Scott Bessent

Treasury Secretary, US Treasury

News 13's Charles Perez has a 1-on-1 interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

📅 Aug 31, 2026 WLOS News 13 10 MIN 42307 VIEWS 38 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS

News 13's Charles Perez has a 1-on-1 interview with United States Treasury Secretary Bessent, as Asheville hosts world financial leaders for the G20 meetings at the Grove Park Inn. _______________ Follow WLOS on social media: WLOS ABC 13 News on Facebook: / news13 WLOS ABC 13 News on X: https://x.com/WLOS_13 WLOS ABC 13 News on Instagram: / wlos_13 Subscribe to WLOS on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ABC13Cha... For all of the day’s top local and national news, visit www.wlos.com Stream our newscasts LIVE: www.wlos.com/watch Have a news tip? Send it directly to us: Email...

What Scott Bessent said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed the G20 agenda, emphasizing American leadership, growth, deregulation, technology, and energy security. He highlighted the deal for 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil, framing it as fostering Western Hemisphere energy security and following support for Argentina's Milei government. On the economy, Bessent said real weekly earnings in Western North Carolina have recovered under President Trump, with $5 billion in federal aid post-Helene, and predicted energy prices will fall after the Iran conflict. He cited 'economic D-Day' with Treasury, State, and DOD spreading globally to clamp down on Iran, and tied the doubled maximum bond buyback to elevated borrowing from AI buildout, with productivity gains expected in six months. Bessent praised AI's impact on small business formation, mentioned 300+ media outlets in Asheville, and contrasted current real wage increases with 21.5% inflation under Biden.

Key takeaways

Bessent said the US has a deal for control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil, boosting energy security.
Bessent expects energy prices to come down after the Iran conflict and sees real wage increases continuing.
Bessent confirmed $5 billion in federal aid has come into Western North Carolina post-Helene under this administration.
Bessent described pressuring Iran as an 'endgame' with Treasury, State, and DOD coordinating globally.

Numbers and commitments

Figure	What it refers to	Type	At
65 billion barrels	Venezuelan oil reserves under deal	metric	1:36
$5 billion	Federal aid to Western North Carolina post-Helene	metric	4:41
300	Media outlets at G20 in Asheville	metric	4:13
21.5%	Inflation over past five years	metric	9:03
10 days	Period of Trump's calls to global leaders	timeline	5:44

Chapters

0:00G20 objectives
1:19Venezuelan oil deal
2:54Asheville economic impact
4:28Western NC recovery
5:34Iran pressure
6:27Inflation and AI
7:53Helene rebuilding
9:03Treasury role and message

Questions asked in this interview

0:00G20, what are the objectives of this gathering right now?
1:19Is this an example of the kind of fostering global growth you're talking about?
2:54If you grow the large economy, does it grow this economy, too?
5:34Well, on Iran economic D-Day, is this gathering an opportunity to put some pressure on those nations that might be offering a lifeline to Iran?
6:27Well, on that note related, let me ask you: when President Trump was asked about your action to double the maximum bond buyback, he suggested it was tied to the war in the Strait of Hormuz. Is that an accurate connection?
7:53Swannanoa was hit pretty hard, not like Bat Cave that you mentioned, and he promised the people there that he would help them build and to build better than what had been there before. Is that happening?
8:36What's your role as Secretary of the Treasury?
10:04What's your message to folks out there who want a quicker fix?
10:18And in a wrap here, what is your final message on Western North Carolina for folks who maybe don't know the area?

Interviewer 0:00 ↗

G20, what are the objectives of this gathering right now?

Scott Bessent 0:06 ↗

So, it's a gathering of 20 of the biggest economies in the world and some of the multilateral development banks and some other organizations. We want to emphasize a couple of things: American leadership and a growth agenda. We want to show that the US has the most substantial growth and the strongest growth amongst our peers, and we want to encourage the other countries to take the measures, whether it's deregulation, embracing technology, or embracing energy security, that will bring them along. We also have several work streams that we're doing. We're going to talk about the financial system, big banks and small banks. We are going to talk about global imbalances. We're going to talk about sovereign debt, especially in a lot of the emerging markets that are struggling.

Interviewer 1:02 ↗

That's a lot on your agenda.

Scott Bessent 1:04 ↗

We come to work. I know the dueling pianos here at the Grove Park Inn are famous in the evening, so everyone can have a break at 10:00 with the dueling pianos.

Interviewer 1:19 ↗

That's a good call. That's a good call. Let me ask you, on Friday, the president announced a deal for control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil in partnership with a private Venezuelan company. Is this an example of the kind of fostering global growth you're talking about?

Scott Bessent 1:36 ↗

Well, look, I think that this is something else. This is more fostering the Western Hemisphere, which we have seen under President Trump. I think it started with this administration's support of the Milei government in Argentina, and then Venezuela is finding its way out of a very dark period of time. We are seeing many of the far-left governments—now the people are voting in more market-based governments, whether it's Chile has come back, Colombia, Ecuador. So we're seeing a big move, and this is energy security for Americans, 65 billion barrels.

Interviewer 2:25 ↗

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Like energy resilience, which is one of your goals.

Scott Bessent 2:29 ↗

Yes.

Interviewer 2:30 ↗

For us, but also Venezuela.

Scott Bessent 2:32 ↗

Yeah, look, I mean, Venezuela is a rich country, and we should look back to the pre-Chávez days. It was the place to be in the '60s, '70s, even '80s and '90s. And then you see what bad leadership does.

Interviewer 2:54 ↗

Yeah, absolutely. I did interview Hugo Chávez back in the day, so, yeah, that's a whole other story. Let me ask you, your focus is growth globally and locally. How will this affect local business, manufacturing, construction? If you grow the large economy, does it grow this economy, too?

Scott Bessent 3:12 ↗

Well, look, the president's made it clear that he wants to bring back precision manufacturing to the US. And I think the event here—there's a portion that goes directly into the economy via spending, but there's a lot of, as you all know better than anyone, earned media and the exposure on the global stage for Asheville. I grew up coming to this area, still have a house about an hour away, and I think that this is one of the great underreported gems of the US. Americans know about it, but the international stage doesn't. If you think back, Miami was a nice place to go to the beach, but when they got Art Basel, then it leapt to the international stage. So I think that we could see a lot of people who, if you're sitting in Germany or Japan, you're going to want to come to Asheville.

Interviewer 4:10 ↗

Right, because a lot of eyeballs are going to be on Western North Carolina.

Scott Bessent 4:13 ↗

Yeah, we've got more than 300 media outlets here.

Interviewer 4:17 ↗

Right. And for your comparison to Miami, sometimes when that happens, it doesn't go back.

Scott Bessent 4:22 ↗

Yep.

Interviewer 4:22 ↗

Yeah. So there is an opportunity to affect local business, construction, wealth in this area.

Scott Bessent 4:28 ↗

Oh, yeah.

Interviewer 4:28 ↗

Let me ask you, because I was going to ask you why Asheville. On that note, real weekly earnings in Western North Carolina have fallen since Helene hit. You're suggesting that will help turn that around.

19 more exchanges in this transcript

Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX

APA

Bessent, S. (2026, August 31). News 13's Charles Perez has a 1-on-1 interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent [Interview transcript]. WLOS News 13. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1315402/

MLA

Scott Bessent. "News 13's Charles Perez has a 1-on-1 interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent." WLOS News 13, 31 Aug. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1315402/.

BibTeX

@misc{bessent2026_1315402,
  author       = {Scott Bessent},
  title        = {News 13's Charles Perez has a 1-on-1 interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, WLOS News 13. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {aug},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1315402/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}

▶

Key Quotes (2)

“Well, I I think that it it's all, you know, it's all interrelated and that I I think that inflation is artificially elevated now. And, you know, we're going to get on the other side of this. We're also um borrowing is elevated right now as we see the AI buildout and I would guess in six months we're going to be uh seeing the benefits of AI and substantial productivity growth. Yeah, it's making a e”

▶ 6:45 POLICY

“Yeah, it's it's it's multi multiaceted, but one one of the things that I like to do is to uh talk to the American people and tell them under the Biden administration, it was uh it's a vibe session. You don't know how good you have it. And look, I I I I know that the past the uh 5 years were tough. You know, there's 21.5% inflation and that affordability came to be a problem. That's a price level p”

▶ 9:03 CONTROVERSIAL POLICY

Mentioned in this interview

Milei: Bessent praised support for Milei government in Argentina

Chávez: Bessent referenced pre-Chávez Venezuela as a rich country

Silicon Valley: Bessent cited Silicon Valley feedback on AI's impact on small business

FEMA: Bessent said Helene rebuilding falls under FEMA and DHS

DHS: Bessent said Helene rebuilding falls under FEMA and DHS

Biden administration: Bessent contrasted with Biden era's 'vibe session' and inflation

Art Basel: Bessent compared Asheville's potential to Miami's leap with Art Basel

Earlier, on the same topics

“Congress, let's look at a little bit of history. And this is MIT's numbers, not my numbers. MIT believes that almost 50% of the inflation we saw during the Biden era was due to the size of the deficits. So, first of all, for the American people, not only does it affect the interest rates, our abilit”

inflation · Jun 04, 2026 at 42:23 →

“We've seen the economy was doing fantastic in February. The president rightly believed that Iran was an existential danger and had to be dealt with. It was a 90-day intervention there and you know but the economy our economy did the best in the world in terms of any major economy that pushed back on”

inflation · Jun 27, 2026 at 14:13 →

“For the past four quarters, the US economy has grown at 2.6%. And that is despite the democratic government shutdown in the fall. And that is despite the Iranian conflict which will make our country safer and what we are doing on the household side as I said the almost 50% of the tax returns we rece”

Jun 03, 2026 at 27:52 →

“I think we have the makings of one of the strongest economies in history. We've had 2.6% growth. Core inflation had dropped. Food inflation since President Trump began is 2.5%. I think we have all the makings for a very strong economy. I think that we have temporary elevated prices that will come ba”

inflation · Jun 03, 2026 at 2:08:10 →

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About Scott Bessent

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.

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