Bessent: Tariff negotiations result of 'massive inflow' of calls, not markets

Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that President Trump’s apparent willingness to engage in tariff negotiations is a result of a “massive inflow” of calls from countries, not the downturn in global markets.

In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” co-host Joe Kernen asked Bessent about reporting that the secretary went to Florida this weekend to stress to Trump that the markets “needed to hear that negotiations about these tariffs were in play.”

“Lo and behold, we did see a bounce,” Kernen said. “Is that a fair assessment? Do you think that’s what happened?”

Bessent pushed back, saying, “it’s not a fair assessment of what happened over the weekend,” adding, “I went down to see President Trump, as I do many weekends.”

Bessent stressed that the decision to signal publicly a willingness to engage in negotiations was Trump’s alone and that it followed an influx of calls from countries rushing to the negotiating table.

“I can tell you, it’s all President Trump’s decision,” Bessent said. “And he had a view on, after liberation day, that we should go into quiet mode and let our partners think about the kind of the shock and awe that he presented.”

Bessent said, since April 2, when Trump announced his sweeping global tariffs that sent the market into a tailspin, “up to” 70 countries have already contacted the White House “for how to come and negotiate.”

“So, I would say that the negotiations are the result of the massive inflow of inbound calls to come and negotiate,” Bessent added. “It had nothing to do with the market.”

Bessent said Monday that the U.S. is opening trade negotiations with Japan after Trump had a “very constructive phone discussion” with the country’s prime minister. Trump, on Tuesday, said he had a “great call” with South Korea’s acting president, who is sending a team to the U.S. to make a deal on tariffs.

“We are likewise dealing with many other countries, all of whom want to make a deal with the United States. Like with South Korea, we are bringing up other subjects that are not covered by Trade and Tariffs, and getting them negotiated also. ‘ONE STOP SHOPPING’ is a beautiful and efficient process!!!” Trump added, in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.

In a separate interview Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Bessent said he is managing “a massive number of requests for negotiations” and spent a lot of time Tuesday morning going through the requests for meetings, a task he described as “logistically quite challenging.”

Bessent said he’s readying a plan to present to the president on which meetings to prioritize, adding, “But, yes, he obviously he prioritizes two of our closest allies, trading partners, Japan and Korea.”

“And the word out of those conversations was really positive and positive really for American workers, American farmers. There are a heck of a lot of concessions on the table,” Bessent said in the Fox News interview.

“In the end, the president, of course, is going to be the one who decides whether the deal is good enough to change his mind about the tariffs,” he added.