Scott Bessent says US economy doing 'better than we thought', notes 4% GDP growth

WASHINGTON, DC: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made an appearance on ‘Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan’ to discuss America’s economic condition on Sunday, December 7. 

During the appearance, Bessent stated that the “economy has been better than we thought,” adding that “we’ve had the 4-4% GDP growth” in a couple of quarters.  

Scott Bessent chimes in on Trump’s holiday season prediction 

While speaking to Margaret Brennan, the Treasury secretary chimed in on Donald Trump’s previous prediction about children having “two dolls instead of 30” due to higher prices and inflation.

When asked if the president’s April 2025 predictions were on point, Bessent noted that it had been a “very strong holiday season.”

Bessent added that there was nothing to support Donald Trump’s statements about the dolls because the economy was better than the administration had previously thought.

He added that they were going to finish the year strong despite the recent government shutdown, with a “3% real GDP growth.”

Brennan read out the Tonka Truck’s CEO’s statement, claiming that due to the tariffs, it would cost them $40 more to make their toys, and said that people were feeling the rising inflation.

Bessent responded that inflation was a “composite number,” noting that it was the same year after year.

While speaking about the PCE number, at 2.9% it was higher than the imported goods inflation rate, which stood at 1.8%. Bessent further said that the service economy was “generating inflation.”

“Which actually has nothing to do with tariffs,” he added.

As Brennan read out the results of the latest CBS polls about the public’s reaction to how the Trump administration was handling the media, she mentioned that according to their polls, 60% of the population believed that Trump made things sound better than they were economically. 

Scott Bessent blames Dems for scarcity of resources 

When Bessent was shown the polling results, he told Margaret Brennan that Donald Trump was “frustrated” by the way the media covered issues.

He added that affordability had “two components,” “inflation and real income.” He further claimed that the real incomes were higher by 1% in 2025, and said that they were not going to say that Americans didn’t know what they were “feeling.”

He stated that the administration had been working on it “every day” and that they had a lot of “gains.”

Bessent added that America had “this embedded inflation” from the “Biden years” when the mainstream media claimed that people didn’t know “how good they have it.” 

“Democrats created scarcity,” he said. 

Bessent added that they were seeing an affordability problem in 2025 but believed they would “move on to prosperity” in 2026.