On this “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan:
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
- Rep. Mike Turner, Republican of Ohio
- Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona
- Rep. John James, Republican of Michigan
- European Union diplomat Kaja Kallas
Click here to browse full transcripts from 2025 of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m Margaret Brennan in Washington.
And this week on Face the Nation: the latest on the fallout following Friday’s Oval Office brawl. And Americans say they want more action from the Trump administration when it comes to fighting inflation.
(Begin VT)
DONALD TRUMP (President of the United States): You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards, but right now, you don’t…
(CROSSTALK)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY (Ukrainian President): We are not playing cards.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: It was a debacle seen and heard around the world, as the meeting meant to solidify an alliance between the U.S. and Ukraine melted down into a shouting match featuring President Trump and Vice President Vance versus Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials are now in full damage control mode, with European leaders racing to bring both sides back together and move towards a resolution to the war in Ukraine.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent crafted the agreement with Ukraine that fell apart during that meeting. We will talk to him about that, as well as the administration’s plans to help the economy.
We will also talk with Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly and two Republican members of Congress, Ohio’s Mike Turner and Michigan’s John James.
And just before President Trump’s first formal address to Congress, how do Americans think he’s doing when it comes to tackling their priorities?
It’s all just ahead on Face the Nation.
Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation.
We will get to the ramifications of that meeting in the Oval Office in a moment, but we want to begin with the issues that are top of mind for most Americans, inflation and the economy.
They may be at the top of their priority list for the new administration, but we are seeing a disconnect. When asked what they think the administration is prioritizing, Americans see inflation and the economy taking a back seat to the border, the federal work force, tariffs, and more.
In fact, according to our CBS News poll, although people do approve of him on some of those other issues, there is a 50-point gap between people who say the president should make inflation a priority and those who say he is.
We want to welcome to the program Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Good morning to you, Mr. Treasury Secretary.
SCOTT BESSENT (U.S. Treasury Secretary): Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, let’s dig on – in on this, because it seems there’s a bit of a perception gap there.
Our polling also shows at least half the country reports concern about paying for food and groceries and housing. They continue to call the economy bad, even more so than last month, and 49 percent told us the economy is getting worse.
When can Americans expect to experience the benefits that President Trump said would be coming in day one?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Yes, what – you know, Margaret, what I find interesting is, for the past year-and-a-half and during the campaign, most of the media said, oh, the economy is great, it’s just a vibe session.
Now that President Trump’s in office, there’s an economic problem. And I will tell you what the problem was. This is…
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We were pretty straightforward on this program.
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, I haven’t seen this program, but the – in general, this idea that working-class Americans didn’t know what they were talking about, they didn’t know their lived experience, they didn’t know what their pocketbooks were feeling.
And I will tell you, President Trump was elected, one of the reasons was the affordability crisis, and we are setting about doing that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Number one.
(CROSSTALK)
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: So, after four years, four years of disastrous policies, they were running these gigantic deficits that the – that led to the affordability problem, massive government regulations, so what we had was a demand shock from the government spending that was met by supply constraints with overregulation.
So we are in the process of deregulating, which will free the supply side, and we are cutting back the government spending. It took four years to get us here. President Trump has been in office five weeks.
And I can tell you, we’re working every day. What I will point out, interest rates, the 10-year bond, which I am focused on, have been down every week since President Trump was president. Mortgage rates have been down every week. So that’s a pretty good start.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I hear you that sometimes the data lags reality, but when we are talking about people’s perceptions of the economy, it’s just how they’re feeling right now, we see in our polling, 52 percent of Americans say Trump’s policies are making grocery prices go up.
They explicitly said that on this bar chart you see there. So it’s an experience and a perception issue. When does that shift? When do we see the benefits of the planning you say is under way?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Look, I think President Trump said that he’ll own the economy in six or 12 months. But I can tell you that we are working to get these prices down every day.
But it took four years to get us here, and we’ve had five weeks. So interest rates are down. That’s a very good start toward housing affordability, toward auto affordability, and we are tackling this.
At Treasury, we are going to appoint an affordability czar. We are going to have an affordability council. We are laser focused on this. We…
MARGARET BRENNAN: What does that mean? What’s an affordability czar?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Someone who picks the five or eight areas where this administration can make a big difference for working-class Americans.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
Well, one of the things that we hear the president talk about a lot is the plan to use tariffs. I know this falls under the purview of Commerce and the trade rep, but you have spoken a bit about it before.
If the president does roll out the 10 percent tariffs that he says are coming on China this week, the 25 percent on Canada and Mexico, how much do you think they will impact what Americans experience? The Peterson Institute says it will cost households an additional $1,200 a year.
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Look, a couple of things.
I respect my friends at the Peterson Institute. I think they’re a bit alarmist. I think a lot of their supporters are anti-tariff, so they take an anti-tariff position.
And, look, we have the experience of President Trump’s first term, where the tariffs did not affect prices. And it’s a holistic approach, that there will be tariffs, there will be cuts in regulation, there will be cheaper energy. So I would expect that very quickly we will be down to the Fed’s 2 percent target.
So I’m expecting inflation to continue dropping over the year.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So should we expect these tariffs to come March 4?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, there’s a series of tariffs. There’s March 4, and then there are the big – the – there’s the big tariff program that’s going to be outlined on April 2 by commerce and USTR, and that’s the president’s notion of reciprocal tariffs.
And that’s going to be very path-dependent. It’s – we are going to show, what are other countries’ tariffs on specific goods, what are non-tariff barriers, what are the currency manipulation, what is manipulation of financing or labor manipulation, and what are these horrendous fines that the European Union is putting on our tech companies, and we are going to evaluate that and give them an opportunity to remedy that.
So we could either see a ratcheting up in tariffs, or, if our trading partners want to remedy what has been unfair trade, then we could see the tariffs come off. So it’s going to be path-dependent.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And that’s Europe in April, mainly?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, that’s across the world.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
So when you say the Peterson Institute is too alarmist with $1,200 a year on the average household, what’s the cost of the household? You think it’s zero?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, we – we don’t know yet, because it’s path- dependent.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: But what I can tell you is that I’m not worried about China. China is going to – China will pay for the China tariffs, because their business model is exporting their way out of this inflation.
They are the most imbalanced, unbalanced economy in modern times. And the idea that, because of a tariff, that they would lower their production is wrong. They are going to continue flooding the market. They will eat this price decrease. They will eat any tariffs that go on.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So I saw you say on Bloomberg recently that Mexico has offered to match the U.S. tariffs on China, and that you would like for the Canadians to do so as well. You described it as a fortress in North America. Is that in the works?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: I – I – I don’t know yet. We’ll see. The Mexican leadership has offered to do that. We haven’t heard from the Canadians, but I think that would be a very good start, because…
MARGARET BRENNAN: By Tuesday, potentially, to offset the potential punishment on them?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: By Tuesday, or maybe the tariff wall goes up, and then we see what happens from there.
But I can tell you that, under the cover of COVID, China dramatically increased their export capacity, and they are trying to export their way to prosperity. They are in an economic crisis. They have gigantic deflation. And it’s unacceptable for them to export that to the rest of the world. And I think North America would be a very good start for pushing back against this unfair trade policy.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that would be a significant development.
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Very significant.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Which would avoid tariffs that are supposed to go out on Tuesday.
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: We’ll see.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK, we’ll be watching that space.
I want to ask you about Ukraine. You were in that Oval Office meeting that went sideways on Friday. He – President Zelenskyy was told to leave the White House before he signed the minerals agreement that I know you have been working on. He said yesterday, though, he is ready to sign it.
He called it “the first step towards security guarantees. It’s not enough. We need more than just that. A cease-fire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine.”
Is the deal still on the table, or has President Trump instructed you to drop the project?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Margaret, it is impossible to have an economic deal without a peace deal. The sine qua non for an economic deal is that Ukrainian leadership wants a peace deal.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I thought this was a building block towards getting to a peace deal.
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, it was supposed to be, but President Zelenskyy came into the Oval on Friday. There were – there were three things that were going to be done. There was going to be a press conference.
There was going to be a private lunch with 16 of us. And as you can see from Dan Scavino’s – the post on his X account, we were all ready set up to sign – to sign the deal. So it’s unclear now. President Zelenskyy has thrown off the sequencing.
And, Margaret, let me tell you the most tragic part of this. The – President Trump’s idea for this economic arrangement was to further intertwine the American people and Ukrainian people and show no daylight…
MARGARET BRENNAN: But…
SECRETARY SCOTT…
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