Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed back on polling data indicating the public does not approve of President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy, suggesting concerns over the issue are “media-driven.”
Bessent’s assessment comes ahead of Trump’s 100th day in office since returning to the White House. The stock market underwent drastic changes this month in response to the president’s use of tariffs. Bessent, however, pointed to how the focus has largely been on when the stock market tanks, without much coverage on its recovery.
“When I look at some of the things that are being published, there was a story 10 days ago that said, ‘This is the worst April for the stock market since the Great Depression,’” Bessent said on ABC News’s This Week. “Ten days later, the Nasdaq is now up in the month of April, and I haven’t seen a story that says, ‘Oh, stock market has biggest bounce back ever.’ So I think a lot of this is media-driven.”
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Bessent continued by detailing Trump’s levying of massive tariffs before pausing them to negotiate with countries, characterizing it as the carrot-and-stick approach that will ultimately lead to them removing tariffs on the United States. The treasury secretary then argued that he was surprised how the U.S. allowed its “unfair” trading system to go on as long as it had, saying he blames the Biden administration for allowing this rather than the countries involved in the deals.
Bessent also pushed back against recession fears under Trump’s tariff policies, saying the spending habits of people are “very different.” He added that he prefers to look at people’s behavior over how they answer polls.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
