WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed Thursday that 6 million American children are enrolled in the about-to-launch “Trump Accounts” while brushing off what he called “short-term challenges” to the economy.
Bessent, hosting a White House briefing, dismissed what he called a “doomer view” of the Iran war’s impact as he championed a more optimistic view of Americans’ well-being, pointing to stock indices notching all-time highs and ballooning 401k values.
In wide-ranging remarks, the Treasury secretary predicted that inflation, gas prices and the national deficit would soon recede — and said Americans’ personal savings rate slumping to a four-year low actually could signal economic confidence.
“Academic literature would tell you a lower savings rate can mean one of two things, the kind of the doomer view that you took, or that people have more confidence,” Bessent told reporters.
“Stock market gains or 401k gains might not show up in savings, so they’re looking at that and think that they can draw down their household savings.”
401k values are up on average $30,000 since Trump took office, lower drug prices through the TrumpRx platform have saved consumers an estimated $600 million and unemployment has stayed relatively low at 4.3%, he said.
Bessent predicted that a possible deal to end the Iran war could swiftly reverse concerning economic signals, such as the spike in inflation that catapulted the Consumer Price Index to 3.8% in April.
“We’ve already seen oil prices come down substantially. We are pumping more oil than we’ve ever seen before, and as I said, these are short-term challenges that we will get over,” Bessent said, forecasting “substantial disinflation” in the near future.
Brent crude sold for about $85 a barrel Thursday, down nearly 30% from late April but still elevated from pre-war rates.
“Oil prices are down about 10% in May. There are almost 2,000 ships waiting to come out of the [Persian] Gulf, and I think the oil market is going to be very well supplied on the other side of this, and that we could see prices come down very quickly,” he said.
“We perhaps have the makings of [an Iran war] deal here, and I believe that the economy, it is challenging now, but unemployment is still low, tax refunds were high, and consumer spending is still quite high.”
The former investor and fund manager cited his business background in dismissing concerns.
“In my private business over the years, I always looked at what were consumers doing, not what they were saying, and I’m in constant contact with the banks, and every income quintile is still doing well,” he said.
“We’ve had sustained and resilient GDP growth. Real GDP has risen 2.6% over the past four quarters. Atlanta Fed’s GDP now predicts 3.8% for this quarter.”
He said that “part of our resilience stems from our energy dominance. Natural gas is down. It’s my belief, and the futures market is showing us oil will be lower than pre-conflict levels. We are more resilient to energy price fluctuations due to President Trump’s energy dominance and deregulatory agenda.”
“Most importantly, I think we’ve got the [Chairman Kevin] Warsh Fed now. It’s a new day at the Fed,” Bessent said, coyly hinting he expected consideration of lower interest rates.
“I had my first breakfast with Chair Warsh this morning, and I believe that he will do the right thing to balance inflation and growth.”
Bessent also pointed to Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force as a possible boon to the federal deficit.
“The GAO numbers, not my numbers, believe that there’s about $500 billion a year of fraud, so could we very quickly get 250 billion, billion of that — the budget deficit is approximately $1.8 trillion — so that would reduce the deficit substantially,” he said.
“I think it would engender confidence. You probably also go into a virtuous cycle as the budget deficit narrowed, the interest rates would go down. No one reports it, but last year we actually had a fiscal contraction.”
‘A generation of shareholders’
Bessent also championed the about-to-launch Trump Accounts initiative created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
“Nearly 6 million American children have been signed up for Trump accounts, which will launch on July 4, and I would encourage all of you to go to trumpaccount.gov to sign up,” he said.
“If your child is born during President Trump’s administration, Treasury puts in $1,000 as a seed investment. We’ve also created six learning pods, so you can go online to the app that went up today and learn.”
“I think this is going to be one of the greatest real-time financial literacy educations in history,” Bessent said.
“I think we’re going to create a generation of shareholders.”
Bessent nimbly punted hot-button questions about legislation that would put Trump’s face on a new $250 bill — choosing to critique the quality of the Washington Post’s writing — and on what sanctions relief might mean for Iran, deftly calling on another journalist without answering.
The 63-year-old laughed off a question about whether he may run for president — owing to the fact that he is the third official to host a briefing while press secretary Karoline Leavitt is out on maternity leave, following Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“I think it just means they run out of things on the food chain,” he joked.
