Speech by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on July 9, 2026

Speech by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on July 9, 2026

[He gave these remarks in Dandridge, Tennessee, at the official unveiling ceremony for the President Donald J. Trump Bridge located along Interstate 40.]

On the heels of America’s 250th anniversary, it is fitting that we gather along one of the great highways that binds our nation from coast to coast. Interstate begins on one coast, ends on another.

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It carries workers before dawned families after dusk and now above the waters of Lake Douglas, the name of the president who puts the American people first. President who is unsparing in his efforts to restore American strength and unyielding in his resolve to reclaim American sovereignty.

When Tennessee ends in President Trump, back to Washington, with the largest mandate and state history, they knew the promise of his pro-growth agenda because its principles have driven people here in droves.

In fact, every 12 minutes, as five tax-players flee California, a new one moves to Tennessee. So they can keep more of what they make, build a business with fewer barriers and raise a family with greater confidence. And I would like to be, and I would be remiss to not recognize Senator Blackburn for leading that fight against the state-income tax. But would have frustrated this momentum.

And as a South Carolinian, I want to also thank her because as I chew on government ambassador to do the same, it is very easy to say that our neighbor to the West is the outshining us. So thank you for that.

And Congressman Birchett, for his exemplary leadership against reckless spending, nobody and I mean no one fought harder in the working families tax cut in the one big, beautiful bill to make sure we constrain spending during the discussions last year. In many ways, Tennessee embodies the best of what President Trump is building nationally as we place American workers, manufacturers, and families back at the core of our policies where they belong.

And he wrote that beautiful, those beautiful words. But what fuel realizes that the very same poem also inspired our national motto, the fourth verse of the song, engine these words, and this be our motto in God we trust, in God we trust.

And as you know, the Democrats want to end that they don’t want the words in God we trust. They want to have that stricken, they go to court, they take us to court.

Whenever changing that will fight for that, we’re not changing that in God we trust, but I believe it. So today on the threshold of our 250th year, this room is proof that America is still a nation that lives by those magnificent words in God we trust with the help of everyone here today.

And Americans of faith all across this land, we will continue to protect the promise of the declaration of the nation.