Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the public can take “great comfort” in this week’s historic $6 trillion stock market crash after President Donald Trump announced sweeping 10 percent universal tariffs.
”Everything is working very smoothly so the American people, they can take great comfort in that," Bessent said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “In terms of the market reaction, look, we get these short-term market reactions from time to time.”
Bessent added that the market—which suffered its worst week since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic—simply reflected people underestimating Trump and his vision.
ADVERTISEMENT
“As the treasury secretary, what I’ve been very impressed with is the market infrastructure, that we had record volume on Friday,“ Bessent told Meet the Press, referring to the volume of traders selling off stocks in panic.
Economists from banks such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan have projected a recession for this year because of the tariffs. Trump also said on Saturday that Americans would have to “hang tough” on tariffs.
“How long are Americans going to have to ‘hang tough?‘” NBC moderator Kristen Welker asked.
Bessent told Welker that recession fears are overblown and that the U.S. is now on a path toward financial prosperity after years of struggling under former President Joe Biden.
“I reject that the assumption—there doesn’t have to be a recession,“ Bessent said. ”What we are looking at is building the long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity that I think the previous administration had put us on a course toward financial calamity."
Bessent nonetheless admitted that there would be an “adjustment process” as the ramifications fo Trump’s tariffs played out—and that the administration would remain committed regardless of the short-term financial impacts.
“This is an adjustment process,” he said. “What we saw with President Reagan when he brought down, you know, the Great Inflation, and we got past the Carter malaise, that there was some choppiness at that time. But he held the course. And, you know, we’re going to hold the course.”
The Treasury secretary also tried to dispel the notion that tariffs cause price increases—despite writing to investors last year that “Tariffs are inflationary and would strengthen the dollar. Hardly a good starting point for a US industrial renaissance,” he wrote.
“No, what I have said are tariffs are a one-time price adjustment,” Bessent said. “So, there’s a big difference between insipid, endemic inflation within the system and consistent price level increases and a one-time adjustment.”
Bessent would not say whether Trump was open to negotiating the levies, saying they are “not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.” Trump is “going to have to see what the countries offer and whether it’s believable,” he said.
“I think that we are going to have to see the path forward,” he said. “Because, you know, after 20, 30, 40, 50 years of bad behavior, you can’t just wipe the slate clean.”
