US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent enters the week facing the toughest political test of his tenure after leaked book excerpts quoted him calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a 'little f*****,' a 'special-needs child for the Europeans,' and 'Mr Bean on crack,' and privately comparing Donald Trump to George Soros.
The disclosures appear in 'Regime Change,' a forthcoming book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan that Simon and Schuster will release worldwide on Tuesday, 23 June 2026. The Guardian published the first excerpts on Saturday.
The Soros Comparison Washington Cannot Ignore
Bessent reportedly told associates that Trump 'reminded him of his old boss', the billionaire investor and Democratic mega-donor Soros, before adding, 'They are the same animal.' The line cuts deeper than the Zelenskyy insults because Bessent built his Wall Street career under Soros, running Soros Fund Management's London office from 1991 to 2000 and returning as chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015.
For Make America Great Again (MAGA) voters who treat Soros as a political bogeyman, the comparison places a sitting cabinet officer alongside the man Trump has repeatedly threatened to investigate. Neither the White House nor the Treasury Department issued a formal response to the excerpts over the weekend.
The Kyiv Shouting Match Before the Oval Office Blow-Up
Before the 28 February 2025 Oval Office confrontation with Zelenskyy, Bessent flew to Kyiv earlier that month to lock down a critical minerals deal. The book describes a 45-minute high-pitched argument between the two men, ending when Bessent reportedly asked, 'What the f*** do you want to do?'
The episode set the stage for the Washington meeting, which collapsed after Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelenskyy for his clothing and what they called insufficient gratitude. Negotiations had already been hampered by an internal fight between Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over deal wording, prompting Trump to ask Usha Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, to rewrite the document. She reportedly called the draft 'awful'.
What Tuesday's Release Means for the Cabinet
The weekend excerpts represent only a fraction of the reporting in 'Regime Change,' which Simon and Schuster describes as based on hundreds of interviews from inside the administration. Washington reporters expect additional cabinet-level disclosures to land in the Tuesday and Wednesday news cycles, just as the Trump team tries to project unity after this month's G7 summit in France.
The full text will test whether Trump publicly rebukes a Treasury Secretary he picked in November 2024 or accepts that the quotes were said in private. Bessent has built a reputation inside the cabinet as the official Trump trusts to calm markets, a role that becomes harder if the president believes his Treasury chief privately ranks him alongside Soros.
Why US Households and Markets Have a Stake
The leak arrives during sensitive Treasury market conditions. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield reached 4.67% in May, its highest level since January 2025, while the 30-year yield hovered near 5.18%. Bessent has spent recent weeks arguing that elevated yields and headline inflation tied to the Iran conflict are 'transient,' a message that requires investor confidence in a stable relationship between the Treasury and the White House.
Any open break would matter beyond Washington. American 401(k) holders, prospective homebuyers tracking mortgage rates, and small businesses watching Federal Reserve policy depend on a functional relationship between the Treasury and the Oval Office, particularly during the war in Ukraine and the ongoing congressional debate over US aid to Kyiv.
For now, Bessent's silence holds. By Wednesday, the full text will decide whether Tuesday's launch settles as a passing embarrassment or escalates into a cabinet rupture.
