Trump Treasury Chief Drops Absurd Dodge When Asked Point-Blank if Trump Spoke to Xi

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dropped an absurd dodge when confronted about whether or not President Donald Trump has spoken with China’s President Xi Jinping, and after evading another question about trade negotiations with China.

Trump has been jousting with Chinese officials over whether or not the Asian superpower has been seeking a deal to avoid the massive tariffs that have been escalating in recent weeks. China claims there have been no talks, while Trump has claimed there have — and that Xi has called him personally.

At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Bessent joined White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for the second early session this week amid a PR offensive pegged to Trump’s first 100 days in office.

CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang pressed Bessent on those claims, and among the evasions Bessent threw at her was a priceless note about White House job responsibilities:

WEIJIA JIANG: Thank you so much, Karoline. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

The Chinese continue to say that the U.S. And Chinese are not engaged in any consultation or negotiation on tariffs. You recently said you’ve talked to your counterpart, but more about, quote, “traditional things, like financial stability.”.

So can you clarify, is the administration talking to Beijing specifically about tariffs or not?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, we’re not going to talk about who’s talking to whom, but I think that over time we will see that the Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China.

I’ve seen some very large numbers over the past few days that show if these numbers stay on, Chinese could lose 10 million jobs very quickly and even if there is a drop and the tariffs, that they could lose five million jobs.

Remember that we are the deficit country. They sell almost five times more goods to us than we sell to them. So the onus will be on them to take off these tariffs. They’re unsustainable for them.

WEIJIA JIANG: And they are saying you guys are not talking about it. So is that true?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Look, they have a different form of government. They’re playing to a different audience.

So I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty again of who’s talking to whom. But as I said, I believe for the Chinese, these tariffs are unsustainable.

KAROLINE LEAVITT: Bloomberg. Go ahead.

WEIJIA JIANG: Very quickly, two days ago, you said you didn’t know if President Trump had spoken to Xi Jinping. Do you know now?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Again, I would say Karoline and I have a lot of jobs around the White House. Running the switchboard isn’t one of them.

Watch above via The White House.