Commentary

After Janet Yellen at Treasury, Scott Bessent has been a breath of fresh air, not only because he knows his stuff and is open to new ideas. But that’s especially helpful when you’re working for a guy like President Trump, an idea machine without the words status quo in his vocabulary. 

By now you have heard about his support for tariffs while pointing to the potential for higher revenue coming into the treasury.  When he was nominated in November 2024, Trump spoke of Bessent as, “one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street,” who will be driving U.S. competitiveness and stopping unfair trade imbalances.

When the UK and the EU believed that Trump would slap a punitive tariff on them if they opposed the sale of Greenland to the U.S., Bessent called for calm, warning that the “worst thing countries can do is escalate against the United States.

“What I’m urging everyone to do is sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out.”

Similarly, Greenlanders were assured there would not be a military takeover of Greenland. 

They did and a plan for a major role for the U.S. in Greenland is being negotiated.

But you may not have heard of Bessent’s smooth take down of California Gov. Newsom at Davos. 

When Newsom’s scheduled speech there was mysteriously scrubbed, he took verbal shots at Trump during a panel discussion and was critical of European leaders, believing they were overly accommodating of the president.

Bessent responded as only he can do, suggesting, “Gavin Newsom may be cracking up, some of these things he’s saying. I think he may be in over his hairdo,” 

Referring to Newsom calling Trump a tyrannosaurus rex, “what the hell does that mean? I can say Gavin Newsom, has a “brain the size of a walnut” and that he knows “less about economics than” former Vice President Kamala Harris, which he clarified is “a terrible place to be in.”

May God continue to bless the United States of America.