The US Treasury Department has formally demanded that the Financial Times retract a report concerning Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's views on the Federal Reserve, labelling the article as containing 'false claims'. The complaint was escalated to the FT's parent company, Nikkei Inc., in an email from Treasury officials.
The disputed article, published on 26 March, claimed that Bessent had discussed increasing oversight of the Federal Reserve, drawing comparisons to the Bank of England model, including regular communication between the governor and the chancellor over inflation targets. Treasury officials denied that Bessent had ever endorsed such views or discussed adopting similar practices in Washington.
In the email, acting assistant secretary for public affairs Elliott Hulse stated that the secretary had never made any of the statements attributed to him, either publicly or privately. The Treasury also criticised the headline, which said Bessent had 'praised' the Bank of England model, arguing it misrepresented the story's content.
The FT defended its reporting, with a spokesperson saying the newspaper stood by its story and had included Treasury responses in the article. The complaint follows Bessent's own denial on social media, where he accused the FT of manufacturing a fake policy position.
The Treasury stopped short of issuing a legal threat but cited provisions in the editors' code of practice from the UK's Independent Press Standards Organization (Ipso), though the FT is not a member. The dispute comes amid heightened sensitivity over the Federal Reserve's independence following President Trump's threats to fire Chair Jerome Powell.
