U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday the United States is willing to use its financial power as a foreign policy tool to build alliances. 

“I believe I can use the balance sheet of the U.S. for foreign policy,” Bessent said while speaking at SMU’s Cox School of Business in Dallas, Texas.

Much of the discussion centered on Japan. Bessent, who explicitly ruled out U.S. intervention to prop up the sliding yen currency in early 2026, is now daring traders to bet against his recent moves. “I am the house now,” he said. “You can bet against me if you want.”

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The U.S. joined Japan in a rare joint yen-buying intervention on July 31, aimed at preventing a selloff in the yen and Japanese government bonds from spilling into global markets. Bessent said the coordination gives him insight most traders lack. 

“When we intervene with the Japanese yen, I have pretty good insight into what the Bank of Japan is going to do, what Japanese policymakers are going to do,” Bessent said.

The yen’s initial rebound from the joint intervention has faded, with the currency just under 160 yen to the dollar as of Wednesday. The soft response and Bessent’s remarks on Tuesday suggest an even more active Treasury during the second half of the second Trump administration.