Finance Minister Bessent says that the American dream is not about “access to cheap goods”

The finance minister Scott Bessent offered a comprehensive defense of the White House position on Thursday and insisted that trade policy has to maintain more than just favorable objects from other countries.

“Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,” said Bessent during a speech in front of the New York Economic Club. “The American dream is rooted in the concept that every citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility and economic security. The designers of multilateral trade agreements have lost sight of this too long.”

The comments had come with the markets on Edge how far President Donald Trump will go to achieve his goals in global trade. Despite the reports of moving the administration in Mexican imports, the shares were strong on Thursday.

In a speech that was held by a lot of leading economists, Bessent stated that Trump is willing to take strong measures to achieve his trade goals.

“The United States will react to the extent that the practices of another country of our own economy and people harm. This is the first trade policy in America,” he said.

In the past, the data from the trade department underlined how far the USA fell behind its global trading partners. In January, the imbalance rose to 131.4 billion US dollars, which was 34% increase compared to the previous month and almost the previous year.

“This system is not sustainable,” said Bessent.

Economists and market participants fear that the Trump tariffs will increase prices and slow growth. However, officials of the White House point out that the tariffs in Trump’s first term of office have little to defeat inflation and observe the growth potential of the new shift, since companies try to avoid the tasks.

“I don’t worry about inflation on a continuum,” said Bessent. He added that Trump sees the tariffs as three advantages: as a source of income for the United States, the massive fiscal deficits to protect industries and workers from unfair practices around the world, and “to negotiate” as Trump as “the third leg of the chair”.

The conversation on Thursday was organized by Larry Kudlow, the head of the National Economic Council, while Trump’s first term.

In addition to the discussion of the tariffs, the two talked about deregulation as well as the stressful debts and deficit loads with which the government is confronted. The budget is already 840 billion US dollars in the hole in the first four months of the 2025 financial year, since the deficit is over 6% as a share of gross domestic product.

“This is the last chance and grill that do this,” said Bessent about the impressive fiscal discipline. “Everyone knows what to do. Do you have the willpower to do it?”

Besser also advocated a deep examination of the banking regulations, especially for smaller institutions, of which he said that they are burdened with rules that do not help for safety.

As Bessent spoke, stocks added losses for Wall Street in a difficult week.

“The Wall Street is great, the Wall Street can do it well. But this administration is about Main Street,” he said.