Treasury Sec Blames Liberal Media for Affordability Crisis

Struggling to afford basic necessities? Perhaps you only think you’re feeling the pinch, due to media bias against President Donald Trump—or at least, that’s what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested during a Sunday talk show appearance.

On CBS News’s Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan asked Bessent about Trump’s recent controversial description of “affordability” as a Democrat-spun “con job.”

Considering that public opinion polls show Americans are widely concerned about cost-of-living and largely disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy, Brennan wondered if this sentiment would resonate with voters. “Don’t you need to show that you feel the pain?” she asked.

Bessent began: “I think the president’s frustrated by the media coverage of what’s going on—”

“This is the polling of average Americans,” Brennan cut in.

“Yeah, but I think the average Americans are hearing a lot of it from media coverage,” Bessent replied.

The cost-of-living crisis has bedeviled the Trump administration and GOP of late. As recent elections and polls signal widespread public dissatisfaction with the economy under the Republican-run government, some conservative politicians and strategists have urged their party to radically change course, adopting an agenda that would actually address voters’ material concerns.

Another, seemingly less fruitful, option for the party would be to simply insist, as Bessent did, that Americans’ financial hardships are the result of media influence.

Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, seems unfazed by recent viral examples of federal agents targeting American citizens.

Over the past week, at least two videos circulated widely online and in the media showing immigration agents detaining or pursuing women as they cried out that they were U.S. citizens.

In Louisiana on Thursday, a 23-year-old mother was chased by agents while walking home from a corner store. She repeatedly told them, “I’m a U.S.-born citizen. I was born and raised here. This is my home. My baby’s waiting for me.”

And in Florida on Wednesday, a health care worker was detained during a traffic stop on her way to work. Despite intending to comply, she was threatened and forcibly removed from her car, she said. Footage captured by a Miami Herald reporter shows her being detained, yelling: “I’m a U.S. citizen. Please help me! This is unfair. Why are you doing this to me?”

On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, host Dana Bash confronted Homan with these two incidents.

“I can’t tell you how many times an illegal alien claims to be a U.S. citizen,” the border czar said, appearing comfortable with agents inflicting traumatic experiences on citizens as collateral damage in Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Homan went on to confess that he does not think “there’s been zero U.S. citizens that have been detained for questioning because reasonable suspicion said they may be in the country illegally.” However, he claimed, “as soon as that questioning’s over, if they’re a U.S. citizen, they’d be released.”

A recent ProPublica investigation identified more than 170 U.S. citizens who were detained by federal immigration agents. About 24 of them were reportedly held for more than a day, unable to call lawyers or their friends and family.

President Donald Trump woke up Sunday morning full of anger and regret, it seems.

In a morning post on Truth Social, the president ranted against a man he had recently pardoned—Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas—for not having the common decency to switch parties after Trump did him a favor.

Cuellar, a moderate Democrat, and his wife, Imelda, were charged in 2024 with accepting bribes from foreign entities. Trump, out of the kindness of his heart, as he narrated it, saw fit to pardon them. Then, however, things took a turn.

“Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be ‘running’ for Congress again, in the Great State of Texas (a State where I received the highest number of votes ever recorded!), as a Democrat, continuing to work with the same Radical Left Scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in Prison - And probably still do!” the president wrote.

He apparently was not expecting this.

“Such a lack of LOYALTY,” Trump went on, lamenting his decision. “Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”

The implication of all of this is clear, people took to social media to point out: that Trump was hoping, with his presidential power, to procure another house seat for Republicans. That his bid failed has made him extremely angry. And he doesn’t mind that the world knows it.

President Donald Trump on Saturday put a lofty spin on his White House renovations—namely, claiming that, by renovating a bathroom in the White House, he is “saving the heritage of this country.”

During his speech at the Kennedy Center Honors Dinner, Trump dwelled for a while on what, evidently, matters to him more than most else: his mission to force his dictator chic design taste upon the People’s House.

Trump specifically mentioned his renovation to the bathroom of the Lincoln Suite, in the southeast corner of the White House’s second floor. In October, Trump announced that he had refurbished the bathroom with white-and-black-marble.

Prior to his intervention, Trump said on Saturday, “It was the worst job. It was done in—many years ago. It was done during, actually, the Truman administration, with very cheap, green tile. That wasn’t Lincoln.”

Now the bathroom is “beautiful,” he mused, done in Paradiso marble.

The president acknowledged criticisms he received for the vanity project. “People said, ‘Oh, why is he wasting time?’”

He continued, “That’s not wasting time, that’s saving our heritage. You know, many, many things like that, it’s saving the heritage of this country,” to which the audience applauded.

In reality, Trump’s renovations seem more poised to defile than to preserve history (hence the widespread opposition among preservationist groups—not to mention the public—to the administration demolishing the East Wing to accommodate his gargantuan planned ballroom).

The grandiosity with which Trump described his Lincoln Bathroom renovation this weekend is consistent with his description of the renovation when it was first unveiled, at which time he said the new marble is “very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln.” Historians and designers dismissed the claim.

Edward Lengel, former chief historian of the White House Historical Association, told The New York Times, “It doesn’t look anything like 1860s interiors to me.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went to great lengths Saturday to avoid saying whether the military will release the full, unedited video of its controversial September 2 double-tap strikes on a boat it claims was carrying drugs in the Caribbean.

Thus far, only footage of the first strike has been released to the public. The full unreleased video, however, reportedly goes on to show two survivors clinging to the wreckage, before they were killed by a second strike that legal experts have described as a war crime or murder.

Democratic lawmakers who viewed the full video of the strikes, which killed 11 people, this week said it was “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service” and that it “confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump administration’s military activities.”

When asked Wednesday if his administration would release footage of the second strike, President Donald Trump’s answer was simple: “Whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem.”

His defense secretary was much more evasive.

“When can we see that video? When will you release it?” Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson asked Hegseth at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

Hegseth was noncommittal. “We’re reviewing it, right now, to make sure, sources, methods—I mean, it’s an ongoing operation—TTPs [tactics, techniques, and procedures]. We’ve got operators out there doing this right now. So, whatever we were to decide to release, we’d have to be very responsible about. So, we’re reviewing that right now.”

Later on, Tomlinson asked whether Hegseth will release the full video at all. Hegseth responded, again, without answering. “We are reviewing it right now,” he said.

“Is that a yes or no?” Tomlinson pressed.

Hegseth strung together the following response: “The most important thing to me are the ongoing operations in the Caribbean with our folks that use bespoke capabilities, techniques, procedures in the process. I’m way more interested in protecting that than anything else, so we’re reviewing a process and we’ll see.”

Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington is calling for the release of Wilmer Toledo-Martinez, an immigrant who she says was mauled last month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement attack dog in Vancouver, Washington.

According to Murray’s office, Toledo-Martinez is an immigrant with no criminal convictions, who came to the United States at 15 years old. His wife and three children—ages 2, 3, and 7, respectively—are all U.S. citizens.

On November 14, Toledo-Martinez reportedly answered a knock at his door to find a federal immigration agent posing as a construction worker, who claimed to have hit his car.

Toledo-Martinez went outside and was asked his name. When he turned to go inside to retrieve his insurance and ID, another agent is said to have released the dog, which bit him repeatedly, leaving injuries that were later captured in graphic images provided by Murray. His wife and two youngest children reportedly watched as this occurred.

In a video, seemingly taken moments after the attack, Toledo-Martinez is seen on the ground in handcuffs as an agent with a K9 stands over him. Another agent in a neon vest asks Toledo-Martinez his name before moving him into a truck.

On The Don Lemon Show, Toledo-Martinez’s lawyer, Olia Catala, said her client was denied immediate medical care. He was only later taken to a hospital, she said, after he begged them to do so and heard one of the agents say, “I’m not losing my job over this.”

To this day, Toledo-Martinez remains in Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, according to Murray.

“This should shock the conscience of every one of us,” Murray said in a statement Friday. “I do not want to live in an America where federal agents can sic attack dogs on peaceful residents with impunity and face no consequences.”

“I am calling for Wilmer’s immediate release from NWIPC,” the statement continues. “He has no criminal convictions, he poses no threat to the community, and he urgently needs appropriate medical care since ICE is denying him the treatment he requires.”

He just can’t let it go. President Donald Trump is still over the moon after receiving the FIFA Peace Prize on Friday, an award invented expressly to stroke his ego.

On Saturday morning, the president, after dashing off some angry rants at a CNN reporter and Fox and Friends, dreamily revisited the experience.

“Such a great honor,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, sharing a Newsmax article about the event. “Thank you FIFA, and have a historic World Cup!”

Gianni Infantino, the president of the international soccer league, presented Trump with the brand new award at the 2026 FIFA World Cup final draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

“This is your peace prize,” Infantino said, as he handed the president a certificate, a trophy, and a medal.

A beaming Trump responded by speaking about how truly honored he was to receive it. “We’ve saved millions and millions of lives,” Trump said, gushing about the award. “So many different wars that we were able to end.”

The president has lobbied for years for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor bestowed on other leaders like President Barack Obama. In support of his ongoing quest, Trump continues to repeat the highly questionable claim that he’s ended several wars. It’s hard to keep track of how many; the number, magically, keeps climbing.

By giving the president something he said he’d always wanted, Infantino was clearly seizing upon an opportunity to appease the world leader. But the move (unsurprisingly) garnered criticism. FIFA is supposed to be a neutral body, and Trump’s record isn’t exactly peaceful.

Among other things, Trump’s administration has killed more than 80 people in deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean, armed and supported Israel in its genocidal war on Gaza, and overseen a violent crackdown against immigrants in the U.S. He’s also made aggressive moves that could indicate a potential future war with Venezuela.

None of that seemed to matter much at the ceremony on Friday, though.

While the president is very pleased to be the recipient of this new, prestigious, very-much-not-invented award, does this mean he’ll finally shut up about the Nobel?

It’s very, very unlikely.

Juan Orlando Hernández—narcotrafficker, former Honduran president, and recent recipient of a pardon from President Donald Trump—played a key role in what the Justice Department dubbed “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”

Now, Hernández, who once reportedly told his co-conspirators that they were going to “stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses,” is heaping gratitude on leading figures in MAGA (a movement purportedly in favor of stopping the influx of drugs into the United States, by any means necessary).

On X Friday, Hernández shared his first message since being released from a U.S. prison, where he was just over a year into a 45-year sentence: an 11-minute Spanish-language speech expressing his “profound gratitude to President Donald Trump,” along with a tweet extolling Trump and other key figures in his orbit.

Hernández specifically thanked Roger Stone and Matt Gaetz, allies of the president who played central roles in the campaign for his pardon. (They characterized Hernández’s prosecution in the sort of grievance-soaked terms Trump could appreciate, as an alleged instance of lawfare by the Biden administration.)

Hernández also extended his gratitude to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has described the former Honduran president as a victim of “Biden over-prosecution,” as well as to Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s MAGA pardon attorney, and Trump’s “pardon czar,” Alice Marie Johnson.

Social media users are skewering the U.S. Treasury Department for bragging about something eminently non-bragworthy.

On Friday, the Treasury Department’s official X account shared a chart reflecting that, in 2025, “U.S. Treasuries are having their best year since 2020.” Claiming that this indicates high investor confidence in President Donald Trump’s agenda, the post continued, “Never bet against @POTUS or America!”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent chimed in with a celebratory meme of the children’s book character Franklin the Turtle holding a stack of money while wearing a MAGA hat. (The administration also recently used Franklin’s likeness to make light of its reported war crimes in the Caribbean.)

But, as many observers were quick to note, rising bond market returns actually may signal economic uncertainty, as investors anticipating a slowdown or instability seek safety in Treasuries. The high bond returns in 2020, for example, reflected such a “flight to safety” amid the economic turmoil of the pandemic.

Mike Bird, Wall Street editor at The Economist, shared his own Franklin the Turtle meme, in which the character wears a worried expression as he “discovers that rising bond prices can also imply lower future growth expectations”:

The Treasury Department’s post left some observers in disbelief. Adam Kinzinger, political commentator and former Republican U.S. representative, had the following to say: “Wait. Wut? Higher is bad…. Wait…. No way they’re…. Nooooo, what?!?!”

The ridicule spanned the political spectrum. Progressive MS NOW commentator Chris Hayes said he initially thought the tweet was parody. Libertarian Atlantic staff writer Conor Friedersdorf wrote, “Oh my God. They really don’t know.” Tim Chapman of the conservative policy organization Advancing American Freedom said the Treasury Department’s social media team “needs a crash course in Economics 101.”

Never Trump conservative writer Bill Kristol called the post “total economic illiteracy (or gaslighting),” noting, “This is like saying sales of cold medicine are having a great year, aren’t our health policies working great!”

Amanda Fischer, policy director at Better Markets and former chief of staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission, called it a “hall of fame level derp tweet.” And @3YearLetterman, a satirical internet personality known for sharing comically ignorant takes on sports, culture, and politics, posted, “I can’t top this.”

A new, disturbing detail in the “drug boat” controversy that has enveloped Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the past week calls the purpose of the entire operation into question.

According to an exclusive report from CNN, the alleged narco-trafficking boat that the U.S. military targeted on September 2 in a “double tap” strike, which killed 11 people, wasn’t even heading to the U.S.

Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who was in charge of the operation, reported to lawmakers that the boat they struck was actually en route to link up with a larger boat that was heading to Suriname, a country east of Venezuela, two sources with direct knowledge of his remarks said.

Bradley also said that it was still possible that the alleged drug shipment could have eventually ended up in the U.S., the sources told CNN—rather dubious justification for a strike that left several people dead.

President Donald Trump had previously claimed that the strike happened “while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.”

The U.S. military targeted the small boat on September 2, purportedly to stop it from transporting illegal drugs to the United States. After the first strike, two survivors were left, clinging to the wreckage, yet the military struck the boat again and again, killing everyone who had been on board. They ultimately struck the boat four times.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who approved the operation, but sought to shift responsibility to Bradley, has come under intense criticism for authorizing a strike on survivors. Lawmakers and critics on the right and the left have decried the strike as a war crime.

It doesn’t help that the Trump administration’s story keeps changing. As more details emerge, the argument for the deadly boat strike becomes flimsier and flimsier.