“Economic security is national security,” Bessent declared Thursday at the close of the Export-Import Bank’s annual conference. In his remarks, he outlined an emerging doctrine in which “our economic strength stands alongside our military as a pillar of America’s national security.”
Beyond traditional military alliances, Bessent said, the administration is building “an economic shield” designed to protect supply chains, secure critical resources, and bolster the resilience of the United States and its partners.
Bessent described Trump’s approach as a “long overdue economic rebalancing” intended to let American companies compete on “fair terms” globally.
“Our administration’s focus is on supporting exporters, enabling market access, and mitigating risk,” he said.
The urgency of that strategy is already evident in today’s flashpoints. Citing tensions involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s energy supply passes — Bessent warned that Tehran has sought to “threaten the Strait and spike global energy prices, tighten supply chains, and exploit critical economic dependencies.”
Such moves, he argued, “demonstrate that the global economy is a central arena of competition.”
Bessent contended that Trump’s policies have already helped insulate the United States from these shocks. “The pro-growth policies that President Trump has advanced since the beginning of the second term, especially those promoting energy abundance, have helped the United States withstand these recent shocks,” he said.
He pointed to surging global demand for American energy exports. “Countries around the world want to buy their energy from a reliable partner,” Bessent said, noting that nations are eager to avoid “critical choke points like we’ve seen in the Strait of Hormuz.”
On critical minerals, Bessent highlighted the vulnerabilities of concentrated supply chains that now threaten semiconductors, energy infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and the defense systems that depend on them.
To counter those risks, he spotlighted “Project VAULT,” the U.S. critical minerals reserve initiative launched in February 2026. The project, he said, “is a powerful example of how Treasury and EXIM can work together with the private sector to make America’s economy safer, more secure, and more robust.”
More broadly, Bessent cast the strategy as a shift toward “economic statecraft,” in which public and private capital align “to reinforce national power” — an approach he predicted could become “a new template for U.S. policy for decades to come.”
Yet he acknowledged the magnitude of the challenge. Advanced semiconductor manufacturing remains heavily concentrated overseas, and pharmaceutical supply chains are overly reliant on foreign sources, with as much as 90 percent of U.S. medicines tied to production abroad.
The coming contest, Bessent warned, will hinge on technology. “In this technological arms race, the United States must continue to lead,” he said. “The United States has the greatest innovation ecosystem in the world today.”
The task now, he suggested, is to ensure that the United States maintains its dominance in innovation, production and exports and, in doing so, fosters “a more resilient economy and a more secure nation.”
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