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Secretary Bessent Defends the Economic Record on NBC's Meet the Press, Oct. 18, 2026

October 18, 2026 · U.S. Department of the Treasury · 0:09:05

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on October 18, 2026, in an interview the Treasury Department posted to its official channel the same day. Host Kristen Welker opened on inflation: consumer prices rose in September at the fastest pace in five months, to 3.7%, and gasoline is up 44% since the start of the war with Iran, as she stated the figures.

Bessent called it an energy shock. Core inflation, he said, has been very flat and was down four months in a row before this month; food is below the Federal Reserve’s target, rents are down, and prescription drugs have had the biggest decrease in history, as he stated them. He said the American people have received real wage increases of 1.5% since President Trump took office, that the administration has added a million private-sector jobs so far this year, and that household net worth is the highest it has ever been. “We will own the economy,” he said, while arguing the energy prices will come down once the Iran conflict is past.

The second half of the interview was a dispute over Russia. Welker said President Zelensky had called the President’s sanctions-waiver executive order a big support for Putin. Bessent answered flatly: “No sanctions were lifted.” The order, he said, gives the President 60 days to assess the situation; the only thing lifted is the diesel embargo, and the United Kingdom waived its own diesel and jet-fuel embargo in May. He said President Trump sanctioned Russia’s two largest energy companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, “the toughest sanctions,” and that Europe continues to finance the Russian war effort — 136 of 140 cargoes from one Russian facility in the first six months of the year went to Europe, over $8 billion, as he stated it. Asked about Zelensky’s claim that the U.S. government slowed Ukraine’s Starlink service, Bessent said President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically denied any administration involvement and called the charge reckless.

Why it matters

This is the Treasury Secretary’s fullest pre-midterm defense of the two records he owns: the cost-of-living record, which he frames as a strong economy masked by a war-driven energy shock, and the sanctions record, where he draws the administration’s line — diesel relief and a 60-day assessment, he insists, are not sanctions relief. Both claims are now on the record in his own words, two weeks before the midterms.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the diesel-embargo lift and 60-day sanctions assessment as Bessent described them on October 18, 2026 — contested on the same broadcast by President Zelensky’s account and by Republican senators Welker cited. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Secretary Bessent on NBC’s Meet The Press” (official upload, embedded above). Interview as broadcast October 18, 2026; transcript reviewed in the site’s private research store. Figures as stated by the participants.