Scott Bessent jokingly invoked the fatal duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr when asked about his recent dustup with Bill Pulte – whom the Treasury secretary reportedly threatened to “punch” in his “f–king face”.
When asked on Tuesday by CNBC whether he is butting heads with Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bessent gave a sly nod to his predecessor Hamilton, who was the nation’s first secretary of the Treasury.
“Treasury secretaries dating back to Alexander Hamilton have a history of dueling,” Bessent quipped.
Hamilton — who also famously founded the New York Post in 1801 — died in 1804 after his duel with Burr, the third vice president of the US.
Bessent, 63, threatened to beat up Pulte, 37, earlier this month for bad-mouthing him to President Trump, The Post previously reported.
“Why the f— are you talking to the president about me? F— you,” Bessent reportedly told Pulte. “I’m gonna punch you in your f—king face,” Bessent added, according to reports.
The explosive spat – first reported by Politico – took place at the Executive Branch social club, a swanky members-only lodge in DC’s Georgetown neighborhood co-founded by banker Omeed Malik and first son Donald Trump Jr.
The club took in $500,000 from each founding member earlier this year.
“The general consensus in the White House is that Scott would have, in fact, beat that little midget’s ass and that everyone would have paid big money to watch it happen,” a Trump insider told The Post’s Charlie Gasparino.
“But Trump loved the mortgage fraud stuff. He should remove him from FHFA and make him mortgage fraud czar to get him out of the White House.”
Pulte and Bessent are both responsible for plans to privatize the federal mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but they’ve disagreed on the direction of the Federal Reserve.
Bessent has reportedly urged Trump not to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May 2026, while Pulte has pushed for a purging of central bankers – accusing Fed governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud.
It wasn’t the first time tensions brewed over between Bessent and another member of the Trump administration.
In April, then-DOGE chief Elon Musk allegedly body-checked Bessent, prompting him to fight back just outside the Oval Office.
The brawl came as the two officials were backing different candidates to serve as the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Musk was pushing for IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley – who got the job but lost it just days later – while Bessent’s pick was his deputy, Michael Faulkender, who has since exited the Treasury.
Bessent allegedly confronted Musk and called him a “fraud,” former Trump adviser Steve Bannon told the Washington Post.
The world’s richest man then rammed his shoulder into Bessent’s rib cage “like a rugby player,” prompting the Treasury chief to fight back – within earshot of Trump’s office, according to Bannon.
It took multiple people to break up the fight, and then the Tesla CEO was quickly removed from the West Wing, Bannon told the paper.
“President Trump heard about it and said, ‘This is too much,’” Bannon claimed.
Bessent later told Congress that reports he called Musk a fraud were “fake news,” though he did not address whether the two physically fought.
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