Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent appears on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss the current status of the economy and ongoing geopolitical events.  Within the interview [Video and Transcript Below] Secretary Bessent notes that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is coordinating closely with both British King Charles and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, needs to be very careful about the malicious lies he is speaking to U.S. audiences. WATCH: 

[Transcript] – KRISTEN WELKER: Welcome back. Joining me now is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Secretary Bessent, welcome back to Meet the Press.

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, good to be with you.

KRISTEN WELKER: It’s great to have you back. Let’s start on inflation, these new inflation numbers we got this week. Consumer prices rose in September at the fastest pace in five months, to 3.7%. Are the president’s policies driving up inflation?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, we have an energy shock. And if you look underneath the hood in the numbers, core inflation has been very flat before this month, and it’d been down for four months in a row. So core inflation is down. The food is below the Fed’s targets. The prescription drugs have had the biggest decrease in history. Rents are down. So this is an energy shock. We will get to the other side of the Iran conflict, and those prices will come down.

KRISTEN WELKER: Well, core inflation doesn’t take energy, for example, into account or food into account. And in fact the price of gas is up 44%, Mr. Secretary, since the start of the war with Iran. What do you say to voters right now who say they are struggling and they want change?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, why don’t we revisit the Biden-era policies where the American people got smoked? 21.5% inflation and only about 17% wage increases. Since President Trump has started, the American people have gotten real wage increases, 1.5%. We’re not satisfied with that. But as I said, you know, we’re getting these wage increases through our economic policies. And the wage increases are going to be persistent. We will get to the other side of the Iran conflict, and I believe that the energy markets are going to be better supplied than they were.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I hear you blaming President Biden, but President Trump has been in office now for 636 days. That’s about a year and a half, and inflation was at 3% when he took office. It’s 3.7% now. At what point does the administration take responsibility for the economy and say this is the Trump economy?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

Well, we will own the economy. So far this year, we’ve got a million private-sector jobs. We’ve never had this many people working in the U.S. The net worth of American households are the highest that it’s ever been. So, Kristen, let’s be clear here. This is an energy supply side shock. We will get to the other side of this. This is one factor.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Even President Trump has said this is his economy. Let me ask you, though. You are the Treasury Secretary. Do you anticipate gas prices will come down by the new year?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

Well, again, it will depend on what happens with the Iran conflict.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay, let’s talk about the war with Ukraine now. President Trump signed an executive order waiving sanctions against Russia. I just talked about this with President Zelenskyy, who tells me this move is a big support for Putin. Why is the president rewarding a dictator who invaded Ukraine?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

President Trump has made it clear he wants the killing to stop. And the so-called Graham bill gives the president the flexibility, gives him 60 days to assess the situation. And, Kristen, let’s look at what’s really happening here, that the Europeans have given Russia and Vladimir Putin more money than they’ve given the Ukrainians. They continue to gorge on Russian energy. There is a facility called the Yamal facility. In the first six months of the year, there were 140 cargoes that left. 136 of those went to Europe, to Belgium, to Spain, to France, to the Netherlands. Over $8 billion. So we have asked, in the spring, I asked our European allies to join us in putting secondary tariffs on China, on India. They refused. So why should the U.S. bear the burden? So President Trump, perhaps will be in contact with our European partners. Why should the U.S. go it alone, Kristen?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, I guess the question is, “What role should the U.S. play?” During your confirmation hearing in January of 2025, you described the war in Ukraine as one of the greatest tragedies in your life, and you had this criticism about the Biden administration’s approach to sanctions at the time. Take a listen.

[BEGIN TAPE]

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

I believe that the sanctions were not fulsome enough. I believe that we — I believe that the previous administration was worried about raising U.S. energy prices during an election season.

[END TAPE]

KRISTEN WELKER:

Is President Trump doing what you accused President Biden of doing?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

First of all, Kristen, the sanctions were doubled. The Biden administration, in an act of incredible bravery, doubled the sanctions on the way out, in January of 2025. So uh, but we did not take those down. President Trump sanctioned the two largest Russian energy companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, which dealt a catastrophic blow to the Russian energy industry. So no one has been tougher on Russian sanctions than President Trump.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But you there are pushing for even tougher sanctions –

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

– Kristen, we did the toughest sanctions.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay, but why lift them now? What has Putin done to deserve sanctions relief now? That’s my question —

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

Well, first of all Kristen, that’s not true. No sanctions were lifted on Friday. No sanctions were lifted.

KRISTEN WELKER:

There was a law that was supposed to put more sanctions in place –

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

Yes, but —

KRISTEN WELKER:

The president effectively waived that.

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

– Kristen, no sanctions were lifted.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Will they be lifted?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

There is a 60-day period so we can examine what’s going on. The only thing that has been lifted is the diesel embargo. And, you know, I will point out the U.K. in May waived their embargo on diesel and jet fuel made with Russian crude. So, you know, where’s the outrage for the rest of the world? President Zelenskyy does not criticize his European partners. He seemed a bit disassembled in that interview. The Europeans are financing the Russian war machine. The U.S. imports $4 billion of Russian products. 1.8 billion of that fertilizer. Europeans import more than ten times that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You know, speaking of President Zelenskyy, he says Ukraine will not prevail if the United States sides with Russia. A number of Republican senators have said that’s what this move does. Is the president siding with Russia here?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

No. Again, that’s a false binary. What does the U.S. provide? The U.S. provides intelligence via Starlink, and we provide, we allow NATO to buy U.S. armaments and resell them to Ukraine. You know, when President Zelenskyy asked for Patriots, the European members of NATO, they have plenty of Patriots. Why aren’t they forthcoming with the Patriots? Where’s Germany giving the Ukrainians Patriots?

KRISTEN WELKER:

You bring up Starlink. President Zelenskyy just discussed Starlink. I’d like to have you respond. Ukraine relies on Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite network, just for our viewers, to defend against Russian drones. President Zelenskyy just said he believes the U.S. government slowed the speed. Now, President Trump said he had nothing to do with it. But can you definitively say no one in the Trump administration ordered restrictions?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said that no one in the Trump administration did that. And I think it is very reckless for President Zelenskyy to make such a charge.

KRISTEN WELKER:

How did it get slowed down? How are these disruptions caused? Because President Zelenskyy also said there was a break in intel sharing as well. Why did that happen?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

Again, I don’t know anything about that, but we’ve been very clear. And, you know, President Zelenskyy should be very careful about making statements like this that aren’t true.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Bottom line, Mr. Secretary, is Ukraine an ally of the United States?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

President Trump has made it clear that he wants to end this war, that it must stop. And President Zelenskyy presents a false binary this morning that — Ukraine must win. The war must end, and that will be with some kind of a negotiated settlement, and President Trump is working on that every day. He’s done it since he came into office.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And just to the core question, though, does the United States see Ukraine as an ally?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

Again, we provide three different things to Ukraine. So that’s what you do for an ally. We’re not providing those to Russia.

KRISTEN WELKER:

So does that mean the United States sees Ukraine as an ally? Can you say one way or another definitively?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

Again, I’m not the secretary of state. I’m not the president.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. All right. Secretary, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, thank you so very much. Appreciate your being here.

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT:

Thank you.

{End Transcript}