Bessent holds White House briefing as Trump appointees push $250 banknote

[0:00] Welcome back in a live now. I'm Austin Westfall. Take a look at this. The Washington Post and [0:07] Treasury Secretary Scott Besant talking about something that's been making the rounds today. [0:13] Secretary Besant said that his department has prepared the design for a $250 bill featuring [0:20] President Trump. The Washington Post originally reporting that two Trump political appointees [0:25] urged the creation of the draft of the bill. Besant held up a draft of the Post's story while [0:32] briefing at the White House earlier today. Let's watch a little bit of the moment where he was [0:37] asked about this idea. Politically, it's a good idea to put his face on a $250 bill when people [0:43] are struggling to afford gas. Again, you know, I don't really understand this Washington Post article [0:48] that who hears from the Post? Yeah, terribly written, terribly edited. Because basically what it says [0:54] is that Treasury is following the law and that we've created the bill and that it's up to Congress, [1:01] but that we follow the bill and it's up to... I didn't really understand what the story was. [1:05] So you're trying to say the appointees aren't involved in that, two of your political appointees? [1:09] Yeah, of course. But we prepare for everything if it gets passed. Just like we were ready six months [1:15] in advance for the one big beautiful bill for tax guidance. So we have to prepare in advance. [1:21] You can't draw something up the day before. Politically, do you think it's a good idea [1:25] though when people are struggling to afford gas and groceries? [1:28] Look, I think it has... I think that it's bifurcated. [1:31] Do you think we should have a 250th anniversary, the celebration? [1:37] Well, that's happening anyway, but putting the President's face on a $250 bill is a choice. [1:40] No, no, no, no. But, Caitlin, it's not happening anyway. It's happening because it's being funded [1:45] by private citizens, by the federal government, by state governments, by municipal governments [1:49] to celebrate our country. And I don't think that there's anything untoward about having [1:55] the President of the United States, that the person who was President of the United States [1:59] on the 250th anniversary bill. [2:02] Okay. So I wanted to make sure that you got the context of when Besant was asked about it [2:08] and everything he had to say about it. Let's bring in Christian Daytok. He covers the White House [2:13] for the Washington Examiner. If you could put it in your own words, Christian, how serious is Besant [2:18] and the White House taking this $250 bill idea? [2:23] Well, we do know President Trump is taking the entirety of the America 250 celebrations [2:27] incredibly seriously. And based on Secretary Besant's appearance in the briefing room, [2:33] Treasury is doing their part to make sure the President gets exactly what he wants. I mean, [2:38] I do think the best way to characterize today's briefing would have been contentious, not only [2:43] on this issue, but obviously the big news about a potential deal, a 60-day ceasefire extension [2:49] with Iran that the United States is nearing or has agreed to in principle. But ultimately, [2:56] I do think what you're seeing with Scott Besant right now is one of President Trump's most effective [3:02] cabinet secretaries working behind the scenes and doing everything he can to get the President [3:08] what he wants. Now, will Donald Trump's face appear on a $250 bill by this summer? I'd say that's highly [3:15] unlikely, given that Congress does need to pass a law that changes the statute barring live persons [3:23] from appearing on U.S. currency. But hey, as we've learned in Trump time, anything is possible, [3:28] especially when the President still controls both chambers of Congress. [3:32] So if you had to take a gut check, you would say more likely than not. At least we won't see it [3:38] come the summer. But do you think there's a chance we see this eventually given, I don't know, [3:43] a longer period of time? I mean, anything is possible. But let's be honest, I doubt that [3:50] the Republicans will be able to pull the requisite votes from Democrats in the Senate in order to pass [3:57] that chamber and eventually send this along to President Trump's desk. But I do think, like [4:02] Besant pointed out, Treasury amongst all of the federal departments has really been, you know, [4:08] speeding behind the scenes to be able to enact the President's policies, favored or otherwise, [4:15] as soon as possible, once they get the legal green light to move on them. Again, if I was a betting [4:21] man, which, you know, it's not football season, so I can't say I am at the moment, I wouldn't put money [4:27] down on this, either $1 or $250, like the President is probably hoping for. [4:33] We have to talk about, as you mentioned, the other major story in the briefing room today. [4:39] Let's talk about the status of the deal between the U.S. and Iran. What do we know about the status, [4:45] Christian? Did we leave today's press briefing with more questions or answers about where things [4:49] are going? You know, the cheap answer, Austin, is really a little bit of both. Because let's be [4:55] honest. We spoke with U.S. officials earlier in the day, as did a number of outlets, who told us, [5:00] essentially, look, the negotiating parties, perhaps Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, among others, [5:06] have agreed with their Iranian counterparts to extend this ceasefire and allow substantive [5:11] negotiations about the future of Iran's nuclear program to take place. But there's a huge caveat [5:18] here. President Trump himself wants to mull over this proposal for a couple of days. Now, [5:24] when Secretary Besant greeted us in the briefing room, he essentially said, I'm not going to get [5:29] ahead of President Trump when asked to comment on the veracity of those reports. And he ultimately said, [5:35] look, there are three major sticking points left to be resolved. One, traffic through the Strait of [5:41] Kormuzh has to be allowed to continue unimpeded. Two, the nuclear dust, so to speak, the highly enriched [5:49] uranium needs to be removed from the country of Iran itself. And then, of course, the third [5:54] is President Trump's biggest red line. Iran must stop working towards obtaining a nuclear weapon. So [6:01] I wouldn't necessarily say we're any closer towards making a deal on those three points than we were, [6:08] say, two months ago. But it is a good sign that the fighting won't resume imminently. I don't think [6:14] anyone wants to see any more death and destruction here in the United States and certainly not amongst [6:20] the people of Iran. So maybe this is a step in the right direction. We're just not privy to those [6:25] private conversations yet to say how big of a deal it really is. So who is actually in the room during [6:32] these phone calls? How much clarity do we have on that? Is this President Trump working the phones? [6:36] Are there other members of the cabinet that are intimately involved with the phone calls? [6:41] Well, there's a whole cast of characters. Of course, you've got Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, [6:46] and Vice President J.D. Vance sort of on the periphery. But the two men sort of championing [6:51] this effort are, again, like I mentioned, Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, [6:55] and Steve Witkoff, one of his business associates from the past and a close friend from New York. Now, [7:02] Donald Trump himself is taking part in these negotiations, but not directly with Iran. He's [7:07] speaking via phone with the other Gulf leaders. Scott Besson is speaking with the finance ministers. [7:13] He told us he spoke with the ambassador from Oman today, who did agree that if Iran agrees to stop, [7:21] you know, mining the strait, they won't impose any taxes or anything like that. Moving forward, [7:26] they're going to allow free traffic. So it's really all of the players that you would expect [7:32] from the cabinet, in addition to the president's two handpicked negotiators, excuse me, negotiators, [7:38] Kushner and Witkoff. But I do think ultimately Donald Trump himself is going to have to get this [7:43] thing over the finish line. He says he's the greatest negotiator in American history. [7:48] I'm not going to argue against him. But if that, you know, is going to be made true, [7:53] this is ultimately the stage that the president can make his claim to that title. [7:58] It's going to be interesting to follow President Trump's true social accounts and anything that [8:04] comes out of the mediating countries, social media accounts as well, the Pakistanis, the Qataris. [8:10] I'm going to be speaking with Hal and alone a little bit later on in the next hour about kind of [8:13] the nuts and bolts of this agreement that's been made and or tentatively been agreed to for now. [8:19] I know the verbiage is very specific with this one, Christian. Before we go, I got to ask you. [8:25] So Besant hosted the White House press briefing today. We've also seen Secretary Rubio and VP Vance [8:31] host White House press briefings. Do we know when Caroline Levitt is coming back or do we expect [8:37] other members of the cabinet to host these briefings sometime soon? You know, Austin, I can't give you a day [8:43] where Caroline's going to return from maternity leave, but that is something that we did know [8:48] back in March before Caroline, you know, had her second child. My colleague at the Washington [8:54] Examiner, Rob Crilley, actually broke that scoop. There is going to be a rotating cast of characters [8:59] from the cabinet coming through to field questions from reporters depending on the news of the day. [9:05] So like you mentioned, Scott Besson was there today. We've had Rubio and Vance grace us for about [9:11] an hour apiece over the past couple of weeks. It's still to be determined who will be up next. [9:17] My money personally is probably on Attorney General Todd Blanche, given the focus that the [9:23] White House is placed on this anti-fraud task force. But again, I'm not a betting man. It's not [9:28] football season. So I wouldn't put money down on anybody given that news moves so quickly in Trump [9:35] time, as the president likes to say. All right, Christian, appreciate the context. We'll see you in [9:39] the White House briefing room sometime.