Bessent: Democrats are 'renting the seats,' and prices will come back down after the Iran conflict

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Democrats who flipped red seats in the midterms are only renting them, and that prices will come back down once the United States gets past the Iran conflict.

"We'll see, because there are a lot of these Democrats who won in what are red seats. Maybe there was a protest vote, maybe we didn't have a great candidate. But I think the Democrats are renting the seats," Bessent said at The Heritage Foundation's Forum 2026 in National Harbor, Maryland. "And I think we do the right thing. We're going to get on the other side of this Iran conflict. Prices are going to come back down. I think the trajectory is good."

The remarks came during a fireside conversation at the three-day Heritage conference, which ran through Thursday. They are separate from Bessent's Friday interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box."