Bessent admitted, “I actually said I was going to kick his a—” when Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., asked about the widely reported confrontation last summer during a congressional hearing Wednesday. Tillis, who has slammed Trump’s decision to tap Pulte for the spy role, told Bessent, “good, I share the emotion.” Tillis said he wouldn’t support Pulte for DNI, adding, “he lost me when he went after [former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome] Powell.”

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he shares Bessent’s sentiment.

Pulte is widely viewed as a Trump loyalist who has targeted the president's political foes during his tenure leading the housing regulatory agency.