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Scott Bessent: “We brought that down to about 5.5 or 5.4% this year.”

Featuring: Scott Bessent, Republican | Secretary of the Treasury | National

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent holds White House press briefing — 5/28/2026

Published | Video Starts at 16:33

Just to remind everyone, we inherited the worst budget deficit in history. In history when we were not in a recession or not at war, 6.7%. We brought that down to about 5.5 or 5.4% this year. I think we stay on a good trajectory. Mr. Secretary, without an executive order, does the US government have adequate defenses in place to address the risk created by Anthropic's new AI models? (16:33–16:38)

CLAIM

Asserts that the budget deficit has been reduced to about 5.5% or 5.4% this year.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.


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PolitiQuote is a civic library index to statements made by politicians in publicly available video records. The index is created automatically from transcripts, with no editorial oversight or analysis. Highlighted quotes are selected by AI. Words may be added in parentheses to offer context for the quote. There may be errors in the transcription and display, so listen to the video to ensure accuracy.

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