Just Another Day of Deception

Scott Bessent has an unusual definition of "eaten."

🚨 Just WOW. Look at how smug Margaret Brennan's face looks when she think she "gotcha'd" Scott Bessent... NOPE.

BRENNAN: "You KNOW what Walmart's saying, BestBuy, Target, of what's coming."

BESSENT: "Margaret, I also know what Home Depot and Amazon are saying. I know what the… pic.twitter.com/yHlYRCpgxV

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 1, 2025

I don't know if the South China Morning Post can be trusted. However, I do know that Scott Bessent trusts it, or at least appears to, or pretends that he does. And on May 30, 2025 it reported

American retail giants are now demanding that their Chinese suppliers shoulder half to 66 per cent of the cost of US import duties, as the ongoing US-China trade war ramps up pressure on businesses’ bottom lines, industry sources told the Post.

US retailers have been locked in talks with Chinese producers for weeks over how to handle the additional costs caused by the trade war, with the firms facing intense political pressure at home to “eat the tariffs” and keep prices stable.

Walmart and other major US retail groups previously agreed to bear the full cost of the tariffs when they asked their Chinese suppliers to resume shipments in late April, industry sources told the Post at the time.

But global brands including several US retail giants are now pushing suppliers in both China and parts of Southeast Asia to absorb a large chunk of the cost of the levies, according to sources from suppliers serving companies including Walmart, Target, Nike, Puma and Adidas.

“Most of our customers, the garment vendors exporting to major retailers and brands, are being asked to cover 50 to 66 per cent of the current tariffs,” said an executive at a fashion supplier, which produces and sources from China and Southeast Asia and then sells across the United States and Europe.

The negotiations remain fluid and the details of how the tariff costs will be divided have not yet been finalised, the sources stressed, as both sides remain in constant contact as they try to navigate a “tough time” for the industry.

They're being asked to do so and negotiations "remain fluid." The news outlet did not suggest that 65 percent "will likely be eaten by the Chinese producer" (relevant portion of the Face the Nation transcript, below).

In the world of Trump-Vance-Leavitt lying, this is small potatoes, not an extravagant falsehood. However, it's significant because it's not Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Karoline "let me sport a cross so I appear honest" Leavitt, who would be a nobody  were it not Trump being in the White House.

this is a gay man (irrelevant) whom, following his confirmation,  PBS described as "a past supporter of Democrats who once worked for George Soros" who believes "that the Federal Reserve should remain independent from the president's influence." He is a "normie," or at least someone whom the mainstream media, centrist and liberal, would consider "normal." Even then, though, PBS recognized him as becoming "an enthusiastic supporter of Trump." 

And now Bessent has become a lying, enthusiastic supporter of Trump or in other words, a member of the Administration.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. But you listen to earnings calls just like we do. You know what Walmart's saying, what Best Buy's saying and what Target are saying of what's coming.

 SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: But, Margaret, I also know what Home Depot and Amazon are saying. I know what the "South China Morning Post" wrote within the past 24 hours, that 65 percent, 65 percent – the – of the tariffs will likely be eaten by the Chinese producers.

 MARGARET BRENNAN: So, are there five or eight areas that you have identified, as you said back in March, where American consumers will be able to have lower prices, or should be warned of higher prices?

 SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, a lot of it's already working its way through the system. So we've seen a substantial decrease in gasoline and energy prices. So that's down 20 percent year over year.

 We've seen the food prices go down, these notorious egg prices. Through the good work of President Trump and Secretary Rollins, egg prices have collapsed. So we're seeing more and more. And what we want to do, the – is even that out across the – all sections of the economy.

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