Trump’s Economy “Is Poised To Be Unleashed— if They Can End the War” in Iran

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Scott Bessent briefs the two, yesterday in the cabinet meeting. Yeah, he was very bullish on the American economy, flying in the face of a lot of consumer sentiment, CEO sentiment, and general feelings in the American public about how things are going and how the president's doing on the economy. Here's a preview of what I suspect Scott Bessent's posture will be towards the fundamentals of the economy yesterday in the cabinet meeting.

[00:00:25]>> We're entering the second half of our 250th anniversary year with renewed optimism and momentum. It has never been a better time to be an American, and as you said earlier, we have a record number of Americans working.

[00:00:40]The economy that you were building is not only strong, but secure and resilient and better positioned to compete globally.

[00:00:47]Real GDP has risen 2.7% over the past four quarters, something that many economists said couldn't be done. In the first quarter of 2026, despite the Iran conflict, GDP grew at a 2% annual rate. The Atlanta Fed GDP now is predicting 4.3% for this quarter.

[00:01:09]In terms of prices, I believe the prices are transitory. Oil will be lower than pre-conflict levels when this ends.

[00:01:16]Natural gas is already down, as you mentioned. Drug and pharmaceutical prices, they are plummeting and rent is down. We are more resilient to energy price fluctuations due to your energy dominance agenda, deregulatory efforts, and we have never sold so [snorts] much energy to the rest of the world.

[00:01:38]Business investment rose at a 10.4% annual rate in the first quarter.

[00:01:43]Capital expenditures and business equipment rose more than 17%, and that is the as a result of the tax bill and tariffs.

[00:01:54]All right, Kevin, The days are here again, or as we say in Jersey, that dog won't hunt.

[00:01:59]>> I don't think that dog will hunt. Notice all the economic indicators he talked about business investments, GDP, all of those things. Again, take it from the guy who tried to sell Bidenomics for 4 years talking about the GDP of America leading the world. Nothing really was said by the Treasury Secretary when it came to what Americans are feeling, how they're investing, how their ability to sell and buy homes and make money off of that. Everything is frozen when it comes to the American people right now. Take it from the guy who's trying to sell his place in DC right now and move mostly full-time to Charleston. You're seeing that dynamic play out and that and we'll see the Treasury Secretary obviously briefs it too. He then goes on to the Reagan economic summit I think tomorrow to speak. But again, all of these statistics are great and powerful and shows a strong in the economy even though the Trump is throwing everything at it. But consumer confidence is at a a low we haven't seen since the 1950s and what people are feeling is very different from what the economic indicators are right now.

[00:02:57]>> Larry does to what extent does the Secretary run the risk of sounding out of touch?

[00:03:02]>> I think that he would benefited from the fact that his face wasn't on camera as he was saying the things that [laughter] he was saying. And uh >> Even you made a noise when he said inflation was transitory.

[00:03:11]>> Well, if you notice he didn't say inflation, he he said prices were transitory which I think was a very very >> a lot of grief. We got a lot of grief for that one.

[00:03:20]>> Choice of words.

[00:03:21]>> My obesity is transitory, too.

[00:03:23]>> Yeah. [laughter] >> I >> But listen, y'all aren't wrong.

[00:03:27]Even though I I sort of half jokingly say the fundamentals of the economy are sound, there are some really good indications right now.

[00:03:33]>> Absolutely.

[00:03:33]>> Especially considering the you know, the the the giant aircraft carrier of an economy that sort of it wasn't a U-turn, but they took a significant turn in a new direction what with tariffs and on-shoring manufacturing and a whole new approach to manufacturing and all the hiring not being government jobs as it was for the first four the last four years under Biden, but actual private sector jobs. That takes a while and there's going to be some pain. That stuff's been put in place. It's energy costs. They got to get on top of this.

[00:04:01]They got to do something about it and they've got to come up with a solution on energy costs. Every single problem with the CPI and all the other things that people actually feel every single day, I think is connected to gas and energy across the board and they got to have a better story. That's that's the bottom line here.

[00:04:18]>> Yeah. And to Larry's point, too, I mean, there's some reporting out this morning that it there's going to be huge issue when it comes to grocery prices come the fall, right when the midterms are hitting, based on, you know, stuff out of the control of the president, not just the energy factors, but weather, you know, disease, things like that, to say nothing of fertilizer issues, that this is all going to compound right in the fall when this is all coming to a head.

[00:04:41]>> people in the economics team truly believe that it is everything is poised to just be unleashed.

[00:04:46]>> end the war. If they can end the war.

[00:04:48]The world economy is under extraordinary pressure, too, and a lot of places are suffering already the kinds of impacts like on that fertilizer and and energy that people worry will will hit the United States. And amongst those worrying, not just the American people, but Republicans who are on the ballot or people running campaigns.

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