Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent has said that countries should be taking President Donald Trump seriously over his actions around tariffs and sanctions.
During an interview with Fox Business and “Mornings with Maria” host Maria Bartiromo, Bessent was asked whether some of Trump‘s policies were “just theatre,” to which Bessent replied that Trump is serious.
“As we’ve learned with President Trump, you should take him at his word, this is not theatre,” Bessent said. “The April 1st deadline is for a study that the Commerce Department is doing on global tariffs that apply to U.S. products country by country, and also, we’re not just looking at tariffs, but we’re looking at non-tariff barriers … and we’re also looking at currency manipulation.”
Bessent noted that Trump is serious about negotiating the best deal for the U.S.
“As I’ve repeatedly said, the U.S. has a strong dollar policy but because we have a strong dollar policy, it doesn’t mean that other countries get to have a weak currency policy,” Bessent said. “So, we’re gonna come up with what is the equivalent of an index, what I would call reciprocal index country by country. The outstanding tariffs, non-tariff, the trade barriers, and currency manipulation, and President Trump is serious about negotiating this.”
He added, “Look, I don’t understand why there’s any push back on this, that if they want to bring all these barriers down, then we will have more frictionless global trade.”
Bessent said he expects Trump will implement reciprocal tariffs in April if he needs to.
“I’m expecting that will get this report and we will see how our trading partners choose to respond, but I can tell you, if he needs to, he will implement them, and as he said … this can be a big revenue source for the U.S government.”
Bessent added that those who oppose the proposed tariffs are stuck in “old thinking” and noted this is why the U.S. has “been taken advantage of” by other countries for years.
