Secretary Bessent on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle

Here to react is Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. Mr. Secretary, great to see you. How serious is this economic threat posed by their agenda? And what would it mean for everyday Americans? Well, Laura, good to be with you. And I keep telling when I'm out meeting average Americans around the country, I keep saying Democrats will do it again. They opened the border, they blew out the deficit, and they blew out inflation. And they'll do it again. And they're telling you they're going to do it again. And when people tell you they're going to do something, you should believe them. Well, for the last couple of months, at least, wages have not kept up with inflation or the cost of living, I should say, although real median household income, the highest really since 1967, as we know, last year. But people have got to understand that a capitalist system benefits them. Ultimately, a lot of great people are doing really well. A lot of rich people are doing really well. How do you convince those young people that capitalism works for them, not just the AI crowd? Yeah, well, look, Laura, the median wages are up about 3.7 percent as of August for the year. Headline inflation's 3.5. Bottom quintile wages are up about 4.5, 4.7. And look, that's not our goal. Our goal is to get inflation back to target. This is a price shock. We're going to get to the other side of this. But the important thing to remember is we've had a million private sector jobs and those are going to Americans. So that's a big point that has to be made. You're getting the jobs, not foreigners. You're getting the jobs. The other thing, too, is we're down 300,000 government jobs and government jobs. You can't outperform inflation because they're indexed to inflation. We're seeing a manufacturing boom. I said it last year. Last year, we're setting the table. This year's the banquet. And we are seeing construction jobs that are turning into manufacturing jobs. We're seeing fixed asset investment all across the country. Industry is coming back to the U.S. Why is socialism more popular than among young people? What are they getting wrong about this? Free stuff always sounds good. But as I always say, tell me one place that's ever worked. Did it work in Venezuela? Did it work in Cuba? Did it work behind the Iron Curtain? Has it worked in Nicaragua? No, no, no, no. The big question out there is where are interest rates going? The president spoke about this today. Let's watch. It hurts housing, but the rates are going to come down when the oil comes down. The oil comes down as soon as we finish off with Iran, and that's going to be very quickly. We're going to have that taken care of very quickly. Iran is now in desperate condition, as you know, unfortunately for them. But they're in desperate condition. And as soon as that's finished, oil will go down lower than it was before we started. The main thing is Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Well, what we wanted was when President Trump said we should have low interest rates here. There's a there's a there's a debate about this, because isn't it a fact that high interest rates today are a sign that the economy is really hot? Clearly, Walsh over at the Fed is worried about potential inflationary effects because our economy is running pretty strongly right now. Well, our economy is running strong. But as I've said, I think the Fed should have an open mind, which is what Alan Greenspan did in the 1990s with the Internet boom and the office modernization boom. He could have squashed that with higher rates and didn't. And the 90s were a great time for productivity, for working families, for the markets. And we can have the same thing again now. We did have the Internet boom in 2000 and bust as well, didn't we? We also had the housing bust. Our doorman were, you know. Well, the housing bust was later houses. The housing bust was later. That was a regulatory failure. That was not necessarily a Fed interest rate failure. But what we have now is the possibility to do this again. The reason we had this crippling inflation under the Democrats was they created a demand shock. But then the regulatory state constricted supply. What President Trump has done, he's created a private sector demand shop with tax policy, energy policy, trade policy. But we have cut regulation. For every new regulation, we've cut 120. So we have created supply. And what are Democrats going to do with those regulations if they get back in power? Oh, look, I mean, you know, just on the financial regulations that we have cut through a morass of those and the Democrats are seething. There's never been a better time to be in business in the country. I mean, in the last 30 years, I mean, this is just one of the greatest times ever. Even with interest rates, people want them to be at 2 percent again, I realize. But it's an unbelievable time to be in business in the country. I'd ask you about getting rid of we got rid of the penny, which, you know, penny for your thoughts, but a nickel for your thoughts. Now, Congress is coming after the nickel, which costs 13 cents to make. Are we moving to a cashless society? Ultimately, that's a concern. No, I think what we can do is re reconstitute the ingredients in the nickel and get the costs down so we can have a nickel for your thoughts. So is that in the offing? Yes. All right. You've apparently made the Wall Street Journal very angry. A piece today read like a TMZ article. Apparently, you know, you have very high standards for your staff. These things that you're tough on your staff. Have you ever thrown a binder at a wall, Mr. Secretary? Absolutely not. That's it? Absolutely not. The Wall Street Journal is a shadow of its former self. And I think it's a disgrace for you to say that they're like TMZ. TMZ does a good job of what they know. Well, so that's actually not that's actually not not a not a bad point about TMZ. They do get a lot. But what's the problem here? I mean, look, I'm I'm I have I'm I'm tough. I I have high standards. Right. And I think some people don't take it well. And I understand that. But I always say, suck it up, Buttercup. You know, don't be a powder puff. This is this is the big leagues. You're in big leagues here. Yeah, well, I'm tough, but fair. And they are the article that there were to the disgruntled employees, the versus like the 28 who told them that I'm a great employer. And we have some great employees. They come to work every day, just like the American people. And they want to work hard. We have some career people, especially with what we're doing with Iran. We have people coming in the morning at six, leaving at 10. And I think with President Trump's leadership, I am trying to push the government to do what the private sector does and to do what everyday Americans do is come in, work hard, do your job and push the country forward. You know, we've only got four years, Laura. And if the Democrats win, what happens to the Trump agenda? What, in November or in 28? The next two years. Look, there's plenty we can still do. On the regulatory side, they will try to inhibit everything we do. I think I can't remember. I've got like 141 inane letters from Elizabeth Warren. Some of them shows like she doesn't even know foreign exchange. She sent another one on the bond market. So we had foreign exchange for dummies. Now we're going to have bond market for dummies for her and her staff. Well, I was going to bring a binder and throw it at you. But my staff said I couldn't do that. Oh, it's great to see you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you so much. Good to see you. Thanks for coming in. All right.