I think monkeys is the wrong word. Toady is the right word. He lacks integrity. Bessemer is no different from the other intelligent people who sit in front of committees and are unwilling to say Biden won the last election. Some examples of Bessent being a Toady… In a January 2024 investor letter from his firm Key Square (before Trump’s reelection), Bessent wrote that “Tariffs are inflationary and would strengthen the dollar.” During a February 2026 House Financial Services Committee hearing, when asked directly if he had written that, he initially said “no.” Confronted with the letter and reporting, he later stated he was “mistaken” and that “tariff inflation was the dog that didn’t bark,” citing (selective) San Francisco Fed data while the economy faced ongoing price pressures. In May 2025 on Meet the Press, he said “Gasoline prices have collapsed under President Trump.” AAA and other data showed prices fluctuating but not collapsing (they were around $3.12–$3.23 range at points, without the dramatic sustained drop claimed). He repeatedly claimed tariffs would not raise (or had not raised) U.S. consumer prices—e.g., that China would “eat” the tariffs or that there had been “no price increases” from them. Company reports, retailer disclosures (Costco, Best Buy, others), and analyses showed pass-through to higher prices on goods. Soybean farm claim: On Face the Nation he said he “run[s] a soybean farm”; the host corrected that he invested in/owned one (holdings later divested for ethics reasons). • DOGE/Treasury systems access: Senators stated he provided inaccurate or incomplete information to Congress about who had access, the nature of access (“read-only”), and the purpose (portrayed as a routine efficiency review).
