Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent strongly defended the economic impact of President Trump’s tariffs during a televised interview Sunday, directly challenging predictions of rising inflation. Bessent appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation, where host Margaret Brennan warned that tariffs would inevitably lead to higher prices or lower inventory. Bessent pushed back, calling such claims premature and unsupported by current data.
“Margaret, when we were here in March, you said there was going to be big inflation. There hasn’t been any inflation,” Bessent said. “Actually, the inflation numbers are the best in four years.” He pointed to recently released Labor Department figures showing inflation has dropped to 2.3%, the lowest rate since 2020, crediting the administration’s trade negotiations and tariff policies for the improvement.
Brennan pressed Bessent on retail price hikes from companies like Walmart and Target. In response, he highlighted that others—such as Amazon and Home Depot—have opted to absorb costs or innovate around them. He also referenced a report from the South China Morning Post, noting that 65% of the tariff burden is falling on Chinese producers, not American consumers.
“So are there five or eight areas that you have identified, as you said back in March, where American consumers will be able to have lower prices, or should be warned of higher prices?” Brennan asked.
“A lot of it’s already working its way through the system,” Bessent replied. He noted sharp declines in energy and food prices, citing a 20% year-over-year drop in gas prices and a collapse in egg prices, which he attributed to President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “So inflation has been very tame,” Bessent emphasized. “Consumer earnings were up 0.8% last month… Real earnings minus low inflation is great for the American people.”
The interview later shifted to fiscal policy, with Brennan bringing up the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that passed the House and now awaits action in the Senate. The legislation includes a suspension of the debt ceiling, which Brennan warned could become critical by mid-July. “How close of a brush with default could this be?” she asked.
Bessent reassured viewers, stating emphatically, “The United States of America is never going to default. That is never going to happen.” He compared the situation to being “on the warning track” but firmly rejected any scenario involving a crash into the financial wall. “We don’t give out the X date because we use that to move the bill forward,” he added.
At the heart of the exchange is a broader conflict between economic reality and media narratives. While some outlets continue to sound the alarm over tariffs and fiscal deadlines, real-world data tells a different story—one of low inflation, rising wages, and targeted trade policies aimed at benefiting American producers and consumers. Despite repeated warnings of economic fallout, the facts on the ground increasingly support the administration’s position: that bold economic policy can yield measurable benefits without triggering the catastrophes so often forecasted by the press.
