Fox Business host Larry Kudlow hosted a fireside chat with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on day two of the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Asheville, North Carolina on Tuesday. Kudlow led off with an extended riff about how the main story should be economic boom not seen in decades and praised Bessent as, “the best, most important wartime treasury secretary since World War II.”
“This boom in large measure is because of President Trump’s policies: The One Big Beautiful Bill, 100 percent expensing, manufacturing growth, employment growth, stock market rally, and profits,” Kudlow said. He also admonished the establishment media in the room which “doesn’t like to talk about the successes of the American economy.”
Bessent built on Kudlow’s opening comments, telling those at the event pavilion the G20 is a growth story.
“Everyone is saying growth is better than they thought it would have been,” Bessent said of comments made in plenary sessions as well as bilateral meetings taking place throughout the day.
He continued: “We are the AI superpower and we are pulling away in global compute. We have the best-performing bond market among major countries in the world. We have regulatory certainty, tax certainty, energy certainty. The U.S. is the world’s energy superpower.”
Bessent cited his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, telling the crowd the precondition for the capital expenditures boom was construction jobs. He added that he believes in data centers as well, calling them great expansion projects.
Bessent said he continues to be focused on restructuring of the Biden-era socialism into pro-growth policies — setting the guardrails and creating the right incentives, then letting the private sector do what it does best.
“Free enterprise works, and that’s why the numbers are important on the economic boom. Growth solves a lot of problems,” Bessent declared.
One country Bessent has praised repeatedly at the G20 meeting has been Japan and “Abenomics” the country implemented over a decade ago. He said the country has been seeing the fruits of restructuring their economy under the late Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.
In a readout following a meeting between Bessent and Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda on the margins, Bessent underscored the importance of close U.S.-Japan coordination on shared macroeconomic priorities.
Bessent also expressed strong support for the steps the country took to address the substantial undervaluation of the yen and noted how it contributed to domestic inflationary pressures.
At the morning event with Kudlow, Bessent also expressed support for countries in South America that have implemented pro-growth reforms.
“We’re seeing free enterprise move through this hemisphere, Argentina is the best example but not the only example. There’s also Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador,” he said.
Kudlow interjected that he felt European countries were “too sclerotic” to implement the needed changes.
Speaking of trade, Bessent also noted that the goal of President Trump’s rebalancing of trade was to eliminate chokepoints abroad. He said one good thing about Covid was it showed where many of the chokepoints were in American supply chains.
“We have to de-risk everywhere in the world. There are certain things we need to onshore or near-shore,” he said.
Bessent then delivered an update on Operation Economic Outcast. He said the Iranian regime has the third-greatest energy resources in the world but is currently importing gasoline. He said the regime has been crushed militarily and the ongoing Naval blockade is strong.
In regards to the Strait of Hormuz, Bessent declared, it will be worthless in two years because other avenues including pipelines will be online. The secretary said the Memorandum of Understanding didn’t work because they weren’t ready to make a deal.
He added the tools available to the Treasury Department under the operation have never been used before and he’s received great support around the world.
“We are going to economically asphyxiate this regime. We’re tracking down the IRGC’s assets. We know where in the British Isles you are and we are going to close them down. We will stop this regime’s ability to have a nuclear weapon, highly enriched uranium, and project power through proxies. After 47 years, it’s over,” said Bessent, concluding, “We are burying the head of the Iranian snake.”