Don’t Like Trump’s Economy? Maybe You Will Next Year

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent came to Congress Wednesday with a message to critics who say his administration’s tariffs are not delivering on promises to re-industrialize the country: give it some time.

Bessent answered questions from the House Financial Services Committee in a hearing Wednesday, addressing tariffs, the president’s attacks on the Federal Reserve, and other economic matters.

Bessent faced a mixture of supportive and critical questions from lawmakers during his testimony.

Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from New York, pointed out that the economy has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs every month since Trump imposed sweeping import taxes on most U.S. trading partners last year.

Bessent said a slew of factories have broken ground in response to the tariffs, which are intended to tip the scales in favor of domestic manufacturing over imports. Those factories will take some time to get up and running, he said.

So far, tariffs have not yet created the goal of a golden age of manufacturing that Trump is looking for. The U.S. economy has lost 72,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement in April.

Some business leaders have put hiring and expansion plans on hold because of the uncertainty surrounding the tariffs, according to surveys. For example, the Institute for Supply Management’s January poll of manufacturers was filled with complaints about import taxes, including from one manager who said they made long-term planning “pointless.”

However, by many measures, the economy has held up despite predictions from experts at the outset of the tariff campaign that they would stoke high inflation and possibly cause a recession. Many economists nixed their recession calls after Trump scaled back the import taxes from his initial proposals. Inflation has stayed stubbornly above 2% but not surged, while the economy has continued to grow at a healthy clip despite a job slowdown.

“The are numerous goals, but it is to make the U.S. economy more resilient,” Bessent said of the tariffs. “Tariff inflation was the dog that didn’t bark.”