NEW YORK, New York – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took the stage at the storied Ziegfeld Ballroom, recently repurposed from its original cinematographic roots into an event space stacked to the gunwales with art deco features and, this morning, bespoke suits and club ties.
Bessent’s on-the-record address to the 790th meeting of the Economic Club of New York, an historically nonpartisan though establishment members’ club, was delivered against the backdrop of global tariff spats and an economy that increasingly feels like it needs a shot in the arm—whether that takes the form of tax cuts for the middle class or otherwise.
Bessent’s opening remarks felt explicitly designed to reassure markets and those in the room.
“It is a privilege to be here both as a member of the Trump Administration and of the Economic Club of New York,” the Treasury Secretary began, reminding the audience of his many years in the same seats they occupied. For non-economics heads (such as yours truly), it was deeply in the weeds, as he laid out the “three pillars of the America First” economic agenda:
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Reversing Financial Regulatory Overreach;
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The International Economic System;
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A 2025 Sanctions Regimen.
OVERREACH.
“At Treasury, we will lead a comprehensive and assertive effort across the Administration to empower our nation’s banks to finance the economy’s pursuit of job growth, wealth creation, and prosperity for all Americans,” he began, adding: “The 4,000 community banks operating nationwide in every county in America are one of the most important reasons for U.S. economic outperformance in recent decades.”
INTERNATIONAL.
“The United States also provides reserve assets, serves as a consumer of first and last resort, and absorbs excess supply in the face of insufficient demand in other country’s domestic models. This system is not sustainable,” said Bessent, adding: “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream. The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security,” to some wilful misunderstanding by online Democrats, who confuse the word “cheap” with “affordability,” rather than having a lack of quality – a dig at China.
SANCTIONS.
Bessent gleefully tore into the Biden government numerous times in his remarks, especially on the subject of Russia, Iran, and Ukraine.
“A major factor that has enabled the Russian war machine’s continued financing was the Biden Administration’s egregiously weak sanctions on Russian energy, stemming from worries about upward pressure on US energy prices. In a craven political move, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan raised the Russian sanctions on the way out the door in January. What was the point of substantial US military and financial support over the past three years without commensurate and fulsome sanctions support?”
CHINA.
Bessent rightfully dismissed the decades-long and decades-old free trader shibboleth that asserts maintaining unfettered trade with Communist China will make the Asian power more democratic, free, and a less hostile nation. Indeed, the precise opposite has happened. China is today even less democratic and more authoritarian. Its regional ambitions—especially the drive to reacquire Taiwan—have intensified as a result of the West’s enrichment of her.
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET SCORES.
One of the most important points raised by Sec. Bessent came during the question-and-answer segment with Larry Kudlow. He took aim at Washington’s overreliance on the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) method of fiscal scoring, which he contends does not adequately take into account economic realities.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary notes that the CBO will score a 1.8 percent baseline GDP growth per year in a 10-year window, whether you raise or cut taxes, calling the analysis “reductionist.”
MIBA!
Tellingly, Bessent spent a significant part of his speech addressing the Islamic Republic of Iran, which many in Washington, D.C., are starting to assert was somehow involved in one or both of the Trump assassination attempts during the campaign.
“We will close off Iran’s access to the international financial system by targeting regional parties that facilitate the transfer of its revenues. Treasury is prepared to engage in frank discussions with those countries. We are going to close Iran’s oil sector and drone manufacturing capabilities,” Bessent said. The National Pulse has previously reported that President Trump’s enactment of the first maximum-pressure sanctions regime against Iran during his first term crippled the Iranian economy.
“We have pre-determined benchmarks and timelines,” Bessent explained. “Making Iran Broke Again will mark the beginning of our updated sanctions policy. Watch this space. If economic security is national security, the regime in Tehran will have neither.”
The message especially resonated with the more Republican parts of the audience, who could be heard muttering, “MIBA!” in response.
COMPETENCE.
Bessent’s speech was clearly designed to flex his competence and reassure the economic world’s movers and shakers that he is a steady hand, “one of them,” but certainly acting at the direction of the President at almost every juncture. If a “healthy balance” between MAGA’s more bludgeonsome instincts and economic surety was the goal, Bessent understood the assignment.
Will Upton contributed to this report
