Department of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday questioned concerns that the U.S. economy will enter a recession in the near future following President Donald Trump’s announcement that nearly every country in the world will face tariffs.
Trump announced a 10 percent baseline tariff on almost every country, while other countries received higher levies based on tariffs they already levy on the United States, as well as other factors. On Thursday and Friday, major U.S. stock indexes dropped more than 5 percentage points apiece.
“Who knows how the market is going to react in a day, in a week? What we are looking at is building the long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity,” he added, saying the tariffs were implemented as a means to negotiate with other countries.
Bessent also said he is not concerned with the stock market’s initial reaction to the tariff announcement because “the market consistently underestimates Donald Trump.”
“I remember that in 2016—the night President Trump won—the market crashed, and it turned out he was going to be the most pro-business president in over a century—maybe in the history of the country—and we went on to very high after-inflation returns for the next four years,” he said.
At one point, he said that it is a “false narrative” that Americans close to retirement may not retire because their savings may have been impacted due to the stock market decline.
Bessent has described the tariffs as measures that will “escalate to de-escalate,” and has called them necessary negotiating tools. The former hedge fund manager said on Sunday that fears over retirement plans and a possible recession are a “false narrative.”
“Americans who want to retire right now, the Americans who put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations,” he said.
“In fact, most Americans don’t have everything in the market,” Bessent continued. “People have a long-term view ... the reason the stock market is considered a good investment is because it’s a long-term investment. If you look day to day, week to week, it’s very risky. Over the long term, it’s a good investment.”
When asked again about how long the economic uncertainty could last, Bessent said that the White House will “stay the course.”
“This is an adjustment process,” he said. “What we saw with President [Ronald] Reagan when he brought down the Great Inflation, and we got past the [President Jimmy] Carter malaise, there was some choppiness at that time, but he held the course, and we’re going to hold the course.”
In a post over the past weekend, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the tariffs are necessary despite the stock market downturn, suggesting that investors and consumers should “hang tough” amid the global shakeup and described the decision last week as revolutionary.
