During an interview with Tucker Carlson, Secretary Bessent thoroughly explained the tariffs. He began by saying that the Coasts did well over the past thirty years, but the middle of the country has seen their quality of life and life expectancy decline.
He said President Trump cares.
The Treasury Secretary said our trading partners and some of our allies have not been good partners. He added, If tariffs are so bad, why do they have them?
We are going to “re-industrialize,” Bessent said. We have “gone to a financialized economy.” The US has “stopped making things, especially things that are relevant for national security.”
Sec. Bessent thinks one of the good things that came out of COVID was that it became a beta test of what a “kinetic war with an adversary could look like.” It turns out our supply chains were not secure. We don’t make our own medicines, our own semiconductors, we don’t make our own ships anymore.
COVID-19 woke the world up to supply chain problems – economic security is national security.
Bessent explained the market decline and its role in economic health, and much more:
The market goes up and down. Warren Buffett has a saying: in the short run, the market’s a voting machine. In the long run, it’s a weighing machine. And in the long run, it is going to weigh, do we have good policies? In my former business, I commented on market structure and market ups and downs a lot. I’m trying not to do that. …
But for everyone who thinks that these market declines are all based on the president’s economic policies, I can tell you that this market decline started with the Chinese AI announcement of DeepSeek. So the so-called Mag-7, the tech stocks, had been doing very well for about 18 months, led the market. And I think that there was kind of a real dose of reality in what was going on in AI. I think the U.S. is gonna remain the leader in AI, but the AI-related stocks have started coming down. So, like, if I were to analyze in my old hat, and this is the only time I’m going to talk about it. My old hat, what’s happening with the market? I’d say it’s more a MAG 7 problem and not a MAGA problem.
The Secretary explained the China tariffs, talked about a better future for Ukraine, and suggested people listen to him and Donald Trump about their dollar policy.
Here’s more. He handled Kaitlin Collins well. Secretary Bessent is very intelligent, and has given this a great deal of thought.
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