President Donald Trump's Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, said that any fired government workers can simply find jobs in manufacturing companies that Trump claims his tariffs will create in the U.S.
"We are shedding excess labor in the federal government and bringing down federal borrowing. And then on the other side, that will give us the labor that we need for the new manufacturing" in the U.S., Bessent told fired Fox host Tucker Carlson.
The claim led to quick criticism.
"Bessent essentially says that the workers who lost their jobs because of DOGE will provide a workforce for manufacturing caused by the tariffs," said The Independent's Eric Michael Garcia.
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Yahoo Finance reporter Jordan Weissmann called the comment "beyond parody."
"Fired CDC researchers WILL sew the Nikes," quipped Heatmap News correspondent Matthew Zeitlin.
"This is the logic of the Cultural Revolution - sending down the bureaucrats to work in the provinces," cracked digital strategist Robert Cruickshank.
The Capitol Forum correspondent Jarrod Facundo encouraged folks to "learn to weld."
Robert Weintraub, supervising producer for The Weather Channel, jeered, "Psychopaths are in charge."
MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle said last week that she hasn't heard "one single CEO" saying that they will build a new plant in the U.S. It also takes three to five years to set one up, she said.
Veteran investigative reporter Phil Williams pointed to another Bessent comment in which he "argued that tariffs will eventually lead to increased income tax collections 'from all the new jobs,' then admits much of the new manufacturing will be done by AI/robotics."
Bessent went on to tell Carlson, "I believe that this is going to work. What I do know is that the old system wasn't working. And if you look at a system that's not working, you've got to be brave to change it."
Rolling Stone contributor Mac William Bishop asked, "When a billionaire hedge fund manager suddenly starts saying 'the old system wasn’t working,' what precisely about the 'old system' is he talking about?"