Summers Salutes Bessent on China Deal, Says US Retreat Pragmatic

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers applauded the Trump administration’s walk-back from what he characterized as overly aggressive trade protection measures, singling out Scott Bessent in particular for his weekend work with China.

“Many of the biggest failures in US history come from an unwillingness to pull back in the face of a mistake and to double down on the infeasible — that’s what Vietnam was about,” as well as US conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Summers said on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. “When you make a mistake, when you’ve done something imprudent, it’s a good idea to salvage what pride you can and to retreat.”