When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took the podium at the American Bankers Association on Wednesday morning he was anything but 'yippy' - the president's term to describe the handwringing of Republicans and financiers who were sounding the alarm on his tariffs.

Early on, Trump branded them as 'Panicans,' a 'new party based on weak and stupid people,' but Bessent struck a unique messaging balance that both reassured stock traders and his boss.

Bessent reassured the room of bankers that, thanks to the president's tariff threats, 75 countries were willing to negotiate with him, and that 15 of those nations had already proposed a deal.

'The president already had good calls with the Japanese prime minster, and the leaders of South Korea, and Vietnam,' Bessent revealed, and he was working quickly to settle monumental trade deals.

'I'm not planning on going anywhere for Easter,' he grinned, revealing that he would have a 'lead negotiating role' in the effort.

Bessent's tone was relaxed, but made it very clear that he was backing the president's agenda.

He spoke to a wide range of audiences to get the message across - Fox Business, CNBC, but also an interview with podcaster Tucker Carlson expressing many of the same populist talking points that the president espoused during the campaign.

'Wall Street's done great. It can continue doing well. But it's Main Street's turn,' he said.

 To the world, he urged countries to come to the table with a deal, noting that America was listening.

'If you don't retaliate, that is a ceiling,' he said, urging them not to start 'cutting their own throat' by aligning economically with China.

Other Trump advisers found themselves in a much more volatile position as they tried to influence the debate.

Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, angered Wall Street investors by throwing elbows in his interviews, channeling some of his bravado typically rewarded by the president. He traveled with the president to Mar-a-Lago on Air Force One on Thursday.

Elon Musk found himself sidelined by the president, left to fume on his account on X, taking out most of his rage against trade adviser Peter Navarro, the president's tariff hawk who was throwing potshots at Tesla's manufacturing practices.

Navarro lashed back by attacking Musk's Tesla car company, which drew more fire from the president's billionaire adviser. Musk berated Navarro as a 'moron' and 'dumber than a sack of bricks.'

It was entertaining fodder, but the White House shrugged it off as two advisers having their differences in public.

'Boys will be boys,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during the White House press briefing.

But Bessent was not one of the boys.

As he watched the stock market drop precipitously on Thursday and Friday, Bessent flew to Mar-a-Lago himself on Saturday to advise the president on the next steps.

They came up with a strategy. Isolate China and give everyone else willing to deal some relief. There would be no immediate backing down, the president said, but would allow Bessent to reassure the markets that the deals were coming.

It was Bessent who flew back to Mar-a-Lago Sunday evening with the president, as he was spotted in the background as Trump spoke to the press on Air Force One. 

Bessent continued to focus his attention on China. 

To illustrate China's addiction to cheap manufacturing, Bessent reached back to the Disney film Fantasia, where Mickey Mouse plays the Sorcerer's apprentice, struggling vainly to stop a cohort of enchanted brooms from flooding the room.

'China, for all of you that can remember that Disney movie, where the brooms carrying the buckets of water, that is the Chinese business model. It never stops, they just keep producing and producing and dumping and dumping,' he said.

Trump, he indicated, was the sorcerer who could break the spell.

'I think their business model is broken. I think President Trump has broken their business model with these tariffs,' he said to Carlson. 

By Monday, observers watched in real time how Bessent's calm but direct messaging was influencing the markets.

'Bessent is singlehandedly keeping the stock market from cratering,' Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro said on X.

Bessent also had the confidence of Wall Street.

JP Morgan president and CEO Jamie Dimon pleaded with Trump on Fox Business to call a pause and give Bessent more space to negotiate. 

'If you want to calm down the markets, show progress in those things and let Scott take the time — trade deals are very large and very complex,' Dimon said. 

In a world where MAGA personalities clash in public and private, Bessent stands out for his measured monotone speech, with occasional pauses to collect his thoughts. As he listens, he puts his hand or fingers on his chin or solemnly straightens his glasses. 

Sometimes, he'll chuckle knowingly as he speaks about the oddities between his old job as an investor and his new one of remaking the economy in Trump's image.

Bessent's message drew a wide range of support with MAGA activists who hailed him for successfully articulating the president's agenda.

'Look, I'm not happy with what's going on in the market today, but the distribution of equities across households, the top 10 percent of Americans own 88 percent of equities, 88 percent of the stock market,' he explained to Carlson, adding that 'the next 40 percent owns 12 percent of the stock market.'

Bessent noted that the all the bottom 50 percent of Americans had was debt, credit card bills, monthly rental bills and auto loans.

'We've got to give them some relief,' he said.

'That's the message right there. Just as a bystander I'm like, wow, okay,' Carlson agreed.

It was a much different approach from previous Trump advisers like Gary Cohn and former treasury secretary Stephen Mnuchin who had successfully talked the president off the ledge of dramatic tariffs during his first term, threatening to resign if he did so. 

Bessent earned a lot of respect in the administration throughout the tariff fight.

'Secretary Bessent is one of the most respected minds in finance and a vital asset to the President's Cabinet and trade team. His expertise shines daily, whether executing the President's historic deregulation agenda, defending America's workers in trade negotiations, or securing lasting tax cuts,' Harrison Fields, principal deputy press secretary told DailyMail.com.

Sources familiar with the dynamic in the White House told DailyMail.com that Bessent was 'the adult in the room' during the negotiations and 'always kept the ship steering.'

'I've always known him to be the more serious person in the room,' the source said. 

The same could not be said for some of Trump's other advisers, although sources agree they all had their part to play in the negotiations.

Lutnick came off as aggressive and reckless, a source told DailyMail.com and Peter Navarro appeared as a tariff purist. 

Musk's clear preference for free trade, a source noted, had been sidelined and ignored by the president.

After Trump declared the pause, Bessent was the one who went with press secretary Karoline Leavitt to publicly declare victory outside the White House. 

The result of the seven days of chaos, he explained, was all part of the plan that he had hashed out with the president on Sunday. 

He did not try to seize any credit for himself either.  

'As I've said in the past, no one creates leverage for himself like President Donald Trump,' he concluded after the press conference.