Bessent on Global Oil Trade 3/4/26

Summary

Squawk Pod – “Bessant on Global Oil Trade” (March 4, 2026)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Squawk Pod centers on the rapidly evolving consequences in global markets and the energy sector following intensified US-Israel military action against Iran. Anchors Joe Kernen, Becky Quick, and Andrew Ross Sorkin discuss mounting geopolitical risk, oil supply concerns, and new economic policy directions with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, who shares real-time insights on financial stability, international coordination, and responses to the crisis.

Other covered stories include the impact of conflict on Asian and Middle Eastern markets, updates on OpenAI’s relationship with the Defense Department, and a panel discussion about rare disease regulation at the FDA.

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Key Discussion Points & Notable Insights

1. Market Reaction to Iran Conflict

• Stock Recap ([01:55–05:34])
  • The Dow and S&P 500 saw steep intraday drops but rebounded to close less than 1% lower; NASDAQ down more.
  • Asian markets were harder-hit, with Korea's Kospi suffering its worst day in almost 50 years (-12%).
  • Energy and gold prices spiked; WTI crude above $75/barrel, national gas prices rose ~11 cents overnight.

Quote:

“It was a pretty impressive recovery after what looked like was going to be a pretty tough sledding both days.”
—Joe Kernen [01:55]

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2. Security Situation in the Gulf and Global Oil Trade

Dan Murphy Reports from Dubai ([05:34–07:44])

• Second drone strike this week targets Ras Tanura, world’s largest crude export hub (6.5 million barrels/day) — no damage.
• US Consulate in Dubai also hit by a drone, inciting fires but no casualties.
• Strait of Hormuz shipping remains disrupted; major shipping lines halt sailings.
• US offers Navy escorts and insurance guarantees for oil tankers; effectiveness remains to be seen.
• Regional stock markets diverge: UAE hits “limit down” at open, Saudi’s Aramco buoyed by oil, Israel sees a relief rally.

Quote:

“Any outage here could cause an energy price shock… The message is pretty clear.”
—Dan Murphy [05:40]

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The Iran Attacks’ Ripple Effects ([07:44–09:42])

• Middle Eastern capitals now face uncertainty, tourism, business, and travel are impacted, undermining their status as safe havens.
• Over 1,000 direct Iranian attacks on the UAE confirmed; much higher than any other country.
• UAE and Saudi Arabia may need to coordinate on potential retaliation.

Quote:

“The Gulf capitals have really been positioning themselves as safe havens for deep pools of public and private capital, aviation hubs, tourism drivers too... the attacks that we’ve seen from the Iranians have been largely symbolic.”
—Ben Rizzuto [08:30]

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3. Interview: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant

Military and Economic Coordination ([14:03–15:25])

• Emphasizes Treasury and Energy roles on National Security Council; months of contingency planning.
• Details on “Epic Fury” operation: US and Israeli air forces have taken control of Iranian airspace, air campaign ongoing.

Quote:

“Everything is going magnificently. The execution of Epic Fury is proceeding and doing better than planned... we took full control of the Iranian skies.”
—Scott Bessant [14:22]

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Oil Supply & Market Stabilization Policies ([15:55–17:55])

• Market disruption was “well-telegraphed”; crude prices already absorbed the news.
• Key moves:
  • US DFC to provide insurance for crude and cargo ships after Lloyd’s of London nullified coverage.
  • US Navy will escort tankers if needed; military and financial preparations were in place months prior.
• Emphasizes that the crude market remains “very well supplied”: US at record production, global SPRs available.

Quote:

“The crude markets are very well supplied... There are hundreds of millions of barrels on the water away from the Gulf.”
—Scott Bessant [15:55]

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On Strategic Petroleum Reserve and Energy Independence ([17:25–18:55])

• No imminent plans to tap the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve; current supplies and production deemed sufficient.
• Contrasts today’s situation with Russia-Ukraine crisis—US now the world’s top energy producer.

Quote:

“We are at all-time high in production both for oil and natural gas. We are an exporter to the rest of the world.”
—Scott Bessant [17:55]

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Mechanism of Insurance Guarantees & Naval Escorts ([18:55–20:09])

• Insurance plan for tankers activated; Navy ready to step in if necessary.
• Iranian navy is described as “substantially degraded.”

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Market Resilience & Future Outlook ([20:09–21:57])

• Israeli currency and market stabilize as investors look past near-term uncertainty.
• Asserts that “the region is not on fire” — Iranian strike capability diminished, markets anticipate a “stronger US” ahead.

Quote:

“The Iranian regime was the head of the snake for global terror and we are going to cut off that head and Iran will no longer be able to project terrorism around the world.”
—Scott Bessant [21:41]

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Sanctions & Impact on Iran’s Economy/Protests ([22:05–24:00])

• Maximum pressure campaign led to collapse of Iranian currency and economic contraction.
• US Treasury cut Iran’s access to dollars, restricted oil sales, precipitating “fertile ground” for regime instability.

Quote:

“We have been softening up the economy and preparing the ground for what our great warriors are doing right now.”
—Scott Bessant [22:48]

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China and the Oil Market ([24:00–25:11])

• China urges Iran to restore shipping; highly dependent on Gulf oil.
• Chinese oil imports are disrupted, including discounted Iranian and Venezuelan crude.

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Tariffs, Trade Actions, Foreign Policy ([25:11–27:56])

• Potential for trade embargo with Spain due to NATO funding and lack of cooperation.
• US global tariff expected to rise to 15%; part of a 150-day review, but “rates will be back to their old rate within five months.”

Quote:

“NATO has never been stronger thanks to President Trump. And the Spanish don’t want to pay their fair share ... the Spanish put American lives at risk.”
—Scott Bessant [25:43]

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US Jobs Market and Privatization ([27:56–30:51])

• US government job headcount at lowest since 1966; focus on private-sector-driven growth.
• Productivity boom tied to tech and infrastructure investment.
• Trump administration facilitating capex and factory jobs, especially in South Carolina.

Quote:

“We are seeing a technology-driven productivity boom. But the other way to get productivity going, Joe, is to have the private sector create the job growth, not the government.”
—Scott Bessant [28:46]

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OpenAI, Anthropic, and AI Vendor Policies ([30:51–32:33])

• OpenAI/Defense Department contract friction — Sam Altman regrets “hasty” deal (see [01:37–01:43]).
• Treasury terminating Anthropic contracts after company tries to retroactively bar defense usage; Bessant: “vendor does not get to insert a use clause ... ex post.”

Quote:

“Anthropic isn’t mission critical and they can’t push use clauses into their contracts.”
—Scott Bessant [31:22]

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Final Thoughts and Geopolitical Messaging ([32:47–33:15])

• Bessant’s closing: US and Gulf allies are united, and viewers should trust direct news over dramatic commentary.

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4. Rare Disease Discussion – CNBC Cure Summit ([34:47–41:35])

• Concerns about FDA leadership under Dr. Marty Makary, including regulatory uncertainty and impact on biomedical innovation.
• Panelists criticize “regulation by press release” and uncertainty harming rare disease investment.
• Former Senator Rick Santorum shares personal connection and emphasizes need for consistent policy.

Quote:

“There is a real pall over the industry... how can we possibly invest in these things if the guidance we’ve been working on... is not kind of held through?”
—Joe Kernen [39:35]

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• “This was a well telegraphed geopolitical event. The crude market had already moved substantially over the past two months.”
  —Scott Bessant [01:19], reiterated [15:55]
• “The two most powerful air forces in the world now have complete control of the Iranian sky. We will take out their ballistic missiles and the bunkers over the coming days.”
  —Scott Bessant [11:58]
• “Someone with an iPhone ... it's terrible when a hotel gets hit in Bahrain, when there is a drone that hits the airport in Doha. But those are one-offs. The Iranian attack capabilities have been substantially degraded.”
  —Scott Bessant [20:24]
• “The Spanish government is intentionally free riding off the US Government and all the other NATO allies who have stepped up.”
  —Scott Bessant [25:43]
• “We are seeing a Technology driven productivity boom. But the other way to get productivity going, Joe, is to have the private sector create the job growth, not the government.”
  —Scott Bessant [28:46]
• “Anthropic isn't mission critical and they can't push, they can't push use clauses into their contracts.”
  —Scott Bessant [31:22]
• “If everyone ... watches the news and not the commentary, they will be able to get very good framing for themselves.”
  —Scott Bessant [32:47]

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:55–05:34 | Stock market and global financial recap | | 05:34–09:42 | Dan Murphy live from Dubai: Iran crisis, Gulf shipping | | 13:40–33:15 | Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant in-depth interview | | 34:47–42:17 | FDA, rare diseases, regulatory uncertainty |

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Thematic Takeaways

• US Response to Iran: Months of contingency planning; energy policies are robust and prioritizing financial stability through insurance and naval guarantees.
• Energy Market Impact: US capacity and reserves buffer global price spikes, but Asian and European markets more exposed.
• Private vs. Government Jobs: Administration touts private sector-led job creation and declining government employment.
• International Relations: Willingness to use economic pressure and sanctions on both adversaries and wavering allies.
• Technology, Defense, and AI: Ongoing tension as private tech vendors assert usage restrictions; Treasury seeks flexibility and alignment with defense needs.
• Healthcare Policy: Substantial investor concern about unpredictability at the FDA, specifically on rare diseases, threatens future innovation.

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This episode provides a comprehensive, real-time breakdown of how overlapping crises—military, economic, energy, and regulatory—are being navigated by US leaders, offering insider policy detail, market insight, and a look at the broader international chessboard.

Transcript

[Ben Rizzuto]

Hello, I'm Ben Rizzuto, wealth strategist at Janus Henderson Investors. We've worked to help clients achieve superior financial outcomes and fulfill our purpose of investing in a brighter future together. To learn more, go to Janashenderson.com not

[Becky Quick]

every sale happens at the register.

[Scott Bessant]

Before AT&T business Wireless checking out customers

[Joe Kernan]

on our mobile POS systems took too long.

[Becky Quick]

Basically a staring contest where everyone loses.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

It's crazy what people will say during an awkward silence.

[Joe Kernan]

Now transactions are done before the silence takes hold. That means I can focus on the task at hand and make an extra sale or two. Sometimes I do miss the bonding time.

[Scott Bessant]

Sometimes AT&T business Wireless connecting changes everything. Bring in show music, please.

[Becky Quick]

Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant on the state of the global economy and the game change offered by the strikes against Iran.

[Scott Bessant]

The Iranian regime was the head of the snake for global terror and we are going to cut off that head and Iran will no longer be able to project terrorism around the world.

[Becky Quick]

Besant says he is about to make a series of announcements to support oil trade in the Gulf.

[Scott Bessant]

This was a well telegraphed geopolitical event. The crude market had already moved substantially over the past two months.

[Becky Quick]

Plus all the rest of today's news that got us squawking like the market reaction to Iran. And OpenAI's Sam Altman on the AI company's deal with the Defense Department.

[Joe Kernan]

He wished that the deal had not come together so hastily because it made them look opportunistic and Sloppy.

[Becky Quick]

It's Wednesday, March 4, 2026. Squawk Pod begins right now.

[Scott Bessant]

Stand back. You buy in three, two, one.

[Joe Kernan]

Good morning everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on cnbc. We are live from the NASDAQ Stock exchange in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernan. Andrew is off. Today was a pretty wild day yesterday. You did see the Dow down by about 1200 points at its weakest levels. It closed only down by about 400%, which is less than 1%. The S&P was down by less than 1% at the close. Only the NASDAQ was down by more than that. But it was a pretty impressive recovery after what looked was like was going to be a pretty tough sledding both days.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Both days, Monday and Tuesday closed.

[Joe Kernan]

We're down less than 1%. We're down about 1% for the week.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

The NASDAQ was down like 500 or 1.600 yesterday and came back Cut it in half basically those losses.

[Ben Rizzuto]

Yeah.

[Joe Kernan]

We will talk about some of the other international exchanges that have seen much more pressure as including the South Korean exchange. We'll talk about that in just a moment. But let's focus on what happened here with treasury markets too. Yields are back up above 4%. The 10 year now sitting at 407. The two year is at 351. Energy prices have been where so much of the focus has been. WTI is now above $75 a barrel. That's a gain of another 710 of a percent. And what's been very interesting to watch is prices at the pump have risen overnight I think on the national average up by about 11 cents. If you're watching other places though, you might see more than that. Precious metals have also seen quite a bit of a bid too. Gold at this point is up by about 1.5%. 5200. Weren't we at 5400 just a couple of days ago?

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Yeah, almost 55. We're not looking, I'm not going to look at bitcoin but bitcoin's almost the 72,000 and it has been. It looked again like it was going under 60 at one point but there it is up 4.4%. Someone yesterday said the crypto winters are four year cycles has to do sometimes with the halvings and they talked about a scary price where but their objective was it was like down at 40,000 or so. I don't know whether that happened. Winter is coming but the winter's already here. But you know it's been looks like it's been trying to make a base, trying to make a bottom that kept, you know, tested 62,000 several times and I don't know does it mean anything? It's back above 70. We'll see.

[Joe Kernan]

When you talk about the halving and winter coming, it sounds like Game of

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Thrones, the haves and have nots. Yeah, it does, doesn't it? Or there's something else that serious Christians. What are they waiting for when he comes back?

[Joe Kernan]

Oh yes, for the return of what's the rapture having? Who gets left behind?

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Bitcoin holders feel some rapture after the having sometimes.

[Joe Kernan]

In Asia, South Korea's Cosby index was temporarily halted. It actually ended down by 12%. That was its worst day ever in 46 or 47 years of keeping records on this heavyweight Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix file by roughly 10% each. The catalyst for the pain on this were South Korea's. Korea's status As a major oil importer, that makes its stock market especially sensitive to swings in the price of crude. Also in focus, though, fears over the pace of AI adoption and potential for profit taking. Because the Kospi was up 75% last year, it was down 12% today. The day before it was down by about 7%. And even with those two days of losses, it is still up for the month. So you have to put things in context for exactly what's been happening in this market.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Last year, up 75.

[Joe Kernan]

Yeah. And this year, this month it's still up, even watching the almost 20% decline that you've seen in two days.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Now for the latest on the Iran war, let's get to CNBC's Dan Murphy in Dubai. Good morning, Dan.

[Ben Rizzuto]

Joe, good morning to you. Well, we have just been able to confirm that for a second time this week, drones have targeted Ras Tunura. This is the world's largest crude export hub. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defence confirming an interception took place today that resulted in no damage. But the message is pretty clear here. This is the largest crude oil export facility on earth with about 6.5 million barrels a day in the crosshairs. So any outage here could cause an energy price shock. And it's not just energy infrastructure. We also saw a drone strike hit the US Consulate in Dubai this morning, which also signals that the Iranians aren't just keeping up attacks on the uae, but also on American diplomatic facilities. That drone strike caused a fire that was quickly put out and thankfully there were no casualties. And at this hour as well, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz also remains heavily disrupted, which is keeping oil prices pretty well bid this morning. The world's largest shipping companies also pulling back. MSC Maersk, CMACGM and Hapag Lloyd have halted sailings or ordered ships in the region to hold position. But President Trump also indicating the US Navy could escort oil tankers through the strait and also offering insurance guarantees for vessels transiting. But it's too soon to say at this point if that is going to be enough to restore confidence and to get some of these shippers moving again. And then in terms of the markets, we are seeing very different reactions across the region today. Here in the uae, both the Abu Dhabi and Dubai exchanges resumed trading today and almost instantly hit limit down. In Saudi Arabia, we saw higher oil prices providing some support for the energy names like Aramco. And then there's Israel. Take a look at this. A relief rally underway with investors betting that this US And Israeli campaign has weakened Iran and its regional proxy network, which cuts the long term risks for the Israeli economy as well. It's back over to you.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

And it's interesting and I guess it should have, we should have been able to figure it out ourselves. But the pivot away from an oil based economy in the Middle east, maybe there's a method to Iran's madness to some extent because everything's disrupted. All the glitzy capitals of the Middle east, stopping points on global travel, the airports, the tourism industry, people stranded. It's the whole idea that it's a safe place to go for either business, like for, I don't know, Amazon or whomever. That whole concept is now thrown into a flux with what's happening. And that would make sense for why Iran would attack its neighbors to say, look, you're going to pay for this too.

[Ben Rizzuto]

You got it, Joe. And for many years now, the Gulf capitals have really been positioning themselves as safe havens for deep pools of public and private capital, aviation hubs, tourism drivers too. And the attacks that we've seen from the Iranians have been largely symbolic. As you know, they've been targeting not just luxury hotels, but also icons of Dubai like the Burj Al Arab, for example. And the missiles that we've seen being leveled towards this country are coming in thick and fast. Actually. UAE authorities earlier today said that they were able to confirm more than 1,000 direct Iranian attacks on the UAE. That is more than than any other targeted country combined. In terms of how the Gulf capitals are going to respond, I think that's a big question as well. The UAE said today that it wouldn't be changing its defense position, its remaining its defensive stance here as its current strategy. But of course, whether or not we see the UAE and Saudi Arabia perhaps coming together to also retaliate, given the amount of strikes that we've seen from the Iranians, is also a big question mark at this point and probably something

[Joe Kernan]

really like a cornered animal kind of lashing out and doing these things, not necessarily thinking through what the response from those neighbors that's attacking is going to be.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

It's like resetting the whole chessboard though. It's really. I don't know whether anyone anticipated that that would. The deck chair, however, rearranging everything, allies, friends, enemies in the Middle East. It's really quite amazing to watch, I think. Anyway, Dan, we appreciate your time as we do this visit, I guess this afternoon for, for Dan. At this point,

[Joe Kernan]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman telling employees his company doesn't get to make operational decisions on how its AI technology is used by the Defense Department. That's according to a transcript of an all hands meeting yesterday that was reviewed by cnbc. Altman has been criticized by some workers since announcing a deal with the Defense Department late last week. He told employees the Pentagon will allow the company to build safety features it thinks are appropriate. But he also made clear decisions on how technology is used rest with the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth. I think he also said he was a little he wished that the deal had not come together so hastily because it made them look opportunistic and sloppy, coming right on the heels of the anthropic situation where the Defense Department separated from them. But it was an interesting forum that was held with the employees there yesterday.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Talked about it a lot yesterday in fact. And not to imply we want to emulate China, but I don't think China has a lot of woke discussions about what they're able to do with AI over there in terms of weapons systems and everything else.

[Joe Kernan]

No, but this is when you have private companies that are doing these things, you're going to have this friction that comes about right. Particularly in silicon.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

But as Texas said, our soldiers deserve the very best.

[Scott Bessant]

Tease will be next.

[Becky Quick]

Coming up on Squawk pod Treasury Secretary

[Scott Bessant]

Scott Besant the execution of Epic Fury is proceeding and doing better than planned.

[Becky Quick]

Next steps on the engagement in Iran and the role Israel is playing as US Ally.

[Scott Bessant]

The two most powerful air forces in the world now have complete control of the Iranian sky. We will take out their ballistic missiles and the bunkers over the coming days. With the all new Audi Q3, the answer's always yes. Yes to adventure, yes to escape.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

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[Scott Bessant]

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[Becky Quick]

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[Scott Bessant]

Stand Joe by in five seconds. Four, three, two. His mic Q.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

You're watching Squawk Box on CNBC. I thought you knew all this. I'm Joe Kernan along with Becky Quick. Andrew is off today almost. Just read this right at the top because I had it on my screen. Here now to our newsmaker of the morning, treasury secretary Scott Bessant. Mr. Secretary, it's good to see you, Joe.

[Scott Bessant]

Good to be with you and Becky this morning.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

We have been, I guess, focusing on some other secretaries, secretaries of war, secretaries of state. But I just have a feeling that you've been fairly busy as secretary of treasury and doing all you can to, to help in this effort with the war in Iran.

[Scott Bessant]

Well, Joe, the secretary treasury and the secretary of Energy. So Chris Wright and myself sit on the National Security Council and I can tell you that we've had months and weeks of planning for an event like this, but I want to congratulate our Department of War and the leadership there. Everything is going magnificently. The execution of Epic Fury is proceeding and doing better than planned, I believe. Last night we took full control of the Iranian skies along with the Israeli air force. So the two most powerful air forces in the world now have complete control of the Iranian sky. And we will begin a, we began a massive bombing campaign and we will take out their ballistic missiles and the bunkers over the coming days.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

So many intersections in what we're military is trying to do, what President Trump is trying to do and what you and the energy secretary control, especially with what we're hearing about the Strait of Hormuz. We're watching oil prices. I guess you out of the corner of your eye, saw, saw the stock markets around the world, pretty good performance in this country over the last two sessions given what we're, what we're undertaking at this point.

[Scott Bessant]

Well, Joe, if I, if I put on my hat for my previous life as a fund manager, this was a well telegraphed geopolitical event. The crude market had already moved substantially over the past two months. So the move we saw on Monday wasn't even in the top four 50 moves in crude. And again, what I can tell you is that there's been a lot of biased and bad reporting here and I would encourage everyone to look through the noise and see where we are going on the other side of this in terms of the crude markets. The crude markets are very well supplied. There are hundreds of millions of barrels on the water the away from the Gulf. But more importantly, we have a series of announcements that we're going to be making. We began yesterday with with the announcement that the DFC will provide the insurance for both the crude carriers and the cargo ships operating in around the Gulf. Over the weekend, Lloyd's of London nullified the insurance. So US Government is going to step in and when it is appropr and should it be needed, the US Navy will provide safe passage through the straits for the oil tankers.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

We're a different country now in terms of production obviously and obviously President Trump has something to do with that and we're well supplied in this country now, but it is a global market price and everything else. Any thought, Mr. Secretary, of tapping any of the SPRs? I mean we tapped it for there was an election coming and we topped it because prices were too high in the last administration and any reason to do that now?

[Scott Bessant]

Again, Joe, the Secretary Wright, the National Security Council, President Trump, we've all been coordinating on this well in advance. We believe the market is very well supplied. We are in contact with the many of the countries around the world via the iea. There is a gigantic SPR not only in the US but around the world. But the point you made, Joe, in terms of the energy dominance that President Trump has put forward during this administration, we're in a very, very different position than when the Russians invaded Ukraine. We are at all time high in production both for oil and natural gas. We are an exporter to the rest of the world and US LNG continues to flow around the world. So this is a very different ball game than in February of 22.

[Joe Kernan]

Secretary Benson, thank you for being with us this morning. The idea of providing insurance to all of those carriers, how does that work in in practice? Is it something that those certificates are being issued at the moment? We've watched the tankers and all of the ships that are sitting on either side of the Strait of Hormuz, afraid to go through it. I don't believe those ships have started moving yet. But how would that insurance work in practice? When would the Navy actually step in and start doing some of these things?

[Scott Bessant]

Well, again Becky, I think we're inside the 12 or 24 hour window from our announcement yesterday and that Ben Black, the president of DFC has already had a plan in his pocket for months for this contingency. And we will be moving out to the ship owners, to the insurance brokers and over the coming days. And you know, I can also tell you that the Iranian navy is substantially degraded. Most of their ships are sunk and the US has naval and air dominance in the region.

[Joe Kernan]

If I could ask you to keep your fund manager hat on for just a moment. We were talking earlier this morning about some of the moves we've seen. The Shekel was actually up against the dollar. The Israeli market stabilized. What does that tell you?

[Scott Bessant]

Again, it tells me that markets live in the future and that someone is willing to look on the other side of this and not to these fantastical media accounts. Becky, I will tell you the region is not on fire. What is happening is that someone with an iPhone. And look, it's terrible when a hotel gets hit in Bahrain, when there is a drone that hits the airport in Doha. But those are one offs. The Iranian attack capabilities have been substantially degraded. The US Is getting stronger and stronger every day. And the most fulsome part of our campaign is just starting. So that there are the people in the market willing to look through this. And that's what I think everyone should do because President Trump has a vision here. And I think everyone should just step back and think about what does the world look like, you know, if we go back and think the conflict in Syria, there's new leadership there and that is safer. Today, Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro has been removed. This Iranian regime that they're ballistic missiles and they will not have nuclear weapons. And most importantly, the Iranian regime was the head of the snake for global terror. And we are going to cut off that head and Iran will no longer be able to project terrorism around the world.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Secretary Wright, at the beginning. Oh, go ahead.

[Scott Bessant]

No, no, no. I was saying. And that's what markets are looking at, should be looking at at the beginning.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

I said before, during and after what we're doing. As far as actions from the Treasury Department, keep your fund manager hat on. You have said that some of the sanctions and other actions taken months ago caused what not everyone understands, but a dollar shortage that in some way may have at least made it a more fertile environment for the protests that obviously caused a reaction in 30,000 deaths and maybe precipitated what we're doing right now. Can you go into exactly what you meant by that? And it was intentional?

[Scott Bessant]

Sure, Joe. So last, last March, President Trump gave the order for treasury to exert A maximum pressure campaign on Iran. I said at a speech at the Economic Club of New York in March that I predicted that the Iranian currency would collapse, that we would see the economy collapse thanks to this maximum pressure. So we have been softening the, softening up the economy and preparing the ground for what our great warriors are doing right now. So the Iranian economy was vulnerable. We cut off the dollar supply into Iran. All of their oil is sanctioned. We've been able to keep the funds, many of the funds out of, out of Iran. One of the largest banks collapsed in December. The central bank was forced to print a huge amount of money. Inflation ensued. And so there was an economic crash in Iran in December. And now we have the opening to go in and our military is taking over from the sky and from the sea.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Mr. Secretary, can we talk for a second? What you think the CCP is, what's in their calculus right now about what their watching in terms of all the oil that previously that was flowing through the straits, A lot of it headed to the ccp. Have you heard, have we heard from, from China about anything yet?

[Scott Bessant]

I think that we've publicly seen a statement or a communique from, from China. They are urging the Iranians to allow passage out of the strait. China is very vulnerable on the energy side. More than 50% energy comes out of the Gulf. And look, Joe, over time, China had been paying a big discount. They'd been paying a gigantic discount in Venezuela. They still have access to the Venezuelan crude, but at a market price. In some cases they were having a 75% discount. They probably been buying 95% of the Iranian crude. That's obviously on hold right now. And then we'll go from there.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

The when the Supreme Court struck down or at least modified what the President is able to do in terms of tariffs, I think you made the point or a lot of people made the point. We can do a full embargo, but we can't tariff something for a dollar. Now we're hearing maybe that the President would like to do something with Spain because of their, you know, not cooperating in terms of the effort. Is something like that possible, a trade embargo with Spain? Would you be responsible for that?

[Scott Bessant]

Again, it would be a combination effort. And look, President Trump's frustration with the Spanish government is justified, that first of all, they've been terrible actors. They are the only NATO member not meeting their NATO requirement. That's known as a free rider. So the Spanish government is intentionally free riding off the US Government and all the other NATO allies who have stepped up. NATO has never been stronger thanks to President Trump. And the Spanish don't want to pay their fair share. And they said, well you know, we've got the Pyrenees between us and Russia. Well, you know, the US has the Atlantic Ocean and we are the largest contributor to NATO. And then it was unacceptable over the weekend that the Spanish were highly uncooperative regarding the US Bases and what we could do with our planes as we began executing on Operation Epic Fury. So anything that slows down our ability to engage and prosecute this war in the fastest, most effective manner puts American lives at risk. The Spanish put American lives at risk.

[Joe Kernan]

Mr. Secretary, the President has said that he will raise the global tariff to 15%. I believe it still stands at 10% today. Do you know when that change will be implemented, Becky?

[Scott Bessant]

That's likely sometime this week. And again that's under something called section 122 and that's 150 day authority. And during that time, during the 150 days we will see studies from US TR on section 301 tariffs from commerce on section 232. And it's my strong belief that the tariff rates will be back to their old rate within five months. And those are very fulsome authorities. They have survived more than 4,000 legal challenges. They are more slow moving but they are more robust.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Secretary, we're obviously like to talk to you about everything if we could. I don't know how much time you have this morning, but you know the dual mandate we can talk about, but we can talk about the Fed in terms of when you expect some movement on the war nomination as well. But I guess I'd start with a discussion we were having about jobs earlier and you know, the new jobs, the number has come down the average per month. But you have pointed out again and again there's no, there's less government jobs being added or in general with this administration because of the overriding effort to privatize the economy is 4.4%. With what you're trying to do, is that unemployment rate as low as you would expect?

[Scott Bessant]

No, Joe. And again, so there are several components here. One is that the government saw a large net contraction in 2025 and we saw private sector jobs created. The other is the effect of two and a half million illegal aliens leaving the workforce. So the monthly jobs number does not need to be as high for that. And we are at the lowest level as a percent of the total workforce for government jobs since 1966. We are seeing a Technology driven productivity boom. But the other way to get productivity going, Joe, is to have the private sector create the job growth, not the government. As President Trump says, he could create 2 million jobs anytime he wanted, but they would all be government jobs. And these are the high paying jobs. We saw construction pick up by 40,000 last month and I expect that's what we're going to see for a while. We're seeing this capex boom. And with the capex boom, they start out as construction jobs and morph into factory jobs. A couple of months ago I was in my home state of South Carolina. Two factories going up. Boeing, thanks to the President's trade deals, is expanding their Dreamliner facility in my hometown, Charleston, South Carolina by 50%. So construction jobs will turn into a thousand factory jobs. In Sumter, South Carolina, we made the first rare earth magnet in the US in 25 years at a factory there that was 300 construction jobs turns into 300 factory jobs. That could go up to 3,000. So I am very, very bullish on the jobs market this year. The other thing that we have seen over the years, I've had very robust predictive ability with the jobs market, looking at the temporary employment market and temporary employment market's been very strong the past couple couple of months.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

We just talked briefly about Anthropic. I know that a lot of the products, it might be difficult for the treasury or the federal government to wean off some of these products because some people say that they're state of the art and the best that we have. Do you see a way of somehow coming to some type of compromise with Anthropic? Because I know you made. The treasury is not going to is terminating the use of all Anthropic products at this point.

[Scott Bessant]

Yeah, Again, Joe, the vendor does not get to insert a use clause the ex post into a product that if I'm sure you have a fancy foreign car and if the manufacturer said, well we don't want you driving it on Sundays ex post, you would get rid of that car. And we had Anthropic, the at treasury, it was part of a suite of other, the AI company companies we were testing and we'll have them out of our system within several days. So this isn't Anthropic, isn't mission critical and they can't push, they can't push use clauses into their contracts.

[Joe Kernan]

But naming them a supply chain threat means that no one who is a contractor to the US Government can work with Anthropic either.

[Scott Bessant]

Again, that Becky, this is a this is very bad behavior on their part in terms of trying to decide what is the use clause.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

All right, Mr. Secretary, we've gone long. You always allow us to do that and we do appreciate it very much. But once again, thank you so much for your time this morning and hope to see it again soon.

[Scott Bessant]

Good. And Joe, my final message is that things are going very well. The Iranians have made the mistake of bringing our Gulf allies into this fight. And I think that if every one of your viewers watches the news and not the commentary, that they will be able to get very good framing for themselves. And I'm happy to come back and talk to you at length again.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Fantastic. Great, Mr. Secretary, thank you.

[Becky Quick]

We'll be right back.

[Scott Bessant]

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[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

With the all new Audi Q3, the

[Scott Bessant]

answer is always yes. Yes to adventure, yes to escape.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Yes to right now.

[Scott Bessant]

The all new Audi Q3 made for the yes life. Before we had AT&T business wireless coverage, our delivery GPS wasn't the most reliable. Once our driver had to do a 14 point turn to get back on route. A 14 point turn. An influencer even livestream the whole thing.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Not good for business.

[Scott Bessant]

Now with AT&T business wireless routes are updating on the fly and deliveries are on time. And the influencer did get us 53 new followers though.

[Ben Rizzuto]

AT&T business wireless connecting changes everything.

[Becky Quick]

You're listening to Squawk Pod. Here's Becky Quick.

[Joe Kernan]

The inaugural CNBC Cure Summit took place yesterday in New York. This landmark event brought together key stakeholders in the rare disease world. Families, care providers, innovators and pharmaceutical leaders for a first of its kind gathering to talk about what we can do to change outcomes and try and raise awareness for the millions of Americans that are impacted by any of the 10,000 rare genetic diseases. We kicked things off yesterday with a discussion on potential regulatory bottlenecks at the Food and Drug Administration that focused on the performance of the current commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary. The panelists included Congressman Jake Auchincloss, a member of the Rare Disease Congressional Caucus, former Republican Senator Rick Santorum, And CNBC contributor Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who ran the FDA in the first Trump administration.

[Ben Rizzuto]

The problem is that this commissioner is replacing the standards of safety and efficacy

[Scott Bessant]

with fear and favor.

[Ben Rizzuto]

He is doing a political en run around career scientists at the FDA through his commissioner's national priority voucher, through the volatility in decision making around endpoints and notification letters in a way that's undermining patient confidence in the therapies that come

[Scott Bessant]

to market, and that is undermining the ability of innovators to bring medicines to market with confidence. And I don't say that in a partisan way.

[Ben Rizzuto]

I'm on stage right now with an FDA commissioner who was appointed in the first Trump administration, who was a superb FDA commissioner who came and testified in front of Congress about 20 times in his two years. Meanwhile, Commissioner McCary has not showed up once. And the first order of business is

[Scott Bessant]

for my committee to bring him in

[Ben Rizzuto]

front of Congress to testify for his failed stewardship.

[Joe Kernan]

Rick Sandburn, let me have you jump in with this. You're a Republican. You supported Marty Makary's nomination to the fda. What do you think?

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

I really can't disagree with anything that Jake has said. I mean, he's an FDA commissioner who's regulating by press release and selling. He seems like he's telling his boss what his boss wants to hear. Meanwhile, the agency is doing exactly the opposite of everything that the press release says.

[Joe Kernan]

When you say his boss, you mean President, President Trump.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

I mean, look, if you look at what, what Marty Makary is out there talking about and what they're trying to do is, you know, expedite approvals and bring more drugs to the pipeline and all the other things that, you know, that the President is vehemently in favor of. If you listen to what Marty's saying, I'm sure Trump thinks things are going great. The problem is, that's not what's happening on the ground. What you're seeing is a decimation of the agency. You're seeing people who are in leadership positions over CBER and CDER who are absolutely against everything the President's for. When you talk about approval decisions, especially in this context, when you're dealing with rare diseases where data sets are imperfect, you're dealing with small trials, you're dealing with randomization against natural history studies rather than placebo controlled trials. So, you know, sometimes harder to discern a clear benefit in some of these circumstances, it requires a lot of judgment on the part of the review staff. It requires the involvement of senior staff who have a lot of experience looking at these kinds of clinical trial constructs and senior staff who are going to be willing to make accommodations in certain circumstances and the willingness to embrace a degree of uncertainty. And I think when you lose some of the folks who have been doing this a long time, as they have, and they're continuing to lose that caliber of personnel, it starts to impact review decisions.

[Joe Kernan]

Again, this was a conversation that was pretty heated. It was right out of the gate. And it reflects some of what we've been talking about recently, too, what you've seen in the headlines. Concern about not just Marty Makary. I think that all of them have a kinder view of Marty Makary than they do Vinay Prasad, who is the doctor who has received so much criticism, who's been there on the forefront as the FDA has increased the number of CRLs, complete response letters that basically tell companies, sorry for what you were told before at the fda, that we are not able to give you approval for your drug, even though you've been following the guidelines that we had set maybe earlier or the guidance that we'd given you.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Santorum was a senator. He was obviously implying that there's something between the message from President Trump and the mess. And I would. Is that RFK Jr. That's in between? I mean, is that where it gets.

[Joe Kernan]

I don't know, in talking to them in background, trying to get to the bottom of it. Look, what Marty Makary has said has been very positive. He was on with us last week and the moves that he made to change the framework, I think are very positive moves. It's been laid out in other places, though, that the right hand does one thing, the left hand does another. And I think that's where the concern is. There is a real pal over the industry just and from investors who say, how can we possibly invest in these things if the guidance we've been working on spending hundreds of millions of dollars on over the last year or two is not kind of held through. If we think we are following the guidance from the FDA and the rules get changed, that can't happen through administration.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

What's the real story with Prasad? He was there. He wasn't there. He was there again. Who wanted to get rid of him? Who wants to bring him back? Who's his person?

[Joe Kernan]

I don't know. I've heard a couple.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Not RFK Jr.

[Joe Kernan]

I don't know if it's Marty Makary. I don't know if it's RFK Jr. I don't know for sure. On that, but he is certainly a lightning rod.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

But he has somebody that's behind him a lot.

[Joe Kernan]

I know some things I don't know for sure.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

You know, I think Trump's got a lot going on, obviously, and I think he and he likes to delegate.

[Joe Kernan]

But both, both Scott Gottlieb and Rick Santorum said that the president has always embraced President Trump, has embraced innovation in quickly. He may not be a big fan of Big Pharma and some of the prices that come through, but he is a fan of innovation and trying to get help to needed populations. Rick Santorum, by the way, not only a former senator who worked on all of these things the entire time he was in the Senate, he happens to have a daughter who was born with a rare genetic disease and a granddaughter, an adopted granddaughter, who, who has a similar trisomy 18 is what his daughter Bella has in 2008. That didn't come about until after he was out of Congress. After he was out of Congress.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Is it similar to.

[Joe Kernan]

Yeah.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

The phenotype trisomy 21?

[Joe Kernan]

I don't know. That's down syndrome trisomy. She needs 24. 7 care. I do know. And his granddaughter has a similar One of them has a depletion of it. One of them has an additional both

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

on the trisomy completely different in 21. The only thing similar is there's an extra copy of one of the but

[Joe Kernan]

it's, it's complex, it's heated. There are people on all sides of this, but the one thing they do come away thinking is that you need to have certainty if you want to have investment in rare disease. And there's not a lot of certainty at this point. Now, Marty will say many of the changes that the FDA preceded him with people leaving because Doge came in and that was before. He's only been in office 10 months. He's only been in his position 10 months and a lot of those changes took place before it. But there are several concerns that have come up and it is you need certainty if you are going to invest and you need certainty over years of time Anyway.

[Becky Quick]

For more from CNBC Cures, check out Becky Quick's companion podcast, the Path, featuring stories with people steeped in the fight against rare disease. Those are bonus audio podcasts right here in your Squawk Pod feed. Followers and subscribers should see those episodes alongside our daily podcast and bonus five Things to Know pods. We also have full video casts of the path on YouTube. Go to CNBC TV on YouTube and find the Path under the podcasts tab. And that does it for Squawk Pod today. Thanks for listening. Squawkbox is hosted by Joe Kernan, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Tune in weekday mornings on CNBC at 6 Eastern and follow Squawk Pod wherever you like to listen. We'll meet you right back here tomorrow.

[Scott Bessant]

We are clear. Thanks guys.

[Andrew Ross Sorkin]

Foreign.

[Scott Bessant]

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