Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent torched The New York Times on Wednesday — from the stage of the Times’ own DealBook Summit — accusing the newspaper of peddling “100% fake” stories about President Donald Trump’s health while helping cover up what he called President Biden’s dramatic cognitive decline.
In a tense onstage exchange with DealBook founder and CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bessent didn’t hold back, predicting the once-influential legacy outlet is on a path toward irrelevance.
Sorkin asked whether the media landscape had changed so dramatically that the current environment represented “a new normal.”
“There’s no new normal, Andrew,” Bessent shot back. He said he had stopped reading the paper altogether, but the articles still sent to him were enough to confirm that The New York Times had deteriorated into “just this fever swamp.”
He went even further, predicting the paper’s demise: “In twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years The New York Times is no longer the paper of record.”
WATCH: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just called out the New York Times and Andrew Ross Sorkin right to their faces:
"The New York Times is no longer the paper of record. I read this article 'President Trump is Slowing Down'… He only called me twice at 2 am last week." pic.twitter.com/xFfpb2n1yv
— CJ Pearson (@Cjpearson) December 3, 2025
Bessent then mocked a recent Times report suggesting Trump was slowing down mentally. “I read this article — ‘President Trump is slowing down. President Trump’s mental capacity—’ It is one hundred percent fake,” he said. “He only called me twice at two in the morning last week instead of three times.”
The article in question — published Friday — claimed Trump’s workdays have grown shorter and alleged he sometimes nodded off during meetings. Trump called it a “hit piece,” insulted the reporter, and dismissed the story as pure fiction.
Bessent didn’t stop there. He accused The New York Times of participating in what he labeled “one of the greatest scandals of all time”: ignoring or minimizing Biden’s mental decline while aggressively targeting Trump.
He slammed the paper’s handling of Biden’s fitness for office, saying its reporters helped conceal the severity of Biden’s health problems: “The coverage of the Biden administration — Joe Biden’s diminished capacity — and the cover-up.”
Sorkin attempted to push back, arguing that if Biden’s abilities were fair game, Trump’s should be as well.
But Bessent countered forcefully, saying the media’s double standard was blatant and intentional. “Where was The New York Times?” he asked. “We just had a three-hour Cabinet meeting yesterday, Andrew!”
He contrasted Trump’s schedule with Biden’s widely criticized lack of engagement. “How are you going to invoke the 25th Amendment if the Cabinet secretaries never see the president?” Bessent asked, alluding to longstanding questions about Biden’s inaccessibility and limited schedule.
Bessent’s takedown was met with audible tension in the room — a rare moment where one of the Times’ own guests used its high-profile event to accuse the paper of bias, misinformation, and outright political cover-ups.
His message was unmistakable: the legacy media giant that once shaped American discourse is losing credibility fast — and in the eyes of Trump’s top economic official, deservedly so.
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