Treasury Secretary Grilled On Economic Figures And Foreign Policy. He Refrained From Directly Calling Ukraine An Ally.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that energy prices would come down after the Iran conflict, but did not indicate whether hostilities would cease in the immediate future, during an interview on Sunday which focused on the economy and foreign policy.

Bessent was adamant that the U.S. economic picture was not all gloomy despite inflation hitting a five-month high of 3.7% in September, driven by surging energy and gas prices.

"Food is below the Fed's targets. Prescription drugs have had the biggest decrease in history. Rents are down ... this is an energy shock. We will get to the other side of the Iran conflict and those prices will come down," Bessent told NBC' News' "Meet The Press" show on Sunday.

Food inflation was flat in September, prescription drug prices recorded their biggest year-on-year decline in over six decades in July, although some experts attributed that decline to the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, and the national median monthly rent was 0.4% lower in September 2026 compared to September 2025, according to the Apartment List National Report.

Gas prices, however, remain stubbornly high. The AAA tracker showed that the national average was approximately $4.30 per gallon as of October 18, compared to an average of about $2.98 at the beginning of the Iran war.

When NBC's Welker pressed Bessent on whether the fall in energy prices could be expected before the new year, the high-ranking government official replied that it would "depend on what happens with the Iran conflict."

Bessent's cautious rhetoric contrasts previous statements by some figures in the administration of President Donald Trump, including Trump himself, who have previously assured Americans that an end to hostilities in the Middle East was imminent.

As the conversation shifted to the news of Trump suspending the implementation of sanctions on Russia on Friday, Bessent became similarly defensive.

"No one has been tougher on Russian sanctions than President Trump," the treasury secretary claimed, pointing to the Trump administration's sanctions on "the two largest Russian energy companies: Rosneft and Lukoil."

The Trump administration did impose sweeping sanctions on both companies in October 2025, but Lukoil was granted an extension of a waiver on those sanctions on Thursday, which will allow its service stations outside of Russia to continue operating until April 2027.

Trump's business allies were also reportedly involved in talks regarding the acquisition of Lukoil's international assets.

Bessent also called claims by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the U.S. could have restricted Ukrainian access to the Starshield communications system, the military-grade version of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service, "reckless" and untrue.

Zelensky told NBC's "Meet The Press" earlier on Sunday that Ukrainian officials believed that the restrictions imposed on Ukraine's battlefield use of Starshield came about as a result of a message from the U.S. government, a charge which a Reuters source corroborated but which the Trump administration denies.

When asked if the U.S. considered Ukraine an ally, Bessent's response was cautious. He first emphasized that "President Trump has made it clear that he wants to end this war."

When pressed on the issue, the treasury secretary said "we provide ... different things to Ukraine. That's what you do for an ally ... we're not pro-Russia" but would not explicitly confirm that the U.S. saw Ukraine as its ally, claiming that such matters were the responsibility of the president or the secretary of state.