Treasury Secretary Calls Out Elites Over Failed Tariff Predictions

When the nation’s top economic official says the obvious about the failed forecasts of coastal elites, hardworking Americans should sit up and take notice. Scott Bessent is the United States Secretary of the Treasury, and his blunt admission that “no one ever apologizes” after being proven wrong about President Trump’s tariffs is exactly the kind of straight talk Washington desperately needs.

Bessent didn’t mince words in interviews this week, pointing out that the same pundits and so-called experts who warned of inevitable trade wars and runaway inflation have quietly slunk away from their own screaming headlines. His line — that accountability for being spectacularly wrong is never demanded or delivered — landed because it’s true and because the American people remember who was right about putting America first.

Remember what those alarmists said: the moment tariffs were announced we would be plunged into a global trade war and consumer prices would skyrocket. Major financial outlets and economists painted a doomsday scenario for markets and Main Street alike, but reality has not matched their fevered forecasts. Those panic-inducing predictions were rolled out with all the moral certainty of a new sermon from the administrative class.

What we’re seeing now is something else — measured negotiation, market adjustments, and a Treasury secretary managing the fallout instead of surrendering to hysteria. Officials have been able to negotiate and calibrate policy responses so that fears of a full-blown recession or inflation spiral have proven exaggerated, even as the media refuses to update its original scare stories. If the elites were honest, they would admit their mistakes and move on; instead, they cloak their errors in silence.

It’s worth remembering that many of the same models and think-tank memos that promised disaster also assumed away the resiliency of American workers and businesses. Wall Street strategists and global investment shops warned of immediate and lasting harm to growth and prices, yet Americans have endured and adapted — proving once again that patriotic economic policy is not the same thing as economic recklessness. The empirical record so far challenges the narrative that tariffs must automatically and permanently crush domestic prosperity.

Conservatives should not cheer mistakes because our opponents made them; we should demand accountability so those mistakes are less likely to be repeated. Bessent’s call-out is a welcome crack in the armor of elite immunity — a reminder that policies should be judged by results, not by the volume of initial hand-wringing. The media and the permanent class owe the American people an explanation, and more importantly, an apology for the fear they spread.

This is about something bigger than tariffs: it’s about restoring faith that our leaders will put American interests first and stand up for the working families who actually pay the bills. If Washington won’t hold the pundits to account, patriotic Americans will remember who stood with them when the chips were down. The lesson is plain — stop worshipping credentialed catastrophists and start supporting policies that protect jobs, industry, and the long-term prosperity of this nation.