steve Bannon, who has known him for nearly a decade and counts himself a fan, admits Bessent has ‘a tripwire and he’s got a temper.’