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U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent speaks to students and faculty of SMU\u2019s Cox School of Business during a fireside chat with Cox Executive Board Member Ray Washburne, September 8, 2026. The event was held at the Cox School of Business in University Park.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a prelude to the Republican midterm convention in Dallas at a talk hosted by Southern Methodist University. Fielding questions from Dallas developer and Cox School of Business executive board member Ray Washburne, Bessent defended the Trump administration’s economic record and made his pitch for why Republicans should keep Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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“Texas is the lab for the Trump economy,” Bessent said. “In the U.S., we have good trade policy, good tax policy, great energy policy, and importantly, deregulation. So I think we’re going to see three competing economic visions: the U.S., the growth agenda, …. the European sclerosis model, … and then the Chinese state model. I think in 20 years we’re going to see that it was the U.S. model that won.”<\/p>\n
Related story: Republican midterm convention brings Trump, Vance to Dallas<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A frequent topic in the hour-long conversation was the national debt, which recently hit $40 trillion<\/a>. Bessent repeated his common mantra that the U.S. could “grow our way out of it” with 3% annual growth in gross domestic product.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I think that we were well ahead of that when the president rightly decided that Iran could not have a nuclear weapon. We’ll get to the other side of this Iran conflict, and the underlying economy is very, very strong, and I think re-accelerating,” he said.<\/p>\n U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent (left) visited with SMU Cox School of Business Executive Board Member Ray Washburne during a fireside chat hosted by SMU\u2019s Cox School of Business, September 8, 2026. The event before School of Business students and faculty was held on campus in University Park.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n In the second quarter of 2026, U.S. GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.5%, down from 2.1 % in the prior quarter, dragged down by high oil prices<\/a> from the war in Iran. GDP also grew at about 2% in 2025, as the country dealt with tariffs leveled unilaterally by President Donald Trump and then struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in February. Bessent claimed the federal budget deficit-to-GDP ratio, which currently sits at about 6%<\/a>, would have been down year-over-year this year, “except the Supreme Court made me give back $180 billion of tariff refunds.”<\/p>\n Though praising Bessent for a 4.1% unemployment rate, Washburne asked about interest rates, which remain high. Bessent responded by positing that interest rates are the most correlated with energy prices they’ve ever been, and positioned high energy prices as temporary, potentially a year or two,\u00a0saying “on the other side of this, I think that the market is going to be oversupplied with oil.”<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Washburne lightly pushed back, asking how the U.S. could bring down energy prices while at practically full refining capacity, while other oil-producing nations like Russia, still at war with Ukraine, are unable or unwilling to raise their production as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Well, in Brownsville, we’re going to have the first new refinery open in the U.S., but it won’t be till 2030,” Bessent responded. “But again, that’s a long cycle problem. We didn’t get here overnight, and we’re not going to fix it overnight.”<\/p>\n U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent (left) visited with SMU Cox School of Business Executive Board Member Ray Washburne during a fireside chat hosted by SMU\u2019s Cox School of Business, September 8, 2026. The event before School of Business students and faculty was held on campus in University Park.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Bessent also criticized “narratives” about the economy, such as about the debt and bond markets, and took aim at the press for how it has covered the economy.<\/p>\n “Now that I’m on the inside, I am shocked by how poor the news is. When I came into the administration, the president used the term ‘fake news’ a lot, and I thought, ‘Well, I don’t know if I love that term.’ And now that I’m in, I’m not sure it’s strong enough,” he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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