Walmart is facing renewed political pressure over its response to President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed the retail giant had agreed to “eat some of the tariffs” following a personal call with CEO Doug McMillon.
Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Bessent said: “I was on the phone with Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart, yesterday. And Walmart is, in fact, going to, as you describe it, eat some of the tariffs, just as they did in ‘18, ‘19, and ‘20.”
The comments come after Trump lashed out at the company on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, criticising Walmart’s plan to raise prices in response to the administration’s sweeping tariff programme.
“The company should eat the tariffs and not charge valued customers anything,” the former president wrote in a post.
Walmart has not publicly confirmed Bessent’s version of events. A spokesperson declined to comment on private conversations between executives and administration officials.
However, a source familiar with the matter told Business Insider the call had been scheduled days earlier, before Trump’s online remarks, and that Walmart’s position on pricing had not changed.
Earlier in the week, the retail giant said it had no choice but to raise prices starting later this month, citing the financial burden of new import tariffs.
“We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible,” McMillon said on the company’s earnings call Thursday.
“But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins.”
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) John David Rainey echoed the warning in a CNBC interview, noting that while Walmart is “wired for everyday low prices,” the scale of the tariffs is “more than any retailer can absorb.”
He said customers will begin to see higher prices by the end of May, and “certainly much more in June.”
The political spat follows Trump’s April 2 declaration of a sweeping new tariff regime targeting over 150 countries and territories.
His remarks, labelling the move “liberation day,” promised a clampdown on what he called decades of “pillaging” by global trade partners, though the list of targeted nations included longtime US allies and even remote territories inhabited only by wildlife.
After weeks of market turbulence, the White House last week announced a 90-day tariff reprieve for Chinese goods, cutting rates from 145% to 30%, a partial reversal that analysts dubbed “capitulation day.”
However, on Friday, the administration said it would still unilaterally impose tariffs on most other countries without pursuing formal negotiations.
The White House called the move a “total reset” in trade relations. Trump, speaking during a visit to the Gulf states, claimed the US simply couldn’t meet with all the countries seeking deals.
“We have 150 countries that want to make a deal, but you’re not able to see that many countries,” he said.
Bessent later told CNN’s State of the Union that the administration would instead focus on its “18 most important trading relationships,” signalling a shift toward regional rather than global trade pacts.
Meanwhile, Walmart finds itself caught in the middle, balancing public pressure from the White House with the economic reality of trying to shield consumers from rising costs in a politically charged trade environment.
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