U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is “hopeful” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will sign a rare earth minerals deal with President Donald Trump this week, adding that “the Russians hate this deal.”
Appearing on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel, Bessent said: “Common to a lot of misperceptions, the Russians hate this deal.”
“The morning that I arrived in Ukraine to get into Kyiv … you fly to Poland, you take a 10- hour night if train in. The Russians, unfortunately, bombed Kyiv. There was a missile barrage four hours before I got there.
“It was the first time that such a barrage had a taken place since November. So I think that was a strong signal from Russian leadership that they don’t like this deal because it gives President Trump more negotiating leverage.
“So if the Russians don’t like it, my view is Ukrainians should.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: ‘The Russians hate this deal’
‘It gives President Trump more negotiating leverage. So if the Russians don’t like it, my view is Ukrainians should’ pic.twitter.com/LfPAzKqPBE
— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) February 23, 2025
“President Trump created this idea himself. It is a win-win,” Bessent continued.
“We make money if the Ukrainian people make money, and I believe that with the United States of America, our know-how, our businesses willing to to come in and provide capital, that we can accelerate the Ukrainian growth trajectory and take in substantial monies for the U.S. taxpayers and get the Ukrainian economy on a growth, great growth trajectory.”
While Bessent expects Zelenskyy will sign the deal, he added, “What it does not include is a military guarantee.”
“What it does include is an implicit guarantee that if the if United States of America is heavily invested in the economic future, I call it an economic security guarantee. The more assets that U.S. companies have on the ground, the bigger interest that the U.S. has in the future of Ukrainian economy doing well, the more security it creates for the Ukrainian people and the higher the return for the U.S. taxpayer.
“Again, President Trump has structured this win-win deal, and it’s unfortunate that, you know, after by meeting with President Zelenskyy and then his meeting in Munich with Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Rubio, the idea here of my trip to Ukraine and then the meeting in Munich, we want to intertwine the U.S. and Ukrainian economies for the benefit of both.
“And, unfortunately, President Zelenskyy seems to have put a bit of daylight between us, but I am sure in the long run, or in the short run there is no daylight, the deal will be signed, and this will give President Trump a lever. And it will be a strong signal to Russian leadership that the U.S. is in a serious partnership with the Ukrainian people.”
Bessent also praised Trump’s cost-cutting measures by Elon Musk and DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, hammering what he called “orgiastic government spending” by Joe Biden’s administration.
“I think that if we have a bloated government, and if that gets cut down, then government spending will go down,” he explained. “Many times … in the past ten months I’ve talked about reprivatizing the economy, and that’s what we’re going to have to do.
“We’ve seen what I would call this orgiastic government spending with the past administration. We’re running 6.7%, 6.9% deficits to GDP which we’ve never had when we’re not in a recession, not in a war. And we’re going to bring that down. So as the government employment comes down, private sector will not be crowded out anymore.
“All the jobs created by the Biden, not all, but 70%, 85% of the jobs created by the Biden administration were government jobs, government-adjacent. They crowded out the private sector. The government interest rates spiked. I would just point out interest rates are down five weeks in a row … since President Trump took office.”
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