US ‘had been asleep’ on economic security but ‘awakened’ once Trump took office: Bessent

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a speech in defense of President Donald Trump’s “America First” economic agenda, arguing that decades of bipartisan policymaking before Trump took office left the U.S. dangerously dependent on foreign rivals and weakened the nation’s industrial base. In a speech entitled “While America Slept,” Bessent described the administration’s economic strategy as a historic shift away from what he called a failed model that prioritized low-cost consumption and global efficiency over domestic production and economic resilience. “The truth is that for too long, America had been asleep. We mistook comfort for strength,” Bessent said, according to a…