Sen. Warren Asks Treasury Secretary About Private Remarks on Tariffs
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to answer questions about why he told Wall Street investors that the U.S. is looking to de-escalate the trade war with China, and asked him to confirm if other executives heard information about progress toward a trade deal with India.
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She asked why the JP Morgan event was closed to the press, and if there were any agreements that individuals would not make trades based on these private remarks.
“When you made your remarks at this conference, were you aware that the President would, later that day, announce that tariffs would ‘come down substantially,’” she asked in a letter that she publicized April 25.
She asked: "Have Treasury Department or White House officials provided any other insiders with non-public information about the status of potential tariff decisions or trade agreements?"
“Chaos, confusion, economic damage, and opportunities for corruption have become the hallmark of President Trump’s rollout of his tariff policies,” Warren wrote in the press release about the letter. “President Trump’s opaque decision-making on tariffs and frequent, seemingly random changes of course have created a scenario where wealthy investors and well-connected corporations can get special treatment, receiving inside information they can use to time the market, or obtaining tariff exemptions that are worth billions of dollars -- while Main Street, small businesses, and America’s families are left to clean up the damage.”