Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent answered Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s latest letter with a jab at her economics and a pointed handwritten holiday greeting.
Quick Take
- Bessent’s reply, dated Friday, October 9, answered Warren’s October 7 letter on rising government borrowing costs.
- Warren has sent Treasury more than 100 letters in 21 months, according to reports.
- Bessent wrote that “it is difficult to treat your concern as sincere.”
- He offered her “Foreign Exchange for Dummies” and “Fixed Income for Dummies” tutorials.
- Below his signature he wrote by hand: “Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day in advance to you and your family.”
Why Bessent Wrote Back
Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and former Harvard Law professor, wrote to Treasury to ask what the Trump administration is doing to lower borrowing costs for everyday Americans. She blamed the rise in Treasury yields on the administration. Treasury yields are the interest rates the government pays when it borrows money, and they help set what families pay on mortgages and car loans. “The surge in Treasury yields is self-inflicted and follows the Fed’s decision to raise the federal funds rate,” she wrote. The federal funds rate is the Federal Reserve’s key short-term interest rate. She asked for answers by October 21.
Bessent, who once taught economic history at Yale, posted his reply on X on Saturday, October 10. He took aim at what he called her “letter-writing crusade.”
BESSENT VS. WARREN: THE INFLATION NUMBERS FIGHT
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is firing back at Sen. Elizabeth Warren's "Trumpflation" tracker, calling her a "Harvard Square inflationista." His numbers: core inflation at 2.5 percent versus 4.7 percent under Biden, groceries…
— Brian Bullock | Everyone Knows (@EveryoneKnws1) October 10, 2026
Bessent Points To Her Biden-Era Record
“Rather than take my suggestion of studying introductory economics, you have continued your letter-writing crusade,” Bessent wrote. He said it was hard to take her worry seriously because she was a “cheerleader for the Biden Administration’s reckless spending” while the federal funds rate climbed from near zero to its highest level in 22 years and inflation hit a 40-year high.
He said she now blames the Fed instead of “your own irresponsible fiscal policies.” He also pointed to her vote against the Working Families Tax Cuts, which he called a vote for a “$5 trillion tax hike.” Warren’s letter argued the tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill will add $4.7 trillion to the national debt over ten years.
The ‘For Dummies’ Offer And The Note
Bessent closed by saying his offer of a “Foreign Exchange for Dummies” tutorial “still stands.” If she earned a passing grade on “the Yale metric, not the Harvard curve,” he wrote, he would add “Fixed Income for Dummies.” Fixed income means bonds, like the Treasury bonds behind the yields she wrote about. The line plays on her years at Harvard and his at Yale.
The handwritten holiday greeting is a nod to Warren’s past claim of Native American heritage. In 2018 she released a DNA test to back the claim, drew criticism from tribal leaders, and later apologized to the Cherokee Nation. Columbus Day, which many places now mark as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, falls on Monday, October 12. Through Sunday, October 11, Warren had not publicly answered the note.
The Fight Over Her ‘Trumpflation’ Tracker
The letters came the same week Warren’s Senate Banking Committee staff launched a “Trumpflation Tracker” on October 7. It says prices are up 5.2% since December 2024, costing the average household about $3,388, with gasoline up 43.7% and electricity up 12.7%. Its health care figure is an estimate built on a projected 6.5% rise in 2026 costs, not a measured change.
Bessent mocked the tracker on X: “Another day, another Econ 101 lesson for Professor Warren.” He said it ignores “Bidenflation,” cherry-picks wage data and uses insurance premium projections instead of the government’s official medical-care price index.
Sources:
dailycaller.com, foxbusiness.com
