{"id":1959,"date":"2026-06-21T01:11:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T01:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnnglobalnews.com\/2026\/06\/21\/zelensky-acting-like-mr-bean-on-crack-us-treasury-chief-reportedly-said\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T01:11:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T01:11:58","slug":"zelensky-acting-like-mr-bean-on-crack-us-treasury-chief-reportedly-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=1959","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky \u2018acting like Mr. Bean on crack,\u2019 US Treasury chief reportedly said"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Bessent urged President Trump not to host the \u201cspecial-needs child\u201d at the White House, according to a book by NYT reporters<\/strong><\/p>\n

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had negotiated a much-touted rare earth minerals deal with Kiev, was reportedly worried that \u201clittle f**ker\u201d<\/em> Vladimir Zelensky would mess up the signing ceremony in the Oval Office, according to a new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.<\/p>\n

The infamous confrontation last year took place as the Ukrainian leader sat down with President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance to finalize a deal granting the US access to Ukraine\u2019s mineral resources.<\/p>\n

The televised press conference took a nasty turn when Zelensky criticized Trump\u2019s efforts to mediate a settlement with Moscow rather than increase military support for Kiev.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"US
Did Zelensky call Vance a \u2018b*tch\u2019?<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve dealt with this little fucker,\u201d<\/em> Bessent, who was present in the room, told his associates, according to excerpts published by the Guardian. \u201cHe\u2019s tricky. He\u2019s like the special-needs child for the Europeans. And he\u2019s acting like Mr. Bean on crack.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Treasury secretary had spent weeks preparing the deal and had traveled to Kiev, where he allegedly engaged in his own shouting match with Zelensky over the \u201cawful\u201d<\/em> Ukrainian draft, at one point telling him: \u201cWhat the f**k do you want to do?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Several other Trump aides had also been worried about a potential Oval Office scandal, with then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz desperately urging Zelensky to at least \u201ccome wearing a suit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n READ MORE: <\/span>Starmer instructed Zelensky how to behave around Trump \u2013 media
\n <\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Zelensky was eventually \u201casked to leave\u201d<\/em> the White House, while the deal was signed<\/a> without much fanfare two months later. Zelensky, who has since held several meetings with Trump to mend ties and even started wearing a custom all-black, military-style suit jacket, remains \u201csomewhat traumatized<\/a> by his train crash\u201d<\/em> almost a year later, according to Politico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Bessent urged President Trump not to host the \u201cspecial-needs child\u201d at the White House, according to a book by NYT reporters US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had negotiated … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}