WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent explained in great detail about President Donald Trump's vision of tariffs and how the president uses the policy measure to encourage and encourage manufacturing operations to the United States from elsewhere around the world.
Bescent sat at Breitbart News on Thursday evening at the Treasury Department of Salmon Chase Suite for an exclusive camera-on-camera interview for about 40 minutes. In this third article from the interview, Trump's financial guru laid out a way that there is definitely a way to move the president, despite foreign governments and various financial elites denounce Trump's tariff actions like wild and crazy.
“You can call it crazy, I call it a plan,” Bescent said. “In the case of President Trump, it's not a straight line. But look, he harassed and harassed our European allies and everyone said, 'Oh, you can't be mean to them,' but when you say to your relatives, it's like harsh love with your family. But he's covered and harassed the Europeans, for the first time in 25 years, Germans are breaking Piggy Bank, they're removing debt breaks, and they're going to make a substantial distribution of military spending. Five presidents couldn't let them do that, and President Trump did it. The same thing happens here too. Tariffs, which are American workers, began with this Chinese shock in 2004 when Americans didn't see actual wage increases. They have seen good paying manufacturing jobs disappear. They have seen their community be attacked. ”
Bescent also responded directly to former Vice President Mike Pence. He attacked him after a speech from the New York Economic Club and said that cheap goods were not an American dream. Pence is well-known for using tariffs to achieve American economic goals.
“I took some Flaks at the Economics Club last week [of New York] I said that cheap products are not an American dream,” Bescent said. “Mike Pence came out and said, 'Commander Bescent didn't know what he was talking about.' I tell my former vice president, “Giving them a flat screen isn't economic policy.” People want to do a good job, they want to own a home, they want to have dignity, they want to enjoy their work, they want their community to be healthy, and we want affordable, but we bring in a lot of boring and trinkets to satisfy the evacuated people, not the American dream. ”
Several major companies have begun efforts to expand their operations in the US or move to the US. They are being moved by Japanese beer makers Asakusa, JSW Steel, Honda, Hyundai, LG, Samsung and Stellantis, including a massive new investment announced last week by GE Aerospace. Asked about these moves by major companies to invest in the US during the Trump era, Bescent told Breitbart News that it is clear that businesses operating in the US can avoid worrying about tariffs.
“It's a slow, merciless process, and there's no tariffs on businesses moving around manufacturing here, that's part of it,” Bescent said. “There's the rebalance needed here. China is the most unbalanced or unbalanced economy in world history. They exported deflation, and manufacturing policies destroyed our workers with dy tymen, destroying our communities. By setting up a tariff wall, manufacturers can either regain production here or collect a significant amount of revenue from the US government. I think the early phase one tariffs from Trump 1.0 are collecting $30 billion or $40 billion a year.
Trump last week's true social social social society argued that the United States does not have free trade anywhere in the world. “There is no free trade in the United States,” the president said. “We have a 'silly deal'. The whole world is tearing us apart!!!”
Asked about the comment, Bescent said what Trump wants is “fair trade” and doesn't exist now, as to how businesses will be encouraged to return to the US.
“The president wants fair trade,” Bescent said. “We can do that through tariffs, but in order to truly succeed, we want to go back to our previous questions about manufacturing that will return to the US. The Tax Cuts and Employment Act of 2017 wants to give manufacturers certainty and summon them. We want to reduce the burden of regulations. And we want to have cheap energy. So deregulation, cheap energy, and low taxes should really set the table for the manufacturing renaissance. It's a multi-year process, but we're just looking at the beginning of it.”
Asked what revenues would be estimated by Trump's newly created external revenue services, which the president announced he would collect money from tariffs around the world, Bescent said it was too early to tell him, as it is unclear how other countries will respond to Trump to deal with the unfair treatment of the US around the world.
“Back to your question about mutual tariffs, we don't really know because mutual tariffs can go either way,” Bescent said. “It says to Europeans, “You can say, “You can say, 'You have 10% tariffs on American cars that are in Europe, but there is a 2.5% tariff on European cars that are in the US, and you can reach 10% and collect a significant income, or you can reach 2.5%, or both can be zero. You will let us know what you want to do, but it depends on the path.” So we either collect hundreds of millions of dollars a year with tariffs, or trade frictions may drop, and free trade could become fair again. But anyway, I think it's a win-win. You'll either collect a substantial amount of revenue or have access to these foreign markets that you haven't actually played quite a bit. ”
In addition to tariffs, it has not only made it more difficult to manufacture overseas and then ship items to the US, but also detailed how the Trump administration is trying to give some carrots to businesses they want to return to, rather than building in the US. These include tax cuts, deregulation, energy improvements, and a “rich workforce.”
“It's like I said before. It's deregulation, energy, and it's going to be a rich workforce as we move from government workers to the private sector,” Bescent said. “One of the reasons why actual wage growth has been negative or stagnant over the past four years is that many of the jobs created are government jobs and the government is not generating actual wage growth. Only the private sector produces actual wage growth.”
Additionally, Bescent said in his New York Economic Club speech that companies could amortize depreciation for factories built in the United States. Asked about this, Bescent said the government is considering various proposals to help businesses amortize depreciation of new US facilities.
“So, two things – in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Employment Act, one of the most powerful things that stimulate the economy was depreciation of equipment in 100% of the fleets of factories, offices and companies,” Bescent said. “What we're thinking now is to allow businesses to write off 100% of their factories in the first year. We might do that in the four-year window to encourage businesses to come back faster.”
Overall, Bescent said that since Trump won in November, the general sense from the international business community has raised significant interest in investment in the US.
“It's a combination because everyone is very constructive and in the Treasury you meet both companies, sovereign wealth funds and foreign investors,” Bescent said. “Everyone has said that foreign investors want to increase their allocation to the US, and all companies see this as a very dynamic business environment.”
Details are approaching from an exclusive interview with Bessent's Breitbart News.
