Sec. of Treasury Scott Bessent - Live From the White House
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This is what happens when the fourth turning meets fifth generation warfare. A commentator, international social media sensation, and former Navy intelligence veteran. This is Human Events with your host, Jack Posobiec. Christ is king! All right, we're very excited to be here on Human Events Daily, sitting down with Secretary Scott Besson, the Secretary of the Treasury. Scott, how are you? Great to see you.

Well, you know, I have to say that the last time you and I were together, we spent about 20 hours on a train together to go and see President Zelensky over in Ukraine. Although I trust your commute today was a little better than that. It was a little better than the night train to Kiev. The night train to Kiev. And there wasn't bombing four hours before I

There was no bombing and the drones and all the rest of that. I said, you know, guys, did you call ahead? Did you let them know that the secretary was coming? You know, apparently it was so secret that even they didn't know. Yeah, exactly. So, but well, I think just the fact that they bombed before we came in was proof the Russians didn't like the deal that I was going to deliver to President Zelenskyy.

And so that deal obviously has taken on a life of its own after that. Can you tell us what the current status of it is, if any, as it stands right now? Sure. So after President Zelensky's performance in the Oval, he was supposed to come in a few Fridays ago, have a press conference, have lunch with the president and his team, our two teams were going to have, and then we were going to sign a deal, a four-page deal that was a framework.

There's obviously been some backing and filling between the U.S. relationship and the Ukraine relationship since then. I think we're on a good path now. So what we at Treasury did during that time was we have gone straight to the full deal. So we have now presented the Ukrainians with the

the full nearly 100 page document that will be the binding agreement for this deal. We have a technical call tomorrow. I would expect that maybe Ukraine finance minister will be here next week and hopefully we can get this thing shot.

Now, are the talks that are happening in Riyadh right now, is this a part of that or is this a separate channel? Well, it's always been part of Trump's global strategy. And as we talked about when we were going into Kyiv and when we were in Kyiv, the original idea, and I think we can put that back on track, was to show no daylight between the United States and Ukrainians.

So by signing this deal, Ukrainians will close that daylight. The U.S. will have an economic interest in the success of the country. The American people will know that there is payback for all the resources we put in. And if Ukrainians succeed, we succeed. So it really ties us together. It is not a security guarantee, but it is an economic security pact.

And what's interesting is I've noticed that some of the first things that we're seeing out of the talks in Riyadh are also predicated on economics regarding the Black Sea and transit to and from the Black Sea. Obviously, for the mineral deal, the grain deal certainly traveled through the Black Sea unhindered or not being part of wartime operations being targeted by either side would be a huge concept of that. Yeah.

Look, President Trump has also directed the negotiating team. I think one of the first steps was for both sides to stop firing at the energy resources, especially the nuclear reactors in Kyiv. The Ukrainians, I think, had damaged some refineries near Moscow. So I think taking down the temperature on infrastructure and shipping transit is an excellent first step.

Absolutely. So talking about global trade, I've got to ask President Trump. He keeps telling us that April 2nd, Liberation Day is coming. Of course, we saw the news yesterday regarding the press conference on on auto the tariffs.

Let people know what the overall strategy is from President Trump and from the administration. We keep hearing the media tell us, oh, the tariffs are a tax, the tariffs are a tax, the tariffs are a tax. But you've been saying something over and over, which I think people I understand. I think what you mean when you say this regarding that, that the American dream is not cheap overseas products.

What does that mean and how do the tariffs play a role there? Well, look, we have an affordability crisis. It was driven by the last administration, Jack, as you know. We talked about it during our 10-hour, 20-hour sojourn. It's an outreach way. Worst commute I ever had. And that...

Part of what a centerpiece of President Trump's campaign is the making life affordable and prosperous for working Americans. And part of that is bringing back good jobs to the U.S. which have been shipped out. So we want to fix affordability, but we want to fix affordability

that we want to have good jobs we want to bring down the cost of owning a home we want to bring down the cost of buying a car we want to bring down the cost of either trade or college education that this isn't a throw the working people cheap baubles and they will stay in their place so um

We are trying to bring back manufacturing to the US and concurrently we are doing everything we can to bring down interest rates, to bring down energy prices through US energy dominance. These are all things that President Trump promised on the campaign trail and with the tax bill

President Trump, we are going to get through no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime. We're going to make auto interest payments again if you buy an American, a deductible again if you buy an American car. All of that will help the bottom 50% of wage earners and they deserve a break from what's happened to them the past four years and President Trump and this administration are committed to that.

Well, and this has been something that President Trump, if you go back to, I think if I have my math right on this, he was 35 years old giving interviews. He's talking about trade and he's talking about these massive trade imbalances that we have. He looks at the balance sheet, says it's completely off in the wrong direction. And from my understanding, it's it's.

People say, well, it's not just tariffs, it's these barriers to entry that we have. And I worked at the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai for a brief moment, and I could see it's so hard to sell anything into China. They'll find some reason to block it. It doesn't matter. Oh, I heard you have bird flu over there, so you can't sell any poultry or, you know, mad cow disease was a big one. So, you know, you can't sell any of the beef, etc., etc., etc.

And of course, this was done to prevent access of U.S. goods into the market. So it's so what that helps to exacerbate these massive trade imbalances and then tariffs potentially can be a way to actually rebalance it back. So if you were in China, you know better than anybody all the barriers that China puts up, whether it's intellectual property, whether it's cheap labor, suppressing wages, it's the

central government led technology. It's artificially low loans. So we are coming up with a score for everyone for each of the, we're starting with the biggest trading partners. So it'll be tariffs, it'll be non-tariff trading barriers, it will be currency manipulation, it will be labor suppression,

and the subsidized loans. And we are going to push back against that because if you take China, which is the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world, their model is cheap exports. And back to your original question, I've been saying let them eat flat screens is not an economic policy.

People don't want flat screens. They want dignity in their communities. They want good jobs. They want their kids to do better than they have. There's a recent paper out that talked about the China shock in 2004. And it talked about the effect on the workers was much worse than anyone had thought.

that after these jobs disappeared, people lost hope, they lost income, they lost their communities, and they lost their way of life. And we're gonna bring that back. - Well, and this is where you see, and people have seen the deaths of despair that are going up throughout the middle America. This is what President Trump campaigned on, and it's been something that he's been talking about, an issue that he's been talking about.

for decades because you don't have to drive very far to find devastated communities, even right here in the national capital region. And so much of this is economic. So, yeah, you know, and it's for folks who don't get the reference. The joke is that you always hear this from the sort of more libertarian Wall Street Journal minded economists that, oh, well, flat screen TVs have come down. People can buy a bigger TV. It's just this canard over and over. Sure, you can have a cheap flat screen TV, but your town is flooded with fentanyl.

and migrants and crime and it's completely depressed. But of course you have a nice television. Right. Or you don't own your home. You don't own your home, the bank owns or BlackRock owns. Exactly. You have three flat screens in a home you don't own. And that whole libertarian branch of the party, like

They kind of don't care about income distribution. They got on their net jets and went to Nantucket, said everything was fine, and they don't understand why people are mad. I'm from a small town in South Carolina, and I watch very good manufacturing jobs. I watch the whole textile industry and a way of life disappear. And South Carolina's rebooted, but it hasn't worked for everybody.

No, it hasn't. And now, before I let you leave, I do have to ask, though, because you mentioned about the lower income wage earners. We know tax season is coming up, right? You know, you are the head of the Treasury Department. Now, is it true? So if you make less than $150,000, we don't have to pay taxes, right? That's what I heard. Well, you heard wrong, Jack. Everybody needs to get...

their tax returns and get their filing. 70% of people get refunds. Right. You want to get your refund, but everything is the same as it was. We are negotiating the tax deal. It will be for your taxes next year, but you should pay your taxes as expected. And then next year you will be able to likely pay no tax on tips and the president's going to meet his promises. But

the file early and get it done now. Okay, but we're good though. No audits for Human Events Daily, right? We're going to be okay, right? Well, you know, the good thing about what I want to do with the IRS is I want to make it fair for everybody, the left, right, center,

and it's going to be right down the middle. Audit should be either flagged by something you've done on your return or should be random. It shouldn't be because of your political views. That's going to stop. It's as simple as that. Ladies and gentlemen, Secretary Scott Bassett here at Human Events Daily. Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary. Thanks, Zach.

I want to say thank you, of course, to the White House, to the press team for bringing us in today, for arranging these interviews, giving us a behind-the-scenes, inside look to what's going on inside the White House. This is a testament to how the Trump administration is now reaching out to new media, to new audiences. And it's not about just us here about Human Events Daily.

but everyone that we go out and touch as we share this information and tell the truth about what's going on behind the scenes of the White House here for you in the confines of the incredible People's House of the White House, really making it the People's House once more. Ladies and gentlemen, as always, you have my permission to lay ashore.