Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has frozen out the news outlet that reported his own contradictory mortgage pledges, a campaign media figures warn could endanger the economy.
The account comes from a Sunday report by Semafor media editor Max Tani, based on interviews with reporters, editors and Treasury officials.
Tani reported that Bessent threatened Bloomberg News with retaliation last September, then spent a year carrying the threat out.
Several media figures Tani contacted warned that a hostile relationship between the Treasury secretary and the press corps could pose a "real risk" if the United States hits an economic crisis, Semafor reported.
The warning comes as high interest rates remain front-page news, according to the report, and as so-called bond vigilantes — investors who dump government debt to force a change in policy — test the Treasury's credibility. Those shut out are the outlets bond traders read.
The fight began with a telephone call last September, according to Semafor.
Bessent was "furious" that Bloomberg reporters Anthony Cormier and Zachary Mider planned to report that he had once agreed to occupy two different houses as his "principal residence" at the same time, two people familiar with the exchange told Semafor. He phoned Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait directly.
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