This is an adapted excerpt from the April 7 episode of “Deadline: White House.”
On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to dismiss the concerns of millions of Americans worried about the impact of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, telling NBC News’ Kristen Welker it’s a “false narrative” that people who are close to retiring may now be hesitant to do so because of recent economic turmoil.
“Americans who want to retire right now, the Americans who put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations,” Bessent said.
While the markets were melting down over his tariffs, Trump wasn’t in Washington trying to calm the fears of the American people. He was golfing.
With that statement, Bessent, a former hedge fund manager with assets and investments apparently worth more than $700 million, made it quite clear just how disconnected he is from the reality of ordinary Americans, 58% of whom hold stocks, including half the private sector workforce saving for retirement through 401(k) investment accounts.
When Bessent accepted the job of treasury secretary, he sold his home in Charleston, South Carolina, for almost $22 million — a record price for any home on the Charleston peninsula. So it’s easy to see how he, much like Trump’s other ultra-wealthy Cabinet official, Howard Lutnick — who made headlines just a few weeks ago when he said his mother-in-law “wouldn’t call and complain” if she missed a Social Security check — don’t share the same concerns as a majority of the American people.
For anyone who wants to try to dismiss these concerns and say, “Well, the markets are not the economy,” you’re right about that. They’re not. But look at what we’re hearing from major financial institutions; what they’re predicting right now is a recession. That’s not just the market. A recession will impact almost every element of daily life.
But it’s not just members of Trump’s Cabinet who are out of touch — this starts at the top. While the markets were melting down over his tariffs, Trump wasn’t in Washington trying to calm the fears of the American people. Instead, he was golfing and attending fundraisers at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
On Saturday, Trump took time away from his busy weekend to tell Americans that “THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN,” and urged them to “HANG TOUGH” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
This is the consequence of Trump’s “big business” administration. When he retook the White House, the president said he had a mandate from the American people to run this country like a business. Well, here you have it. He’s doing just that. The government is now in the hands of these hugely wealthy guys in these hugely important jobs, who are so far out of touch with where the American people are.
