Scott Bessent Scorches ‘Fever Swamp’ NY Times at Newspaper’s Own Summit

WATCH: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just called out the New York Times and Andrew Ross Sorkin right to their faces:

“The New York Times is no longer the paper of record. I read this article ‘President Trump is Slowing Down’… He only called me twice at 2 am last week.” pic.twitter.com/xFfpb2n1yv

— CJ Pearson (@Cjpearson) December 3, 2025

President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent scorched The New York Times from the stage at its own DealBook Summit Wednesday, boldly warning the newspaper would soon be obsolete and accusing it of having aided a “cover up” of President Joe Biden’s health while pushing “100% fake” reporting on Trump’s fitness.

In a live exchange with DealBook founder Andrew Ross Sorkin, who also fronts CNBC’s Squawk Box, Bessent declared the Times is fading into irrelevance while discussing the challenges faced by legacy media.

“I guess the question is: Is this a new normal?” Sorkin asked.

Bessent shot back: “Andrew, there’s no new normal,” adding that he has stopped reading the paper but that the articles sent his way prove to him the outlet is “just this fever swamp.”

“You know, in twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years The New York Times is no longer the paper of record,” he predicted. “I read this article, like ‘President Trump is slowing down. President Trump’s mental capacity –’ It is a hundred percent fake. Like he only called me twice at two in the morning last week instead of three times.”

A report by the Times on Friday detailed shorter workdays, fewer public events, and several moments in recent months when Trump appeared to doze off during meetings. The president blasted the article as a “hit piece” and branded the reporter “ugly.”

More incendiary was his later charge that the Times played a role in what he called “one of the greatest scandals of all time” in its “coverage of the Biden administration, Joe Biden’s diminished capacity, and the cover up.”

Sorkin countered that any issue with coverage of Biden meant it is “probably fair to raise these questions” about Trump’s capacity too.

But Bessent doubled down, blaming the newspaper for ignoring the president’s active schedule to push articles.

“Where was The New York Times? We just had a three-hour Cabinet meeting yesterday, Andrew!” he said, before alleging Biden scarcely met his Cabinet and questioning how “you’re going to invoke the 25th Amendment if the Cabinet secretaries never see the president?”

Watch above via X.