Secretary Bessent on NBC's Meet The Press

[0:01] Welcome back. Joining me now is Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. Secretary Besant, [0:06] welcome back to Meet the Press. Kristen, good to be with you. [0:08] It's great to have you back. Let's start on inflation. These new inflation numbers we got [0:12] this week, consumer prices rose in September at the fastest pace in five months to 3.7%. [0:19] Are the president's policies driving up inflation? Kristen, we have an energy shock. And if you look [0:27] underneath the hood in the numbers, the core inflation has been very flat before this month. [0:33] It had been down for four months in a row. So core inflation is down. The food is below the Fed's [0:40] targets. The prescription drugs have had the biggest decrease in history. Rents are down. [0:47] So this is an energy shock. We will get to the other side of the Iran conflict and those prices [0:52] will come down. Well, core inflation doesn't take energy, for example, into account or food [0:57] into account. And in fact, the price of gas is up 44%, Mr. Secretary, since the start of the war with [1:05] Iran. What do you say to voters right now who say they are struggling and they want change? [1:11] Well, why don't we revisit the Biden era policies where the American people got smoked 21.5% inflation [1:19] and only about 17% wage increases. Since President Trump has started, the American people have gotten [1:25] real wage increases, 1.5%. We're not satisfied with that. But as I said, we're getting these wage [1:32] increases through our economic policies and the wage increases are going to be persistent. We will get [1:39] to the other side of the Iran conflict. And I believe that the energy markets are going to be better [1:43] supplied than they were. I hear you blaming President Biden, but President Trump has been in office now [1:48] for 636 days. That's about a year and a half. And inflation was at 3% when he took office. It's 3.7% [1:56] now. At what point does the administration take responsibility for the economy and say this is [2:00] the Trump economy? Well, we will own the economy. We have so far this year, we've got a million private [2:06] sector jobs. We've never had this many people working in the U.S. The net worth of American households [2:13] are the highest that it's ever been. So, Kristen, let's be clear here. This is an energy supply side [2:20] shock. We will get to the other side of this. This is one factor. Even President Trump has said this is [2:26] his economy. Let me ask you, though, you are Treasury Secretary. Do you anticipate gas prices will come [2:32] down by the new year? Well, again, it will depend on what happens with the Iran conflict. [2:37] Okay, let's talk about the war with Ukraine now. President Trump signed an executive order waiving [2:43] sanctions against Russia. I just talked about this with President Zelensky, who tells me this move is [2:49] a big support for Putin. Why is the president rewarding a dictator who invaded Ukraine? [2:56] President Trump has made it clear he wants the killing to stop. And the so-called grand bill [3:02] gives the president the flexibility, gives him 60 days to assess the situation. [3:08] And, Kristen, let's look what's really happening here, that the Europeans have given [3:13] the Russia and Vladimir Putin more money than they've given the Ukrainians. They continue to [3:20] gorge on Russian energy. There is a facility called the Amal facility. In the first six months of the year, [3:28] there were 140 cargoes that left. 136 of those went to Europe, to Belgium, to Spain, to France, [3:34] to the Netherlands, over $8 billion. So we have asked in the spring, I asked our European allies [3:42] to join us in putting secondary tariffs on China, on India. They refused. So why should the US bear the [3:51] burden? So President Trump, perhaps we will be in contact with our European partners. Why should the [3:58] US go along, Kristen? Well, I guess the question is, what role should the US play? During your [4:02] confirmation hearing in January of 2025, you described the war in Ukraine as one of the [4:08] greatest tragedies in your life. And you had this criticism about the Biden administration's [4:13] approach to sanctions at the time. Take a listen. I believe that the sanctions were not [4:20] fulsome enough. I believe that we, I believe that the previous administration was worried [4:30] about raising US energy prices during an election season. Is President Trump doing what you accused [4:38] President Biden of doing? First of all, Kristen, the sanctions were doubled. The Biden administration [4:43] in an act of incredible bravery doubled the sanctions on the way out in January of 2025. So [4:51] we did not take those down. President Trump sanctioned the two largest Russian energy [4:57] companies, Rosneft and Luke oil, which dealt a catastrophic blow to the Russian energy industry. [5:05] So no one has been tougher on Russian sanctions than President Trump. [5:09] But you there are pushing for even tougher sanctions. [5:13] We did the toughest sanctions. Okay, but why lift them now? What has Putin done to deserve sanctions [5:20] relief now? That's my question. That that's not true. No sanctions were lifted on Friday. No sanctions [5:26] were lifted. There was a law that was supposed to put more sanctions in place. The president [5:31] effectively waived that. No sanctions were lifted. There is a there is a 60 day period. So we can [5:39] examine what's going on. The only thing that has been lifted the is the diesel embargo. And you know, [5:46] I will point out the UK in May waived their embargo on diesel and jet fuel made with Russian crude. So you know, [5:58] where's the outrage for the rest of the world? President Zelensky does not criticize his European partners. [6:04] He seemed a bit disassembled in that interview. The Europeans are financing the Russian war machine. The U.S. [6:11] imports 4 billion dollars of Russian products. 1.8 billion of that is fertilizer. The Europeans, [6:19] they import more than 10 times that. You know, speaking of President Zelensky, [6:24] he says Ukraine will not prevail if the United States sides with Russia. A number of Republican [6:29] senators have said that's what this move does. Is the president siding with Russia here? No. Again, [6:35] that's a false binary. What does the U.S. provide? The U.S. provides intelligence, the Starlink. And we [6:44] provide, we allow NATO to buy U.S. armaments and resell them to Ukraine. When President Zelensky asked for [6:55] patriots, NATO, the European members of NATO, they have plenty of patriots. Why aren't they forthcoming [7:02] with the patriots? Where's Germany giving the Ukrainians patriots? You bring up Starlink. [7:07] President Zelensky just discussed Starlink. I'd like to have you respond. Ukraine relies on Starlink, [7:13] Elon Musk's satellite network, just for our viewers to defend against Russian drones. [7:18] President Zelensky just said he believes the U.S. government slowed the speed. Now President [7:23] Trump said he had nothing to do with it. But can you definitively say no one in the Trump [7:28] administration ordered restrictions? President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said [7:35] that no one on the Trump administration did that. And I think it is very reckless for President [7:42] Zelensky to make such a charge. How did it get slowed down? How are these disruptions caused? Because [7:47] President Zelensky also said there was a break in intel sharing as well. Why did that happen? Again, [7:53] I don't know anything about that. But we've been very clear. And President Zelensky should be very [7:59] careful about making statements like this that aren't true. Bottom line, Mr. Secretary, is Ukraine [8:06] an ally of the United States? President Trump has made it clear that he wants to end this war, [8:12] that it must stop. And President Zelensky presented a false binary this morning that Ukraine must win, [8:23] the war must end. And that will be with some kind of a negotiated settlement. And President Trump [8:28] is working on that every day. He's done it since he came into office. [8:31] And just to the core question though, does the United States see Ukraine as an ally? [8:36] I think that we provide the three different things to Ukraine. So that's what you do for an ally. [8:47] We're not providing those to Russia. So does that mean the United States [8:50] sees Ukraine as an ally? Can you say one way or another? [8:53] Again, I'm not the Secretary of State. I'm not the President. [8:57] Okay. All right. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, thank you so very much. [9:02] Thank you. Appreciate your being here.