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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made significant comments about the ongoing tariff tensions with China at a closed-door investor summit on Tuesday in Washington. According to Bloomberg, Bessent told attendees that the standoff with China -- which he said was essentially an embargo -- is unsustainable and that he expects it to de-escalate. He said that while formal negotiations haven't commenced, a deal remains possible. Risk assets have rallied on this.

President Trump has replaced the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service after his appointment just days earlier set off a power struggle between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the billionaire Elon Musk, five people with knowledge of the change said Friday. Mr. Bessent’s deputy, Michael Faulkender, will be the new acting leader, replacing Gary Shapley, the Treasury Department confirmed on Friday. Mr. Faulkender will be the third acting leader of the agency this week. Mr. Bessent had complained to Mr. Trump this week that Mr. Musk had done an end run around him to get Mr. Shapley installed as...

In the tariff war between China and the United States, a lot of chatter in the Pravda Media is about Xi Jinping's defiance, his outreach to European countries and other less important but collectively significant developing countries, and his retaliatory moves against America. They make it sound like China has a lot of cards to play in the trade war with America. China has put civilian government officials on a "wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. https://t.co/rZWU2zsARQ— The Japan Times (@japantimes) April 14, 2025Collectively,...

On Saturday night, President Donald Trump strode into the Kaseya Center in Miami to a standing ovation from the raucous crowd attending the UFC 314 event. It was another triumphant Trump appearance at a sporting event. Since his election, he has attended the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, and a professional golf tournament. President Trump likes sports, and he likes interacting with regular people. His signature rallies are always well attended and festive events with Trump mixing it up with enthusiastic supporters.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday the U.S. holds a substantial advantage over China as the two nations exchange threats in a burgeoning trade war. “I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they’re playing with a pair of twos,” Bessent said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “What do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us, so that is a losing hand for them.” The comments come a day ahead of the U.S. raising its duties on China and dozens of other...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that China’s escalation of tariffs is a “big mistake” because it is playing a “losing hand.” Bessent said, “If we put up a tariff wall, the ultimate goal would be to bring jobs back to the U.S. But in the meantime, we will be collecting substantial tariffs. If we’re successful, tariffs would be a melting ice cube, in a way, because you’re taking in the revenues as the manufacturing facilities are built in the U.S., and there should be some level of symmetry between the taxes we begin taking in...

It was imperative to get the administration’s tariff communications aligned, Bessent told Trump, and more focused on the endgame for Americans: better trade deals with foreign nations, according to people familiar with the conversation.

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted President Donald Trump’s economic plan would be a net benefit to the U.S. economy. Among the positive impacts he offered were reindustrialization, a revitalized private sector and higher wages. Transcript as follows: WELKER: It’s great to have you back after a very big week. Let’s start with the market reaction to President Trump’s announcement of his tariffs. As I just laid out at the top of the program, the markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan,...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on NBC to discuss the current MAGAnomic tariff program and global trade reset. Bessent outlines how the history of President Trump’s tariff approach toward China (’17-’19) did not result in higher consumer prices for goods from China.Secretary Bessent, like the rest of the MAGAnomic team, cuts through the talking points with direct evidence and analysis that destroys the preferred media narrative. Video and Transcript Below: [Transcript] – KRISTEN WELKER: And joining me now is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Secretary Bessent, welcome back to Meet the Press.SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, good to see you.KRISTEN WELKER: It’s...

Tucker Carlson interviews the fulcrum between Wall Street and Main Street in the MAGAnomic policy world, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.Secretary Bessent notes the goal of the tariff plan, and the accompanying economic policy is to give the working middle-class a boost in wealth and simultaneous relief from bad policy that has exclusively benefited the investment class. WATCH:Chapters:0:00 Trump’s Tariff Plan 5:42 The Current State of the Stock Market 8:22 Will Americans See Substantial Tax Cuts Because of Tariffs? 13:16 How Much Money Will America Make Through Tariffs? 14:33 Bringing Manufacturing Back to the US 20:14 Tariff Pushback From Foreign Countries22:16...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear in an interview with CNN that the era of trade imbalances is over, and under President Trump, the U.S. will no longer tolerate unfair treatment. During a discussion with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Bessent confidently explained the administration’s position on tariffs and trade policy, signaling that Trump’s economic strategy is deliberate and well thought out. When pressed on how the administration’s policies could impact the auto industry, particularly regarding vehicles made with foreign parts, Bessent was blunt. “If half the cars coming into the United States are foreign-made, that's hard to turn around overnight,...

The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday on Russia-based people and entities working to help procure weapons and commodities — including stolen Ukrainian grain — for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, the Treasury Department said.

The United States is ready to go "all in" on sanctions against Russia, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared, signaling the administration's readiness to impose even harsher measures to pressure Moscow into peace negotiations. -snip- Bessent was critical of former US President Joe Biden's sanctions approach, describing them as "egregiously weak," particularly when it came to Russian energy. He argued that the weakness in these sanctions allowed Russia's military operations to continue, largely because of concerns about rising energy prices in the US. "A major factor that has enabled the Russian war machine's continued financing was the Biden administration's egregiously...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ripped into former Vice President Mike Pence during a recent interview. While outlining President Donald J. Trump’s tariff plan, Bessent hit back at Pence’s criticisms of using the trade levies.Bessent detailed President Trump’s tariff strategy, aiming to motivate businesses to relocate manufacturing to the United States: “Mike Pence came out and said, ‘Secretary Bessent doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’ I would tell the former vice president that ‘let them eat flat screens’ is not an economic policy,’” Bessent said.“People want to have good jobs, they want to own a home, they want to have dignity,...

It may not seem so to some, but many Americans are struggling. While the S&P 500 has delivered eye-popping returns over the past two years, workers have been increasingly pinched by inflation, and job losses are becoming increasingly common. As a result, consumer confidence has plummeted, casting a big shadow over what could happen to the U.S. economy next. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a stock market veteran trained by legendary hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller, has watched the economy's give-and-takes for decades. Recently, he offered up thoughts on the U.S. economy's future that are likely to raise eyebrows. Challenger, Gray,...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that President Donald Trump’s tariffs were a “one-time price adjustment.” Bessent said, “I don’t think it’s a radical change. It’s just a much needed course adjustment. And when we go back and look at what’s happened, there’s a new paper out called the China Shock and it talks about what happened post 2004, that some of the communities recovered, but the workers never recovered and that it was much more devastating on a human level. And what we are trying to do is make free trade fair trade, because the...

Friday, during an appearance on FNC’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had turned down two earlier opportunities to sign a proposed minerals deal with the United States. According to Bessent, Zelensky was given chances in Kyiv by him once in Munich with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Friday’s dust-up with President Donald Trump was his third chance. “[I] know you had a meeting scheduled — an economic meeting scheduled a few weeks back with President Zelensky,” host Laura Ingraham said. “And tell us about his arrival and punctuality or lack thereof and seemed...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s behavior during White House visit on Friday as “unacceptable” and “one of the great diplomatic own goals in history,” underscoring the deepening rift between Washington and Kyiv. “It’s very difficult to do an economic deal with a leader who doesn’t want to do a peace deal,” Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, following a contentious Oval Office meeting that derailed a planned agreement granting the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals. The collapse of the deal marks a setback for Ukraine as it sought to deepen economic ties with...

Russian missiles struck Kyiv in the early hours of Wednesday, killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said. The barrage of ballistic missiles hit hours before Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited the Ukrainian capital, the first Cabinet-level Trump official to do so, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy aide Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram. Bessent is visiting the city to meet with Zelenskyy and discuss President Donald Trump's demand for access to $500 billion worth of rare Earth minerals as payment for U.S. military aid to Ukraine. He is also expected to talk about energy, having promised to ramp up sanctions on...

The Massachusetts man who was arrested on Monday at the US Capitol armed with Molotov cocktails and knives was transgender. Local news outlet WWLP reports the man, named in the affidavit as Ryan Michael "Reily" English, was known as Riley Jane English, a 24-year-old transgender person. WWLP states that English is "a woman who lived in South Deerfield." English had told officers he was intending to kill Scott Bessent. WWLP had initially reported on English by given name Ryan, but in their updated report they state that "This story previously identified the defendant as Ryan Michael English, the name used...