US Treasury Secretary: Past Economy Overly Reliant on China, Trump Policies Correcting Errors

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to argue today that President Trump's agenda is reversing decades of policy errors that weakened US supply chains and left the economy overly reliant on competitors like China. According to Reuters, in his prepared remarks on economic security, Bessent stated that the US had been "asleep at the wheel," mistaking comfort and consumption for strength and prosperity, and focusing too much on efficiency while ignoring resilience. He noted that the US had lost sight of the basic principle that economic security is national security. Bessent argued that bipartisan policy failures, including allowing China to join the WTO and over-trusting that a rules-based trade system could constrain non-market economic policies, led to the loss of the US industrial base and reliance on foreign suppliers. He emphasized that Trump's "America First" agenda, including tariff measures centered on national and economic security, along with efforts to rebuild US shipbuilding capacity and critical mineral and pharmaceutical supply chains, will begin to correct past mistakes. The remarks did not propose any new plans.