Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's recent interview with Aaron Ross Sorkin raised red flags for a pair of analysts on Wednesday.
Sorkin interviewed Bessent at The New York Times' DealBook Summit, an annual gathering of business leaders, where the Treasury secretary made a series of questionable claims, according to Jonathan V. Last and Tim Miller of The Bulwark. Among them: Bessent's defense of Trump's appearance at Tuesday's cabinet meeting — where he appeared to fall asleep — and suggestion that he doesn't read the news.
Miller described the interview as a "performance act" during a new episode of "Bulwark Takes." He pointed to Bessent's repeated attacks against the media.
"Scott Bessant and JD Vance are just condescending p----s with no sauce," Miller said. "And they think that they can borrow some of Trump's sauce by going into these interviews and instead of engaging with the questions that are being asked by a smart, fair person like Andrew Ross Sorkin and he's like, 'I'm just going to attack the New York Times and and then you know the MAGA Chuds are going to cheer for me and go, Yay, Scott Bessent.' No, it doesn't work. It's awkward. You seem weird."
Last also warned that Bessent's suggestion that he doesn't read the news was revealing for all of the wrong reasons. Miller wondered if Bessent would be trustworthy enough to guide the economy out of a true crisis.
"Everything is fine having this absolute moron as secretary of the Treasury so long as there's no crisis," Last said. "But if you wind up in a crisis where you know the president, the secretary of the Treasury, and the chairman of the Fed, what they say and their standing within the financial community is incredibly important because people need to be able to trust their representations."