Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday warned other countries not to align themselves with China on trade as it engaged in tit-for-tat tariffs on the United States.
Bessent delivered the warning at the American Bankers Association in Washington, saying that seeking closer ties with Beijing “would be cutting your own throat.”
He did not provide details on what the Trump administration may do if a country chooses to pivot toward China during the tariff impositions.
“For all of you who can remember that Disney movie with the brooms carrying buckets of water, that’s the Chinese business model,” Bessent said, relating China to the 1940 Disney film “Fantasia,” in which Mickey Mouse in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment directs animated brooms to carry water before it leads to a flood….