Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration has “70 negotiations lined up” with foreign governments on a wave of tariffs that kicked in overnight.
“I am not planning on going anywhere for Easter,” Bessent told an audience of bankers in Washington DC. “We have been overwhelmed with the response to come to DC and negotiate with President Trump.”
“I think what a lot of people are missing here is that the levels that were put out last Wednesday are a ceiling…if you don’t retaliate,” he added.
The 62-year-old hedge fund mogul also warned countries against trying to cosy up to Beijing in a bid to offset any lost trading volume with the United States.
“That would be cutting your own throat,” Bessent said. “We can probably reach a deal with our allies…and then we can approach China as a group.”
President Trump announced his tariff plans on April 2, which he dubbed ‘Liberation Day’, as he set out a range of levies that started at a 10% baseline to up to 50% from he saw as the worst trade offenders.
Bessent also downplayed talk of the US economy tipping into recession, which is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
“The companies I have spoken to … CEOs who have come into Treasury, tell me that the economy is very solid. We got very good jobs numbers last Friday. I think that we are in pretty good shape,” he added.
The former money man, who founded Key Square Group, made his remarks in a Q&A session following a speech to the American Bankers Association on banking regulation and supervision.
Bessent’s comments as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that a recession is a “likely outcome” from Trump’s tariffs.
Dimon said he is hearing “recessionary talk” and although he is not seeing defaults yet, he expects it to happen.
He added that volatility from tariffs is “serious” and that the goal of trade deals should be to make trading partners stronger, not weaker.
A native of South Carolina, Bessent previously served as chief investment officer for George Soros and was instrumental in the Hungarian-born money man’s “Black Wednesday” trade in 1992.
The bet against the British pound “broke the Bank of England,” raking in an eye-watering $1 billion payday for Soros that cemented his reputation as a titan of global finance.
