Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos
WATCH: Economy under Trump is ‘not golden,’ Rep. Thompson tells Bessent
Posted
June 4, 2026
Views
3,097
Likes
79
Engagement
2.55%
June 4, 2026
3,097
79
2.55%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
3:12Now PlayingRep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., reminded Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent of his statement a year ago that President Donald Trump’s leadership had laid the foundation for “a golden age economy,” during a House Ways and Means hearing Thursday.
“Mr. Secretary, I've searched hard to find constituents in my district who believe that this economy is golden,” Thompson said. “In fact, many of them are struggling more today than they were the last time you were in front of this committee.”
Thompson listed several economic metrics under Trump including rising costs for childcare, health insurance, gas prices and grocery prices.
“Is that what this administration considers a golden age?” Thompson asked. He asked Bessent what he should tell farmers who haven’t been able to get their product to market due to the high fuel and fertilizer costs resulting from the war in Iran.
“You should tell them that we've had 2.6% economic growth since President Trump took office,” Bessent said.
"These farmers are pretty smart, Mr. Secretary, and they're not going to fall for that line," Thompson said.
Bessent appeared in a Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday, where he was questioned by Democrats about the fate of a legal settlement between Trump and the IRS that granted him immunity from future audits. Bessent refused to say whether that aspect was still operational, after the Justice Department announced this week it was dropping a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that would potentially aid Trump allies.
Newsletters
PBS News podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app
Find more from PBS News at
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
