Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a scathing response to The Financial Times after the outlet published a story — which he labeled “explicitly false” — about his plans for the future of the Federal Reserve.
The Financial Times headline read, “Scott Bessent praised Bank of England as model for tighter oversight of Federal Reserve.” An X post promoting the piece followed the same general theme: “U.S. treasury secretary Scott Bessent discussed tightening the US Treasury’s oversight of the Federal Reserve by adopting elements of the Bank of England’s model.”
Bessent objected in a lengthy X post of his own, explaining that as recently as 2025, he had written a comprehensive (6,000+ words) analysis of potential reforms for the Federal Reserve, and that he had never adopted a stance supporting a move toward the Chancellor-Bank of England statute for the relationship between the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.
“By publishing this explicitly false story, the @FT has officially become tabloid trash for market participants,” Bessent began, noting that he had gone on the record denying the premise of the story. “Despite my direct, on-the-record denial of ever having advocated, explored, or espoused the idea that Chancellor-Bank of England statute serving as a prototype for a Treasury-Federal Reserve relationship, FT journalists manufactured a story with the headline, ‘Scott Bessent praised Bank of England as model for tighter oversight of the Federal Reserve.’”
“These pathetic journalists have clearly fabricated a story to give the impression that both I and the Trump Administration are setting ‘about restructuring the relationship … at a time when President Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on the world’s most important central bank,’” Bessent continued, referring to the story as a “mendacious assertion” backed only by anonymous “financial industry executives.”
“In short, FT has literally manufactured an entirely fake policy position for me and the Administration,” Bessent said. He went on to say that he didn’t understand why The Financial Times would go ahead with such a story — which he said could only further damage their credibility as journalists — unless their sole priority was to paint a picture of discord and division in President Donald Trump’s administration.
“Over the past 10 years, I have written more than 20,000 words opining on the Federal Reserve decisions, personnel, structure, and modifications. Nowhere have I ever mentioned this ridiculous notion,” Bessent added. “The Governor’s letters to the Chancellor have proven to be a useless and perfunctory device. There is much to be said about the storied Bank of England, but any recreation of its operating framework on this side of the Atlantic has never been contemplated.”
Bessent concluded with one last shot at The Financial Times, saying, “The shameful journalists and editors at the FT are shocking in their meretriciousness, lack of standards, and general intellectual libertinism. It is the worst tradition of Fleet Street to manufacture news rather than report on it. They have brought irredeemable shame to their parent organization, Nikkei Inc., with whom I had previously held excellent relations.”
Bessent’s argument for change in the Federal Reserve had more to do with reining in “institutional bloat” and the “overuse of nonstandard policies” created to address specific issues.
“As we saw during the covid pandemic, when lab-created experiments escape their confines, they can wreak havoc in the real world. Once released, they cannot easily be put back into the containment zone,” Bessent explained. “The ‘extraordinary’ monetary policy tools unleashed after the 2008 financial crisis have similarly transformed the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy regime, with unpredictable consequences.”
