Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he isn't in the business of giving the Fed marching orders, but his view that a neutral interest rate would be 150 basis points below the current level has fueled speculation over how soon and how far rates could be cut.

"I didn't tell the Fed what to do. What I said was that to get to a neutral rate on interest, that would be an approximately 150 basis point cut. I did not call for them to get there," he clarified on "Mornings with Maria," Thursday.

"The other thing that I said was that perhaps because they had bad BLS data in June and July that perhaps, perhaps, a 50 basis point cut in September was warranted," he continued.

Bessent's comments came in response to Strategas Chairman and CEO Jason Trennert, who, earlier in the show, pointed out the

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