Speaking with Breitbart News, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent broke down how official inflation numbers understate the economic pain felt by working-class Americans, pointing to steep price hikes in essentials like rent, used cars, and insurance under Biden and laying out how the Trump administration plans to reverse the damage.
Bessent called Donald Trump “the most transformative political figure of the century” and said in a policy event with Breitbart News that Trump’s first term delivered real wage gains for working Americans.
“The reason he won is because the bottom 50 percent of working Americans got crushed,” Bessent remarked. “If you go by the standard inflation numbers—PCE, CPI—during the Biden years, inflation was about 18 to 21 percent. Reported wages were about 3 percent below that.”
“But that isn’t the real story,” Bessent explained, “because working-class Americans have a different basket of goods and services than everyone in this room. They’re dependent on used cars, insurance, rent. They don’t have assets. So they probably experienced inflation between 32 and 35 percent, with wage growth at only 16 percent. They had a gigantic, gigantic loss of purchasing power.”
Bessent outlined the administration’s plan to fix the affordability crisis, highlighting two key goals:
- Bringing down inflation, which has already shown signs of improvement. “In May, we had the best inflation number in four years,” Bessent noted.
- Raising real wages, just like during Trump’s first term. “Hourly workers did better than supervisory workers,” he stated. “The bottom 50 percent of household net worth went up more than the top 10 percent … it was great for working Americans.”
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