Scott Bessent claims he received assurance in a personal call with company\u2019s chief executive<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US retail giant Walmart<\/a> will \u201ceat some of the tariffs\u201d in line with Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s demands, the president\u2019s treasury secretary Scott Bessent insisted on Sunday, claiming he received the assurance in a personal phone call with the company\u2019s chief executive, Doug McMillon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A spokesperson for Walmart<\/a> said the company would not comment on conversations between its executives and administration officials. However, a source familiar with the conversation said the phone call between Bessent and McMillon was arranged many days prior to Trump\u2019s post \u2013 and that the company\u2019s position had not changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walmart said this week it had no alternative to raising prices for consumers<\/a> beginning later this month because it could not absorb the cost of the president\u2019s tariffs on international trade, which have caused turmoil in international markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The statement provoked an angry response from Trump, who posted a rant to his Truth Social network<\/a> on Saturday saying the company should \u201ceat the tariffs and not charge valued customers anything\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Bessent, speaking on Sunday to NBC\u2019s Meet the Press, Walmart is now promising exactly that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was on the phone with Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart, yesterday. And Walmart is, in fact, going to, as you describe it, eat some of the tariffs, just as they did in \u201818, \u201819, and \u201820,\u201d Bessent said after host Kristen Welker asked if the president was asking American companies to be less profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat you\u2019re describing was Walmart\u2019s earnings call. The other thing the companies have to do \u2013 they have to give the worst case scenario so that they\u2019re not sued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday, McMillon said in the earnings call that his company, a bellwether of US consumer health, was moving to protect itself against the impacts of Trump\u2019s tariffs, despite the president\u2019s administration announcing a pause in its trade war with China that analysts called \u201ccapitulation day<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible but given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren\u2019t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walmart\u2019s chief financial officer, John Rainey, told CNBC<\/a> that the company, which has thousands of stores across the US, was \u201cwired for everyday low prices\u201d. But he said the tariffs were \u201cmore than any retailer can absorb\u201d \u2013 and that consumers would begin to see higher prices towards the end of May and \u201ccertainly much more in June\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump announced plans for an unprecedented barrage of tariffs against numerous countries on 2 April, a date he called \u201cliberation day<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For too long, he said, the US had been \u201clooted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far\u201d, and he presented a list of countries and territories that would receive tariffs, ranging from numerous US allies and longtime trade partners to barren, remote islands near Antarctica occupied only by penguins<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president\u2019s strategy, which he insisted would lead to negotiations and trade deals with at least 150 countries, was variously ridiculed and condemned as flawed and unworkable. And it created an ongoing six weeks of chaos<\/a> with higher prices, crashing stock markets and slowing economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has since attempted to walk back many of the excesses of the policy, including this week\u2019s announcement that, for an initial 90-day period, tariffs on China \u2013 a dominant supplier to Walmart and myriad other US companies \u2013 would be cut from 145% to 30%<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The White House called it a \u201ctotal reset\u201d in trade relations and followed up on Friday by announcing that it would not, after all, negotiate with many of the countries, but instead unilaterally impose new tariff rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[It is] not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us,\u201d Trump told a meeting of business leaders in the United Arab Emirates during his tour of Gulf states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have 150 countries that want to make a deal, but you\u2019re not able to see that many countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bessent told CNN\u2019s State of the Union in a later appearance on Sunday that the US was focused on its \u201c18 most important trading relationships\u201d \u2013 and that he expected trade talks to continue with a number of countries leading to a series of regional deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n