Latest news with #BESSENT
CNBC
31-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Excerpts: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Speaks with CNBC's 'Squawk Box' Today
WHEN: Today, Thursday, July 31, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Squawk Box" Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC's "Squawk Box" (M-F, 6AM-9AM ET) today, Thursday, July 31. Following are links to video on and All references must be sourced to CNBC. BESSENT ON SOUTH KOREA AGREEMENT U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: They presented a very good offer. President Trump moved the offer up a bit, and we reached a very good agreement where they will have 15% tariffs. They will buy a substantial amount of U.S. energy. They will make a substantial investment in the, into the US, both from their sovereign resources and via private companies. BESSENT ON INDIA BESSENT: India came to the table early. They've been slow rolling things. So I think that the president, the whole trade team has been frustrated with them. And also, you know, India, India has been a large buyer of sanctioned Russian oil that they then resell as refined products. So, you know, they have not been a great global actor. BESSENT ON CHINA BESSENT: We met for two full days in Stockholm. The Chinese are tough negotiators. We're tough too. It was led by the vice premier, my counterpart, He Lifeng, who I have great respect for. You know, he is both a statesman, a tough negotiator and very senior in the leadership. We pushed back on them quite a bit and made our positions known. I believe that we have the makings of a deal. They announced that we would have a 90-day role which was a bit premature. BESSENT ON CHINA AUGUST 12 DEADLINE BESSENT: Ambassador Greer and myself will be speaking to President Trump today about whether we will be doing the role by the August 12th deadline. There's still a few technical details to be worked out on the Chinese side between us. I'm confident that it will be done, but it's not 100% done. BESSENT ON TREASURY MARKETS BESSENT: Really, for most of the Asian economies, 2017 marked the high point of their ownership of US treasuries. We've, we've seen a gradual decrease since then. So, you know, the treasury market really hasn't featured in any of these negotiations. BESSENT ON ALUMINUM TARIFFS BESSENT: I believe that the Ford F-150, 250, you know, their big truck series is made out of aluminum instead of steel, which is different than other cars. So I think maybe the aluminum tariffs have hit them harder. We will be negotiating with Canada on those. So, you know, I think with Ford it's probably been idiosyncratic. BESSENT ON CAPEX BOOM BESSENT: I think, that there has been a big holdback in CapEx until companies were sure that they were going to get the 100% immediate expensing, and then they'll be getting and that's permanent. They'll be getting 100% immediate expensing for factory structures and ag structures for the next five years. So we're seeing a CapEx boom that started. I think it's going to really accelerate third, fourth quarter. Andrew and I were out in Sun Valley. You know, a lot of the tech titans out there are talking about the continued AI acceleration. And, you know, we're expecting to see that productivity kick in in the first or second quarter of next year. So I would expect that we are going to see an economic acceleration from here. BESSENT ON NEXT FED CHAIR BESSENT: We are putting, putting together a very good list of candidates. And remember, they're going to be two seats opening up. Governor Kugler will be leaving in I can't remember whether January, January, February, Chair Powell in May. So there will be two seats opening up. I'm putting together a list for president, chief of staff to review, we'll be interviewing people. So, you know, I would expect that we could have an announcement by the end of the year. BESSENT ON INSIDER TRADING BESSENT: Some of the senators who criticize me are the ones who take the most advantage of, you know, they don't have insider trading rules. So Senator Wyden criticized me. You know, he has a, you know, he's a statistical aberration. Somehow he has made over 120% one year, over 70% the next year. You know, if he were a private citizen, the SEC would be knocking on his door. Same with the Pelosi family. How does this happen?
CNBC
29-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Exclusive: Transcript: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Speaks with CNBC's Eamon Javers on 'Power Lunch' Today
WHEN: Today, Tuesday, July 29, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Power Lunch" Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC exclusive interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC's "Power Lunch" (M-F, 2PM-3PM ET) today, Tuesday, July 29. Following are links to video on and All references must be sourced to CNBC. EAMON JAVERS: Brian, thank you very much. And, yes, we are here with Scott Bessent. Mr. Treasury Secretary, thank you so much for doing this and being live on CNBC. Really appreciate your time today. U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Good to see you. Good to be here in Stockholm. JAVERS: Take us behind the scenes, if you could. Covering these things, as we reporters travel around the world following you guys, it's sort of a black box. We don't know what happens inside that room. We occasionally get the handout picture. How are these talks actually structured? What happens inside the room? Do you have sort of bullet points from both sides that each side agrees to bring up in advance? Does each side make a speech to each other? Bring us in the room. BESSENT: Well, there's a lot of pregame, so a lot of preparation on both sides in terms of, what do we want to talk about? What would we like to accomplish? With the Chinese, there were 75 of them in their delegation, 15 of us. JAVERS: Wow. BESSENT: We start out in a very large room, probably 12 or 15 on each side of the table. As you said, there tends to be a bit of speech-reading. There's a little back-and-forth on that. Then there's a discussion. We have various topics. But the real work gets done. We break down into smaller groups of two on two, so Ambassador Jamieson, myself. It was with Vice Premier He Lifeng. And then they actually had two, a deputy trade minister and a deputy finance minister, and then the translators. And then Vice Premier Lifeng and I spent some time alone with the translators. JAVERS: And do you go into breakout rooms to discuss among just the American side what the Chinese have proposed and then come back, or is it all done in the same room together? BESSENT: Well, Ambassador Greer and I have been doing a lot of trade deals. And we have done a lot of prep in advance. This was our third meeting with this Chinese team. So we built up some level of personal rapport. We also -- I can tell you that London built on Geneva. Stockholm built on London and Geneva. So we have an arc that is getting better. We have been able to -- this meeting, we were able to discuss more of the big economic frameworks, whereas Geneva and London were much more specific meetings. JAVERS: I think the market really expected that what we would see here is an extension of that August 12 deadline. That was sort of a low bar for these talks. People thought, if they can kick the can another 90 days and keep the truce in place that happened back in London, that's basically a win for Stockholm. Did you agree to kick that can down the road, or is that pending President Trump's approval? BESSENT: Well, it's pending President Trump's approval. He has final say on all the trade deals. I spoke to him right before I came in with you. I'm going to see him with Ambassador Greer tomorrow. And he will have the final decision. I think our Chinese counterparts have jumped the gun a little and said that we do have an extension. I can say that the meetings were very far-reaching, far-reaching, robust and highly satisfactory. JAVERS: And what will you recommend to President Trump, if you can share it with us? Will you recommend that he extend that pause? BESSENT: Well, we're just going to give him the facts, and then he will decide. JAVERS: What can you tell us what was agreed to in the room, if anything? Any specific agreements on any of those agenda items that you set up in the pregame, as you call it? BESSENT: Well, we continually are perfecting their rare earth control system. It was a new system that was put in globally on April 4. And it's been a bit clunky. So, we keep pushing them to work on that. And it's the entire global supply chain, because the restrictions or the controls aren't just on the U.S. It's on every country. So we discussed that. We made some very good progress on that. We had very long discussions, in-depth discussions and reports on each other's economies. You know, we pushed them. They have what they call the five-year plan coming up. I believe the meeting is in September, October. It'll be discussed in February. And we discussed -- or Ambassador Jamieson and I encouraged them to work on rebalancing the economy towards more of a consumer economy, away from a manufacturing economy, and, if they have decided that that is in their five-year plan, to make that public. JAVERS: The other big piece of speculation going into this was, would this tee up a Xi Jinping-Donald Trump meeting sometime in the fall, maybe October? You have said now that there was no discussion of that in these talks. So where do we stand on the idea of a possible world leaders meeting? BESSENT: It was June 5, June 4 -- June 5, the president did a call with Party Chair Xi. Party Chair Xi invited him to come to Beijing. So that will be something between the White House and Xi's staff. JAVERS: What else was discussed in the room? One of the items was Chinese purchases of Iranian oil. What did they say to your request to stop making those purchases? BESSENT: They said they're a sovereign nation and that they have security needs, energy needs, and that it would be based on their internal policies. JAVERS: And so you don't have any leverage at this point to push them on that? Or do you? BESSENT: Well, not at this point. We have -- at Treasury, we have sanctioned what are called teapot refineries. They are private refineries, not state-owned. And so we have sanctioned those refineries. The owners and -- some of those owners may have assets in the U.S. JAVERS: The other big question coming into this was, how much would the E.U. deal having been signed on Sunday influence what happened in the room in Stockholm this week? Did you get a sense whether that made any difference in terms of the trajectory of the talks here? BESSENT: I think that everyone can see the arc of where these trade deals are going. I won't say that the Chinese were on their heels, because they're very composed. Vice Premier He Lifeng is a seasoned politician. But it's clear that the momentum was with us, that, when you get the E.U., the world's largest trading bloc, when you get that deal inked, we had Japan, we had Indonesia, we had Vietnam. So, not only did we have the E.U., who has a very large trading relationship with China. We also had three of their neighbors. JAVERS: You said something interesting with a small group of reporters earlier today, which was that the Chinese goods -- if the U.S. is going to tariff Chinese goods, those goods have to go somewhere. And you think they're flowing to Europe, Canada and Australia. Do you think Europe needs to put up a tariff wall of its own? Do you think they need to be tariffing Chinese goods? BESSENT: I wouldn't be surprised if they don't put on some kind of tariffs at a point. But this is where the opportunity is for the Chinese to be proactive and create a bigger consumer economy and sell more of those goods at home, because those goods can't just flow to the Global South. JAVERS: You have said that's your goal for the Chinese economy. It's not entirely clear that that's the Chinese government's goal for the Chinese economy. To what degree do you get the sense that they embrace that argument at all? BESSENT: Again, we will see. It may take some external forces. I remember -- I think I went to Japan first time in 1990. Maybe the bubble burst in 1991. They didn't fix the banking problem until 2004. Then Abenomics wasn't until 2012. And that was really an external stimulus. A lot of that was from the China threat. So it may take some external stimulus or an external -- the catalyst to get the Chinese to change. It may be more tariffs. JAVERS: One of the big questions about that E.U. deal from the weekend is this $600 billion piece for additional purchases from the United States. But E.U. officials have come out since the deal was agreed to and said, well, that's coming from private sector companies. We don't really have any control over that, so we can't enforce it on our end. Does the U.S. have any guarantee that that $600 billion is real and is actually going to happen? BESSENT: Well, I think that's going to be closely monitored. I think President Trump believes that this is a good deal. I mean, on paper, this is the deal of the century. And I would be surprised over time if the E.U. doesn't hold up their end of the bargain, or the 15 percent tariff rate could change. JAVERS: What do you think those purchases will be? I mean, that could impact hugely some American companies. BESSENT: Well, it could be purchases. Problem now is, Europe is rearming. NATO is finally upping its defense spending. We have a very large backlog with our defense companies. So I would imagine a big, big portion of that could be for defense. There are going to be some ag purchases. And then they will also be building, you know, increased investment in European companies putting plants in the U.S. JAVERS: These deals have been coming pretty fast and furious. At times, it gets hard to track the details of them. The Vietnam deal that the president announced earlier in July, I don't think we have seen confirmation, or at least I haven't as I sit here now, from the Vietnamese government of that deal. Did we get confirmation from the Vietnamese government? Do we have an agreement with them on paper? BESSENT: I didn't work on that deal, but I assume that we do, because we have also done Indonesia and Philippines, so I would imagine that— JAVERS: But you haven't seen that paperwork? BESSENT: But I don't -- that's -- Ambassador Greer, who is a seasoned veteran, with an encyclopedic memory and knowledge of all this, keeps all that. JAVERS: How do you divide it in the room between yourself and Ambassador Greer as you are negotiating with the Chinese? Do you have a lane? Does he have a lane? BESSENT: I think I try to keep things moving along in a big picture way and think about, what are our goals? Ambassador Greer, again, like I said, he not only has an encyclopedic knowledge. He has dealt with the Chinese in President Trump's first term. He knows all the particulars on tariffs, on trade, on -- he walks around. It's a great prop. It's probably two times, three times bigger than the old New York City phone book, but it's the non-tariff trade barriers of all the countries. So you kind of put that down on the table and say, OK, let's go through them. JAVERS: Right. Friday, we have got another big deadline coming up, which is August 1, for snapback tariffs on all the other countries that have not agreed to a deal so far. What can you tell American businesses to expect on Friday? BESSENT: Well, I would think that it's not the end of the world if these snapback tariffs are on for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, as long as the countries are moving forward and trying to negotiate in good faith. JAVERS: One of the other big questions around this has been, which of these other sideline issues are really part of this trade deal and which are not? TikTok has been one that we have talked about. You said that wasn't discussed today. The other question is that "The Financial Times" reported that the president of Taiwan was declined permission to transit New York, which is something that the Chinese would have wanted from the U.S. government. Was that done to help smooth a deal with the Chinese? BESSENT: Yes, and I want to go back for— JAVERS: Sure. BESSENT: On -- because the August 1 is important. I think, for President Trump, the -- for me, what's given us a lot of negotiating leverage is, he's happy to do the deal, but he's equally as happy, sometimes in more cases -- in some cases, more happy just to have the tariff income. JAVERS: Right. BESSENT: So it gives us a lot of negotiating flexibility. So, TikTok wasn't discussed. And we are very careful to keep trade and national security separate. So, the Taiwanese president -- president's movements had nothing to do with our talks. JAVERS: Mr. Secretary, we're almost out of time. I'm being told we have just one minute left. So, with that, give us a sense of what you expect next from this U.S.-China relationship. Are we going to see another meeting in 90 days? What city will we be in 90 days from now? BESSENT: Look, I don't know where we're going to be. The good news is, we're talking, because initially China was -- on April 2, tariff day, we advised all the countries, don't retaliate, and that would be your peak number, and you can work down from there. China was the only country to retaliate. We went into this tit for tat. We ended up at 145. They were 125, which is essentially an embargo. We brought those down in Geneva. There's the problem with the rare earth magnets. That was solved, Geneva, London. And the good news is, President Xi, President Trump have a very close relationship. Now we are able to establish communication lanes at all the various levels, whether it's between Ambassador Greer and myself with the vice premier, with the trade delegations, with the deputy finance minister. So, I think more interaction is good interaction. We're not going to agree. They're tough negotiators. We're tough negotiators. So— JAVERS: We will see where it goes. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for being on CNBC. BESSENT: Good to see you. JAVERS: Really appreciate your time. Brian, we will send it back to you.
CNBC
03-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Excerpts: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Speaks with CNBC's 'Money Movers' Today
WHEN: Today, Friday, July 3, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Money Movers" Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC's "Money Movers" (M-F, 11AM-12PM ET) today, Friday, July 3. Following are links to video on and All references must be sourced to CNBC. BESSENT ON POTENTIAL OF BILL PASSING SCOTT BESSENT: It's going to, going to pass. And my expectation is that we'll get a vote around 1:30 today. BESSENT ON TARIFFS BESSENT: What we've seen so far is that tariff, tariffs haven't hurt. The dog that didn't bark was that tariffs were going to hurt the economy, were going to hurt the markets. Market had the fastest recovery ever, ever from the low in April, from a 15% decline. And we're at new highs in the market. BESSENT ON VIETNAM TRADE BESSENT: I haven't spoken to Jamison Greer who's heading the team. My understanding is that it's finalized in principle. BESSENT: We've seen that a huge amount of the trade that comes from Vietnam is what's called transshipment from China. So we'll see what happens with the, with the transshipment and the businesses have already adjusted to a 10% tariff. So we'll see what happens with the additional ten. BESSENT ON NO INFLATION FROM TARIFFS BESSENT: Thus far, we haven't seen any inflation from tariffs. And again, I would say that tariffs are not inflationary. You could get a one-time price bump. But in terms of a generalized economic inflation, I don't think that tariffs cause that. BESSENT ON TRADE TALKS BESSENT: We are. Of course, everyone waits till the last minute. They think that they can get the best deal. And as I've warned, when I've done other media, these countries should be careful because their rate could boomerang back to their April 2nd rate. BESSENT ON ELON MUSK BESSENT: I have great respect for Elon on rockets. I will leave that to him. He can leave the finances to me.
CNBC
27-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Transcript: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Speaks with CNBC's Morgan Brennan on 'Closing Bell: Overtime' Today
WHEN: Today, Friday, June 27, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Closing Bell: Overtime" Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC's "Closing Bell: Overtime" (M-F, 4PM-5PM ET) today, Friday, June 27. Following is a link to video on All references must be sourced to CNBC. MORGAN BRENNAN: Let's turn back to those trade headlines now, President Trump saying the U.S. is "immediately terminating all discussions on trade with Canada," in a surprise announcement, the president citing what he called the egregious digital services tax. Joining us now to discuss is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Mr. Secretary, it's great to have you on "Overtime." Welcome. TREASURY SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Morgan, good afternoon. BRENNAN: Let's start right there. What happened with Canada? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, we knew it was coming. We hoped they wouldn't do it. Canada has this digital services tax. And several other countries do too. We disagree, and we think that they discriminate against U.S. companies. But what Canada did here, as of Monday, they're going to implement a retroactive tax. And we think that -- we don't like the taxes. And, obviously, we think it's patently unfair to do it retroactive. This was something from the Trudeau years. So we were hoping, as a sign of goodwill, that the new Carney administration would at least put a brake on that during the trade talks. They seem not to have. President Trump has responded. And my inclination is that Ambassador Greer over at USTR will be starting a 301 investigation into the digital services taxes to determine the amount of harm to the U.S. companies and the U.S. economy in general. BRENNAN: Why is a Section 301 investigation the way to go? And what could that outcome potentially yield? Would that be broad-based, looking at Canada and the possibility of tariffs, or very targeted on certain industries? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, no, the president can impose tariffs based on IEEPA, which is an emergency economic powers act. The 301 is more durable and could last longer. BRENNAN: So, in terms of 301 being more durable and lasting longer, would this be more broad-based, looking across trade of goods and services with Canada more broadly, or would it be more targeted to certain industries? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: No, it would be targeted across tariffs on Canadian products. And, again, we will have to see. We know the amount. I think it's about $2 billion of retroactive digital taxes, which seem patently unfair. We had been talking to the administration in Ottawa about this, and they decided to go ahead with it. BRENNAN: The European Union is doing something very similar in terms of a digital services tax. How is that factoring into negotiations there? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Oh, well, no, that's not right. The European Union does not have a digital service tax. Several countries within the European Union have digital service taxes. None of them have done those retroactively. And we're in active discussions with them to take those down, because, again, who has the great Internet companies of the world? It's the United States of America. So it singles out our great American companies. BRENNAN: So, Canada, possible escalation, depending on how this plays out over coming days. De-escalation, though, and that was the news of the morning, with China. What are the details of this China trade agreement? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, it's a continuation of the Geneva agreement, and the centerpiece of it is that we agreed. And it's away from the tariff measures because the tariffs came down immediately after Geneva. Post-Geneva, we had an agreement with the Chinese government to start the flow of rare earth magnets again. They were not as forthcoming as we'd hoped that they would be. So the U.S. implemented non-tariff countermeasures against the Chinese government. We believe that the rare earth magnets are starting to flow again under a licensing agreement that, or a licensing regime that the Chinese government implemented on April 4. And when we are certain that the magnets are flowing again, we will drop our countermeasures. BRENNAN: So, a lot of speculation out there about whether this July 9 deadline for trade deals is a hard line or whether there's some flexibility. Is there flexibility? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Again, it's going to be up to President Trump. We're going to follow his lead. What I would think is going to happen is, there will be a lot of smaller trading partners. We will just send them letters. There will be a group of deals that we will land before July 9, on or about. And, as Secretary Lutnick said yesterday, he believes there are 10 or 12 of those. And then there are probably another 20 countries where they could go back to the reciprocal tariff of April 2 as we work on the deal, or, if we think that they are negotiating in good faith, then they could stay at the 10 percent baseline. So, there are a lot of moving pieces here. A lot of it is based on the consistency of the negotiations. And, again, it will all be up to President Trump. BRENNAN: Historically, trade deals have taken years sometimes to craft. It's incredible how quickly you're moving here, when you're talking about 10 waiting in the wings and perhaps another 20 behind that here in the next couple of weeks, just to put it in context. TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Yes. BRENNAN: Another thing that seems to be poised to move quickly here, at least in the next couple of days, is, the Republicans have reached a tentative deal regarding the state and local tax deduction, SALT. At least that's what we're hearing. That had been a sticking point. My colleague Emily Wilkins is reporting there are a few other key topics still being worked out, but can this big, beautiful bill make it to the president's desk by July 4? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: I think there's a very good chance. And the only way to get there is for the Senate to start voting this weekend. I think there, I was just with the Senate Republicans, and I think they're going to start voting tomorrow. BRENNAN: Do you see potential roadblocks here over the next week? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Look, nothing's done until it's done. But President Trump's leadership has gotten us here at what people thought the, would not be a possible date. Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson have done an incredible job of holding small majorities together and getting the bill moving forward. So, I'm optimistic we could have a July 4 signing. BRENNAN: What does the bond market need to understand about this bill, what it's going to mean for government spending and the debt load? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, again, it is the largest cut in discretionary spending in – or non – excuse me – nondiscretionary spending in history. And the other thing too is, what do we care about? We care about growth, we care about spending. So if we can stabilize the spending and up the rate of growth, then that's how we start stabilizing the debt-to-GDP, this terrible situation we had, the deficit-to-GDP, 6.7 percent. We'd never seen anything like this when we weren't at war or in a recession. So this was a peacetime deficit, so we are going to slowly bring that down in a methodical way, and we will stabilize the debt-to-GDP level and start bending the curve down. BRENNAN: Interest rates are still elevated, even as the dollar continues to weaken against other major currencies. Do these market moves concern you? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Which market moves? BRENNAN: What we're seeing in the dollar as it weakens and the fact that interest rates are still elevated here. TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, they – a couple of things there, Morgan, is, I'm not sure why it would concern me that it's natural for currencies to move around. I have traded currencies 35, 40 years. So currencies move up and down. The U.S. still has a strong dollar policy, and we're putting the economic factors in place to continue that. On the other hand, we are seeing for the first time, a real attempt at defense spending in Europe. We're seeing the Germans take off the debt brake. So more fiscal spend would tell you that the euro should appreciate. BRENNAN: If we stick with rates, and particularly here in the U.S., the Fed was slow to respond to spiking inflation a couple of years ago. We know the president's been very vocal in criticizing the Fed chair. Is it the president's concern that the Fed is behind the curve again? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, I – not my words, but the president's, he calls Chair Powell "Too Late Jay," and so he's obviously worried that the Fed's behind the curve again. And, Morgan, I would just point out that studies have shown that people who fall down then tend to look at their feet, which makes them fall down more. And the Federal Reserve fell down on the American people in 2022, let the great inflation get away from them. They should have been hiking sooner, so maybe that's what we're seeing here. BRENNAN: There's a lot of market chatter emerging right now about the possibility of a shadow Fed. How disruptive would the nomination of a new Fed chair this far out from the end of the term of the current one be for the market? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, look, I don't think anyone's necessarily talking about that. There will be two seats opening -- or there will be one seat definitely opening in the beginning of the year, when board member Kugler leaves, and then the chairmanship will open up in May, when Chair Powell leaves. So, Chair Powell doesn't have to leave. He could stay on the board, not as chair. So there is a chance that the person who is going to become the chair could be appointed in January, which would probably mean an October-November nomination. BRENNAN: Your name has been floated in some media reports as a possible replacement for Fed chair come next year. Your response? Is that a job you would consider taking? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Look, I will do what the president wants, but I think I have the best job in Washington. We're making meaningful change, working on the president's agenda every day. I get to work closely with the president. I think that, as I like to say, we have done peace deals, trade deals, and tax deals. We spent the first 100 days setting the table on those. Now we're going to be landing all those over the next 100 days. So I think that's going to be pretty exciting. BRENNAN: All three of those, we have been talking about this week. Finally, the idea, and I think this is really key -- and it kind of brings us back to the beginning of this conversation with trade and tariffs, but this idea of higher inflation tied to tariffs, case in point, this morning. We haven't really seen it show up in the hard data. The Fed and Wall Street economists think that that's something that's going to materialize this summer. How are you and the administration gaming this out and thinking about this inflation dynamic? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, look, as you said, it hasn't played out, and we're seeing very low numbers. And forget imported inflation, because, if we were to get it from tariffs, which has not happened, it doesn't have to happen, that's a small part of the inflation calculations. What we're seeing is service inflation drop. I think we're going to see the rent component drop and the overall housing component, which is implied owner's rents, drop. So, the Fed's measure of supercore inflation is way down. PCE year over year is down. So, it looks like the trends are quite good. We're at a four-year low in gasoline prices, so we're going to have a great summer travel season. And, Morgan, one thing. I heard you talking with your colleague earlier, where they talked about the April tariff panic. So we found out today this episode from April 3 to today is the fastest bounce-back after a 15 percent decline in S&P history, fastest bounce-back ever. So, we, the administration doesn't look at the stock market every day. What we tried to do was set in place economic fundamentals. And, presumably, the market had a chance to digest the panic and is looking forward. So I think it is telling you that the tariff panic, or, as I like to call it, tariff derangement syndrome, was overdone. We're seeing earnings growth. We're seeing a good path for interest rates. So I think the economy is looking pretty good. BRENNAN: And all of that has led to stocks at record highs today. Secretary Bessent, Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary, great to speak with you. We covered a lot there. I do hope you will come back and join me again. Thank you so much. BESSENT: Thank you.
Wakala News
02-06-2025
- Business
- Wakala News
Transcript: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on 'Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,' June 1, 2025
The following is the transcript of an interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that aired on 'Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan' on June 1, 2025. MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning and welcome to 'Face the Nation.' We begin today with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Good morning and thank you for being here. SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Morning, Margaret. MARGARET BRENNAN: There's so much to get to. I want to start with China, because the Defense Secretary just said there's an imminent military threat from China to Taiwan. Days earlier, Secretary Rubio said he'd aggressively revoked Chinese student visas. On top of that, you have curbing exports to China. Trade talks you said with Beijing are stalled, and President Trump just accused China of violating an agreement, and now says no more, 'Mr. Nice Guy.' Are you intentionally escalating this standoff with Beijing? SEC. BESSENT: Well, I don't think it's intentional. I- I think that what Secretary Hegseth did was remind everyone that during COVID, China was an unreliable partner, and what we are trying to do is to de-risk. We do not want to decouple Margaret, but we do need to de-risk, as we saw during COVID, whether it was with semiconductors, medicines, the other products we are in the process of de-risking. MARGARET BRENNAN: Making the United States less reliant on China, but at the same– SEC. BESSENT: –Well, and the whole world. The whole world, because what China is doing is they are holding back products that are essential for the industrial supply chains of India, of Europe, and that is not what a reliable partner does. MARGARET BRENNAN: So is that like- what specifically is President Trump saying when he says they are violating an agreement? Because it was the one you negotiated in Geneva earlier this month. And what's the consequence for that? SEC. BESSENT: Well, we will see what the consequences are. I am confident that when President Trump and party Chairman Xi have a call, that this will be ironed out. So- but the fact that they are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement- maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it's intentional. We'll see after the President speaks with party chairman. MARGARET BRENNAN: That's critical minerals, rare earths. Is that what you're talking about? SEC. BESSENT: Yes. MARGARET BRENNAN: So, the President has said a few times that he was going to speak to President Xi, but he hasn't since before the inauguration. Beijing keeps denying that there was any contact. Do you have anything scheduled? SEC. BESSENT: I believe we'll see something very soon, Margaret. MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you have a conversation with your counterpart or Lutnick with his counterpart at the commerce level? SEC. BESSENT: Well, I think we're going to let the two principles have a conversation, and then everything will stem from that. MARGARET BRENNAN: JP Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, spoke this week at an economic forum, and he gave this read on Beijing. (SOT) JAMIE DIMON: I just got back from China last week. They're not scared, folks. This notion they're gonna come bow to America. I wouldn't count on that. And when they have a problem, they put 100,000 engineers on it, and they've been preparing for this for years. (END SOT) MARGARET BRENNAN: Have you underestimated the Chinese state's backbone here? SEC. BESSENT: Again, Margaret, I hope it doesn't come to that. And Jamie is a great banker. I know him well, but I would vociferously disagree with that assessment, that the laws of economics and gravity apply to the Chinese economy and the Chinese system, just like everyone else. MARGARET BRENNAN: But when you were last here in March, we were trying to gauge what the impact of the standoff with China and with the tariffs on the rest of the world would do for American consumers here at home. At that time, you told us you were going to appoint an affordability czar and council to figure out five, you said, or eight areas where there will be some pain for working class Americans. Where are you anticipating price increases? SEC. BESSENT: Well, thus far- we wanted to make sure that there aren't price increases, Margaret. And thus far there have been no price increases. Everything has been alarmist, that the inflation numbers are actually dropping. We saw the first drop of inflation in four years. The inflation numbers last week, they were very- the- pro-consumer. We've– MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, but you listen to earnings calls just like we do. You know what Walmart's saying, what Best Buy's saying and what Target are saying of what's coming– SEC. BESSENT: But Margaret, I also know what Home Depot and Amazon are saying. I know what the South China Morning Post wrote within the past 24 hours that 65%- 65%- the- of the tariffs will likely be eaten by the Chinese producers. MARGARET BRENNAN: So are there five or eight areas that you have identified, as you said back in March, where American consumers will be able to have lower prices, or should be warned of higher prices? SEC. BESSENT: Well, a lot of it's already working its way through the system. So we've seen a substantial decrease in gasoline and energy prices. So that's down 20% year over year. We've seen the food prices go down, these notorious egg prices. Through the good work of President Trump and Secretary Rollins, egg prices have collapsed. So we're seeing more and more. And what we want to do- the- is even that out across the all sections of the economy. So inflation has been very tame. Consumer earnings were up 0.8% last month, which is a gigantic increase for one month. So real earnings minus low inflation is great for the American people, and that's what we're seeing. MARGARET BRENNAN: But you know, because when you met with the Chinese earlier this month and you went down from the 145% tariff down to about- it's like 30%. 30%'s not nothing, that tax on goods coming in here. Retailers are warning of price hikes– SEC. BESSENT: Well, so– MARGARET BRENNAN: When you go back to school shopping, things are going to cost more. SEC. BESSENT: But Margaret, some are and some aren't. Home Depot and Amazon said they're not. MARGARET BRENNAN: Home Depot and Amazon aren't where you go for your back school shopping, when you buy your jeans, when you buy your crayons, and you buy all those things that parents– SEC. BESSENT: I don't know about you, but I do it online at Amazon. This isn't an advertisement for Amazon. And guess where most of the Halloween costumes in America get bought? At Home Depot. So that's just not right. There's a wide aperture here. Different companies are doing different things. They are making decisions based on their customers, what they think they're able to pass along to their customers, what they want to do to keep their customers. And I was in the investment business for 35 years, Margaret, and I will tell you earnings calls- they have to give the worst case scenario, because if it- if they haven't and something bad happens, then they'll be sued. MARGARET BRENNAN: It's not always the worst case. It's the most probable case– SEC. BESSENT: –No, no, no– MARGARET BRENNAN: as well– SEC. BESSENT: –No, no, no. No, they have to give the worst case. MARGARET BRENNAN: So Walmart- there was just a piece published with the conservative strategist Karl Rove. I'm not asking about politics, because he is a political strategist, but he went in on the math here. And he points out that Walmart has a profit margin of less than 3%. He says, 'If it does what Mr. Trump says, eat the tariffs, it can't break even. It can't absorb the cost of an imported pair of kids jeans with a 46% tariff on Vietnam, a 37% tariff for Bangladesh, or 32% tariff on sneakers from Indonesia. Other companies are in the same pickle.' So should companies cut back on the amount of goods they have on their shelves or just on their profitability? SEC. BESSENT: That- that's a decision company by- by company, Margaret. And I had a long discussion with Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart, and they're going to do what's right for them. MARGARET BRENNAN: But for consumers, the reality is there will either be less inventory or things at higher prices, or both. SEC. BESSENT: Margaret, when we were here in March, you said there was going to be big inflation. There hasn't been any inflation. Actually, the inflation numbers are the best in four years. So why don't we stop trying to say this could happen, and wait and see what does happen. MARGARET BRENNAN: Just trying to gauge for people planning ahead here, one of the things the President said on Friday is that he's going to double the tariffs on steel and aluminum up to 50%, effective June 4. How much will that impact the construction industry? SEC. BESSENT: Well, I think- I was with the president at the U.S. Steel Plant in Pittsburgh on Friday, and I will tell you that the President has the- reignited the steel industry here in America. And back to the earlier statements on national security. There are national security priorities here for having a strong steel industry. MARGARET BRENNAN: But do you have a prediction on how much it's going to impact the construction industry, for example? SEC. BESSENT: Well, I have a prediction on how much it's going to impact the steel industry, and you know, again, we- we'll see there are a lot of elasticities that- you know this is a very complicated ecosystem. So is it going to impact the construction industry, maybe. But it's going to impact the steel industry, the- in a great way. The steel workers, again, were left on the side of the road after the China shock, and now they're back that the- they are Trump supporters. And when I tell you that it was magic in the arena, or it was actually at the steel plant that night, that these hard working Americans know their jobs are secure, there's going to be capital investment, and the number of jobs is going to be grown around the country, whether it's in Pittsburgh, whether it's in Arkansas, whether it's in Alabama. MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about this big tax bill that worked through the House, is going to the Senate next. In it is increase or suspension to the debt limit that you need delivered on by mid-July. How close of a brush with default could this be, given how massive some of the Senate changes are expected to be to the other parts of the bill? SEC. BESSENT: Well, first of all, Margaret, I will say the United States of America is never going to default. That is never going to happen. That- we are on the warning track and we will never hit the wall. MARGARET BRENNAN: You have more wiggle room if they don't deliver this by mid-July? I mean, how hard of a date is this? SEC. BESSENT: That- we don't give out the X date because we use that to move the bill forward. MARGARET BRENNAN: Sometimes deadlines help force action, as you know, particularly in this town, sir, that's why I'm asking. The President did say he- he expects pretty significant changes to this bill, though, so that affects the timing of it moving. What would you like Republican lawmakers to keep? What would you like them to alter? SEC. BESSENT: Again, that's going to be the Senate's decision. Leader Thune, who I've worked closely with during this process, has been doing a fantastic job. And Margaret, I'll point out, everyone said that Speaker Johnson would not be able to get this bill out of the house with his slim majority. He got it out Leader Thune has a bigger majority, and this is with President Trump's leadership. So– MARGARET BRENNAN: –There's no red lines for you in there of just don't touch this you can, you know, tinker with that. SEC. BESSENT: Well, I- I think that they're not necessarily my red lines. The President has the- his campaign promises that he wants to fulfill for working Americans. So no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, deductibility of auto loans for American made automobiles. MARGARET BRENNAN: So those have to stay in. SEC. BESSENT: Those have to stay in. MARGARET BRENNAN: JP Morgan's Dimon also predicted a debt market crisis. 'Cracks in the bond market' was what he said. You are considering easing some regulations, you've said, for the big banks. How do you avoid that bond market crisis he's predicting, spreading and really causing concern, particularly with all of the worries about American debt right now? SEC. BESSENT: So again, I've known Jamie a long time and for his entire career he's made predictions like this. Fortunately, none of them have come true. That's why he's a banker- a great banker. He tries to look around the corner. One of the reasons I'm sitting here talking to you today and not at home watching your show is that I was concerned about the level of debt. So the deficit this year is going to be lower than the deficit last year, and in two years it will be lower again. We are going to bring the deficit down slowly. We didn't get here in one year. We didn't get here in one year, and this has been a long process. So the goal is to bring it down over the next four years, leave the country in great shape in 2028. MARGARET BRENNAN: You know that the Speaker of the House estimates this is going to add four to five trillion dollars over the next 10 years, and there's that debt limit increase. SEC. BESSENT: Well again, Margaret, that's CBO scoring. MARGARET BRENNAN: That's the Speaker of the House. SEC. BESSENT: No, no, no. MARGARET BRENNAN: He said it last Sunday on this program. SEC. BESSENT: The- he said that's the CBO scoring. Let me– MARGARET BRENNAN: –No, he said that sounds right. SEC. BESSENT: Let me tell you what's not included in there, what can't be scored. So we're taking in substantial tariff income right now, so that there are estimates that that could be another 2 trillion that we are the- pushing through savings. So you know my estimate is that could be up to another 100 billion a year. So over the 10 year window, that could be a trillion. President has a prescription drug plan with the pharmaceutical companies that could substantially push down costs for prescription drugs, and that could be another trillion. So there's the four. MARGARET BRENNAN: Treasury Secretary Bessent, we'll be watching closely what happens next. 'Face the Nation' will be back in a minute, so stay with us.
