US treasury chief urged Trump not to host ‘Mr Bean on crack’ Zelenskyy, book says | Trump administration
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has advised Donald Trump not to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, calling the Ukrainian president a “little jerk”, a “special needs kid” and a “Mr. Bean nut”, according to a new book.
The allegation that a U.S. cabinet official described a world leader this way appears in New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s Regime Change, a chronicle of the second Trump administration that will be released worldwide on Tuesday.
News of Bessent’s alleged remarks may embarrass the Trump administration, but the February 28, 2025 meeting ended in disaster; Trump and JD Vance blamed Zelenskyy for not being grateful for help in his fight against Russian invaders and for not wearing a suit.
The issue of aid to Ukraine is still at the forefront and was discussed at the G7 summit in France earlier this week.
“Several of Trump’s aides were concerned” about the potential for an explosion when Zelenskyy arrived at the White House to sign a mining deal ostensibly drawn up by Bessent, Swan and Haberman write. Then-national security advisor Mike Waltz “tried to send the message that Zelenskyy should wear a suit, but he failed,” they continue. Bessent had strongly advised Trump not to even allow Zelenskyy into the White House without signing the agreement.
“‘I took care of this little guy,'” Bessent said to co-workers about Zelenskyy, according to the book. “‘He’s a cunning man. He’s like a European child with special needs. And he acts like Mr. Bean.”
The Treasury department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zelenskyy arrived and Bessent was in the room as Vance covered his visitors with the carpet. Zelenskyy’s insistence on security guarantees “began to seem arrogant and ungrateful to Vance,” and Haberman and Swan write, “Others present could see that Vance was increasingly turning red.”
Things went south from there.
After the disastrous meeting, Bessent he told Bloomberg Stating that Zelenskyy scored “one of the biggest diplomatic own goals”, he added: “I was shocked, I was shocked that President Zelenskyy came to the Oval Office, behaved this way, talked to the president, talked to the vice president, but more importantly, disrespected the American people in this way.”
Regime Change also includes details of Bessent’s alleged botched handling of the mining deal. Before the Oval Office debacle, the treasury minister visited Kiev to pressure Zelenskyy to sign. It didn’t go well.
“For 45 minutes the men berated each other,” Swan and Haberman write. “Bessent had only been on the job a few days and was already in a fight with the leader of a country in the middle of war. Finally, he looked at Zelensky and said: ‘What do you want to do?'”
Negotiations are said to have stalled as Bessent fought with commerce secretary Howard Lutnick over how the agreement should be worded. Finally, Swan and Haberman write, “Trump asked J.D. Vance’s wife, Usha, herself a Yale Law School graduate, to review the Ukrainian regulations in the mining agreement. Usha declared the document ‘terrible’ and [took] “It’s a heavy pen.”
But most embarrassing for Bessent may be his views of Trump, who he reportedly compared to perhaps the greatest progressive bogeyman in the minds of many Republicans.
“Trump reminded him of his old boss, legendary investor and major Democratic donor George Soros,” Bessent told colleagues, according to the book. “They’re the same animal,” Bessent said.
