Bessent Details ‘Economic Statecraft’ Strategy Ahead of America’s 250th Anniversary

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday described a doctrine of “economic statecraft” that would link U.S. economic policy more closely to national sovereignty and security, contending that assumptions underpinning the postwar global order have created critical vulnerabilities that adversaries can exploit.

Speaking at The Economic Club of New York’s America 250 Gala Dinner on the eve of the nation’s 250th anniversary, Bessent argued that the United States helped build an open economic system that brought broad global benefits, but that system needs to be reconsidered.

“We came to believe that access to the American market could be extended without condition—and therefore without consequence,” Bessent said in prepared remarks. “We assumed that closer economic integration would result in a greater convergence of interests. That supply chains would function in every crisis. Low prices would compensate for lost capacity. And above all, that other countries would treat our firms as fairly as we had treated theirs.”

He cited strategic industries moving abroad, supply chains dependent upon jurisdictions that do not share U.S. interests, and American firms being discriminated against.

“We’ve emboldened other countries to exploit our dependence as leverage,” Bessent said. “And to repair those imbalances with the world is not to retreat from it.”

Bessent organized the Trump administration’s approach around five core principles.

The first holds that “economic security begins with national capacity.” Bessent cited Alexander Hamilton, who said every nation “ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply.”

He listed semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, shipbuilding, critical minerals, and pharmaceuticals as sectors that are “more than sectors of the economy” but “sources of national power.”

Supply-chain approaches must consider more than just the lowest cost, and whether supply chains can survive crises, overcome coercion, or avoid foreign chokepoints, he said.

The second principle requires that “America’s openness will be matched by reciprocity.” The benefits of partnership “are no longer unconditional,” Bessent said.

Countries cannot seek access to U.S. markets without offering fair access to their own, imposing discriminatory taxes targeting American companies, or adopting industrial policies that exclude U.S. technology.

“They cannot participate in the dollar-based financial system while serving as conduits for the evasion of sanctions, illicit finance, or strategic leakage,” he said. The United States will use its tools “judiciously—but we will never hesitate to use them decisively,” Bessent added.

The third principle—that “America will write the rules of the next economy”—emphasized emerging financial technologies.

“Digital assets, stablecoins, tokenization, and new payment systems will help to shape the future of money,” Bessent said. “The United States should not consign itself to the sidelines while that future is built elsewhere.”

He urged innovation that strengthens the dollar, improves efficiency, and expands access while insisting new technologies meet standards for transparency, security, consumer protection, and law enforcement access.

If authoritarian or mercantilist systems set those standards instead, Bessent warned, “the global economy will become more coercive and less favorable to American interests.”

The fourth principle positions financial leadership as “a central instrument of statecraft.” Bessent said the dollar’s global role brings advantages in borrowing costs and sanctions reach, but also obligations to preclude abuses such as sanctions evasion, terrorist finance, and cybercrime through targeted, enforceable measures.

The fifth and “most important” principle is that “economic statecraft must serve the American people.” The goal should be to connect national power with household prosperity, ensuring that American families are “participants in what America builds” and gains are shared, Bessent said.

Bessent said partners should receive clarity and insistence on reciprocity, while adversaries should expect resolve in the face of efforts to weaponize supply chains or evade sanctions. The American people, he said, should expect the administration to put “their security and prosperity first.”

Bessent closed his speech by saying the United States will remain “the most important economic partner in the world,” but “now a partner with higher standards and greater expectations.”