Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent blasted the media for its recent coverage of the military conflict with Iran on Tuesday. During a press conference at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, Bessent said the best ally Iran has is the media because of its skewed reporting.
Bessent’s remarks came after taking questions from the media. One reporter asked for a progress update, inquiring whether the United States was “closer to the end” of the war or “in the middle of it.” That question followed another media inquiry asking about the Strait of Hormuz. The treasury secretary was adamant on setting the record straight, specifically mentioning Iran’s current dire economic conditions.
“Look, Iran does not have control of the Strait, and they are in a death spiral,” said Bessent. ”We have control of the Strait. The limited kinetic strikes that we did yesterday were to take out radar — some patchwork of Tinker Toy, erector-set radar that they were trying to reconstruct along the banks of the Strait. I can’t remember what the number is — I just saw it, but I think we took out about 17 million barrels of crude yesterday. That is not Iranian control of the Strait.
Bessent expressed frustration with media accounts about current developments in the military conflict and not giving an accurate portrayal of events. He criticized the media for publishing, what Bessent said, were all of Iran’s lies.
“And I will tell you that one of the best allies that the Iranians have on this is the media, because the media immediately publishes all the lies that they say,” said Bessent. “There are no mines in the Strait. Two ships did not hit mines. This is Iranian agitprop, and everyone in this audience and every news outlet should be ashamed for publishing that, taking a lying regime at face value.”
The treasury secretary also described Iran as being in a state of panic and fear due to its current economic woes stemming from the war. He said the country is “getting squeezed economically” and predicted the turmoil would lead to the country “turning on each other” to end the crisis.
“And at a point, either the IRGC are going to turn on each other, the people are going to turn on them, or they are going to come to the table and want to do a deal that they can stick with,” Bessent said. “President Trump has said for the past few weeks the reason the MOU failed was they were not ready for a deal. So we will see when they are ready for a deal.”
Bessent pointed out that Iranian government officials have mentioned their economic struggles due to the war but claimed the media never reported on it.
“We have seen the president of Iran, the speaker of the parliament in Iran, and the central bank governor both said last weekend — we didn’t see it reported anywhere — that there are problems in the economy and everybody should be ready for it,” he added. “The Supreme Leader prepared everyone for that.”
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He emphasized the deterioration of Iran’s currency, noting that “sixteen months ago the currency was at 800,000 to the dollar, now it’s 2,100,000,” citing it as evidence that Iran would not be able to hold out much longer without making a deal to end the conflict.
“That just means that they have no access to dollars and that they are in the death throes and will they lash out more kinetically? Maybe,” he said. “But they will be ready for a deal.”