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In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed the Trump administration’s dedicated approach to deficit reduction and spending control, outlining a comprehensive vision for economic “reprivatization.” Bessent explained that his decision to join Trump’s campaign and subsequently his cabinet stemmed from deep concerns about unprecedented government spending levels.

During his recent address to the Economic Club of New York, Bessent highlighted the need to shift away from the government-dependent economic model that characterized the Biden administration. He emphasized the importance of private sector growth as the primary driver of economic prosperity.

“One of the reasons I came out from behind my desk and asked President Trump if I could join the campaign — and then when he asked me to be in the Cabinet — was because I was so alarmed by this high level of government spending,” Bessent told Breitbart News when asked about this vision. “We’ve never seen anything like this. Highest level ever when we weren’t in a war and a recession. So, the Biden administration relied on this blowout spending. Back to the mainstream media, no one criticized it when they were doing it. It was for the greater good, it was for green programs, it was for this, it was for overseas engagement. Now, what we’re trying to do is do a course correction where we bring down the government, we de-leverage the government, and re-leverage the private sector. We’re going to do that by cutting spending, we’ll get a natural lowering of interest rates, and then on the other side as we relever the private sector, we plan to deregulate the banking system, which is one of the other things I talked about at the Economic Club of New York last week. So, as we unshackle the regulated banking system, they can lend to the private sector — especially Main Street, which has been overlooked — so small, regional banks, small banks, community banks, and so as the government comes down, the private sector goes up, the government will shed excess labor, and there’s plenty of it, and then the private sector will pick it up.”

Addressing skeptics who suggest that reducing government spending could trigger a recession, Bessent drew upon his extensive investment experience and recent discussions with banking industry leaders to counter these concerns.

“I disagree. This does not have to cause a recession,” Bessent said. “Again, back to your point on fact-based analysis, in my 35 years from my investment career, I was able to not listen to the noise and adhere to the facts. I can tell you the facts are I’ve met with several large bank executives and payment processors in the past week, and the American consumer is in great shape. They’re spending. I met with one of the five largest bank CEOs today. He said that small and medium manufacturing in the Midwest, they’ve seen a tick up in loan volume. So I disagree with this. Where were all these people when the Biden administration was blowing out the deficit? We could have come in. It would have been easy to come in and keep up these horrendous spending levels and maybe we could have kept it going for one year, two years, maybe even four years and let the next president and his administration and the American people deal with this problem — or it could blow up at any time. So, we are laser-focused on getting this deficit under control. And then growing the economy.”

Additional details from the Treasury Department interview with Bessent will be released in upcoming reports.