Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday offered a full-throated defense of the White House's position on tariffs, insisting that, "Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream." In a speech delivered to a crowd of leading economists,

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended Donald Trump’s tariffs, arguing that access to cheap goods are not the “essence of the American Dream.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used striking language to defend the Trump administration’s tariff policies during a Thursday speech at the Economic Club of New York.