\n<\/p>\n
As if Scott Bessent<\/strong> wasn\u2019t angry enough already.<\/p>\n The Treasury secretary, in the headlines in recent days for allegedly threatening to smack one of his colleagues in the face, now finds himself in damage control mode after the release of a brutal Bureau of Labor Statistics report<\/a> Tuesday\u2014the latest sign that Donald Trump<\/strong> may not be ushering in the economic \u201cgolden age\u201d<\/a> he previously promised.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued revised job-growth estimates, sharing that more than 900,000 fewer jobs had been added for the year ending in March 2025. Much of the time span covered in the report was before Trump took office, as Bessent was quick to point out Tuesday. \u201cPresident Trump inherited a far worse economy than reported,\u201d he posted<\/a>. But the ugly outlook is being exacerbated by Trump\u2019s trade war and unpredictability\u2014and runs counter to his lofty campaign promises<\/a> to \u201cend inflation\u201d and start \u201csaving our economy,\u201d beginning on \u201cday one.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s bad news for the president, whose poll numbers are on the decline<\/a> amid voter concerns about their pocketbooks. It also puts pressure on Bessent, who has positioned himself as a force of calm and stability in the administration and succeeded, to some extent, in keeping markets steady<\/a> as Trump threatened the Fed and fired the BLS chief over numbers he doesn\u2019t like. \u201cPresident Trump was elected for change, and we are going to push through with the economic policies that are going to set the economy right,\u201d Bessent said<\/a> on NBC News\u2019 Meet the Press Sunday. \u201cI believe by the fourth quarter we are going to see a substantial acceleration.\u201d<\/p>\n But it\u2019ll be a new challenge to maintain market confidence as the economic alarms continue blaring. And his fights\u2014literally, it turns out\u2014with fellow Trump officials would seem to undercut his self-styled \u201cadult in the room\u201d persona.<\/p>\n The most recent, first reported by Politico on Monday, was with Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who is leading the charge<\/a> against Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve member Trump fired over social media. As the outlet reported, Bessent confronted Pulte at a well-attended dinner at the Executive Club in DC over rumors that he\u2019d been badmouthing him to Trump. \u201cWhy the fuck are you talking to the president about me?\u201d Bessent reportedly<\/a> asked Pulte at the dinner. \u201cI\u2019m gonna punch you in your fucking face.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to fucking beat your ass,\u201d he threatened, for good measure.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t the first clash Bessent had with another administration colleague: Bessent also got into a heated shouting match over the Internal Revenue Service with Elon Musk<\/strong>, who at the time was taking a \u201cchain saw\u201d to the federal government as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. (There was enough speculation that the shiner Musk sported at a White House event was courtesy of Bessent that he went out of his way to publicly deny<\/a> responsibility. Musk, for his part, said the injury came from playing with his young son.)<\/p>\n The last time Trump got a bad BLS report, he fired its commissioner, Erika McEntarfer<\/strong>, and nominated agency critic E.J. Antoni<\/strong> to replace her. If that doesn\u2019t get him the kinds of numbers he\u2019s looking for from the bureau, perhaps a visit from his hot-tempered Treasury secretary could do the trick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n