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Scott Bessent

Treasury Secretary, US Treasury

Search every verified Scott Bessent interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been a prominent public voice on the U.S. economy, trade, and sanctions policy in recent months. In interviews and public appearances, he has described the U.S. economy as strong and accelerating, citing rising wages, manufacturing and construction growth, and what he characterized as a productivity boom driven by deregulation and tax cuts. He attributed recent inflation partly to an energy supply shock related to the Iran conflict, and expressed confidence that core inflation was near the Federal Reserve's target. Bessent also discussed U.S.-China relations, saying he met with Chinese officials for extended talks on trade and artificial intelligence, and announced an extension of an economic detente agreement and the creation of a U.S.-China AI dialogue. Regarding Iran, Bessent described an administration effort he called "Operation Economic Outcast," involving sanctions, bank closures, and restrictions on Iranian airlines and maritime activity. He stated that Iran was "on its knees" and isolated from the global financial system, and predicted the Strait of Hormuz would become less strategically important within two years due to new pipeline capacity. He also said the administration would not provide a "liability shield" to AI companies seeking protection from potential risks, and testified before Congress on topics including the federal debt, financial regulation, and the international role of the U.S. dollar.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“Larry, I think this is the great thing about what we saw with the visit by Xi Jinping to the White House. We have a president now who the Chinese respect. And the leaders' relationship drives the whole agenda. So when I am negotiating with my Chinese counterparts whenever I hit a dead end with them, I say, look, you are not implementing our leaders' consensus, and that normally gets things moving. So it starts at the”

“Larry, what we're seeing now is the acceleration phase for all the hard work. As you know, we inherited a mess from the Biden administration. We've righted the ship. Many times I say I feel like an emergency room doctor treating a patient that's been backed over by a truck. And we've got the American people back on their feet, and now I think we are in the acceleration phase of this economy. The working families tax ”

“Well, Larry, this all started, if you recall, spring of 2025. You interviewed me at the Economic Club of New York and I said that we were going to begin exerting maximum pressure on the Iranian regime. The reality was at 800,000. Now it's practically worthless. It's 2.4 million. So, it's collapsed and operation economic outcast is something that the world has never seen in terms of isolating a rogue regime. But keep ”

“Larry, what we're seeing now is the acceleration phase for all the hard work. As you know, we inherited a mess from the Biden administration. We righted the ship. Many times I say I feel like an emergency room doctor treating a patient that's been backed over by a truck. And they, you know, we've got the American people back on their feet. And now, I think we are in the acceleration phase of this economy. The working”

“Bret, there are two kinds of inflation. There is headline inflation and core inflation. What we've seen is that we do have a supply shock here with the Iran conflict. We're going to get to the other side of this. On the other side what we've seen is this does not move through to core inflation. Core inflation has moved down. Lowest in five years. That tells me once we're on the other side of the energy supply shock, ”

“They are a cornered animal, and the world has never seen anything like this. And it's because of sequencing. So we had six weeks of kinetic activity. We have the blockade, and now we have an effort never seen before, in terms of constricting and cutting off the financial oxygen to them, and I don't know whether it's going to be a week, a month, or two months, but they are going to yell uncle, and the goal here can be”

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