Bessent: Trump was onto this from the BEGINNING

[0:00] You with more, Secretary of the Treasury, good friend of the program, Scott Besson. [0:04] How are you? [0:04] Good to see you, Sean. [0:05] I have watched you fight these liberals on TV. [0:07] Man, you are tough. [0:09] I love it. [0:10] I love every time you're on. [0:11] Well, I prefer to be with you and take some friendly fire. [0:15] But, Sean, I just always say I have facts. [0:18] They have opinions, as you were just saying. [0:21] These DSA folks, where does it ever work? [0:23] Did it work in Havana? [0:24] Did it work in Caracas? [0:26] Did it work in Moscow? [0:27] It's never worked. [0:28] If you could show me an example where it worked, I'd have an open mind. [0:31] Can you believe abolish the Senate, replace the Supreme Court, the presidency even, abolish ICE, [0:40] open the borders, defund the Pentagon? [0:44] What? [0:46] Seriously? [0:47] These people are nuts. [0:49] Well, they're nuts, Sean. [0:50] But you know who was onto this early on, like he is to so many things, was President Trump. [0:55] When Mayor Mandani came to the Oval in November, after he had won. [1:01] He was smiling. [1:02] He was smiling. [1:03] But President Trump said, you're the leader of the Democratic Party. [1:06] And the Democratic Party, like, this is now the center of the party now. [1:11] This is the center of gravity for this party. [1:13] And look, remember, Bernie Sanders used to be a group of one. [1:18] Now, I think you said there are 35 candidates running. [1:21] Look at the New Hampshire poll that came out last week. [1:24] AOC leading. [1:25] Now, I'm convinced that Bernie, that AOC is his hand-picked successor. [1:31] I'm convinced of that. [1:33] That's why they did the Fight the Oligarchy tour with their private jet. [1:36] That's why they were out campaigning for El Saeed. [1:39] You got El Saeed, you got Bernie, you got Pocahontas, you got Mamdani, you got AOC, [1:44] you got the Squad, you got Sixth Gender Tellarico, you know, this guy campaigning with Hassan Piker. [1:50] Can they win? [1:51] I mean, 35 candidates on the ballot this year. [1:55] I don't think so, because it's not where the American people are at. [1:58] It's where a small urban elite group is. [2:01] I saw a study the other day that said these are mostly urban voters, and it was interesting. [2:06] Highly educated, but under-earning. [2:08] So they feel like something has passed them by, and it has. [2:12] It's common sense. [2:13] Common sense has passed them by. [2:14] Not so common. [2:15] That's probably why they can't hold a day job. [2:17] You know, I've been quoting you a lot because you have spelled out what the president did in the first year of this term [2:23] and all of the investment money, you know, for example, semiconductor chips and pharmaceuticals [2:31] and automobile production and, you know, digging out rare earths and becoming energy dominant. [2:36] What would the economy look like in 99 days? [2:39] Look, I keep saying we're going to be on the other side of this Iran problem. [2:45] The underlying economy, Sean, is very, very strong. [2:48] You know, we're seeing it all across the consumer remains resilient, and the mainstream media doesn't want to report. [2:56] All we heard was K-economy, K-economy. [2:59] You know, it's accelerating for the upper end, de-accelerating for working Americans. [3:05] Well, you know what? [3:06] A study came out the other day, and it shows we're getting a C-shaped economy now, [3:10] and lower-income workers are getting bigger wage increases. [3:14] The upper end is actually bending down a little. [3:16] So I think the economy is in great shape. [3:20] We saw core inflation, so the X-ing out mainly energy is 2.6 percent, not that far away from the Fed's target. [3:30] And everything we're seeing with the investment, we are seeing record amount of investment come in the U.S., [3:38] and that comes construction jobs first, and those will turn into manufacturing jobs as we build these factories. [3:45] Let me throw a curveball question at you. [3:47] Elon Musk gave an interview, I believe, to The Economist, and he said that in five to six years, [3:53] we will have, you know, more than a—we'll have five times the size of the economy we have now. [4:01] And he talked about abundance. [4:03] And he talked about every American having every need. [4:06] And there won't be even a need to save, you know, for your retirement like we have historically [4:11] because of this, quote, abundance that he believes AI will create. [4:14] Do you believe that? [4:15] I do. [4:17] But I think I would change the timeline. [4:20] That, you know, I've seen Elon speak for a long time, and he is—look, his record speaks for itself, [4:28] both in terms as an inventor, as a venture capitalist, you know, as a great American. [4:34] But he's normally early. [4:36] You know, he's just so far ahead of the curve. [4:38] He sees things that no one else sees. [4:40] But I do think we are building this incredible economy that we can't even imagine. [4:45] You know, Sean, 25 percent of the jobs that exist today did not exist in 2000. [4:51] That's an amazing thing. [4:52] So your message to the American people is the economy is strong. [4:55] Your message is that we're on a growth trajectory. [4:59] Do you see that investment money kicking in that quickly? [5:03] About 30 seconds. [5:05] Yeah, we see it kicking in now. [5:06] It's just at my hometown, Charleston, South Carolina. [5:09] Boeing doing a 50 percent expansion, construction jobs and 1,000 high-paying jobs. [5:16] We're seeing it all over the country. [5:18] John Deere, two new plants, pharmaceuticals in North Carolina. [5:21] That this is a manufacturing renaissance. [5:24] The service economy is strong. [5:27] And, you know, I think consumers are finally starting to feel it. [5:30] And inflation will come down. [5:32] We'll get to the other side of Iran. [5:34] And, you know, I think the feel-good factor will come back. [5:40] All right. [5:41] Treasury Secretary Scott Pessin, good to see you, my friend. [5:43] Thank you for coming in. [5:43] Great to be with you. [5:44] All right. [5:45] And Secretary Scott Pessin, thank you. [5:48] All right. [5:49] Thanks for watching. [5:50] Check out my new podcast, Hanging Out With Me, Sean Hannity. [5:52] The big interviews, the debates you won't get anywhere else. [5:55] Like and subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.