Treasury secretary warns U.S. could enter 'detox period'

USA Today

10-03-2025

Treasury secretary warns U.S. could enter 'detox period' | The Excerpt
On Saturday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY White House Reporter Joey Garrison explains what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's warning could mean for the U.S. economy. President Donald Trump threatens Russia with sanctions. American liquor, wine and spirits are pulled from Canadian shelves in response to Trump's tariffs. Officials released the cause of death for actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. USA TODAY Border and Immigration Correspondent Lauren Villagran talks about the role faith plays in encouraging migrants to head towards the U.S. border.
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Cody Godwin:
Good morning. I'm Cody Godwin for Taylor Wilson. Today is Saturday, March 8th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, Treasury Secretary Bessent warns that the U.S. economy may experience a detox period plus Trump threatens tariffs on Russia after a massive attack in Ukraine and how some immigrants are saying it's God himself who's telling them to come north.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Friday that the U.S. economy could enter a "detox period" as the Trump administration shifts from robust government spending to push more private sector spending. For more on what this means, my colleague Dana Taylor, spoke with USA TODAY White House reporter, Joey Garrison.
Dana Taylor:
Joey, thanks for hopping on the podcast.
Joey Garrison:
Thanks for having me on.
Dana Taylor:
So Joey, let's start with this rather ominous warning by Secretary Bessent. What is he trying to say here?
Joey Garrison:
Scott Bessent's appearance on CNBC Squawk Box, which is kind of a go-to show for economic insiders and the stock market watchers was asked about the recent stock market dive, although it did pick up on Friday and some of the other underlying economic metrics. And he said there could be what he called a detox period, a slowdown in the economy. He said, "Could we be seeing that the economy that we inherited is starting to roll a bit? Sure." And so this was an acknowledgement from the Trump administration of what we are seeing in the state of the economy right now in terms of some potential signs of slippage. There was also a new jobs report that the Trump administration touted, but it was 151,000 jobs reported in February, which was down below projections. And Trump ran on improving the economy, lowering consumer prices for Americans. But that latter promise in particular is proven a little bit harder perhaps than the day one lowering prices promised that Trump had suggested.
Dana Taylor:
So is the message from the Trump administration just stick with us and we'll get there?
Joey Garrison:
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, they are still blaming a lot of the current economic situation on the previous Biden administration. So for example, when Bessent was talking about the detox period, he was saying, look, we're moving from a period in which you had aggressive government spending under President Biden to where we're now trying to have less of that. Of course, we've seen that with the rapid cuts that DOGE led by Elon Musk and the firing of federal workers. We're trying to spend less from the government and push that more to the private sector and he's saying there could be this detox period before a "equilibrium" is struck there. But what they're not really acknowledging as part of the economic uncertainty right now brought on by these tariffs that President Trump has imposed on Canada and Mexico this past week.
He started with 25% tariffs across the board, backtracked a little bit by first excluding automobile imports from those tariffs, and then any goods that are protected under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. So he's kind of backtracked on that. But what tariffs are, of course are taxes on goods that are imported into the U.S. Economists point out that those prices are usually pushed down to consumers with higher price tags on goods people purchase. So when we saw the tumbling stock market over the past week, that was a response to those tariffs, which spooked a lot of companies out there and a lot of investors.
Dana Taylor:
Another campaign promise was lower interest rates. Did he say what the Trump admin was doing on this front?
Joey Garrison:
Yeah, I mean the Trump administration and Bessent, have been actively urging the Fed to lower interest rates. That's a different approach than President Biden who left the Fed to be independent and tried not to direct which way it was going with things. But Bessent was really downplaying it, which is kind of a shift. Of course, Trump in his first term was always quick to tout stock market gains that would occur, but Bessent in his interview said, Hey, look, there were stock market gains during the Biden administration, but that doesn't mean that the American people believed that there was a strong economy and noted that Biden was voted out. So it's definitely a shift in tone on how they're interpreting what they're seeing from the market right now.
Dana Taylor:
Joey, is there any good news that Treasury or the administration did share yesterday
Joey Garrison:
Regarding those jobs numbers, President Trump and Bessent, as well as other top economic advisors really touted the fact that the majority of newly created jobs were in the private sector, whereas often under President Biden, those jobs came from government employees. So they looked at that as evidence that their economic agenda is working and actually one top advisor said, Hey, we're starting to see a glimpse of the golden age to come. Of course, Trump talked about a new golden age in American prosperity when he was sworn into office, but I think they still want to pin some of the current problems that we're looking at on Biden, and I think as we move forward, that's just going to be more problematic to do.
You get sort of a grace period I think after you're initially elected where you can say, look, I inherited this mess, but eventually people are going to look for him to fulfill that campaign promise. So there's a signs up there of a public and electorate that's antsy right now on the state of things. So when you have Treasury Secretary Bessent saying, Hey, look, we might have a detox period. I think that's maybe only going to stoke more anxiety out there.
Dana Taylor:
Joey Garrison covers the White House for USA TODAY. Thanks Joey.
Joey Garrison:
Hey, thanks for having me on.
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Cody Godwin:
President Donald Trump said yesterday that he would not immediately resume U.S. weapons and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, adding that he remains unconvinced, Ukraine is ready for peace. Trump also threatened sanctions on Russia after it bombarded Ukraine with missiles Thursday night. The attack damaged energy infrastructure and led to a renewed call for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for a ceasefire. Trump said he was strongly considering large-scale banking restrictions, sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a peace deal is secured. The U.S. and its allies already have substantial sanctions on Russia that the Trump administration has said it intends to rigorously enforce. The relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine was recently thrown into chaos after a meeting between Trump and Zelensky went south last week. The Trump administration is now preparing to meet with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia next week to discuss a peace deal.
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Although tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico have received a temporary reprieve from Trump until April 2nd, American companies are already sweating over Canadian consumer backlash. U.S. liquor, wine and spirit brands have been pulled off the shelves of many Canadian stores as retaliatory response to Trump's tariffs. Lawson Whiting, CEO of Brown‐Forman, the maker of Jack Daniels said the move is, "worse than a tariff". Experts predict this sentiment could affect other industries in the U.S. too. Meat and agriculture products, apparel, autos, hotel and airlines among them. Economics Professor Kris Mitchener says that the share of most American companies exports to Canada is on average small. So most are insulated from the boycott there. He says if it spreads to other countries, that's when American companies would really feel the pressure.
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The cause of death for actor Gene Hackman has been released. The Oscar winner was found dead alongside his wife, Betsy Arakawa and their dog in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on February 26th. The New Mexico office of the medical investigator announced that Arakawa died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare disease, and that Hackman died from natural causes about a week later. He had heart disease and complications caused by Alzheimer's disease. The investigators said that Hackman likely didn't know his wife had died citing his Alzheimer's disease. Hantavirus can be contracted from contact with rodents like rats and mice. It cannot pass from person to person and dogs cannot contract hantavirus. Hackman was 95 and his wife Arakawa was 64. Family members and Hollywood stars poured in with statements online mourning the actor.
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What role does faith play in encouraging migrants on the treacherous journey north to the U.S. border? A new study says a big one. My colleague Taylor Wilson spoke with USA TODAY border and immigration correspondent Lauren Villagran to learn more.
Taylor Wilson:
Hey there Lauren.
Lauren Villagran:
Hey Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
So Lauren, what did this study find about the role of faith in migration and how exactly was this research carried out?
Lauren Villagran:
There's a really interesting report that's new from the University of Texas at El Paso and research partners that really shows in data what many border reporters have heard for years. Often when you interview migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, especially on the Mexican side, regardless of what's happening with U.S. policy, new obstacles that are being put in migrants way, you'll often hear them end their conversation with "Si Dios quiere" if God wishes, God willing. And researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso set out to understand what migrants really understood about the U.S. asylum system and found out in the course of their research that in fact faith and their own religiosity had as much influence on the decisions they made on Route North as what they understood about the asylum system, which was very little.
Taylor Wilson:
Something that caught my attention here, Lauren, was that in their home countries, migrants were not necessarily more religious than Americans according to survey findings. Can you talk through that and what is it about the migration journey that might lead folks to turn to God or spirituality?
Lauren Villagran:
I mean, we know that the migration journey over land from Latin America through Central America and Mexico can be incredibly dangerous. People face a host of threats, whether it's corrupt authorities, organized crime along the way, poverty struggles. This particular study, which was conducted in Ciudad Juárez across the river from El Paso, Texas during a four-month period in 2023 found, and just listen to this number Taylor, that 73% of migrants interviewed reported receiving a sign from God on their journey that encouraged them to keep going north. 71% reported praying at least once a day. And this again is even among people, maybe fewer than half of whom attended church services back in their home country.
Taylor Wilson:
You mentioned some of the confusion, Lauren, over the asylum process in recent years, even going back to the Biden era, how does that factor into this conversation and this idea of putting faith in religion or God or whatever spiritual foundation they have during all this confusion?
Lauren Villagran:
So we have to remember that this is an academic study, which means that it wasn't conducted yesterday. Things were very different at the border in 2023 when the research was conducted and there was a reigning narrative in the United States at the time that millions of people were trying to game the system, seek asylum when really they weren't going to qualify for it. And researchers set out to find out, well really how much did migrants from places like Guatemala, Honduras, or Venezuela, what did they really know about the U.S. immigration system, the U.S. asylum system, when they set out on their journey and what did they learn on their way?
And what the researchers found was that they understood very little migrants tended to look one step ahead, not 10 steps ahead. There was a general understanding that there was a way to make a claim at the border, but very little understanding of the complexity of the U.S. asylum system. And Taylor, to be fair to the migrants, I mean many Americans don't fully understand the trappings of the U.S. asylum system as they were at the time in 2023. It's an incredibly complex system that really requires a law degree to understand completely.
Taylor Wilson:
So Lauren, you read about the kind of Trump factor in this piece as well, and I'm curious, this is a guy with strong support from Christian bases. He's even directed the federal government to eradicate anti-Christian bias. I'm just curious, how has faith factored into some of what we've seen from Trump on the campaign trail and in office?
Lauren Villagran:
Part of the reason the findings are so interesting, I think Taylor is because you see widespread support for President Donald Trump among the Christian community that includes white evangelicals. 55% of Catholics voted for Trump according to an AP VoteCast study poll following the November election. And we haven't seen a lot about the makeup of the recent migrants that have so many Americans concerned about border security. The findings of this study are in some ways somewhat narrow. There were 300 people interviewed, not hundreds of thousands. That being said, the role that Christianity and that Christian faith plays in their lives might be of interest to some of the Christian voters and supporters of President Trump's now tougher border policies.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, great piece from you as always, Lauren. Lauren Villagran covers the border and immigration for USA TODAY. Thank you Lauren.
Lauren Villagran:
Thanks for having me.
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Cody Godwin:
David Leonard Wood is angry. The sixty-seven-year-old is currently on death row awaiting execution in Texas for the murder of six girls and young women in 1987. His execution is scheduled to take place in just four days. Wood has always maintained his innocence and says he was targeted by police.
David Leonard Wood:
How can I not be angry at the corruption that put me here? How can you let people just dump cases on you and not be angry?
Cody Godwin:
In an exclusive interview USA TODAY death row reporter Amanda Lee Myers sat down with Wood in prison to hear his story. You can hear that episode right here on Sunday morning beginning at 5 A.M. Eastern.
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And before we go, it's that time of year again, daylight savings. Clocks are jumping ahead an hour tomorrow, so don't forget to adjust any analog clocks when you wake up.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Cody Godwin. Taylor Wilson will be back on Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.