Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec - March 27, 2025


Sec. of Treasury Scott Bessent - Live From the White House

Topics
tariffs and trade promises trade barriers and imbalances deaths of despair in middle America
Hosted by
Jack Posobiec
Guests
Scott Besson
Mentioned
Trump Zelensky Kyiv
SignalGate is the Coordinated Op of the Left's Next War on MAGA NATALISM AND THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF MASCULINITY

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

172.0

Word count

2,147

Sentence count

172

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec, we sit down with Scott Besson, the Secretary of the Treasury, to talk about his recent trip to Ukraine, the recent deal signed between the United States and Ukraine, and much more.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 This is what happens when the 4th turning meets 5th generation warfare.
00:00:09.240 A commentator, international social media sensation, and former Navy intelligence veteran.
00:00:20.400 This is Human Events with your host, Jack Posobiec.
00:00:23.480 Christ is King!
00:00:25.020 All right, we're very excited to be here on Human Events Daily, sitting down with Secretary Scott Besson, the Secretary of the Treasury.
00:00:31.700 Scott, how are you?
00:00:32.360 Jack, great to see you.
00:00:33.420 Well, you know, I have to say, the last time you and I were together, we spent about 20 hours on a train together to go and see President Zelensky over in Ukraine.
00:00:42.500 Although, I trust your commute today was a little better than that.
00:00:45.300 It was a little better than the night train to Key.
00:00:47.680 The night train to Key.
00:00:48.800 And there wasn't bombing four hours before I came to work today.
00:00:51.660 There was no bombing and the drones and all the rest of that.
00:00:54.240 I said, you know, guys, did you call ahead?
00:00:56.980 Did you let them know that the Secretary was coming?
00:00:59.600 You know, apparently it was so secret that even they didn't know.
00:01:03.080 Yeah, exactly.
00:01:04.000 But, well, I think just the fact that they bombed before we came in was proof the Russians didn't like the deal that I was going to deliver to President Zelensky.
00:01:13.400 And so that deal obviously has taken on a life of its own after that.
00:01:19.400 Do you can you tell us what the current status of it of it is, if any, as it stands right now?
00:01:25.100 Sure.
00:01:25.300 So after President Zelensky's performance in the Oval, he was supposed to come in a few Fridays ago, have a press conference, have lunch with the president and his team, our two teams, we're going to have.
00:01:37.660 And then we were going to sign a deal, a four-page deal that was a framework.
00:01:41.680 There's obviously been some backing and filling between the U.S. relationship and the Ukraine relationship since then.
00:01:49.280 I think we're on a good path now.
00:01:51.440 So what we at Treasury did during that time was we have gone straight to the full deal.
00:01:57.760 So we have now presented the Ukrainians with the full nearly 100-page document that will be the binding agreement for this deal.
00:02:07.120 We have a technical call tomorrow.
00:02:09.420 I would expect that maybe a Ukraine finance minister will be here next week and hopefully we can get this thing signed.
00:02:17.700 Now, are the talks that are happening in Riyadh right now, is this a part of that or is this a separate channel?
00:02:22.640 Well, it's always been part of Trump's global strategy and as we talked about when we were going into Kyiv and when we were in Kyiv, the original idea, and I think we can put that back on track, was to show no daylight between the United States and the Ukrainians. 0.53
00:02:40.880 So by signing this deal, Ukrainians will close that daylight, the U.S. will have an economic interest in the success of the country, the American people will know that there is payback for all the resources we put in, and if Ukrainians succeed, we succeed.
00:02:59.600 So it really ties us together.
00:03:01.660 It is not a security guarantee, but it is an economic security pact.
00:03:05.260 And what's interesting is I've noticed that some of the first things that we're seeing out of the talks in Riyadh are also predicated on economics regarding the Black Sea and transit to and from the Black Sea.
00:03:16.880 Obviously, for the mineral deal, the grain deal certainly traveled through the Black Sea unhindered or not being part of wartime operations, being targeted by either side would be a huge concept of that.
00:03:29.060 Yeah, and look, President Trump has also directed the negotiating team.
00:03:34.020 I think one of the first steps was for both sides to stop firing at the energy resources, especially the nuclear reactors in Kyiv.
00:03:43.020 The Ukrainians, I think, had damaged some refineries near Moscow. 0.96
00:03:47.680 So I think taking down the temperature on infrastructure and shipping transit is an excellent first step.
00:03:54.840 Absolutely.
00:03:56.120 So talking about global trade, I've got to ask President Trump.
00:03:59.800 He keeps telling us that April 2nd, Liberation Day is coming.
00:04:03.940 Of course, we saw the news yesterday regarding the press conference on auto, the tariffs.
00:04:11.020 Let people know what the overall strategy is from President Trump and from the administration.
00:04:16.040 We keep hearing the media tell us, oh, the tariffs are a tax, the tariffs are a tax, the tariffs are a tax.
00:04:20.800 But you've been saying something over and over, which I think people, I understand.
00:04:26.560 I think what you mean when you say this regarding that, that the American dream is not cheap overseas products.
00:04:32.360 What does that mean and how do the tariffs play a role there?
00:04:35.280 Well, look, we have an affordability crisis.
00:04:38.340 It was driven by the last administration, Jack, as you know.
00:04:41.700 We talked about it during our 10-hour, 20-hour sojourn.
00:04:46.460 10-hour each way.
00:04:47.580 Worst commute I ever had.
00:04:49.040 And that part of a centerpiece of President Trump's campaign is the making life affordable and prosperous for working Americans.
00:05:03.360 And part of that is bringing back good jobs to the U.S., which have been shipped out.
00:05:09.260 So we want to fix affordability, but we want to fix affordability that we want to have good jobs.
00:05:17.480 We want to bring down the cost of owning a home.
00:05:19.940 We want to bring down the cost of buying a car.
00:05:22.200 We want to bring down the cost of either trade or college education.
00:05:27.660 This isn't a throw the working people cheap baubles and they will stay in their place. 1.00
00:05:35.860 So we are trying to bring back manufacturing to the U.S.
00:05:42.320 And concurrently, we are doing everything we can to bring down interest rates, to bring down energy prices through U.S. energy dominance.
00:05:51.980 These are all things that President Trump promised on the campaign trail.
00:05:56.060 And with the tax bill, President Trump, we are going to get through no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime.
00:06:06.300 We're going to make auto interest payments again if you buy an American, a deductible again if you buy an American car.
00:06:13.500 All of that will help the bottom 50 percent of wage earners.
00:06:17.780 And they deserve a break from what's happened to them the past four years.
00:06:22.320 And President Trump and his administration are committed to that.
00:06:25.780 Well, and this has been something that President Trump, if you go back to, I think, if I have my math right on this,
00:06:31.200 he was 35 years old giving interviews, he's talking about trade and he's talking about these massive trade imbalances that we have.
00:06:38.560 He looks at the balance sheet, says it's completely off in the wrong direction.
00:06:42.400 And from my understanding, people say, well, it's not just tariffs, it's these barriers to entry that we have.
00:06:48.560 And I worked at the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai for a brief moment, and I could see it.
00:06:53.700 It's so hard to sell anything into China.
00:06:56.560 They'll find some reason to block it.
00:06:58.620 It doesn't matter.
00:06:59.240 Oh, I heard you have bird flu over there.
00:07:00.780 So you can't sell any poultry or, you know, mad cow disease is a big one.
00:07:05.380 So, you know, you can't sell any of the beef, et cetera, et cetera.
00:07:08.420 And, of course, this was done to prevent access of U.S. goods into the market.
00:07:12.860 So it's so what that helps to exacerbate these massive trade imbalances.
00:07:18.160 And then tariffs potentially can be a way to actually rebalance it back.
00:07:22.280 So, Jack, if you were in China, you know better than anybody all the barriers that China puts up, whether it's intellectual property.
00:07:30.060 Yep.
00:07:30.380 Whether it's cheap labor suppressing wages.
00:07:34.600 It's the central government-led technology.
00:07:39.140 It's artificially low loans.
00:07:43.820 So we are coming up with a score for everyone for each of the—we're starting with the biggest trading partner.
00:07:51.980 So it'll be tariffs.
00:07:53.280 It'll be non-tariff trading barriers.
00:07:56.160 It will be currency manipulation.
00:07:58.360 It will be labor suppression and the subsidized loans.
00:08:04.000 And we are going to push back against that because if you take China, which is the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world, their model is cheap exports. 0.98
00:08:16.460 And back to your original question, you know, I've been saying, let them eat plaid screens is not an economic policy.
00:08:25.500 People don't want plaid screens.
00:08:27.520 They want dignity in their communities.
00:08:29.800 They want good jobs.
00:08:31.240 They want their kids to do better than they have.
00:08:33.380 There's a recent paper out that talked about the China shock in 2004, and it talked about the effect on the workers was much worse than anyone had thought.
00:08:47.160 That after these jobs disappeared, people lost hope.
00:08:51.340 They lost income.
00:08:53.140 They lost their communities.
00:08:54.440 And they lost their way of life.
00:08:56.020 And we're going to bring that back.
00:08:57.160 Well, and this is where you see people have seen the deaths of despair that are going up throughout the middle America.
00:09:02.580 This is what President Trump campaigned on.
00:09:04.140 And it's been something that he's been talking about, an issue that he's been talking about for decades, because you don't have to drive very far to find devastated communities, even right here in the national capital region.
00:09:14.900 And so much of this is economic.
00:09:16.940 So, yeah, you know, and it's for folks who don't get the reference.
00:09:19.800 The joke is that you always hear this from the sort of more libertarian Wall Street Journal minded economists that, oh, well, flat screen TVs have come down.
00:09:27.320 People can buy a bigger TV.
00:09:28.520 And it's just this canard over and over.
00:09:30.020 Sure, you can have a cheap flat screen TV, but your town is flooded with fentanyl and migrants and crime. 1.00
00:09:36.680 And it's completely depressed.
00:09:38.600 But, of course, you have a nicer television.
00:09:40.500 Right.
00:09:40.820 Or you don't own your home.
00:09:42.700 You don't own your home.
00:09:43.560 The bank owns.
00:09:44.320 Or BlackRock owns.
00:09:45.560 Right.
00:09:46.080 Exactly.
00:09:46.480 You have three flat screens in a home you don't own.
00:09:49.640 And that whole libertarian branch of the party, they kind of don't care about income distribution.
00:09:58.440 They got on their net jets and went to Nantucket, said everything was fine.
00:10:01.980 And they don't understand why people are mad.
00:10:04.580 And, like, I'm from a small town in South Carolina, and I watch very good manufacturing jobs.
00:10:10.560 I watch the whole textile industry and a way of life disappear.
00:10:15.200 And South Carolina is rebooted.
00:10:18.540 But it hasn't worked for everybody.
00:10:21.460 No, it hasn't.
00:10:22.160 And now, before I let you leave, I do have to ask, though, because you mentioned about the lower income wage earners. 0.88
00:10:27.780 We know tax season is coming up, right?
00:10:29.680 You know, you are the head of the Treasury Department.
00:10:32.940 Now, is it true?
00:10:33.960 So, if you make less than $150,000, we don't have to pay taxes, right?
00:10:37.400 That's what I heard.
00:10:38.300 Well, you heard wrong, Jack.
00:10:40.780 Everybody needs to get their tax returns and get their filings.
00:10:45.080 70% of people get refunds.
00:10:47.120 Right.
00:10:47.580 You want to get your refund.
00:10:49.180 But everything is the same as it was.
00:10:53.060 We are negotiating the tax deal.
00:10:55.620 It will be for your taxes next year.
00:10:58.540 But you should pay your taxes as expected.
00:11:01.120 And then next year, you will be able to likely pay, no tax on tips.
00:11:07.660 And the president is going to meet his promises.
00:11:10.440 But file early and get it done now.
00:11:14.960 Okay.
00:11:15.240 But we're good, though.
00:11:16.500 No audits for Human Events daily, right?
00:11:18.720 We're going to be okay, right?
00:11:20.140 Well, you know, the good thing about what I want to do with the IRS is I want to make it fair for everybody.
00:11:26.560 The left, right, center.
00:11:28.720 And it's going to be right down the middle.
00:11:31.120 Audit should be either flagged by something you've done on your return or it should be random.
00:11:37.580 It shouldn't be because of your political views.
00:11:39.860 That's going to stop.
00:11:41.060 It's as simple as that.
00:11:42.360 Ladies and gentlemen, Secretary Scott Besson here at Human Events Daily.
00:11:45.240 Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary.
00:11:46.400 Thanks, Secretary.
00:11:46.840 I want to say thank you, of course, to the White House, to the press team for bringing us in today,
00:11:53.020 for arranging these interviews, giving us a behind-the-scenes, inside look to what's going on inside the White House.
00:12:00.020 This is a testament to how the Trump administration is now reaching out to new media, to new audiences.
00:12:06.640 And it's not about just us here about Human Events Daily, but everyone that we go out and touch as we share this information
00:12:13.340 and tell the truth about what's going on behind the scenes of the White House here for you in the confines of the incredible People's House of the White House,
00:12:23.260 really making it the People's House once more.
00:12:26.060 Ladies and gentlemen, as always, you have my permission to lay ashore.