President Donald Trump is pursuing a sweeping new economic order and shows no signs of retreating from his aggressive tariff policies, according to a CNBC host. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—calling it a “reordering” of trade and a “re-levering” of the private sector—says the administration expects thousands of fired federal workers will transition into the manufacturing jobs Trump aims to restore from overseas.
In an interview published by RealClearPolitics over the weekend, Secretary Bessent was asked if he thinks there are enough people in the U.S. workforce to fuel Trump’s goal of dramatically increasing manufacturing in the U.S.
Bessent explained that he believes factories will be automated and run by artificial intelligence, while the thousands of federal workers fired by the Trump administration will fill the manufacturing jobs.
“I think we do,” have the labor force to transition the U.S, from a mostly service economy to one with massively increased production, Bessent said.
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“I think with AI, with automation, with so many of these factories are going to be new. They’re going to be smart factories that I think, we’ve got all the labor force we need,” the Secretary said.
“So what we are doing on one side, the president is reordering trade,” the Secretary continued. “On the other side, we are shedding excess labor in the federal government and bringing down federal borrowings? And then on the other side, that will give us the labor that we need for the new manufacturing.”
“And we’re going to relever the private sector. So the private sector, in essence, has been in recession during the Biden years,” he said — a claim disputed by experts and data. “And this is an opportunity to right-size the federal government and unleash the private sector again, because it’s been hemmed down by excessive regulation, and it’s been crowded out by the government.”
Political and investigative reporter Roger Sollenberger remarked that he thinks it’s “insane” that Bessent is “saying here is federal workers — the same people Trump et al describe as useless freeloading administrative bloat — are the people who will form the backbone of the new factory labor market.”
Others have noted that many of the fired federal workers held office and “white collar” jobs, whereas manufacturing jobs often require different skill sets.
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Secretary Bessent, in fact, has been promoting the claim that the private sector has been in recession during the Biden years, for months.
Back in February, reporting that “Bessent has a gloomy economic view,” Axios noted that “Bessent said … the private sector has been in a recession, but official economic data shows ongoing growth and hiring among private businesses.”
In a “reality check,” Axios added that a “private sector recession is a regular recession by another name.” There was no recession during the Biden years.
“‘The secretary’s comment flies in the face of productivity, GDP, and jobs data,’ Jared Bernstein, the former Biden-era chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, told Axios.”
Bernstein also warned that it is “very important that the economics team sticks to the actual facts.”
CNBC’s Kelly Evans on Monday wrote, “I don’t think this White House is looking for opportunities to back down. I think they view this as a one-time shot to remake the entire U.S. economic order, with high tariffs being a necessary catalyst for that.”
“‘I believe that this is going to work,’ Bessent said,” Evans continued. “‘What I do know is that the old system wasn’t working. And if you look at a system that’s not working, you’ve got to be brave to change it.’ Does that sound like language from an administration looking for an exit route? Especially from Bessent, who has the most Wall Street experience of the bunch.”
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