Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is no fan of Elon Musk’s new “America Party.”
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Bessent said that while the “principles of DOGE were very popular,” the Tesla CEO “was not.”
“I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies,” Bessent said Sunday. “So, I imagine that those board of directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.”
Calling Trump “the most economically sophisticated president in the past 100 years, maybe ever,” Bessent defended the new Aug. 1 deadline for the completion of tariff talks after the president pledged to push through “90 deals in 90 days,” which would have fallen on July 9.
“It’s not a new deadline,” Bessent said. “We are saying this is when it’s happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that’s your choice.”
Trump on Friday said that the United States would start sending letters to nations that have yet to make a trade deal with the White House, giving them a deadline of Aug. 1 for the tariffs Trump announced in April to take effect.
On April 2, which Trump called “Liberation Day,” the president announced sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” of 10 to 70 percent on dozens of trading partners. Days later, the administration paused the sky-high levies for 90 days to allow the world to negotiate new trade agreements.
Bessent was also challenged on Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which added work requirements to Medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the changes would kick 12 million people off the rolls.
Bessent said Democrats were being vocal over the issue because they “unfortunately seem to think that poor people are stupid.”
“I don’t think poor people are stupid,” he added. “I think they have agency and I think to have them register twice a year for these benefits, that is not a burden.”
Trump signed the bill into law on Friday despite the administration’s insistence that the legislation would not cut Medicaid benefits.
CNN’s Bash challenged Bessent on this point, saying that “putting a work requirement is by definition, a change to benefits.” Bessent countered that the move was “a change in requirements to get the benefits.”
Hours earlier, Bessent admitted on Fox News Sunday that Trump’s tariffs have caused a price hike.
“There’s a big difference in inflation and one-time price adjustment,” he said. “What we are seeing the business model for many of our trading partners, especially in Southeast Asia, is to produce produce produce and the manufacturers in those countries are taking the price increases into—or the tariffs—into their margins.”
