‘It’s Just the Not Knowing!’ CNBC Host Pushes Back on Trump Treasury Sec Saying New Tariff Threats ‘Not a Big Deal’

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joined CNBC’s Sara Eisen on Thursday morning to discuss the latest news coming from the Trump White House on tariffs.

“Look the market’s been really focused on tariffs, Mr. Secretary. And it’s been another sort of up and down ride this week. A lot of uncertainty among business leaders this morning. President Trump threatened a 200% tariff on European wines, champagnes, and alcoholic products coming out of France and other EU countries. And I do wonder how that comes to be. Was this– was this premeditated? Did you know about this as this is a retaliation to what Europe did in retaliation to the steel and aluminum tariffs, but 200%?!” asked Eisen at one point.

“Yeah. Look, I was with the Business Roundtable yesterday. I think it was 100, 135 CEOs. And, you know, I talked to them about our plan, which includes tariffs, deregulation and what I call reprivatizing the government and bringing down this incredible bubble of government spending. And you know what? 1 or 2 items with one trading block. I’m not sure why that’s a big deal for the markets,” Bessent replied.

Eisen then offered her take on why the tariff whiplash is causing a market selloff, “I think that the big deal for the market is just the not knowing what’s next and what the target is necessarily going to be, and also not knowing where this stops, because if we ratchet up tariffs, they retaliate. We go higher. Then what?”

“Well, look it could go the other way too. Look, that’s the nature of these reciprocal tariffs that all President Trump is asking is for countries to take theirs off. So we have identified some strategic industries that still own them, likely autos, but everything else is up for grabs. And that’s going to be a decision that’s made by our trading partners,” Bessent replied.

Watch the clip above via CNBC.