Treasury Secretary Blasted Over Out-Of-Touch Remark About How Many Homes People Buy For Retirement

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had people raising their eyebrows after he made an out-of-touch remark at the World Economic Forum about the number of homes people purchase for their retirement, claiming at a time when Americans are struggling with a nationwide cost-of-living crisis that some are purchasing as many as "12 homes" for their golden years.

Bessent described the administration’s strategy to limit the role of large institutional buyers in the single-family housing market, while preserving protections for smaller, independent landlords, including those who rely on rental properties for retirement income.

He said the following to Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo:

"We are going to give guidance at some point to see what is a mom-and-pop, maybe your parents for their retirement have bought 5, 10, 12 homes. So we don't want to push the mom-and-pops out, we just want to push everyone else out."

You can hear what he said in the video below.

Now here's a case of someone who couldn't be more out of touch—Bessent, who previously worked as a hedge fund manager, is worth an estimated $521 million, according to The Street.

He was swiftly called out.

Bessent also took an opportunity to defend the Trump administration's economic policies despite widespread discontent among the American public.

He claimed President Donald Trump's "policies have delivered a historic economic comeback for both Wall Street and Main Street," adding that “by all measures” the U.S. is the strongest place in the world for capital investment.

He also urged other countries not to retaliate against Trump for announcing new tariffs against European nations that have pushed back against his insistence that the U.S. should seize control of Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally.

Bessent claimed the pushback "is the same kind of hysteria that we heard on April 2," the day of Trump's initial "Liberation Day" tariffs. He ignored concerns, saying countries should "stick with their trade deals" and wait for markets to eventually stabilize.