Bret Baier Confronts Bessent About Trump’s Dismal Approval Rating: ‘It’s Upside-Down’ 

Fox News’s Bret Baier interviewed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and asked the cabinet official why President Donald Trump’s approval rating on the economy is “upside-down.”

Bessent spoke at the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday night, where he said, “The purpose of American economic statecraft is to connect national power with household prosperity.”

Afterward, Baier asked the secretary about his address.

“Basically, you’re saying prosperity is coming even if you don’t feel it right this second,” Baier said.

“There are two messages,” Bessent replied. “Prosperity’s coming. The underlying economy is very strong. We’re gonna get on the other side of this Iran conflict, and the inflation will come back to target. We’ll go back to real wage growth. But the other point in my speech was prosperity and security are linked. And for decades, we detached security and prosperity, and we can’t have real, durable prosperity without economic security.”

In his speech, Bessent said the Biden administration had ignored how people felt about the economy. Baier pointed to a Fox News poll showing Trump’s economic approval rating at 31%, with a whopping 68% disapproving.

“If you look at the polls, it is upside-down when it comes to economic thought,” Baier noted. “Why is that?”

“Gasoline’s a big indicator,” Bessent replied. “That’s gonna come down, and people are spending. And I think that we are going to see some very substantial real wage growth. We’ve seen construction jobs, 90,000 construction jobs created. Those will become manufacturing jobs as the factories are built. We’re seeing manufacturing jobs tick up.”

Watch above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!