‘I’m Gonna Punch You in Your F–king Face’: Scott Bessent Threatens an Administration Rival

The Treasury secretary's quiet tensions with housing finance chief Bill Pulte exploded at a private dinner last week. By Rachael Bade 09/08/2025 (I find this very hard to believe, plus it’s Politico)

A private dinner attended by dozens of administration officials and close advisers to President Donald Trump was temporarily marred by a dramatic clash between two of Trump’s top economic officials, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at one point threatening to punch top housing finance official Bill Pulte “in the fucking face.”

The Wednesday evening event was supposed to be one of celebration: It was both the much-anticipated inaugural dinner at Executive Branch, the ultra-exclusive Georgetown club created by and for Trump world’s uberrich, and a birthday party for MAGA-friendly podcaster Chamath Palihapitiya.

A long table for the 30-some guests was set with top-of-the-line crystal and china. The guest list included Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Medicare and Medicaid chief Mehmet Oz, plus venture capitalist David Sacks, Palihapitiya’s partner on the “All In” podcast.

But amid the cocktail-hour din, Bessent lashed out at Pulte in an expletive-laden diatribe.The Treasury secretary had heard from several people that the Federal Housing Finance Agency director had been badmouthing him to Trump, a person close to him said. He wasn’t about to engage in chit-chat as if nothing was amiss.

“Why the fuck are you talking to the president about me? Fuck you,”Bessent told Pulte. “I’m gonna punch you in your fucking face.”

The scene was described to me by one eyewitness and four other people familiar with what happened.The only fact they disagreed on was whether it was Bessent or Pulte who initiated the conversation. They and others who described the conflict were granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Pulte appeared stunned, and the tense encounter prompted club co-owner and financier Omeed Malik to intervene, according to the three people. But Bessent wasn’t having it — he sought to get him kicked out, the eyewitness said.

“It’s either me or him,” Bessent said to Malik. “You tell me who’s getting the fuck out of here.”

“Or,” he added, “we could go outside.”

“To do what?” asked Pulte. “To talk?”

“No,” Bessent replied. “I’m going to fucking beat your ass.”

Seeking to deescalate the situation, Malik separated the men, walking Bessent to another part of the club to calm down. During the seated dinner, Bessent and Pulte were placed on opposite ends of the table, and the party went off without further episode.

Bessent, Pulte, Malik and the White House declined to comment.

The confrontation — which one Trump insider called “bonkers” and another called “unhinged” — underscores the surprising tensions between top Trump officials tasked with working on the nation’s most sensitive economic matters.

Trump announced in May that Bessent, Lutnick and Pulte would collaborate on a plan to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal housing finance organs Pulte oversees. In recent weeks, Pulte has taken the lead on an initiative that could put as much as 15 percent of Fannie and Freddie on the public markets.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/09/08/scott-bessent-bill-pulte-blowup-00549956?nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nname=playbook&nrid=0000014f-0833-dc50-a77f-2ff7e3a10000

>>23564172

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But behind the scenes, the two men have clashed in something of a turf war over the mortgage giants as well as other economic matters, four Trump insiders told me. Bessent believes, some of the people familiar with their conflict say, that Pulte has inserted himself into matters the secretary views as his jurisdiction. Pulte, they add, has bristled at the threat of being bigfooted.

Complicating the entire dynamic, according to Trump administration allies closely following the drama, is Pulte’s close ties to Lutnick. The Commerce secretary and Bessent have had a rocky relationship since the transition, when the two men competed for the Treasury position. That has injected significant distrust into anything the trio work on together.

It was why Bessent — who feels he doesn’t have time for drama and backbiting given his massive portfolio, according to the person close to him — hit the roof when he saw Pulte Wednesday.

Both men enjoy close relationships with Trump and are known within the president’s orbit to openly jockey for influence and power — albeit in different ways.

Bessent, who comes across publicly as soft-spoken, has won Trump’s trust as a “soothing” presence for jittery markets amid the president’s unpredictable plays on tariffs and other economic issues. A cautious operator who’s been called a “moderating influence” on the administration, the billionaire former hedge fund manager has overcome his past association with Democratic megadonor George Soros and is now considered one of Trump’s closest allies.

Meanwhile, Pulte — a brash 37-year-old with 3 million X followers — has taken a more pugnacious tack in his lower-profile job. The scion of a family that made a fortune building homes, he quickly fired more than 100 Fannie and Freddie staffers as he took direct control of the key housing finance entities — often rolling out new initiatives on X.

In recent weeks his stock in the White House and in the MAGA universe more broadly has risen as he has used his post to launch mortgage-related investigations into several of the president’s critics. His efforts to target Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook — alleging she sought mortgages for multiple “primary” residences — have redoubled pressure on the Fed as Trump presses for lower interest rates.

Trump moved to fire Cook, a Joe Biden appointee, last month. She has called the allegations unsubstantiated and is suing to challenge her ouster. The case is pending.

Relatedly, Bessent and Pulte have been on opposite sides of the debate about whether Trump should fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Bessent, as my colleagues Megan Messerly and Victoria Guida scooped earlier this year, had privately cautioned that such a decapitation would destabilize financial markets.

Pulte, on the other hand, has repeatedly called on Powell to resign and has taken the position that Trump has the power to fire the chair for cause based on his alleged mismanagement of costly Fed headquarters renovations. Pulte even gave Trump a draft letter firing Powell, the Washington Post reported in July.

Wednesday’s dustup also wasn’t the first time Bessent has gotten into an altercation with a fellow Trump official. In April, he confronted Elon Musk just outside the Oval Office, accusing the tech mogul — then running his Department of Government Efficiency initiative — in a profanity-laden tirade of going behind his back to secure his chosen candidate, Gary Shapley, as acting IRS commissioner.

Bessent was pushing for another man, Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender, to get the job — and eventually got his way. Faulkender left the department late last month after just five months on the job.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/09/08/scott-bessent-bill-pulte-blowup-00549956?nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nname=playbook&nrid=0000014f-0833-dc50-a77f-2ff7e3a10000

Supreme Court allows Trump to continue ‘roving’ ICE patrols in California

By John Fritze, Hannah Rabinowitz, CNNUpdated: 2:09 PM EDT, Mon September 8, 20251/2

The Supreme Court on Mondaybacked President Donald Trump’s push to allow immigration enforcement officials to continue what critics describe as “roving patrols” in Southern California that lower courts said likely violated the Fourth Amendment.

The court did not offer an explanation for its decision, which came over a sharp dissent from the three liberal justices.

At issue were a series of incidents in which masked and heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulled aside people who identify as Latino – including some US citizens – around Los Angeles to interrogate them about their immigration status. Lower courts found that ICE likely had not established the “reasonable suspicion” required to justify those stops.

The decision deals with seven counties in Southern California, but it has landed during a broader crackdown on immigration by the Trump administration –and officials are likely to read it as a tacit approval of similar practices elsewhere.

A US District Court in July ordered the Department ofHomeland Security to discontinue the practice if the stops were based largely on a person’s apparent ethnicity, language or their presence at a particular location, such as a farm or bus stop. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld that decision, which applied only to seven California counties.

But the Supreme Court disagreed with that approach. Though the court did not provide any analysis explaining its decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a member of the conservative wing who sided with Trump, wrote in a concurrence that the factors the agents were considering “taken together can constitute at least reasonable suspicion of illegal presence in the United States.”

“To be clear, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion; under this court’s case law regarding immigration stops, however, it can be a ‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors,” Kavanaugh wrote.

“Importantly,” Kavanaugh added,“reasonable suspicion means only that immigration officers may briefly stop the individual and inquire about immigration status.”(That’s ridiculous, why are they determining the amount of time they can stop suspected illegals? We should limit the months the SC to make a decision)

‘Freedoms are lost,’ Sotomayor warns

The order drew a fiery dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic justice to serve on the Supreme Court.

“We should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” Sotomayor wrote in a dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

Sotomayor wrote in her dissent that the “on-the-ground reality” of immigration arrests cuts against the federal government’s fears that a court ruling could chill authorities’ ability to detain and deport undocumented migrants.

“The evidence in this case, however, reveals that the government is likely to continue relying solely on those four factors because that is what agents are currently authorized and instructed to do,” Sotomayor wrote.

Since a district court issued a ruling temporarily barring interrogations and arrests based only on a person’s apparent ethnicity, language or their presence at a particular location, members of the Trump administration have made clear they intend to proceed with their agenda as planned, the justice said.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “has called the District Judge an ‘idiot’ and vowed that ‘none of [the government’s] operations are going to change,’” Sotomayor wrote. “The CBP Chief Patrol Agent in the Central District has stated that his division will ‘turn and burn’ and ‘go even harder now,’ and has posted videos on social media touting his agents’ continued efforts ‘[c]hasing, cuffing, [and] deporting’ people at car washes.”

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/09/08/politics/supreme-court-ice-patrols-california

>>23564222

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Referring to Kavanaugh’s concurrence, Sotomayor said that ICE agents aren’t just conducting brief or routine traffic stops. They are seizing both undocumented immigrants and US citizens “using firearms, physical violence, and warehouse detentions.”(BS)

The case was the latest of nearly two dozen emergency appeals the administration has filed at the Supreme Court since Trump began his second term in January. Many of those have dealt with Trump’s immigration policies.

US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, in her earlier ruling siding against Trump in the case, said the administration was attempting to convince the court “in the face of a mountain of evidence” that none of the plaintiffs’ claims were true.

Frimpong, appointed by President Joe Biden, said in her ruling that the court needed to decide whether the plaintiffs could prove the Trump administration “is indeed conducting roving patrols without reasonable suspicion and denying access to lawyers.”

Kavanaugh wades into immigration

Kavanaugh used his 10-page concurrence to launch into a broader discussion about the debate around illegal immigration.

“To be sure, I recognize and fully appreciate that many (not all, but many) illegal immigrants come to the United States to escape poverty and the lack of freedom and opportunities in their home countries,” he wrote.

“But the fact remains that, under the laws passed by Congress and the president, they are acting illegally by remaining in the United States– at least unless Congress and the president choose some other legislative approach to legalize some or all of those individuals now illegally present in the country,” he added.

Sotomayor leaned into a growing criticism around how the Supreme Court has handled high-profile emergency cases dealing with Trump: That it has offered no explanation. The court itself offered only a single paragraph of boilerplate language in siding with Trump.

The sometimes-terse orders have been a topic of discussion for several justices who have appeared at events over the summer. Kagan said earlier this year that she thought the court could often provide further explanation in its emergency decisions.But Kavanaugh and others have noted that the court is sometimes hesitant to signal which way it’s leaning in a case.

“The court’s order is troubling for another reason: It is entirely unexplained,” Sotomayor wrote. “In the last eight months, this court’s appetite to circumvent the ordinary appellate process and weigh in on important issues has grown exponentially.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/09/08/politics/supreme-court-ice-patrols-california

Who's funding these cases for illegal's, major corporations that want illegal lower paid work.

US Steel is shutting down a mill in Illinois. Its deal with Trump won’t let it fire its 800 workers - for now

By Chris Isidore, CNN Updated: 12:54 PM EDT, Mon September 8, 2025

US Steel is shuttering production at a mill in November, but its hundreds of workers will keep their jobs – for now – thanks to an agreement the company reached with the Trump administration.

US Steel will stop producing steel at its Granite City, Illinois, mill at the end of October, but the 800 workers at the plant will stay on the job, maintaining equipment, until at least 2027. That’s due to the structure of the deal the company reached with President Donald Trump to allow its purchase by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel. The agreement included various job protections and production guarantees.

“US Steel will optimize its footprint by focusing on producing and processing steel slabs at the Mon Valley (Pennsylvania) Works and Gary (Indiana) Works, and reducing slab consumption at Granite City Works,” the company said in a statement to CNN Monday. “As a result of this decision, US Steel will not lay off any Granite City Works employees nor adjust their pay rate.”

The company added that it would not idle the plant, and keep it in an operational state.

As for what the workers will be doing without any steel to produce, US Steel said it will continue some ancillary operations and that the facility will be “maintained by employees so production could resume quickly if the situation changes.”

Trump promised at a May rally at a US Steel mill outside of Pittsburgh that the deal, and new 50% tariffs on steel imports, would be good for US Steel employees.

“The deal got better and better and better for the workers. I’m going to be watching over it. It’s going to be great,” Trump said at the time. “They’re going to be here for a long time… There will be no outsourcing and no layoffs whatsoever.”

But the clock is ticking. US Steel’s deal only blocks it from closing Granite City and laying off workers until June of 2027.

The White House did not have an immediate comment on the closing plans, nor did the United Steelworkers union. While USW locals in Pennsylvania supported the agreement with Nippon, the larger USW organization objected to the deal.

“Issuing press releases and making political speeches is easy,” the union said in a statement after the rally in May.

“Binding commitments are hard. The devil is always in the details, and that is especially true with a bad actor like Nippon Steel that has again and again violated our trade laws, devastating steel communities in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.”

The plant in question has 700 hourly workers represented by the USW and about 100 salaried staff. But that is a fraction of the 2,000 hourly workers it used to employ when the plant had its own blast furnaces to make steel from raw materials such as iron and coke.

Granite City Works first blast furnace was shut in 2019, and its remaining one closed in 2023. Since then, it has only processed slabs made at other mills.

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/09/08/business/us-steel-mill-closing-no-layoffs-under-trump-deal

8 Sep, 2025 16:24

Trump gives another ‘last warning’ to Hamas

The US president has urged the Palestinian militant group to accept a deal to release Israeli hostages in Gaza

US President Donald Trump has issued a “last warning” to Hamas, demanding the Palestinian militant group release Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Trump warned of unspecified consequences if Hamas refuses to cooperate, in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.

“The Israelis have accepted my terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning,” the US president said without providing further details.

Hours after Trump made the remarks, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened Hamas with annihilation and demanded the Palestinian militants lay down their arms.

“This is a final warning to the Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza and in luxury hotels abroad: Release the hostages and put down your weapons – or Gaza will be destroyed and you will be annihilated,” Katz wrote on X.

Hamas has signaled readiness to “immediately sit at the negotiating table” after hearing what it described as “some ideas from the American side aimed at reaching a ceasefire agreement.”

The latest “last warning” echoed a threat made by Trump in March, when he urged Hamas to immediately release all the living hostages and turn over the bodies of the deceased or end up “dead.”

Hamas took around 250 people hostage during the October 7, 2023 surprise attack on southern Israel that left at least 1,200 people dead and prompted the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The group is believed to still hold in custody nearly 50 of them, with around half presumed to still be alive.

The conflict, which has dragged on for nearly two years, has taken a heavy toll on the Palestinian enclave, leaving at least 64,000 dead, according to the local health authorities. Israeli military ground operations and heavy artillery and aerial bombardment caused widespread destruction across Gaza and displaced most of its residents.

https://www.rt.com/news/624292-trump-hamas-last-warning/

8 Sep, 2025 15:12

Orban warns EU of ‘collapse’

The bloc might not survive without reform and an end to the Ukraine conflict, the Hungarian PM believes

Orban warns EU of ‘collapse’

The EU is on the verge of collapse and will not survive beyond the next decade without a “fundamental structural overhaul” and disentanglement from the Ukraine conflict, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned.

Speaking on Sunday at the annual Civic Picnic in Kotcse, Orban said the EU has failed to meet its founding ambition of becoming a global power and cannot handle current challenges due to the absence of a common fiscal policy. He described the bloc as entering a phase of “chaotic and costly disintegration,” and warned that the 2028-2035 EU budget “could be the last if nothing changes.”

“The EU is currently on the verge of falling apart and has entered a state of fragmentation. And if this continues like this… it will go down in history as the depressing end result of a once noble experiment,” Orban stated.

He proposed transforming the EU into “concentric circles.”

The outer ring would include countries cooperating on military and energy security, the second circle would comprise common market members, the third would contain those sharing a currency, while the innermost would include members seeking deeper political alignment. In Orban’s view, this would broaden cooperation without restricting development.

“This means that we are in the same car, we have one gearbox, but we want to move at different paces… If we can switch to this system, the great idea of European cooperation… could survive,” he said.

Orban accused Brussels of overreliance on common debt and of using the Ukraine conflict as a pretext to continue this policy. As long as the conflict lasts, the EU will remain a “lame duck,” dependent on the US for security and unable to act independently in economic affairs, he said. Orban also suggested that instead of “lobbying in Washington,” the EU should “go to Moscow” to pursue a security agreement with Russia, followed by an economic deal.

Orban is not alone in his concerns. Analysts from the International Monetary Fund and other institutions have warned that the EU risks stagnation and even collapse due to structural challenges, weak growth, poor investment, high energy costs, and geopolitical tensions.

https://www.rt.com/news/624277-orban-warns-eu-collapse/