U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessant emphasized the importance of the America First reset in U.S. economic policy during a visit to California last week.
“Trade policy, industrial capacity, and national security are inseparable,” Secretary Bessant told attendees at the Reagan National Economic Forum in Simi Valley. “To allow foreign dependencies to degrade any one of those domains is to allow them to define America’s future.”
A return to independence in fields such as manufacturing, mining, shipping and refining is key to U.S. strength and sovereignty, said Bessent. Equally key is the importance of integrating trade policy with national security.
Secretary Bessant highlighted supply chain disruption during COVID and munitions drawdown during the Ukraine war as symptoms of a larger philosophic problem: a focus on consumption over production. “We prized low-cost inputs without first asking whether a nation can remain sovereign when it loses command over things that matter most,” he said. “In a crisis, the nation with a broad and skilled industrial base has options. America should never again put itself in a position where its security depends on supply chains it does not control, factories it no longer maintains or skilled trades it failed to preserve.”
Secretary Bessant explained how a series of President Trump’s executive orders as well as his 2026 trade agenda have realigned trade and manufacturing to address issues such as chronic non-reciprocity, industrial hollowing, and strategic import dependence. He noted that an America First trade doctrine does not retreat from the world but rather offers a stronger, more sustainable engagement.
“It does not mean treating allies and adversaries alike. It means bringing our trading relationships and our security relationships back into alignment by building supply chains with trusted partners where appropriate, rebuilding capacity at home where necessary, and ensuring that the economic architecture supporting American power strengthens American security,” he said.
The Trump Administration has ordered the establishment of a Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve and used executive orders, diplomacy and tools of economic leadership to bolster security for critical mineral supply chains. It’s ordered a restoration of America’s maritime dominance by bringing back U.S. shipbuilding capacity.
“We are alert to the fact that a resilient economy is the foundation of a strong republic,” he said. “That we can measure the health of our economy not merely by what it produces but by whom it lifts. That secure supply chains matter as much as stock indices. That productive capacity is power.”
“Economic security is national security,” he said.