Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threw down with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday morning, slamming her inquiries into funding for the Iran War as “ridiculous!”
Bessent joined Welker on Meet the Press for a heated conversation that had Bessent clearly exasperated—at one point telling Welker that she should “get rid of” her researcher as they were “not getting it.”
In the interview, Welker pressed Bessent on where money for the Iran War would come from after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Iranian oil and asked Congress to approve more than $200 billion to fund the conflict—a move Bessent himself dubbed “supplemental” to “make sure that the military is well supplied going forward” as the U.S. has “plenty of money to fund this war.”
“Would the administration ever raise taxes in order to fund the war?” Welker asked of where the additional funds would come from.
“Again, Kristen, terrible framing,” Bessent retorted.
“Well, it’s just a simple question that I think a lot of people have—,” Welker pressed before Bessent cut her off.
“No, no, it’s a ridiculous question,” he said.
Welker persisted, asking, “Well, can you answer it?”
Bessent responded with a question of his own.
“Why would we do that?” he said of raising taxes. “We have plenty. We have a trillion dollars in this year’s budget for the military. And President Trump, even before the conflict started, had said that he would like to further build out the military.”
Ultimately, Bessent said raising taxes was “not at all” under consideration.
Next, turning to the consumer impact, Welker pressed Bessent on increasing oil prices, citing United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby‘s hypothesis that oil barrel prices could stay above $100 through 2027.
“All of this could potentially mean higher prices for consumers,” Welker said. “What do you say to Americans who feel they were promised lower costs and now they’re getting the opposite?”
Bessent asserted that the trade-off of “50 years of no having an Iranian regime with a nuclear weapon” is worth it, saying, “The American people are beginning to understand, thanks to President Trump, that there is no prosperity without security.”
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