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US Treasury Scott Bessent has a message to powerful public company CEOs: Stop worrying about tariffs, and get back to business.
"We're going to have a lot more clarity on the way forward [on tariffs] over the next 90 days," Bessent told Yahoo Finance in an interview on Tuesday (video above).
Bessent was responding to a question about CEOs voicing concerns about the Trump administration's trade policy. Some top leaders have expressed to me that the tariffs are putting their businesses into a state of chaos.
Bessent added, "They'll [CEOs] also have clarity on tax and on deregulation. I remember in 2017 I heard a lot of the same things because the tax deal wasn't done until right before Christmas in 2017. And it was the same thing. We can't plan. We can't do this. We need clarity. So, you know, we're going to have clarity on tax. We're going to have clarity on deregulation."
Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet
Corporate America has sounded the alarm on the state of the economy amid the tariff turmoil.
JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said in a recent TV interview that a recession is likely. Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon told analysts on his earnings call on Monday that the prospect of a recession has increased.
Bessent's hedge fund mentor Stanley Druckenmiller has weighed in on X that he doesn't support tariffs above 10%.
"Well, the consumer is concerned about a number of things ... the pricing and costs of things, inflation," Constellation Brands (STZ) CEO Bill Newlands told me on Yahoo Finance's Catalysts. "They're concerned about immigration, particularly consumers that have had friends or family who have been involved with issues around immigration. How that's translating is that people are spending less. They're out less in restaurants. They're spending less on consumer goods and consumables."
The Corona and Modelo beer maker has seen beer sales go flat amid the economic uncertainty.
Bessent said about the recession concerns from Dimon and Solomon: "Look, that's their job is to be concerned. But again, I think that there is all this chatter on tariffs and what we're worried about. And, you know, I come from Wall Street, I think Wall Street can continue to do great, but we are focused on Main Street."
The concerns from CEOs have been well placed.
On April 9, the Trump administration announced a 90-day pause on all reciprocal tariffs, with the exception being China. The tariffs on China, one of the US's most important trading partners, now stand at 145%.