Treasury boss Bessent bullish on Trump economy, predicts 3% growth, 2% inflation by year’s end

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is confident the United States will weather the Iran conflict and a temporary spike in gas prices and finish 2026 with economic growth above 3% while hitting the Federal Reserve's 2% inflation target.

Bessent told Just the News that the recent revision upwards of the Gross Domestic Product is one of many signs the economy is still strong.

"The president rightly believed that Iran was an existential danger, and had to be dealt with. It was a 90-day intervention there, but the economy, our economy, did the best in the world in terms of any major economy that pushed back on the naysayers, and first quarter, just got revised up to 2.1%," Bessent said during an interview Friday on the Just the News No Noise TV program. 

"I think that we are going to print more than 3% growth for the year, and importantly, the energy-generated inflation, crude oil prices today are lower than they were on February 27," he added.

For comparison, real GDP growth in 2025 was 2.1%, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Bessent also predicted that gasoline prices would "continue coming down" for the summer driving season.

"We will be back towards the Fed's 2% inflation target, and the message is job growth has been substantial. Moving into April, until April, we had seen real wage growth for working Americans," he said. 

"We're going to get back on that track to try to help the American people recoup some of their big affordability losses under the Biden administration, where it was the worst inflation in 48 years," he added.