Inside Bessent's Treasury: Tension, Turnover and Unmet Economic Goals -- WSJ

By Brian Schwartz, Josh Dawsey, Philip Wegmann and Gregory Zuckerman WASHINGTON -- Scott Bessent was fuming. President Trump had just asked his Treasury secretary to investigate allegations of fraud in Minnesota's Somali community -- and Bessent thought one of his top deputies was dragging his feet. During a January meeting at the Treasury Department, Bessent confronted John Hurley, the agency's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, yelling at him in front of aides and unleashing profanities. Bessent shouted so loudly that staff working nearby could hear him, 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, the people said. S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It was one of a string of high-level departures in the top ranks of the department at a moment when the Treasury secretary was staring down the biggest challenges of his career.

Bessent's behavior was a factor -- and sometimes the most-important one -- in the departure of multiple key officials, people familiar with the matter said. Since he became Treasury secretary in early 2025, Bessent has dressed down senior advisers and junior staffers alike over issues large and small, according to more than a dozen current and former Treasury officials. But Trump has only pulled Bessent closer, empowering him to solve stubborn problems in the economy, including higher borrowing costs, intractable inflation pushed up by gas prices and government debt that is piling up quickly.

At the same time, Bessent has been tasked with ending the war in Iran with a sweeping sanctions plan. A senior administration official who worked with Bessent said the president's entire economic policy agenda is on the Treasury secretary's shoulders. "Scott cannot fail," the official said. His backers say his hard-charging style gets results.

But 20 months into his tenure at the department, Bessent is facing skepticism on Wall Street and an economy that could wreck Republican chances in November's midterm elections. Bessent advised Trump to pursue a "3-3-3" policy: cutting the budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2028, spurring GDP growth of 3% and producing an additional three million barrels of oil a day. But growth has been around 2%, and 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.

S. debt overall recently topped $40 trillion. S. S.

Treasury note to highs last seen more than two decades ago, despite a stepped-up buyback program Bessent set into motion to contain the increase. The result is higher borrowing costs for Americans, a perilous trend for Republicans. S. blockade of Iranian ports and economic squeeze engineered by the Trump administration is making the regime more desperate for a way out.

S. bombing campaign against Iran after the midterms. Bessent, meanwhile, has projected unwavering confidence. He has dismissed his critics as "Bloomberg terminal bros," referring to those on Wall Street questioning his moves, and quipped in a recent interview, "I am the house now," citing the insights he has gained as Treasury secretary.

" He has become increasingly emboldened, making unilateral decisions that have confounded even some of his longtime allies and friends. And his temper has flared. 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. Last year, Bessent got so angry about the way his daily briefing book was organized that he picked up the binder full of papers and threw it at a wall, people familiar with the matter said.

Bessent denied the account to The Wall Street Journal. "A lot of people in the investment community had hoped he was the adult in the room," said Stephen Myrow, a former Treasury official and managing partner at Beacon Policy Advisors. " This account of Bessent's tenure at Treasury is based on interviews with more than 30 former and current officials at the department and in the wider administration, close associates from Wall Street and others.

" The spokesman, who didn't comment on Bessent's interactions with staff or other officials, said Bessent's successes included the implementation of tax cuts for families, bank regulatory reform, more than a dozen major economic agreements, the China economic relationship and the program to cut Iran off from the international financial system. Hurley said in a statement that he was aligned with Bessent on the Minnesota fraud probe. "Scott Bessent is a brilliant and fearless warrior for President Trump and the American people," he said. The White House stood by Bessent's management style 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," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said. Tight circle At the end of August, Bessent stepped onto a stage at Treasury to unveil his economic plan to end the war in Iran, tethering his political future to a conflict that has stymied the president and his senior advisers for months. Keenly aware that Trump was looking for a way out of the military conflict, Bessent privately convinced the president it was time to trade in bombs for economic warfare, according to people close to the administration.

Bessent and a small group of close advisers put together the plan, according to people familiar with the matter. The Treasury secretary leaned on Gene Lange -- a trusted ally who used to work for him at his investment firm, Key Square Capital Management. Shortly after Hurley left his role, Bessent gave Lange his duties -- though not the Senate-confirmed job -- giving him control over the department's powerful Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, which oversees everything from money laundering to sanctions.

The economic campaign has been dismissed by some foreign policy experts and economists as inadequate to batter Tehran into submission and for not directly targeting the government of China, its key trading partner. The episode is emblematic of how Bessent runs the department, according to people familiar with his methods. Bessent has consolidated power in his massive agency, often relying on a handful of advisers to carry out the president's agenda. That grip over the department has allowed Bessent to be a lead voice on a range of policies important to the president.

S. economy, and trade talks with China. He also advised the president on his choice for the new chairman of the Fed. The Treasury secretary's inner circle includes advisers who have a long history with Bessent.

Alexandra Preate, his senior counselor and top spokeswoman, did public relations work for Bessent before he entered government. Along with Lange, Hunter McMaster, a close Bessent ally and assistant secretary at the department, worked with Bessent at Key Square, as did Francis Browne, who was recently nominated to be an undersecretary at the department. Browne's sister, Erin Browne, was recently confirmed by the Senate as Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs. Last week, Treasury announced David Zervos, a longtime Wall Street market strategist and a top executive at Jefferies, would become a senior adviser to Bessent.

Outside advisers include economist and television personality Larry Kudlow; Lawrence Lindsey, the former head of the White House's National Economic Council; and Alec Ellison, an investment banker in New York and a fellow native of South Carolina, according to people close to Bessent. Some who cross the secretary or the White House have been sidelined or pushed out of the department. As of the end of August, seven Senate-confirmed officials had left the department, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group, compared with zero to two in the past four administrations during similar time periods, including Trump's first term.

Only one of the recent vacancies under Bessent's watch has been filled with another Senate-confirmed official. Dozens more non-Senate confirmed officials have left the department since Bessent was sworn in. The department currently doesn't have a Senate-confirmed general counsel or head of legislative affairs, nor does it have Senate-confirmed officials overseeing tax policy or domestic finance, although two of the positions have nominees. Bessent, who oversees the Internal Revenue Service, has also presided over historic turnover at that agency.

Since Trump took office, the IRS has cycled through five acting IRS commissioners, and the position is currently vacant. Bessent created a new, non-Senate confirmed role overseeing the agency, appointing ally and Social Security Administration chief Frank Bisignano as the IRS's CEO. (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires October 06, 2026 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT) Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. The statements in this document shall not be considered as an objective or independent explanation of the matters.

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