In the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second administration, the president and his team have rattled markets with their economic policies and significantly modified the federal government with their reduction in employee head count and deregulatory efforts.
The administration’s workforce and spending cuts have often been spearheaded by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency,” while the president has signed two executive actions calling for federal agencies to review existing regulations and rescind certain rules.
“I call it reprivatizing the government or reprivatizing the U.S. economy,” Bessent said of the changes. “Through financial deregulation, we’re releveraging the private sector and then the excess employment that was shed in the government economy can go to the private sector.”
Private credit is one thing in which the Treasury secretary said he’s particularly interested, as “the growth of private credit tells me that the regulated banking system has been too toughly constrained.”
Trump’s tariff policies have also been a major point of contention, as he initially announced a minimum baseline of 10% tariffs on all countries and “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of others April 2. The president then decided to delay the reciprocal tariffs, raised tariffs on China to 145% and has sent mixed signals about what his plans are moving forward.
“How do you strike the balance between the administration's goal of reindustrialization in the U.S. and the risk of isolating the U.S. economy?” Michael Milken, chair of the Milken Institute, asked Bessent on May 5.
“I think that they're not mutually exclusive,” Bessent responded. While “it’s not always a pleasant process” to improve trade, he added, “I think at the end, the trading relationships will be stronger. Our security and values ties will still be there.”
Bessent also boasted the president’s signature tax legislation Republicans are aiming to pass this year, which he said is “for Main Street America and investors alike.” That bill, which the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee advanced April 30, includes a provision to raise the retirement contribution rates for federal civilian employees and eventually reduce their benefits by adjusting the way annuity payments are calculated.
