Scott Bessent

On Aug. 24, 2026, Bessent gave Washington's campaign against Iran's income a name: Operation Economic Outcast. Iran, he said, "now faces a very clear choice, with only two paths before them": either "complete global isolation and a subsistence economy, or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy." He also said: "Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone." The White House put the goal as "ensuring Tehran stands alone, bankrupt, and broken."

On Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in an interview with Iran International, a Persian-language broadcaster based in London, Bessent told Iranians to "start stocking up on heating fuel," warning of a "big heating fuel shortage."

On Sept. 1, 2026, on the sidelines of a G20 finance meeting in Asheville, N.C., Bessent predicted that the strait would stop mattering. "In two years, the Strait of Hormuz will be like a worthless piece of water," he said, because the oil would move through pipelines over land.

Qatar's energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, who also runs QatarEnergy, answered on Sept. 20, 2026: "I mean, maybe this is his view. I think this is completely wrong."

In February 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who chairs CFIUS, the committee that exists to stop foreign governments from buying sensitive stakes in American companies, that it apparently didn't know that a foreign intelligence chief had bought 49 percent of the president's family company, World Liberty Financial. They asked whether the deal had been reviewed. As of October 2026, Treasury had not answered.