WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that he was “not at all” worried about the stock market, which has dipped multiple times amid President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
“I’ve been in the investment business for 35 years, and I can tell you that corrections are healthy. They’re normal. What’s not healthy is straight up,” Bessent said during an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Major stock indexes have lowered in recent weeks amid Trump’s tariff threats. CNBC previously reported that the S&P 500’s value has decreased by about $5 trillion in three weeks.
Trump has vacillated on tariffs with Canada and Mexico, two of the U.S.’s closest trading partners, while threatening steep tariffs on other U.S. allies like the European Union. The president has also implemented sweeping tariffs on aluminum and steel. Bessent also confirmed that Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs on other countries will begin on April 2.
“I’m not worried about the markets. Over the long term, if we put good tax policy in place, deregulation and energy security, the markets will do great,” Bessent said.
The stock market fluctuations have sparked fears of longer term economic issues, and Bessent did not rule out a recession in Sunday’s interview.
“You know that there are no guarantees, like who would have predicted Covid, right?” Bessent said when asked whether he could guarantee there would not be a recession.
“So I can predict that we are putting in robust policies that will be durable, and could there be an adjustment,” he said, adding that the country needed to be weaned off of “massive government spending.”
Trump had previously declined to rule out a recession and acknowledged that Americans may feel some level of economic pain in response to his policies.
“I hate to predict things like that,” Trump said in a Fox News interview this month when asked whether he was expecting a recession this year. “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big.”
The president has also said multiple times that the economy could see some level of “disturbance” in response to his tariff policies.
“Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again, and it’s happening, and it will happen rather quickly,” he said during his joint address to Congress this month. “There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re okay with that. It won’t be much.”
He later repeated the sentiment, telling NBC News that “there could be some disturbance, a little bit of a disturbance.”
Trump later appeared to backtrack his recession comments, saying last week that he did not “see it at all,” when asked again whether there could be a recession. Stock market indexes have dipped repeatedly after Trump has threatened or enacted tariffs, but Trump said last week that the stock market selloff did not concern him, noting he was “very optimistic about the country.”
Bessent on Sunday urged Americans to watch how countries react in the two months following the start of reciprocal tariffs in April.
“Either the tariff barriers come down, the U.S. can export more. Trade is fairer. It’s always been free, but not fair,” Bessent said. “Or if they don’t do it, we’ll take in substantial revenues.”
Bessent also addressed cuts to the IRS after the Trump administration initiated a large-scale federal workforce reduction, including widespread cuts of probationary employees.
The treasury secretary said that the IRS had approximately 15,000 probationary employees who could have been fired, but “we kept about 7,500, 8,500 because we viewed them as essential to the mission.” Late last week, two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to temporarily reinstate thousands of fired probationary workers.
