'To Do: Buy Yen': Bessent Leaves $10 Billion Yen Purchase Note Out for All to See

An inadvertent camera angle during a Camp David cabinet meeting has revealed U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's immediate plans to execute massive currency market interventions.

A Reuters photographer captured the Treasury chief's private notepad on Friday during an on-the-record session convened by President Donald Trump.

Snapped over his shoulder at 11:33 ET, the image showed a single directive scrawled beneath an underlined "To Do" heading: "Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil."

The document sat entirely blank aside from the multibillion-dollar fiscal order, positioned directly below Bessent's official name card.

Synchronized Fiscal Maneuvers

The visual leak aligns with aggressive shifts in the foreign exchange landscape.

Barely two hours before the photograph was taken, the Treasury had reportedly alerted several banking institutions about potential Friday interventions.

Tokyo had already laid the groundwork for this volatility.

Japanese officials actively moved to prop up their national currency during Asian morning trading hours, triggering initial upward momentum.

First US Action Since 2011

Market data signaled continued artificial pressure late Friday afternoon.

Between 4:14 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., the dollar dropped from approximately 158.9 to 157.6 against the yen, representing a sharp 0.8 percent decline tracked by LSEG.

Washington has not directly intervened to support the Japanese currency for more than a decade.

The last such action occurred in 2011, when the U.S. participated in a coordinated G7 stabilization effort following a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

The Treasury Department declined to immediately clarify the Camp David notepad or confirm active dollar-yen operations.