Please follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Truth Social, Gettr, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was a guest on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning and covered a lot of ground including the interest rates, the China trade talks, AI accountability and the President's decision to ban the White House press corps of MS NOW, CNN and Politico.

Bessent, in an interview that aired Monday morning on CNBC's Squawk Box, shrugged off last week's decision by the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates to 3.75% to 4% — its first rate hike since February 2023. "Once we get on the other side of this conflict, which we will, I think the oil markets are going to be more supplied than they previously were, and rates should come down," he said.

Right now the 10-year note is yielding at 5% plus or minus on the treasuries. That's up 100 basis points since the war with Iran began in late February. He admitted that the Treasury Department's $5 billion plus buyback of 10- and 20-year notes on September 10 did nothing to bring down the yields on long-term bonds in the aftermath of the announcement. However, he said they would have gone up even more without the announcement.

"Since President Trump has come in, the U.S. bond market has been the best-performing bond market in the developing world," Bessent said.

The official also spoke at length about his 12-hour meeting on Sunday with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng ahead of the Trump-Xi summit at the White House later this week. He outlined a safety framework for AI with He and established a channel to deal with any future incidents — whether caused by "uncontrollable agents," nonstate cyber attackers, or even bioweapons. He also spoke about the November 10 expiration of the U.S.-China trade truce and how Iran's biggest trading partner is China.

On Iran, Bessent said the Trump administration has not discussed targeting China as part of its efforts to economically squeeze Tehran, noting that China has become Iran's largest trading partner. The Trump administration has aggressively sanctioned the financial backers of the Iranian regime but has thus far stopped short of sanctioning Beijing.

On AI, Bessent said the Trump administration believes the burden of risk belongs on developers — not with Washington providing a liability shield.

"It is humans who are responsible, not the AI," he said, backing Trump's opposition to heavy-handed regulation of the emerging sector.

Bessent also defended Trump's decision to ban MS NOW, CNN, and Politico from the White House, saying the legacy press "cares more about the press than anything else." All three outlets sued on First Amendment grounds Monday.

Finally, Bessent confirmed Trump plans to personally greet Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews when the Chinese president arrives for the summit. "I think we're going to have a great visit," he said.

'NO AD' subscription for CDM! Sign up here and support real investigative journalism and help save the republic!