Milken Crowd Warms Up to Tariffs While Condemning All the Chaos

Scott Bessent walked on stage at the largest gathering in months of Wall Street’s champions of global trade, aiming to explain why President Donald Trump is putting up hurdles to global trade.

Fingertips steepled, his eyes panning, the Treasury secretary told a quiet crowd that tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation are “interlocking parts of an engine” to boost America’s clout — emphasizing it’s all thoughtfully designed. He soon paused: “I hope you can see the bigger picture now.”

The verdict came swiftly: Investing titans and financial leaders at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills lined up to say ...