Sunday Replay: Sec. Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary

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SPEAKER_3 (1:29)

The Guy Benson Show Sunday Replay. The week's most interesting interviews with senators, commentators, and newsmakers. Giving you a replay just in case you missed it. The Guy Benson Show.

Guy Benson (1:43)

Joining us now is the Treasury Secretary under the Trump administration, Scott Bessent. Mr. Secretary, welcome to the show.

Scott Bessent (1:50)

Good to be with you, Guy.

Guy Benson (1:51)

I want to start with just a big picture assessment of the US economy, because there are a lot of cross currents. We got a really good GDP growth number a few days ago. The jobs numbers month to month seem to bounce around from optimistic to less so.

And of course, the inflation numbers continue to be stubborn and problematic for a lot of Americans feeling that pinch. As you look at all of the data points, what are you seeing?

Scott Bessent (2:15)

Sure. And look, the GDP numbers are quite strong. And I would take a little bit of exception with the jobs numbers is because of the deportation, some voluntary, some not voluntary, the number of jobs that the US needs to create is much lower. And I would say we have created 1 million private sector jobs since this Trump administration began.

Government has downsized by more than 300,000 jobs, and all those jobs are going to Americans.

On, so there's a lot of momentum. We are seeing a manufacturing renaissance. We are seeing construction jobs, manufacturing jobs. And we have a temporary energy supply shock. We will get to the other side of that. What's important for me is for someone who is in the markets for 40 years, taught economic history, is that the inflation we're seeing now, substantial part of that is headline inflation, core inflation, has been down for three out of the past four months. And in fact, we are seeing food prices have come down. We're below the Fed's target of 1.8%.

We've seen the biggest decreases in history in prescription drugs, down four and a half, rents are down. So my message would be, we're going to get to the other side of this Iran conflict. The world will be safer and we will have much more energy on the other side.

Guy Benson (3:51)

Couple follow-ups there. You said these are temporary price shocks. Granted, I think that's true. I'm broadly supportive of the administration's policy against Iran. But obviously, a lot of voters are feeling that urgently and they're frustrated and they hear a term like temporary and they say, okay, what exactly does that mean?

Is this something that you can tell them? Is there a sense of relief that's right around the corner? Do we have to see what the president's going to perhaps in his commander-in-chief capacity order after the midterms? There's been some reporting about that. What do you make of that?

Scott Bessent (4:24)

Well, there are a couple of ways to address the affordability. And that can be one of two ways. It's under Biden, we hit a very high price level.

And under President Trump, we have seen real wage gains, not as much as we wanted to see because of the energy price shock. And look, I can't give up President Trump's strategy.

Guy Benson (4:50)

No, of course.

Scott Bessent (4:52)

But we have been isolating the Iran regime economically for the first time since they began pumping oil.

I believe back in the 40s, they have no energy on the water. So look, I think we are going to get to a situation either where the IRGC, the members of the regime with guns, turn on each other, or they will come and want to make a good deal.