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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Martin Pengelly

US treasury chief urged Trump not to host ‘Mr Bean on crack’ Zelenskyy, book says

Two men, smiling, shake hands.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomes Scott Bessent to Kyiv, Ukraine, on 13 February 2025. Photograph: Ukrainian presidential press office/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, advised Donald Trump not to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, having called the Ukrainian president a “little fucker”, a “special-needs child” and “Mr Bean on crack”, according to a new book.

The suggestion that a US cabinet official described a world leader in such terms is included in Regime Change, a blockbusting account of the second Trump administration by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, set to be published worldwide on Tuesday.

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