Out Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is having a hard time defending President Donald Trump’s chaotic economic policies. And now he just threatened a journalist for questioning Trump’s management of the economy.
Bessent appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press this past Sunday, where host Kristen Welker asked him about the possibility of a recession after years of a strong economy under President Joe Biden. She pointed out the drop in the stock market and the loss of consumer confidence in the past several weeks—as the administration rolls out tariffs with an unknown goal or end date—while Bessent smiled and said he wasn’t worried.
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“I say that one week does not the market make,” Bessent stammered with a fake grin stretched across his face, trying to sound confident when Welker asked him about Americans losing their retirement savings.
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Welker then asked him if he could “guarantee the American people here and now that there will be no recession on President Trump’s watch.”
“Well, Kristen, you- you- you know that there are no guarantees,” Bessent said, still smiling bizarrely. “Like, who would have predicted COVID?”
Perhaps his answer didn’t sit well with him, and that’s why he ran to Fox Business two days later. Fox host Maria Bartiromo brought up Welker’s question and said, “You wanted to address that this morning,” suggesting Bessent or one of his representatives specifically asked Bartiromo before the interview to let him have another shot at answering Welker’s question.
Bessent, having had two days to think of a response to reassure the American people about Trump’s economic policies, decided to just threaten Welker.
“Yeah, well- well, look, it was- it was a silly- it was a silly question, ‘Can you guarantee there’s not gonna be a recession?’” Bessent said, visibly annoyed. “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee that the journalist who asked me the question that her news program’s gonna be on in a year.”
He then said that the economy in 2025 is doing “better than the media is reporting,” noticeably avoiding saying that it’s doing better than it was in 2024.
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