“I took some flak last week at the Economic Club [of New York] where I said cheap goods are not the American dream,” Bessent said. “Mike Pence came out and said ‘Secretary Bessent doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’ I would tell the former vice president that ‘let them eat flat screens is not an economic policy.’ People want to have good jobs, they want to own a home, they want to have dignity, they want to enjoy work, they want their communities to be sound, and we want affordability but bringing in a bunch of baubles and trinkets to satisfy people who are displaced isn’t the American dream.”

– Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent