US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is focused on Main Street, not Wall Street, in response to the market sell-off following tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China.
“We have a new trend, which is what we're focused on,” Bessent said in an interview Tuesday on Fox and Friends. “It's a focus on Main Street.”
“Wall Street's done great… Wall Street can continue to do fine,” he added. “But we have a focus on small business and the consumers. So we are going to rebalance the economy. We're going to bring manufacturing jobs home.”
Bessent also said the Trump administration is set on bringing interest rates down, highlighting that the drop in rates is one of the administration’s most significant accomplishments so far.
“I think thus far, one of the biggest wins for the American people is since Election Day and since inauguration, mortgage rates have come down dramatically, both the level of the 10-year bond and the spread between the 10-year and mortgage rates, which I think is an effect of the bank deregulation we're going to do," he said.
Regarding the China tariffs, the Treasury Secretary thinks Chinese manufacturers will eat the tariffs, and prices for U.S. consumers and businesses won’t go higher.
“They're in the middle of a financial crisis right now that they're trying to export their way out of it so with the China tariffs, I am highly confident that the Chinese manufacturers will eat the tariffs, prices won't go up,” Bessent said.
On inflation, he said it is slowing, although it is still not back down to the Fed’s target area. He said the administration would use deregulation to bring prices down.
“I think one of the untold stories for the past two and four years is that the inflation rate that the previous administration put on households is several thousand dollars of administrative burdens every year, and if we can cut that red tape and bring that down then that's an excellent start on the affordability.”
