Treasury Secretary Bessent talks to CNBC as Trump administration faces affordability concerns

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to sit down for an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday morning as the Trump administration faces concerns about rising fuel prices, interest rates and risks from artificial intelligence.

Bessent is scheduled to begin his interview at 8 a.m.

His appearance comes on the heels of his meeting over the weekend with his Chinese counterpart, He Lifeng, ahead of the summit in Washington later this week between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump.

Bessent last week told Axios he was open to discussing shared AI risks with China during that meeting. Bessent said on Sunday he had a successful meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng ahead of Xi's visit and that they discussed issues including AI and trade.

The Treasury chief last week touted a Sept. 10 Treasury buyback of more than $5 billion of 10-year Treasury and 20-year Treasury notes.

Since the U.S. and Israel's war against Iran began in late February, the benchmark 10-year Treasury's yield — which moves inversely to the note's price — has increased by about 100 basis points, rising above 5% last week for the first time since 2007.

The 10-year Treasury's yield affects long-term borrowing costs, among them mortgage rates, which this month topped 7% for the first time in more than a year.

In testimony to the House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 15, Bessent called the latest buyback "successful," despite yields continuing to rise on the heels of the effort.

"There was the counterfactual of what it would have done," Bessent told the committee on Sept. 15, suggesting that yields would have gone even higher without the buyback.

"Since President Trump has come in, [the U.S. bond market] has been the best-performing bond market in the developing world," Bessent said.

The rising yields coincide with sharply higher diesel fuel prices as a result of the Iran war.

Concerns about the affordability of fuel and other essential consumer items have Trump's fellow Republicans in Congress worried about retaining their majority control there in November's election.

At the midterm Republican National Convention on Sept. 9, Trump vowed every U.S. citizen adult would get a "dividend" of $5,000 if Republicans kept control of both the Senate and House of Representatives.

On Sept. 16, the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee for the first time since 2023 raised benchmark interest rates to a target range of 3.75% to 4% in what the committee said was an effort to reduce what it termed "elevated inflation."

Trump, who appointed Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, has repeatedly demanded that the Fed cut rates. But the president told reporters he spoke with Warsh before the FOMC meeting and said, "You might as well vote with the board. It's not going to matter.'"