On February 4, 2026, at a House Financial Services Committee hearing, ranking member Maxine Waters asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, “Did you write a letter to investors raising concerns about the impact of tariffs, writing that 'tariffs are inflationary'? Did you say that at that time, yes or no?” Bessent answered, “Uh, no.” Waters replied that she had a New York Times article saying he had, and Bessent responded, “Great, New York Times.”
The letter exists. In a January 31, 2024 letter to partners of his hedge fund, Key Square, signed “Scott Bessent and the Key Square Team,” he wrote: “Tariffs are inflationary and would strengthen the dollar--hardly a good starting point for a US industrial renaissance.” The same letter argued that Trump would pursue “a weak dollar policy rather than implementing tariffs.” The New Republic credits Semafor's Eleanor Mueller with first highlighting the passage, and Fortune noted that the Wall Street Journal's Nick Timiraos had pointed to reporting on it dating back at least a year.
Waters also quoted Bessent's Senate testimony from the previous summer, “There is no inflation. Tariffs are not being passed on to consumers,” and said he had described critics as having “tariff derangement syndrome.” Asked whether tariffs are inflationary, Bessent cited the San Francisco Federal Reserve and said “tariffs do not cause inflation.”
Later in the same hearing, when Rep. Sean Casten read him the line, Bessent acknowledged the letter was his (“You're referring to a letter [I] wrote,” in a transcription of the exchange) and, according to Reuters, said he wished to correct the record: “If I was mistaken, I want to correct it. And I was also mistaken when I said the tariffs could be inflationary.” He called tariff inflation “the dog that didn't bark.” Casten wrote afterward, “Not only did he lie, but his advice was horrible on every level.” The episode shows Trump's Treasury secretary first denying, then disowning, his own written pre-administration view that tariffs raise prices.
Correction (October 2, 2026): this entry said Bessent lied “under oath” and that lying to Congress is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1001; no source we loaded says he was sworn, so those claims have been removed, along with an unsourced line about a broader “pattern” among Trump officials. The entry said Semafor “first reported” the letter; The New Republic says Semafor's Eleanor Mueller “first highlighted” it, and Fortune says reporting on it dated back at least a year. The Senate “no inflation” quote and the “tariff derangement syndrome” phrase are now attributed to Waters, who quoted them. The entry now also reports that Bessent later acknowledged writing the letter and said he had been mistaken, and dates the letter to January 31, 2024, as the document itself does.