Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent vows to cut interest rates to help struggling Americans

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent has reaffirmed the administration's commitment to tackling inflation and making life more affordable for Americans. In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Bessent detailed the administration's economic priorities, including efforts to cut interest rates.

sust In: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “We are working to cut interest rates.” pic.twitter.com/ropcecal85

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Mortgage rates have declined “dramatically” since Election Day and inauguration, Bescent said. He attributed this trend in part to future bank deregulation.

Bessent emphasized that the administration aims to support Americans who suffer from high borrowing costs, particularly those in the bottom 50% of incomes “became crushed by these high interest rates” over the past two years.

He said lower interest rates not only benefit homeowners, but also helps to ease credit card and car loan costs that disproportionately affected low-income Americans.

“So we're aiming to cut interest rates and I think this is one of the biggest achievements ever,” Bescent said.

While inflation was eased, Bescent noted that the costs of essential goods, housing and insurance remained high, mainly due to excessive restrictions imposed by the previous administration.

“There's affordable prices, then there's inflation. Inflation is slowing down, but we haven't returned to the Fed's target area yet. Affordable prices are this massive spike we've seen over the last two and four years,” said Becent when asked how affordable prices could affect inflation.

“We're going to try to cut prices,” Bescent said. He said deregulation is key to addressing sector-wide costs such as insurance and housing.

“There's a management burden of thousands of dollars each year. If you can cut that red tape and beat it, that's a great start to affordable prices,” Bescent said.

The administration's customs policy was another important focus of Bescent's remarks. New tariffs (10% for all Chinese imports, 25% for imports from Mexico and Canada) came into effect this week, sparking a market response.

While some analysts fear potential price hikes, Bescent has expressed confidence that Chinese manufacturers will absorb tariffs rather than handing over the costs to American consumers.

“In China's tariffs, China's business model is exports, exports, exports, and that's not acceptable,” Bessent emphasized.

“They are now in the middle of a financial crisis and they are trying to get out of it. So I'm confident that Chinese tariffs will cause Chinese manufacturers to eat tariffs. Prices won't rise,” he explained.

He also pointed to recent moves by companies like Honda, who announced plans to shift manufacturing to Indiana as evidence that tariffs encourage businesses to bring production back to the US.

“In Canada and Mexico, I think we're in the middle of a transition. Like you said, Honda has moved to Indiana and is a great start,” he said.

The Treasury Secretary also outlined plans to expand U.S. energy production across crude oil, natural gas and nuclear power generation.

“We're getting a bigger nuclear weapon and we're … we're going to cut costs, but we're also the leading energy exporter that makes the world safer,” Bescent said.

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