Trump’s tariffs may mean Walmart shoppers pay more, his treasury chief acknowledges

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies before the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, oversight hearing of the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)Read More

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Empty shopping carts are collected from the parking lot at Walmart store in Burbank, Calif., on Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

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FILE -Shoppers outside a Walmart store, Feb. 7, 2025, in Englewood, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski), File)

By  JOSH BOAKUpdated 10:22 AM MST, May 18, 2025Share

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged Sunday that Walmart, the largest U.S. retailer, may pass along some of the costs from President Donald Trump’s tariffs to its shoppers through higher prices.

Bessent described his call with the company’s CEO a day after Trump warned Walmart to avoid raising prices from the tariffs at all and vowed to keep a close watch on what it does.

As doubts persist about Trump’s economic leadership, Bessent pushed back against inflation concerns, praised the uncertainty caused by Trump as a negotiating tactic for trade talks and dismissed the downgrade Friday of U.S. government debt by Moody’s Ratings.

Yet Walmart does not appear prepared to “eat the tariffs” in full, as Trump has insisted the company and China would do.

Bessent said he spoke Saturday with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, stressing in two news show interviews that what he thought really mattered for Walmart customers was the decline in gasoline prices. Gas is averaging roughly $3.18 a gallon, down from a year ago but also higher over the past week, according to AAA.

“Walmart will be absorbing some of the tariffs, some may get passed on to consumers,” Bessent said on CNN. “Overall, I would expect inflation to remain in line. But I don’t blame consumers for being skittish after what happened to them for years under Biden,” a reference to inflation hitting a four-decade high in June 2022 under then President Joe Biden as the recovery from the pandemic, government spending and the Russian invasion of Ukraine pushed up costs.

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Walmart did not comment on Bessent’s description of his conversation with McMillon.

In a social media post on Saturday morning, Trump said Walmart should not charge its customers more money to offset the new tariff costs. “I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!” he posted.

Bessent said Walmart on its earnings call on Thursday had been obligated under federal regulations “to give the worst-case scenario so that they’re not sued,” suggesting in an NBC interview that the price increases would not be severe in his view.

But Walmart executives said last week that higher prices began to appear on their shelves in late April and accelerated this month.

“We’re wired to keep prices low, but there’s a limit to what we can bear, or any retailer for that matter,” Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Bessent maintained that the ratings downgrade was a “lagging indicator” as the financial markets had already priced in the costs of a total federal debt of roughly $36 trillion. Still, the tax plan being pushed by Trump would add more roughly $3.3 trillion to deficits over the next decade, including a $600 billion increase in 2027 alone, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The treasury secretary maintained that deficits would not be a problem because the economy would grow faster than the debt accumulation, reducing its increase as a size of the overall economy.

Most independent analyses are skeptical of the a