Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to explain Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plan, asking him to speak directly to a business community that is deeply concerned about the crashing economy. And he struggled to come up with an answer that could satisfy the typically Trump-friendly host.
The Mornings with Maria told the secretary she had heard from multiple unnamed business leaders who expressed their befuddlement at Trump’s endgame. How, she asked, could Trump speak about tax cuts and deregulation while sending the markets into a tailspin?
“Business leaders are saying to me, ‘Why are we doing this?‘” she said. “Everyone was very excited about President Trump’s agenda, deregulation, tapping into energy tax cuts and now boom with these tariffs, everything has changed. Why are we doing this?”
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The line of questioning came as even conservative media hosts have grown puzzled by the administration’s insistence on the levies, which plunged the stock market to its lowest points in five years and led multiple bankers to forecast a recession.
Bessent claimed Trump’s first 80 days have been successful, pointing to his work on immigration and his calls for mass deportations.
“Now President Trump is tackling the trade agenda, and this isn’t done in isolation, Maria,” he said. “We’re running the parallel processes here.”
Bessent also claimed the stock market will eventually turn around as more and more countries come to negotiate, pointing to overtures from Japan, South Korea, and India.
“At a point in the not too distant future, I think we will be back to firing on all cylinders,” Bessent said.
Bessent then tried to dispute claims of a looming recession after Bartiromo relayed a conversation she had with a CEO who said one was coming, finding a way to blame it on former President Joe Biden: “What the CEO may have alluded to is that the manufacturing sector under the previous administration was in a recession.”
