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Steve Mnuchin served as Treasury Secretary under Donald Trump's first term. Today, he's running a global private equity firm. I had a chance recently to sit down with Steve Mnuchin to talk about his days as Treasury Secretary, the investment environment, and the global economy. So you served as the 77th Secretary of the Treasury. When President Trump was re-elected, did you say, maybe I want to go back in again, or you had enough government service? Well, it was an extraordinary experience working for

him and being part of the whole first campaign. And now I'm really focused on private investments and opportunities, but I am trying to help from the outside. So you're not going to go back in anytime soon? I'm happy doing what I'm doing and giving a little coaching from the outside to whoever needs it.

You know, you served for four years, and President Trump, to my knowledge, never criticized you in public. I don't know about private, but, you know, so to be four years and never be

criticized in public, that was pretty impressive. So what's the secret? Have you told the new Secretary of Treasury what to do? I haven't told him what to do. I think he's in very good shape. Look, I understood the President's agenda. I had the opportunity to help shape the economic agenda, and we were proud of what we did the first term. We were focused on tax cuts, getting the biggest tax cuts done, trade, and regulatory relief, and I'm excited to see them focused on it again. So how do you think the tariffs are going to affect the economy? Why does President Trump like tariffs so much? The president's been very focused on tariffs for a long time, and he fundamentally believes it's a good source of revenue and that it's impactful in getting people to change behavior, and that's what we're seeing today. You think that tariffs will be ultimately good for the U.S. economy, I assume? You have a similar view? Well, I think the market really wants certainty and understanding certainty, and will adjust to whatever they are. I think the problem right now is we don't have certainty. My own view on the tariffs would be that if he wants to do something, I like the idea of the 10% tariff across the board. It's a consumption tax on foreign goods. But if he were to do that, he should do that through the reconciliation process. So that can be scored, I think would raise about $2.5 trillion and could be used to pay for tax cuts, as an example.