Bessent Steven Treas Sec
---
PRIMARY 9 25 PLUTO HEDGE FUND TRUMP FUNDER SOROS?
THIEL DIALOG
rubio miller terror conf bs 7 26
FASCISM PENDING MILEI ARGENTINA 20 BILLION$ BAILOUT
SEE DEREG MONEY LAUNDER LLC ~ TRANPARENCY --> CORRUPT
acting head irs ~ terror 3 BS antifa chip roy weAPONIZ
big cheerleader for tariffs
YALE
SOROS HIS MENTOR?
scream f bombs w musk
ALEX PRETTI I TOOK A BILLBD TO PROTEST
-=-=
===
an 9 26
A very wealthy donor to President Donald Trump scored a deal with a Russian state-owned bank that would normally be off-limits due to sanctions, the International Consortium of Independent Journalists reported.
Konstantin Sokolov is a Russian-American businessman and a major donor to Trump's political groups. In 2025, he gave $11 million to MAGA Inc., the president's super PAC, and also contributed to Trump’s White House ballroom project.
Trump signed off on new sanctions last week. The new sanctions would target Russian officials, financial institutions, energy and defense sectors and oil-shipping networks. It also authorizes tariffs of up to 100 percent on major purchasers of Russian oil and gas, one explainer outlined.
But already, Trump's funder is exempt, according to a Treasury Department decision. Sokolov will be able to buy a major copper mine in Armenia from the Russian state-owned bank.
"The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC, can grant a license to individuals or companies to complete transactions that would otherwise be prohibited by sanctions," the ICIJ explained. "OFAC states on its website that it may grant a license to do business with sanctioned Russian entities when it is in the interest of the applicant and the U.S. government."
Sokolov's spokesperson confirmed that such approval was given.
Sokolov was also appointed chairman of a new $200 million State Department enterprise fund that will invest in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, which is a strategic geographic region at the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Armenia is expected to benefit. That means Sokolov has two overlapping roles: first, he owns or manages private businesses in Armenia, including the copper mine. Second, Sokolov helps oversee a U.S. government-backed investment fund that may invest in Armenia.
Armenian lawmakers and critics are concerned that the relationship creates a potential conflict of interest by essentially granting Sokolov public or government-supported investment and decision-making in a country where he also has large private financial interests.
Armenia’s National Assemblymember Mesrop Manukyan said when speaking to the ICIJ that Sokolov’s position “create[s] legitimate questions about … the separation between private commercial interest and decisions involving public or government-backed funds.”
Sokolov's spokesperson also claimed there was “no evidential basis” to link Sokolov's donations to Trump and approval by Trump's government. Suggesting otherwise “would be incorrect and wholly misplaced," they added.
While the administration and Sokolov deny any corruption, the report raises legitimate questions about transparency, favoritism and whether private business interests could overlap with Trump's government power.
-=-=
-=-=
an 9 26 // press suppr?
Trump official ices out financial media after getting triggered by coverage
-==
AN 8 26
Former prosecutors piled on President Donald Trump’s efforts to obliterate anti-corruption efforts and destroy policies dedicated to preventing bribery and money laundering in the country.
The Atlantic reports this week “brought the biggest blow yet: The Treasury has obliterated a recent rule to deter devious shell companies, handily reopening the American economy to anyone looking to hide their illicit wealth.”
On Tuesday, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced that businesses formed in the United States would no longer need to disclose their actual owners. Worse, it determined that nearly all the data already gathered on such companies would be destroyed.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the move “a victory for common sense and American small businesses,” but former prosecutors told MS NOW that it effectively destroys years of hard work curbing shifty financial networks and provides cover for wealthy American tax dodgers and money launderers.
“If you look at this sort of small scale fraud, they are now solely pursuing, whether it's against daycares in Minneapolis or food trucks in southern California, I'm willing to bet that if you did another sort of demographic breakdown and analysis, you would find that this is just one more piece of the administration's general preference to go after minorities at the expense of going after people who are actually damaging the country,” former prosecutor Michael Feinberg told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace. “The notion that you would go after a daycare or a food truck or something else with a relatively small economic footprint and no tentacles that reach into other criminal organizations while giving a pass to major corporations that might actually be committing large scale fraud, or enabling embezzlement. And money laundering is insane. And I can't find any legitimate motive for it.”
Feinberg added that prosecution of huge, multi-faceted schemes like those cooked up by Enron will be a thing of the past under Trump’s gutted departments.
“That's going to be exponentially more difficult the next time something like that happens, because this department of justice [have] jettisoned literally centuries of cumulative subject matter expertise and experience. You can't just replace a toughened, experienced prosecutor or a seasoned investigator with somebody who just graduated from law school or Quantico.”
Former prosector and DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer also pointed out that Trump has walked away from major cases against wealthy individuals by either surrendering investigations or pardoning them entirely. Worse, he’s erasing the money many convicted felons were sentenced to pay back to their financial victims.
“I was a federal public defender for about ten years, and the majority of my clients were low-income people of color, and those people have always experienced the unfairness of the criminal justice system because of disproportionate targeting with prosecutions because of having less resources to defend those cases,” Oyer told Wallace. “This administration has essentially doubled down on those disparities. …Trump does not care one bit about who he is targeting disproportionately and how his prosecution policies affect communities of color, low-income communities, communities with large immigrant populations.”
-=-=
CNN 7 26
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top White House adviser Stephen Miller on Thursday sought to paint a dark picture of the threat of “far-left terror” to the United States as they urged diplomats from around the world to “defend” their civilizations against the “scourge.”
In remarks focused almost entirely on the US, Miller spoke of the need to fight the “fatal cancer of civilization,” claiming that so-called left-wing terrorism, when “left to run its course, it always becomes a gulag.” He argued that the US’ political, legal, and judicial systems don’t work “if the threat of violence and terror goes on unchecked.” And he denounced Antifa protesters as “deformed,” saying, “their outer appearance becomes a manifestation of their inner hatred.”
“The greatest risk that we have is that our institutions have grown too soft and too cowardly to be able to defend themselves against a mortal threat,” Miller told a room full of representatives from more 60 countries and fellow Trump administration officials at the State Department on Thursday. “If your civilization is your home, you must defend it with the same passion and force as if an enemy intruder is inside your own house where your family lives.”
The ministerial on Thursday was meant to coalesce allies around a strategy to combat the alleged resurgence. Later on Thursday, Rubio announced a new visa restriction policy to target “members of Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups.”
The fight against the alleged rise of “violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists,” is a key priority of the Trump administration, which has argued that they are a foremost terrorist threat to the US.
However, multiple former officials said the issue has been politicized by the administration and that the threat from the “far-left” does not rise to the level of that posed by groups like ISIS or by far-right extremists, the latter of which was absent entirely from the administration’s counterterrorism strategy released in May. And critics have expressed concerns that the strategy is an attempt to amplify the threat and target those on the political left who oppose President Donald Trump’s policies.
Rubio said the threat had been dismissed “as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy,” but that its resurgence is “an undeniable reality” comparable to the left-wing attacks of the 1970s.
“They can call themselves anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist, communist, or anarchist, or Marxists, but the fundamental character is always the same,” Rubio said.
Rubio called on the countries in the room to work with the US to “identify and map this threat and rebuild our counterterrorism architecture to defeat it.”
“Through intelligence and information sharing, through coordinated law enforcement strategy, through financial targeting and disruption, we will dismantle these networks brick by brick,” he said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who also spoke at the opening session, said his department was “expanding its efforts to identify organizations that abuse charitable and nonprofit structures as vehicles for illicit finance” for alleged far-left terrorism.
Rubio’s convening of the ministerial comes not only as the matter has become a key domestic focus for the administration, but also amid growing chatter about the top US diplomat’s potential political future.
Sixty-seven countries attended the event, a State Department spokesperson said on Thursday. They represented countries mostly from Europe, although there are countries from Asia and the Western Hemisphere with representatives. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country in attendance, according to the list provided by a spokesperson.
Many of the delegations were not be led by the foreign ministers of the countries, but rather ambassadors or working-level and technical officials. Several sources cited scheduling for the lower-level attendance, with invitations to the event only being issued at the beginning of July.
A banner reading ''Free All Antifas'' is displayed at the traditional ''Revolutionarer 1. Mai'' May Day protest in Berlin, Germany, on May 1.
Tonny Linke/NurPhotoGetty Images/File
However, former officials said the ministerial appears to be a part of the administration’s broader effort to amplify the threat to suit a domestic political agenda. Several who spoke with CNN said that the reality of the threat from far-left extremists does not match the administration’s portrayal.
“We looked at terrorism of all stripes, including left-wing terrorism, but the reality and the data, both here domestically and abroad, indicate that left-wing extremism is not and has not been the type of threat or the degree of threat that far-right terrorism or extremist violence or jihadist violence have posed,” said Ian Moss, the former deputy coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department under the Biden administration.
Moss, now an attorney with Jenner & Block, noted that there are “other forms of violent ideological extremism, Islamist violence for starters, and then certainly violent right-wing extremists or White identity terrorists, which are a real risk, a real concern domestically and internationally, and one that the administration seems to have not focused on.”
Michael Duffin, a former senior counterterrorism adviser at the State Department, said that “never” in his nine years of working on counterterrorism “had so-called left-wing extremism risen” to a level warranting such high-level focus.
“There’s no violent extremist element, organizational element on the left, that would justify the expenditure of these resources,” he told CNN. Duffin was among many State Department officials who worked on counterterrorism who were fired last year as part of the administration’s mass firings and overhaul of the department.
Last November, the administration designated four European Antifa groups as terrorists. Throughout Trump’s second term, his administration has also ramped up domestic pressure against alleged far-left extremists.
Trump designated the anti-fascist movement Antifa as a so-called “domestic terrorist organization.” Despite claims that Antifa is a top concern domestically, law enforcement agencies have struggled to define the amorphous group, its size, locations of chapters and other basic information.
BBC 7 26
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has urged countries to collaborate against what he called a growing threat of left-wing terrorism.
The Trump administration hosted representatives from more than 60 countries in Washington, where it argued left-wing political violence was the result of a "unique evil rooted in a deep resentment towards civilisation".
Officials made no mention of countering far-right threats, and Democrats said Rubio's focus on left-wing groups was "politically partisan".
The initiative aligns with the Trump administration's stated priority of confronting left-wing groups, particularly Antifa, a loosely organised far-left movement.
At Thursday's session in Washington DC, Rubio called for a global effort to share intelligence to counter the "transnational" issue of far-left extremism.
The invitation list included officials from most European nations, several Latin American countries and India, Indonesia and Singapore, reports the Washington Post.
The Trump administration has already designated Antifa - short for anti-fascist - as a domestic terrorist group.
At the session, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller characterised leftists as "fundamentally motivated by envy, by hatred, by jealousy".
Also on Thursday, the state department announced visa restrictions targeting members of what it labels as "Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups", including those that have allegedly participated in "economic sabotage".
Washington has already designated four European groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Antifa Ost (based in Germany), the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (Italy), Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece) and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense (Greek).
...
---
WIKI 6 26
Bessent had a summer job as a busboy at age 9.[14] In 1980, he graduated from North Myrtle Beach High School in Little River, South Carolina.[16][17] He considered attending the United States Naval Academy but decided not to as he was unwilling to lie about his sexual orientation.[14]
Bessent graduated from Yale College in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in political science.[11][18] He was on the board of the Yale Daily News, INDEP NOT RW BUT VN PROTEST acted as president of the Wolf's Head Society, and was the class treasurer.[19][20] He also chaired the 1984 Yale Alumni Fund and was an assistant to the director of athletics.[11][21] As an undergraduate, Bessent interned with Jim Rogers, a co-founder of the Quantum Fund, after meeting him at a Yale career center event.[20]
---
AN 2 26
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a unique fix for sharply falling consumer confidence, which is now at the lowest level in twelve years — even worse than during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE), told the Treasury chief, “despite all this progress, we’re seeing consumer confidence is not really rebounding the way that the economy seems to be.”
“In your opinion,” Ricketts then asked Bessent, “what more can we in the Senate be doing with regard to consumer confidence and making, you know, obviously — we had 40-year-high inflation under the Biden administration — but what more can we be doing in the Senate to be able to help out with confidence in consumers?”
Bessent replied immediately.
“Other than telling consumers to turn off MSNBC,” he said, referring to the rebranded MS NOW.
“A large part of it is a survey problem, where Democrats vote very low, Republicans are more realistic, and then we end up, what we’re seeing,” he added, suggesting that the problem is not the economy — despite what experts see as persistent inflation and a “hiring recession,” but how people who watch or read a single news outlet perceive the economy.
---
3 IN 1 DAY?! 28TH
Trump fueling a 'slow erosion of trust' in the US dollar
an 1 26
Once viewed as "the sole grown-up in [Donald] Trump’s Cabinet," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's behavior has become increasingly "thuggish" in recent weeks, raising concerns that his rhetoric will cause the "economy to tank," according to an analysis from The New Republic.
Despite his reputation as a steady hand guiding Trump on financial matters, The New Republic's Timothy Noah on Tuesday argued that Bessent has, since the president's Greenland crusade and his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, been more prone to "hurtling insults in every direction and giving every impression that he’s about to have a nervous breakdown." This, Noah noted, has been coupled with key indicators suggesting that the U.S. economy is headed in a bad direction.
After Trump threatened tariffs against European countries that pushed back against his desire to annex Greenland, Bessent urged those countries, during an address in Davos, to "sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out" and not retaliate against the U.S. As Noah pointed out, however, European leaders did back with threats of "$93 billion in retaliatory measures" that caused enough concern on Wall Street to get Trump's attention.
During the same visit, Bessent also hit out against Danish funds and investors potentially pulling out of U.S. treasuries in response to Trump's Greenland threats, with an insult.
“Denmark’s investment in the U.S. Treasury bonds, like Denmark itself, is irrelevant," Bessent said.
As Bessent took this new, harsher approach, Noah noted that the price of gold had been steadily rising, an indication that investors suspect things are not well with the U.S. Despite the value of the S&P 500 having increased recently, experts fear that "some sort of correction is coming."
It doesn’t reflect well on a Treasury secretary when the price of gold goes through the roof," Noah wrote. "It means people expect higher inflation and are losing faith in the stock market along with the overall health of the economy."
As of Monday, the price of an ounce of gold was up to $5,100, compared to $4,000 a month prior. Over the past year, the value of the U.S. dollar has also declined by 10 percent, and investors are increasingly wary of buying Treasury bonds.
"The more Bessent shoots his trash-talking mouth off, the more the dollar’s value falls and the higher the price of gold rises," Noah wrote. "Probably the best thing Bessent could do right now — for himself, for the dollar, and for your 401(k)—is to shut the f—k up."
---
an 1 26
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is calling out a top official in President Donald Trump's administration and dismissing the claim that he had walked back some of his incendiary Davos speech in a phone call with the president, according to The New Republic.
During a Monday evening appearance on Fox News, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed that Carney and Trump had spoken over the phone earlier in the day, and that the prime minister had been "very aggressively walking back some of the unfortunate remarks he made at Davos." This came as the president had been ramping up tariff threats against Canada in the wake of Carney's head-turning speech.
In an address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Carney argued that the era of American hegemony over the world order was at an end, owing to Trump's antagonistic treatment of allies since returning to the White House and his demand to take over Greenland from Denmark. He further argued that the middle power nations of the world must now band together to pursue their goals, rather than counting on the backing of the U.S.
The speech instantly became a hot-button topic, with a recent New York Times Opinion headline from Ezra Klein proclaiming it as the "most important foreign policy speech in years." It seemed to ruffle Trump's feathers as well, as he later went off on Canada in his own Davos speech, suggesting that Canada ought to be "grateful” for the “freebies" it gets from the U.S. and claiming that "Canada lives because of the United States."
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Carney rebuked Bessent for mischaracterizing his phone call with the phone call with the president. While the prime minister called the conversation a positive one, he also stressed that he did not back down from the points made in his speech.
"To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos," Carney said. "It was clear it was a broader set of issues that Canada was the first country to understand the change in U.S. trade policy that he had initiated. And we’re responding to that."
"We had a very good conversation on a wide range of subjects, ranging from the situation in Ukraine, in Venezuela, Arctic security," he added. "We discussed as well what Canada is doing, positively, and this is the context of our discussion, what Canada is doing positively to build new partnerships around the world."
===
AN 1 26
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent was met with mockery after explaining he wants to protect “mom and pop” owners who have up to a dozen homes they’ve bought as retirement investments.
Bessent and President Donald Trump have declared they want to ban large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes as housing becomes more scarce and less affordable.
“We are going to give guidance at some point to see what is a mom and pop, that someone — maybe your parents — for their retirement, [bought] about 5, 10, 12 homes,” Bessent told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“So we don’t want to push the mom and pops out,” he continued. “We just want to push everyone else out.”
Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, has an estimated net worth of $521 million, according to The Street.
Critics were quick to ridicule Bessent as out of touch.
“Good news for the forgotten man,” declared The Bulwark’s Tim Miller. “The mom and pop real estate investor who has purchased 12 homes can breathe easy, the Treasury Secretary is looking out for you.”
“These people are completely out of touch with how life is for you,” observed The Lincoln Project.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s Press Office commented, “Scott, people are trying to buy 1 house — to live in. Could the Trump Admin be any more out of touch?”
---
rww
12/12/2025
by
- Rep. Chip Roy says that Republicans in the House of Representatives will be holding hearings to expose how George Soros, NGOs, and the United Nations have been using the SPLC and antifa to promote "Marxists and Islamists who want to take this country over."
- "Prophet" Mark Taylor fumes that "Susie Wiles and her people are the ones responsible for single handedly KILLING the America First Agenda!": "She is a demonic infiltrator in the highest order sent in to destroy the President and the America First Agenda."
---
ref
tony perkins
Rep. Chip Roy Highlights the latest on the Defense Bill & Looks Ahead to 2025 Agenda
0:00
And here we have Texas Congressman Chip
0:02
Roy who has joined us here in the media
0:06
center at the Family Research Council.
0:09
Uh a familiar face and voice on
0:11
Washington watch. Uh Congressman, thanks
0:13
so much for running off the hill and
0:15
coming down here and joining us.
:{...
about something. You are hosting or
4:06
actually you're chairing, I should say,
4:07
a subcommittee hearing next week. You
4:09
chaired the constitution committee in
4:12
the judiciary committee on the southern
4:14
poverty law center that has in fact when
4:18
you walk out the door of this room you
4:20
will see the bullet holes in the wall
4:21
that was inspired a gunman to come into
4:24
this building. Uh Congress is ready to
4:27
act on that. They're ready to move to
4:29
expose these this long-term relationship
4:32
that SPLC was had has had with
4:34
government agencies.
4:35
Well, I'm certainly ready to do that. I
4:37
think uh Congressman uh and chairman
4:39
Jordan uh rightly agreed that we should
4:42
have this hearing in the subcommittee on
4:43
the Constitution. And so we're going to
4:44
be doing this next week. Uh Tony will be
4:46
one of the witnesses. Uh uh Tyler Boyer
4:49
from TPUSA is going to be one of the
4:51
witnesses. Uh as well as an individual
4:54
who's pretty knowledgeable here in town,
4:55
a journalist named Tyler O'Neal about
4:57
all of the dot connecting of all the
4:59
money. Now, there's a lot to unpack
5:01
here, which we probably don't have
5:02
enough time to do in full, but the short
5:04
version is anybody who loves and is
5:06
familiar with with with F FRC knows what
5:09
Southern Poverty Law Center meant with
5:11
respect to the attack here over a decade
5:12
ago uh here in this building. Um, but
5:16
and now we've seen the connection to
5:18
what happened with Charlie and and the
5:20
extent to which your, you know,
5:21
crosshairs are put on you. Heck, my name
5:23
is now getting put in the crosshairs
5:25
because I'm daring to call out the
5:26
Islamification of America. So what we're
5:29
going to do in this hearing is expose
5:30
that, demonstrate what's actually
5:32
happening, but I want to take that a
5:34
step further so people understand the
5:35
vast array of networks that are funding
5:37
all of it. The Soros operation, uh,
5:40
Arabella, all of the groups and all of
5:42
the operatives that are involved, the
5:43
Islamification funding, the open borders
5:45
groups, the NOS's, the United Nations,
5:48
your taxpayer dollars, all of it coming
5:50
together in this vast network to have a
5:52
red green alliance where you've got the
5:54
Marxists and the Islamists who want to
5:56
take our country over. and it's all
5:58
related and SPLC is right at the center
6:00
of it. Antifa is at the center of it.
6:02
All of these groups need to be exposed
6:04
and we're going to be doing that next
6:05
week and we're just getting started and
6:06
I've had some great conversation with
6:08
Secretary Bessant with people in the
6:09
administration. Um I think there's a
6:11
hunger to go break this network down
6:14
because it's attacking our way of life.
6:15
Well, it's it's
6:18
finninging violence and it's and it's
6:20
it's leading to death. Yep.
6:22
And it's chilling our First Amendment
6:24
freedoms. Chip Roy, always great to see
6:26
you. Thanks so much for joining us. Look
6:27
forward to seeing you next week.
6:28
Absolutely.
---}:
---
MMA
National news media outlets nearly silent on potential Trump family self-dealing pharmaceutical scheme
Each of the major cable and broadcast networks buried the potential TrumpRx-BlinkRx conflict of interest
Written by Harrison Ray
Research contributions from Rob Savillo & Tyler Monroe
Published 10/16/25
Major cable and broadcast news outlets seem to have largely ignored a Wall Street Journal report that Donald Trump Jr. stands to potentially benefit financially from a deal between BlinkRx and the government-run TrumpRx pharmaceutical program. Apparently, neither The New York Times or The Washington Post covered the Journal’s findings either.
- On September 30, President Donald Trump announced TrumpRx, a government-run platform scheduled to launch in 2026 that would funnel consumers to drug companies' direct-sale websites — precisely the service BlinkRx announced it could help facilitate in August. Donald Trump Jr. joined the company's board in February of this year, and also serves as a partner of the investment firm 1789 Capital, a “lead investor” in BlinkRx. According to the Wall Street Journal report, before the President's TrumpRx reveal, a BlinkRx representative “told one drug company that BlinkRx could be involved with running the site on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.”
According to the Journal, BlinkRx has also organized a summit in December which will facilitate meetings between the country's top drugmakers, feature "'small group meetings' with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary", and “conclude with a dinner at the Executive Branch, an exclusive new club founded by Trump Jr. and his close friends.”
Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, explained of the announcement:
After derailing serious initiatives in place to finally let Medicare negotiate cheaper drug prices on some of the most expensive life-saving medicines, the President wants praise for pushing a mail-order scheme that experts say won’t significantly lower costs for patients — but will put more money in his son’s pocket. This is presidential self-dealing at its most craven.
- This story fits a familiar pattern: The Trump family appearing to leverage the power of the presidency for self-dealing. But the story failed to garner much coverage in the national media. From October 7 — when The Wall Street Journal broke the story — through October 13, national TV news media seem to have ignored the apparent self-dealing. The cable networks CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and Newsmax each seemingly failed to cover the story. All original broadcast episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week; CBS’ Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation; and NBC’s Today, Nightly News, and Meet the Press also seemingly ignored the story during the study period.
Both The New York Times and The Washington Post also seem to have ignored the revelation during the study period.
- National news media's muted response to this story suggests outlets view self-dealing involving the president's family as background noise. This kind of potential arrangement is likely problematic and certainly newsworthy — it ought to be covered that way.
- ## Methodology...
---
---
AN 10 25
SUBSIDY SOYBEAN TO CHINA, us ZIP
ADMITS MONEY ONLY TO INFL ELECTION, PROP UP LOSER, IF SOCIALIST ELECTED, TAKE BACK
BESSANT BUDDIES ARE INVESTED?!
Even MAGA is fuming as Trump official raises pledge to 'total of $40 billion for Argentina'
On Tuesday afternoon, October 14, U.S. President Donald Trump met with visiting Argentina President Javier Milei at the White House. Trump is offering the South American country, which has suffered major problems with its currency, a $20 billion bailout.
Trump, talking to reporters, made it clear that the bailout money is conditional on the right-wing Milei staying in office.
Trump told reporters, "If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina… I think he’s going to win. And if he wins, we're staying with him — and if he doesn’t win, we're gone."
$20 billion, however, may not be all the money Argentina receives from the U.S. According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Argentina may receive as much as $40 billion from the U.S. when all is said and done.
As Semafor's Eleanor Mueller reports, "The Trump administration is 'working on a $20B facility that would be adjacent to our swap line' for Argentina, Bessent [told] reporters Wednesday.
"That would be a total of $40B for Argentina," Bessent added, according to Mueller.
The $40 billion figure and Bessent's comments are getting a lot of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.
MeidasTouch's Ron Filipkowski posted, "Now we are up to $40 billion for Argentina. Can anyone stop Bessent from unilaterally sending unlimited amounts of our money to South America? And Republicans won’t even negotiate with the Democrats on health care for Americans. Where is Congress?"
X user Jordan wrote, "America First is slashing SNAP funding for hungry American families while sending $40 billion to Argentina.
Another X user, Scott, commented, "Why doesn't congress have to approve 40 billion of our tax [money] going to Argentina? Can Bessent legally send our tax [money] there?"
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-New Mexico) tweeted, "Breaking news! 15 days into a government shutdown, and Trump has promised a $40 billion bailout to the Argentinian government on the backs of the American people using YOUR taxpayer dollars, while threatening to cut off food assistance to American families."
Self-described "straight, white alpha male" Politics Sloth wrote, "MAGA — 'We need to stop sending money overseas [and] use the money on Americans!' Support cutting government programs — bailing out a foreign country."
Some MAGA Republicans are speaking out as well, arguing that giving $40 billion to Argentina is inconsistent with the America First agenda.
America First proponent Kwasny posted, "Wow. Yesterday, it was $20 billion. Today, it is $40 billion? Sounds like you are pulling numbers from your rear end."
White House Xray wrote, "The Monroe Doctrine 2.0: Dollar Diplomacy edition. Trump's admin rebrands imperialism as 'philosophical charity' -—where foreign aid becomes a loyalty test administered through ATMs. They’ve tied $40 [billion] to Milei’s Oct 26 election, Trump admitting 'we don’t have to do it' (10/15). Yet during America’s 15th day of shutdown, farmers beg for relief while Medicaid gets $1 [trillion] cuts. Bessent calls this 'strategic interest' as Argentina’s market drops 30percent YTD - but US workers? 'Gone,' per Trump’s playbook. Priorities: ideological crusades abroad, austerity at home."
---
mma
Right-wing media touted Milei’s austerity schemes. Now Argentina might need a US bailout.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent floated a financial lifeline for the right-wing leader even as Trump cuts lifesaving foreign aid across the globe
Written by John Knefel
Published 09/26/25
Right-wing media figures have long embraced Argentina President Javier Milei and his extreme austerity and privatization measures, which have now plunged his country into chaos and even triggered the possibility of a bailout from President Donald Trump.
Conservative pundits have consistently celebrated Milei’s drastic cuts to pension programs and social services, sometimes offering them as a template for domestic policy. When Milei took office in late 2023, he implemented a suite of right-wing economic policies — deregulation, privatization, slashing public sector employment — and took steps to artificially bolster Argentina’s currency to bring down inflation. His government saw temporary success in taming inflation, but his policies created widespread misery and he’s now facing a political backlash that threatens to compound Argentina’s troubles.
With the Argentinian economy in free fall, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent assured global markets that the Trump administration would consider extending a series of extraordinary bailout measures to help Milei’s beleaguered government. On September 24, Bessent went as far as to admit the Trump administration’s goal was to provide Milei support to “bridge him to the election.”
For all the support Milei has gotten over the years from conservative media, Fox News and others in right-wing media have barely mentioned the potential bailout at all.
- ### Right-wing media praise Milei’s austerity program
Conservative pundits have embraced Milei — some even prior to his victory in November 2023 — and have repeatedly pointed to his social spending cuts as a model for Trump’s administration.
- A day after Milei was elected, conservative economist Art Laffer argued Milei was “not a kook” or “far-right-winger” and bet he would make Argentina “the outstanding, pro-growth economy of Central and South America” as president. Fox host Larry Kudlow concurred, adding that “the socialism they’ve been flirting with almost all over the continent hasn’t worked. … This guy might turn that around.” Fox Business, *Kudlow*, [11/20/23]
- In June 2024, Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt praised Milei over a chyron that read: “Argentina's Milei shows gov't reduction can be done.” Schmitt said: “When Milei came in to this government, and he’s just ripping up all these different agencies he wants to defund, cut government — cut, cut, cut, cut, cut — and now we see this week, the first time in 30 years they’ve had no inflation on food.” He added: “This is how it has to be done.” Former and current Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka, then out of government, concurred, arguing that Milei understands “the bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [6/26/24]
- That September, Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo said: “I love that guy, Javier Milei. He's done such a great job.” Bartiromo continued: “It's really amazing to see the kind of change that he has spurred in Argentina.” Earlier in the segment her guest praised Milei because he had “cut half the government.” Fox Business, *Mornings With Maria Bartiromo*, [9/23/24]
- On January 15, as Trump was preparing for his second term, a frequent guest on Steve Bannon’sWar Roompodcast said, “Look at what Milei has achieved in Argentina in such a short space of time.” The guest, Phillip Patrick, continued: “He cut government spending significantly, gutted useless government departments.” Patrick added: “The people are suffering shorter term, but longer term, the economy is looking much healthier. We need that same aggressive move today for the U.S. economy because we’re at the point of no return.” Patrick is a spokesperson for Birch Gold, which is a sponsor of War Room. Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [1/15/25; Fudgie, accessed 9/26/25; Birch Gold, accessed 9/26/25, 9/26/25]
- In February, Fox News host Will Cain discussed the Trump administration’s early efforts to gut the federal workforce and referred to Argentina as a “source of inspiration.” Milei “came in with meat cleaver, cutting away government waste and spending,” Cain said, later concluding: “The success for America could have been modeled in Argentina.” Fox News, *The Will Cain Show*, [2/18/25]
- Also in February, as the Trump administration was cutting hundreds of thousands of federal jobs, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade defended the administration’s actions by arguing, “Argentina is doing it.” ABC News, [2/24/25; Fox News, Fox & Friends, 2/25/25]
- In March, Schmitt again praised Milei, claiming he had “slashed a bloated government in a country that had terrible inflation and a cratering economy, and he's managing to turn his country around.” His guest, John Stossel, also celebrated Milei’s breakneck deregulation rate and said of the Trump administration: “If they do that, it would be great in America. But I doubt that will happen.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [3/11/25]
- In March, a Brazilian journalist on Bannon’sWar Roomsaid conservatives in the U.S. “are thrilled with Millei in Argentina — we all are. We love Argentina.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [3/31/25]
- As congressional Republicans advanced their One Big Beautiful Bill, Fox News host Will Cain presented a video of Milei promising to eliminate vast swaths of the Argentine government and suggested it was a template that the United States could follow. “It can be done,” Cain said, repeating Milei’s own phrasing. “It’s been done in Argentina. Can it be done here in the United States?” He added: “If you’re going to make government cuts like they did in Argentina, you would think you have to start with Medicaid.” Fox News, *The Will Cain Show*, [6/11/25]
- As recently as July, Bannon argued onWar Roomthat “Argentina is on a tear right now.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [7/22/25]
The promised lifeline to Milei comes amid Trump’s escalating military campaign against Venezuela, which has included extrajudicial strikes on several boats in the Caribbean, and what The Associated Press terms “a unilateral wave of attacks from the Trump administration against Brazil” after former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, was sent to prison for attempting a coup. Those attacks have included blistering, retaliatory tariffs on Brazil as punishment for Bolsonaro's prosecution. The bifurcated approach — a carrot for Trump’s allies, a stick for his enemies — illustrates MAGA’s broader goals in Latin America.
- ### MAGA-endorsed austerity has impoverished Argentina
Trump’s supposed beneficence to Argentina stands in stark contrast to his unprecedented cuts to foreign humanitarian aid and reveals his commitment to defending anti-left-wing politicians and market fundamentalism.
The move may have come as a surprise to some, given Trump's dismantling of the government’s foreign aid capacity, but what’s on offer to Argentina isn’t life-saving food and medicine to those in extreme poverty. Instead, it’s a lifeline to a far-right government hell-bent on eliminating social services and exposing its citizens to the discipline of the market. It’s a project shared by Trump, the Republican Party, and their right-wing media allies. In other words, Milei is too big to fail.
In December, The New York Times reported that Milei’s slash-and-burn approach has plunged more than 5 million people in the country into poverty. Although some financial elites praised his efforts to trim inflation, the effects for working class Argentines have been disastrous. Public sector wages cratered by 15 percent as Milei has forced workers into precarious gig and contract labor, part of his larger plan to privatize large sectors of the economy.
Unfortunately for Argentinians, Milei’s bloodletting has failed to cure the patient. Unemployment hit its highest level in four years in the first quarter of 2025, ticking down only slightly in the second quarter, largely due to jobs added in the informal economy. The economic downturn helped drive a loss by Milei’s party in recent local elections in Buenos Aires, which then spurred a run on the peso and a stock market collapse. Milei is facing legislative elections next month, further adding to the political crisis engulfing his administration.
Milei responded to his recent electoral loss by promising to “deepen and accelerate” his regulatory and privatization schemes. That level of commitment to right-wing economic orthodoxy may help explain why Trump recently Milei, at a bilateral meeting during the United Nations General Assembly, as having “done a fantastic job.”
:{---
---}:
dem dock 9 25
Trump signed a memorandum Thursday directing the federal government to investigate and dismantle “domestic terrorism networks.”
The move appears targeted at left-leaning progressive nonprofit groups, which Trump days ago vowed to dismantle, falsely claiming they fund and support political violence and terrorism in the U.S.
The memo directs the FBI’s National Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to go after “anti-fascist” movements in the U.S.
“This ‘anti-fascist’ lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties,” the memo reads.
Trump signed the memo shortly after the New York Times reported that the Department of Justice directed several U.S. attorneys offices across the country to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a progressive grant network founded by Democratic megadonor George Soros.
Asked what specific people or organizations the memo seeks to target, Trump named Soros, who Republicans have long claimed without evidence funds violent protests in the U.S.
“Soros is a name certainly that I keep hearing,” Trump said. “I don’t know. Soros is a name that I hear.”
Trump earlier this month asserted Soros must be “jailed” because “he’s a bad guy,” while Vice President JD Vance baselessly claimed that Soros and the Open Society Foundations pay “the salaries of terrorist sympathizers” and “promote violence and terrorism.”
The Open Society Foundations in a statement to Democracy Docket said the Trump administration’s “accusations are politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the First Amendment right to free speech.
“When power is abused to take away the rights of some people, it puts the rights of all people at risk,” it added.
“The Open Society Foundations unequivocally condemn terrorism and do not fund terrorism. Our activities are peaceful and lawful, and our grantees are expected to abide by human rights principles and comply with the law.”
“Our work in the United States is solely dedicated to strengthening democracy and upholding constitutional freedoms. We stand by the work we do to improve lives in the United States and across the world.”
Trump also named LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party. Hoffman founded the Aphorism Foundation, a California-based private grantmaking group that focuses on noncontroversial causes such as supporting universities and hospitals.
Through a separate nonprofit, Hoffman provided financial support for writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault lawsuit against Trump.
In terms of specific actions, Thursday’s memo ordered the commissioner of the IRS “to ensure that no tax-exempt entities are directly or indirectly financing political violence or domestic terrorism.”
“In addition, where applicable, the Commissioner shall ensure that the [IRS] refers such organizations, and the employees and officers of such organizations, to the Department of Justice for investigation and possible prosecution,” the memo reads.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly threatened to strip left-leaning organizations of their tax exemptions.
Federal law bars senior executive branch officials from directing the IRS, which is currently headed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in an acting capacity, to audit any taxpayer or nonprofit organization.
However, the Trump administration could create pretext triggering an IRS audit through several different means.
The White House has repeatedly attempted to link the recent murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk to progressive causes and groups. The effort has heightened fears that Trump and his allies seek to exploit the killing to further attack institutions that power the political left.
The Trump administration has also specifically targeted the Ford Foundation, another progressive philanthropic organization.
Earlier this week, Trump signed a separate memo claiming to designate “antifa,” a leaderless and decentralized anti-fascist movement, as a “domestic terrorist organization.”
Trump and many of his fellow Republicans have long used antifa as a catch-all designation against protests or speech they disapprove of.
Senior White House officials Thursday claimed that large-scale nationwide protests in recent years, such as the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, were organized by unspecified organizations and amounted to terrorism.
“This is the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism, to dismantle antifa, to dismantle the organizations that have been carrying out these acts of political violence and terrorism,” Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security advisor, said as the president signed the memo.
“Whether it be going back to the riots that started with Black Lives Matter and all the way through to the antifa riots, the attacks on [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers, the doxing campaign and now the political assassinations, these are not lone isolated events,” Miller added. “This is part of an organized campaign of radical left terrorism.”
Miller recently referred to the Democratic Party as “not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”
*This breaking news story has been updated with additional details throughout.
Next Up
DOJ Obeys Trump, Indicts Comey Days After Order to Pursue President’s Foes
Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted on two criminal counts days after President Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue his perceived enemies more aggressively.
---
AN 9 25 FED BD?
Treasury secretary accused of same thing Trump wants to fire Fed official for
BULWARK? 9 25 FAIL AT HEDGE
AN 7 25 BESSANT?
Trump official slammed for saying this policy is 'backdoor to privatizing Social Security'
---
AN 7 25
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is facing backlash after accusing Democrats of "blowing out the deficit in 2020" — a year when Donald Trump was president.
In an interview with CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday morning, Bessent blamed the Democratic Party for the 2020 deficit crisis, despite the fact that the Republican Party controlled the White House at the time.
His comments quickly sparked criticism and mockery on social media, with many pointing out the contradiction.
READ MORE:'Hapless president' deserves 'no courtesy': Trump ripped in scathing NYT op-ed
Singer-songwriter Ricky Davila wrote: "MAGA fraudster Scott Bessent falsely accused the Democratic Party of blowing out the deficit in 2020. Problem with that bulls--- accusation is that the orange felon was in office in 2020, not President Biden. They literally lie about everything."
Democratic activist Lucas Sanders wrote: "Scott Bessent: 'The Democratic Party blew out the deficit in 2020.' WHAT? Can someone tell him who was the president in 2020?"
"Does the Treasury Secretary know who controlled the White House and Senate in 2020?" wrote a user.
"MAGA always drop to the Ad Hominem attack when they're unable to defend their horrible policies," said a user on X.
READ MORE:The Supreme Court just made it so that you can no longer look away
"Who wants to remind him who the president was in 2020? Also, Trump is now blowing up the deficit even more than Biden ever did," wrote another.
"They love trying to rewrite history. Biden became president in Jan 2021. All the stuff they complain happened with Covid started in 2020, and they always blame that on Biden too," said another X user.
Many also criticized the host for not fact-checking Bessent.
"This is WHY Americans are so ill informed. She didn't correct him! She just ignored that and moved on. When the media talking heads don't correct the record the zombies just beleive what they hear!" remarked a user.
---
an 525
There aren't enough words to describe Trump treasury secretary's immorality
---
an 4 25
Trump’s pre-dawn post shook investors’ confidence on Thursday, as he railed against the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and called for his “termination.” Hours later, the White House insisted the President was not suggesting he would be firing Jerome Powell, whom he installed during his first term, but the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly is urging caution.
Pointing to news about the European Central Bank, Trump at 6:12 AM exploded:
“The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, ‘Too Late’ Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete ‘mess!'” Trump exclaimed.
“Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS,” he insisted, although some consumers may disagree. “Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now.”
“Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” Trump concluded.
READ MORE: ‘Stunning Admission’: GOP Senator Says Colleagues ‘Are All Afraid’ of ‘Retaliation’
The White House quickly jumped in.
“A White House official tells me today this post should not be seen as a threat to fire Powell,” reported CNBC’s Megan Cassella. “It’s more of an airing, or re-airing, of grievances and frustrations with the central bank chair. And the President is looking forward to the scheduled end of Powell’s term.”
Reuters reported that Christopher Hodge, Chief US Economist for Natixis, said: “So previously I thought the odds were very much against Trump trying to remove Powell, but my confidence has faded. Trump seems more comfortable than expected with a slowing economy and equity volatility and the tariff policies are much more onerous than anticipated, even if they have been walked back a bit. The bottom line is the parameters of potential policy outcomes has widened and while I still think Powell will be retained until his term ends, I am less certain that I was previously.”
Journalist and author Charles Fishman called Trump’s post, “a frontal attack on Jay Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, whose independence is enshrined in law—and who is one of the few forces holding the US economy together in the face of White House tariff chaos.”
“Trump can’t fire Powell. But is shouting like he might try,” Fishman writes.
Trump may try, but some say he may need help from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, barely two weeks ago, reports stated Bessent was thinking of quitting.
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent may be planning to cut and run after Donald Trump’s disastrous ‘reciprocal tariff’ announcement earlier this week,” The New Republic reported. “During an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Friday, contributor Stephanie Ruhle reported that the key Cabinet member is already looking for an escape hatch.”
“My sources say that Scott Bessent is kind of the odd man out here and, in the inner circle that Trump has, he’s not even close to Scott Bessent or listening to him,” Ruhle said, TNR reported. “Some have said to me, he’s looking for an exit door to try to get himself to the Fed, because in the last few days he’s really hurting his own credibility and history in the markets.”
Last week, things apparently got more heated.
READ MORE: ‘Strategically Disastrous’: How JD Vance Is Harming America’s Foreign Relations
“Wall Street prizes stability, which is why Trump’s shambolic tariff rollout has wiped out trillions of dollars of market value,” Vanity Fair reported last week. “Executives say the on-again, off-again tariffs are evidence of a civil war engulfing Trump’s economic policy team. According to sources close to the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have been at odds over a tariff plan, with Bessent urging discipline and Lutnick encouraging Trump to go big. ‘The real war is between Howard and Scott,’ one of the sources said.”
And now, Bessent reportedly is urging caution on firing Powell.
According to a Politico report on Thursday, Bessent “has repeatedly cautioned White House officials that any attempt to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell would risk destabilizing financial markets, according to two people close to the White House granted anonymity to share details of private discussions.”
Adding some insight, Politico notes that “Bessent’s private message reinforces what President Donald Trump already knows but comes as the president’s anger with the Fed chair is growing because Powell hasn’t shown signs that he will cut interest rates soon. It also comes against the backdrop of widespread market turmoil over the administration’s far-reaching trade war.”
Not only has Powell not cut interest rates — which he historically has been very caution on doing — but CNN Business reported Thursday afternoon that mortgage rates just saw “the largest one-week jump” min over a year, and are have now climbed to the “highest level in two months as Trump’s tariffs continue to rock markets.”
Responding to Politico’s report, hedge fund founder and chief investment officer Spencer Hakimian writes, “Bessent hating his new job of being a full time babysitter. Just cleaning up Trump, Lutnick, Navarro, etc. diaper all day long.”
READ MORE: ‘Willful Disregard’: Judge Finds ‘Probable Cause’ to Hold Trump Admin in Criminal Contempt
---
jon stew? montage of mealy mouth clueless on tariffs
AN 4 25
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is allegedly leaping for a window after dashing his “credibility” against the rocks of Trump’s disastrous tariffs, claimed MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle on Friday.
“Some [sources] have said to me, he’s looking for an exit door to try to get himself to the Fed, because in the last few days he’s really hurting his own credibility and history in the markets,” Ruhle told MSNBC’s Morning Joe,according to Daily Beast.
Bessent, who built a $500 million fortune as a hedge fund manager before working for Trump and entangling his name in Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff, was not a full-throated supporter of earlier tariff proposals. After Trump announced his new trade duties this week and went to play golf, Bessent found himself
not to retaliate.
READ MORE: 'Mistake': Experts say Trump's 'lying about business deals' is a 'national security risk'
“I would advise none of the countries to panic. I wouldn’t try to retaliate because as long as you don’t retaliate this is the high end of the numbers and I think the market could have certainty that this is the number, barring retaliation,” Bessent told Bloomberg. “We got a ceiling, and we can see if there’s a different floor.”
Many international trading partners refused to let Trump trample them, however. China launched reciprocal tariffs, accelerating a trade war with US goods and sending the Dow Jones down more than 2,200 points by the Friday bell ring. Canada — once a staunch U.S. ally — also will match US tariffs, according to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Ruhle said her sources claim Trump is “not listening” to his own treasury secretary, dangerously alienating one of the more serious voices familiar with market trends in the administration.
“[Bessent] actually understands how the markets work and, what’s happening right now, is only going to hurt markets," she said.
READ MORE:'Step down': Marjorie Taylor Greene blows up at GOP rep over help for new moms in Congress
As president-elect, Trump claimed in November that Bessent “will help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States.”
“Together we will Make America Rich Again, Prosperous Again, Affordable Again, and, most importantly, Great Again,” Trump said.
---
625
Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent (/ˈbɛsənt/ BESS-ənt; born August 21, 1962) is an American government official and former hedge fund manager serving since 2025 as the 79th United States secretary of the treasury. He was formerly a partner at Soros Fund Management (SFM) and founded Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm.
Bessent graduated from Yale College in 1984. In 1991, he was hired by Soros Fund Management, eventually becoming the head of its London office. In this role, in September 1992, he was a leading member of the group that profited by $1 billion on Black Wednesday, the British Pound sterling crisis. He made another $1.2 billion profit for SFM in 2013 betting against the Japanese yen. After he left the Soros Fund in 2015, he established Key Square Group, a hedge fund.
A major donor, fundraiser, and economic advisor for the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign,[2] Bessent was nominated for treasury secretary by Trump in November 2024 and confirmed by the United States Senate on January 27, 2025, by a vote of 68–29.
Bessent is the second openly gay man to serve in the Cabinet of the United States (after Pete Buttigieg) and the fifth openly gay man to serve in a cabinet-level office (after Demetrios Marantis, Richard Grenell, Buttigieg, and Vince Micone).[3] As the U.S. secretary of the treasury is fifth in the United States presidential line of succession, he is the highest-ranking openly LGBT person ever to serve in the federal government of the United States.[4][5][6]
Early life and education
Bessent was born on August 21, 1962 in Conway, South Carolina,[7] the oldest of three children of Barbara (née McLeod) and Homer Gaston Bessent Jr., a real estate agent.[8][9][10] His mother married five times and his father went bankrupt due to bad real estate investments.[11] He is of French Huguenot and Scottish descent.[12] He has one living younger sister, Paige; his other younger sister, Wyn, died in 2022 after an illness.[13] John Jenrette, a member of the United States House of Representatives best known for being willing to take a bribe and being caught by Abscam, is rumored by journalists to have been Bessent's uncle, but the existence of any family relationship is unsubstantiated.[14]
Bessent got his first summer job at age 9.[11] In 1980, he graduated from North Myrtle Beach High School, where he was voted "most likely to succeed".[15] He considered attending the United States Naval Academy but was unwilling to lie about his sexuality.[11] In 1984, he earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in political science from Yale College.[9][16] Bessent planned to be a journalist. In college, he was an editor of Yale Daily News, president of Wolf's Head Society, and treasurer for the class of 1984. He was chairman of the 1984 Yale Alumni Fund and assistant to the director of athletics.[9][17]
Investing career
Bessent secured an internship with Jim Rogers after meeting him at a Yale Career Center event.[18] After graduation, Bessent worked at Brown Brothers Harriman and then for Jim Chanos at Kynikos Associates. He joined Soros Fund Management (SFM) in 1991, eventually becoming head of the London office. In 1992, Bessent was a leading member of the team whose bet on the Black Wednesday collapse of the British Pound sterling earned the firm over $1 billion.[8][19][20][21]
After resigning from SFM in 2000, Bessent founded a $1 billion hedge fund, Bessent Capital.[8][22] The fund closed in 2005. Bessent has said he learned that he should not change his style or the firm's approach because of investor preferences.[23] He was also a senior investment adviser to fund-of-funds Protégé Partners.[24][19] Bessent returned to SFM as chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015.[20] His bet against the Japanese yen in 2013 yielded more than $1.2 billion in profit in three months.[25]
From 2006 to 2011, Bessent was an adjunct professor of economic history at Yale, where he taught three courses.[23][19]
Key Square Group
Bessent left SFM in 2015 to launch Key Square Group, a hedge fund named after a spot on the chessboard, with Michael Germino, who had been the global head of capital markets at SFM. It received a $2 billion anchor investment from George Soros.[21][26][27][28][29] Key Square uses geopolitics and economics to make macro investments.[11][30] Its main fund returned 13% in 2016 but declined or broke even every year from 2017 to 2021 before making major gains in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The inconsistent track record scared away clients. Assets under management shrank from $5.1 billion in 2017[30][31] to $577 million in 2023 and the number of institutional investors declined from 180 to 20 over the same period. It earned "double digits" percentagewise in 2024.[32]
As part of a prearranged deal, in 2018 the firm returned Soros's investment as it took in other assets.[30] Its investors include Australia's sovereign wealth fund, Future Fund.[31]
Bessent announced that he would sever ties with the group as Treasury Secretary.[33]
Early involvement in politics
In 2000, Bessent hosted a fundraiser for Al Gore at his home in East Hampton, New York.[34] That year, he also donated $1,000 to John McCain.[11] In 2007, he donated $2,300 to Barack Obama and in 2013, he donated $25,000 to Hillary Clinton's campaign. At that time, he was described as a Democrat who supported liberal causes.[35]
In 2016, after the election of Donald Trump, Bessent donated $1 million to Trump's 2017 presidential inaugural committee.[36] In 2023 and 2024, he donated more than $1 million to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.[37]
In February 2024, Bessent hosted a fundraiser in Greenville, South Carolina, that raised nearly $7 million for Trump's 2024 campaign.[38] In April 2024, he was a host of a Palm Beach, Florida, fundraiser that raised $50 million for Trump's campaign.[39] In July 2024, Bessent was a key economic adviser to Trump.[40] He proposed a three-point economic plan for Trump modeled on Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's "Three Arrows" economic policy.[41]
Secretary of the Treasury (2025–present)
with Senator [Tim Scott in 2024
Nomination and confirmation
On November 22, 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Bessent to serve as the United States Secretary of the Treasury in his second administration.[42][43][44]
On January 16, 2025, Bessent appeared before the United States Senate Committee on Finance. At the hearing, he defended plans to impose tariffs, supported tax cut extensions, and called for tougher economic policies on China and Russia.[45]
President Trump signs executive order directing Bessent. and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, April 2, 2025
On January 21, the United States Senate Committee on Finance advanced his nomination to the Senate floor by a 16–11 vote.[46] On January 27, The Senate voted 68–29 to approve his nomination.[47] That day, a man in possession of multiple Molotov cocktails and a knife intending to murder Bessent was arrested at the United States Capitol.[48] In April 2025, 140 of Bessent's Yale classmates sent him a letter warning that he was aiding the United States' descent "into fascism". In a statement, Bessent called the letter "equal parts odd and sad", adding that he had never met most of the signers.[49]
Tenure
On January 28, 2025, Bessent was sworn in as the 79th secretary of the treasury by Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh.[50] On January 31, Bessent gave Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team access to the Treasury Department's payment system, which sends out $6 trillion annually in payments from federal agencies and contains millions of Americans' personal tax information.[51] On February 3, Bessent was named the acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; he immediately ordered the agency to halt all work.[52][53] Also on February 3, Bessent and acting United States Secretary of Commerce Jeremy Pelter were tasked with implementing a United States sovereign wealth fund.[54]
In April 2025, Bessent reportedly clashed with Musk, who served as a Senior Advisor to President Trump, with the two having engaged in shouting matches. Bessent reportedly shouted "Fuck you!" at Musk during their confrontations.[55] The two feuded over who would serve as the acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue; Trump initially named Gary Shapley, Musk's preferred candidate, but Shapley was soon replaced by Michael Faulkender, Bessent's preferred pick, after Bessent lobbied Trump.[56]
Tariffs
Bessent in the Oval Office with President Trump, Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz
In April 2025, after Trump announced widespread tariffs, Bessent warned countries against retaliating, promising escalation.[57] He then dismissed the drop in stock values and said he did not expect a recession.[58] On April 9, Trump paused many of the tariffs; Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were credited with convincing Trump to do so.[59] Bessent has advocated pushing for concessions from U.S. trading partners to restrict their economic relationships with China in order to isolate China and gain leverage over it in potential trade talks.[60][61]
Views
Domestic
Bessent has described the U.S. as a "barbell economy", arguing that while it has powerful financial and raw material sectors, it also has a weakened middle class.[62] He opposes raising the U.S. federal minimum wage, arguing that it is "more of a statewide and regional issue".[63] Bessent supports lowering interest rates as a way to ease housing, credit card, and auto loan costs for low-income Americans.[64]
Bessent is pro-crypto, supporting federal regulations on stablecoins.[65] Bessent has favorable views of gold, describing it as a historical "store of value".[66] He opposes the theoretical establishment of a U.S. central bank digital currency.[67] Following President Trump's plan to phase out the penny, due to its negative seigniorage, Bessent expressed support for changing the composition of the nickel to cheaper materials.[68]
Bessent supports nuclear power.[64] He also supports reducing government intervention into the economy, arguing that private-sector jobs offer faster wage growth; while advocating for easing Supplementary Leverage Ratio regulations on banks.[69]
Federal Reserve
In a 2024 interview in Barron's, Bessent proposed an alternative to any plan by Trump to replace Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, which was "to nominate and seek Senate confirmation of Powell's replacement well over a year before Powell's term ends in May 2026". This has been called the "shadow Fed chair" because the confirmed candidate could forecast Fed decisions (forward guidance) after May 2026 while the incumbent chairperson makes decisions on present Fed policies. In essence, the plan would weaken the Fed chair's ability to present forward guidance for most of 2026.[70] Bessent described this proposal as forward guidance on who the Fed chair will be.[71] He later "walked back" the idea.[72]
Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, told Barron's the idea would "create a lot of noise in the market" and create a situation where investors would have to decide which Fed chair, the present one or the future one, had the greater influence on the Federal Open Market Committee's decisions.[73]
Foreign
In 2022, Bessent praised Trump and former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe for containing China. He called China "ever more antagonistic".[74]
Bessent has praised Trump's proposal to implement broad tariffs on foreign nations.[75] In a November 2024 Fox News op-ed, he wrote that the "U.S. opened its markets to the world, but China's resulting economic growth has only cemented the hold of a despotic regime" and argued tariffs "are a means to finally stand up for Americans".[76] Bessent argued that Trump's pledges to impose blanket 20% tariffs on all imports "were maximalist positions that would probably be watered down in talks with trading partners".[25] In March 2025, amid Trump's threats to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico, Bessent defended the tariffs, saying, "access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream."[77]
Personal life
in Charleston
Bessent resides in Charleston, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C.[78][79] He belongs to the Huguenot Church,[80] a religious association whose expansion his ancestors supported in 1680.[12]
Bessent is openly gay and married former New York City prosecutor John Freeman in 2011. They have two children, born through surrogacy.[81]
Bessent has bought and sold at least 20 homes, valued in total at over $127 million, many of which he renovated. On at least eight of them, he lost money.[82][83] In 2007, Bessent bought a house in Bedford Hills, New York for $11.3 million. He sold it in 2011 for $7.1 million, losing at least $4.2 million.[82] In 2007, Bessent purchased a unit at One Sutton Place South that formerly belonged to a sister of John F. Kennedy, for $12 million; he sold it, at a loss, for $9.5 million in 2009.[82] In 2010, Bessent bought a 9,719-square-foot house in Miami Beach for $9.5 million; he sold it for $14.5 million in 2014 after a renovation.[83] In 2010, he bought a 10,665-square-foot home in Southampton, New York, for $9.95 million; he sold it for $19 million in 2019 after a renovation.[83] He took a loss on his unit at 720 Park Avenue, buying it for $19.25 million in 2017 and selling it for $15 million in 2021.[83] In 2016, Bessent bought the 9,407-square-foot John Ravenel House for $6.5 million.[84] His renovation received an award from the Preservation Society of Charleston in 2021.[85] He sold the property in March 2025 for $18.25 million plus $3 million for the furnishings and fixtures; it was the highest price ever for a house in Charleston.[86][87]
As of December 28, 2024, Bessent's net worth was at least $521 million, according to his financial assets disclosure by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, although his actual net worth is speculated to be much higher.[88] At that time, he owned more than $50 million in each of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, and the Invesco QQQ, as well as over $50 million in each of U.S. Treasury bills, Chinese yuan, and Japanese yen.[89]
Board memberships
Prior to his term as Secretary of the Treasury, Bessent sat on the university council at Yale University.[17] He and his sister donated the Bessent Library to Yale University. Bessent has endowed three scholarships at Yale: one for students who are first-generation college matriculants, one for students from South Carolina, and one for students from the Bronx.
Bessent chaired the investment committee and is a former member of the executive committee on the board of trustees of Rockefeller University.[90][91] He formerly served on the board of God's Love We Deliver, an organization founded to deliver meals for homebound people with AIDS.[17][92] He is a trustee of Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (renamed the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation),[93] and a former board member of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston.[90][94] Bessent is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[17][90]
Philanthropy
Bessent opened two foundations in 2022, and created the McLeod Rehabilitation Center at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, South Carolina.[95] He also supports the King's Trust in London and the Harlem Children's Zone in New York City.[96] He has supported restoration of the Nathaniel Russell House, a National Historic Landmark in Charleston.[97]
References
---
an 3 25
The Trump administration announced Sunday it will cease to enforce penalties and fines on businesses that fail to adhere to beneficial ownership financial reporting requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law passed by Congress in 2021. The announcement was panned by advocates, economists, and other critics who called the move an on-ramp for corruption.
The Corporate Transparency Act, a bipartisan effort, includes a rule that requires many corporations and limited liability companies to disclose information on who owns and controls a business entity (also known as the beneficial owner) to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department.
"Exciting news!" wrote Trump on Truth Social when announcing that the Treasury Department would no longer enforce the reporting rule, which he called "invasive and outrageous."
Garbiel Zucman, a professor of economics, reposted Trump's message on X, and wrote: "Exciting news for tax evasion and money laundering!"
Economist and author Anders Åslund reacted to the update writing, "to oppose corporate transparency is to favor corruption."
Supporters of the Corporate Transparency Act, which has face court challenges, argue that the policy is an important step toward reining in anonymous companies, which are the preferred vehicle for moving around illicit funds.
"God, this is grim," weighed in author Oliver Bullough, who has written a book about global wealth and corruption. "The White House has killed the Corporate Transparency Act, which was itself a tiny first step in the marathon journey of stopping U.S. companies from being the most egregiously opaque shell structures on the planet."
In a Monday statement, Ian Gary, executive director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition, called the move a "hollowing out" of the Corporate Transparency Act that runs counter to years of bipartisan work to "end the scourge of anonymous shell companies."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for his part, said ceasing enforcement is a "victory for common sense," according to a Sunday statement. "Today's action is part of President Trump's bold agenda to unleash American prosperity by reining in burdensome regulations, in particular for small businesses that are the backbone of the American economy," he said. In response, Bullough, argued that Bessent doesn't recognize that fraud "suppresses prosperity, rather than enables it."
According to the announcement, the Treasury Department will issue a proposed rulemaking with the aim of narrowing the scope of the rule so that it solely applies to foreign reporting companies.
---
---
OMFG
an 225
Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency—or DOGE—have been granted access to a sensitive Treasury Department payment system that contains the personal information of every American who receives tax refunds, Medicare, Social Security, and other payments from the government.
Newly approved Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Musk surrogates access to the system late on Friday, five people familiar with the situation toldThe New York Times.Bessent's decision came the same day as news that David Lebryk, a career Treasury official who was acting secretary before Bessent's confirmation, would step down after arguing with DOGE members over access to the system run by the Bureau of Fiscal Service that pays out over $6 trillion a year.
"Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote on social media on Saturday. "Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it."
"Americans don't want an unelected and unaccountable billionaire dictating what working families can and cannot afford."
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich also responded with shock to the news: "An unelected billionaire, with no actual congressional authority or governmentt experience, now has access to Treasury payment systems and sensitive information about millions of Americans who receive Social Security checks, tax refunds, and other payments. What could go wrong?"
The news heightens fears that Musk and the Trump administration are attempting to gain authoritarian control over the federal government by ousting or sidelining career civil servants and undermining Congress, which has the constitutional authority to decide how the government should spend its money.
DOGE gained access to the Treasury payment system on the same day that an official at the Office of Personnel Management said that Musk allies had locked career civil servants out of a computer system containing the personal information of federal employees. The news also capped a week in which the Trump administration attempted to freeze all federal grants and loans, a move that has been temporarily blocked by two judges.
Wyden, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter demanding answers from Bessent on Friday when reports first emerged that Musk's team had tried to gain access to the system.
"To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy," Wyden wrote. "I am deeply concerned that following the federal grant and loan freeze earlier this week, these officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs. I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems."
Other Democratic lawmakers also voiced concerns on social media about the news.
"Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth, is rooting around in Social Security and Medicare payment systems. He's reaching his hands into our pockets and firing anyone who tries to stop him. This reeks of corruption—it must stop," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D.-Wash.) wrote.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called the news "alarming' and said that Congress must investigate.
People familiar with the situation told The New York Timesthat no payments had yet been blocked and that the stated mission of the DOGE team was to review payments, not to stop them. Musk suggested in a social media post on Friday that he was looking for inapropriate expenditures, but also that blocking funds might be appropriate.
"The DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups," he wrote on social media on Friday. "They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once."
Former Treasury officials told the Timesthat funds are dispersed by a comparatively small staff who rely on the agencies that earmark the funds to vet them. Don Hammond, who ran the system at the turn of the millennium, also toldThe Wall Street Journalthat, while there were certain automatic safeguards in place, it was not the role of Treasury to approve or reject specific payments.
"Legally, if you want to stop a payment from taking place, the place to do that is at the agency level," Hammond said.
Responding to the article on social media on Sunday, Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens wrote: "The Treasury system makes the payments (cuts checks). It doesn't decide who to pay or how much. A little like an employer using a payroll processor. Musk has infiltrated the system to stop payments. It's a coup."
In an op-ed published by MSNBC on Saturday, Owens went into greater detail about her concerns, outlining three reasons why Musk might want access to the Treasury payment system.
- He could use it to stop payments to certain programs in order to work around the courts' block on the administration's spending freeze.
- He could access the list of blacklisted federal contractors in order to boost his own or his friend's companies and harm his competitors. (One of the DOGE allies granted access to the payment system, Tom Krause, is also a Big Tech CEO who leads Cloud Software Group, according to The New York Times.)
- He could use it to reduce Social Security or Medicare payments as part of DOGE's goal of cutting $2 trillion in federal spending.
Owens noted that Musk wasn't "chasing these cuts for their own sake. He's helping congressional Republicans attempt to pay for a new round of tax breaks for corporations and the ultrawealthy—including Musk himself."
"It's nice to believe in a fantasy in which Musk and DOGE work alongside civil servants to improve technology and services for Americans and save a few bucks along the way. But all evidence points to the contrary," Owens continued. "The richest man in the world, whom no one elected to any government position, is seeking unprecedented access to confidential information, including information pertaining to his own business interests, and seems hell-bent on cutting off as much funding as possible for the programs that matter to the rest of us."
Owens pointed to a recent poll finding that only around one-third of Americans approve of DOGE, and that 52% disapprove of Musk.
"Americans don't want an unelected and unaccountable billionaire dictating what working families can and cannot afford," she concluded. "If Musk is going to continue running the government like one of his failed businesses, perhaps someone should force his 'resignation' too."
===
===
AN 2 25
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are considered some of the less controversial members of President Donald Trump's administration. Although Senate Democrats have vigorously opposed some of Trump's nominees — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth didn't receive a single Democratic vote — Rubio and Bessent were easily confirmed along bipartisan lines.
Rubio and Bessent have a reputation for being traditional conservatives rather than far-right MAGA Republicans. But the Washington Post's Catherine Rampell, in a February 4 opinion column, lays out some reasons why she believes they are acting like "spineless cowards."
"Many of President Donald Trump's appointees have been self-evidently bad — unqualified, ethically-conflicted cranks," Rampell explains. "A few, though, were supposed to be competent. Responsible, even. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a respected hedge fund manager, was considered a relatively traditional pick, allowing him to clear his confirmation vote with the help of 16 Democrats. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, similarly, sailed into his Cabinet post with unanimous support from his former Senate colleagues."
READ MORE:'Unchecked power': Trump himself ordered firings of prosecutors working criminal cases against him
Rampell continues, "Yet, two weeks in, they have both turned out to be spineless cowards. Both are complicit in the ongoing dismantling of the federal government and shredding of the Constitution."
The Post columnist argues that both the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are under attack by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk. And she contends that Bessent isn't doing enough to protect the integrity of the U.S. Treasury Department, while Rubio "repeatedly praised" USAID in the past but "remained silent" when Musk "went nuclear on the agency."
"On Monday, (February 3)," Rampell writes, "Rubio belatedly announced that he was taking control of USAID, assuming it continues to exist. Meanwhile, Rubio has nothing to say about Trump's decision to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans who have been living and working in this country lawfully."
The columnist adds, "They are now vulnerable to deportation back to their repressive homeland — a fate Rubio described in 2022 as a 'death sentence'…. The 'adults in the room' sometimes failed in Trump's first term. Now, they're not even pretending to try."
===
---
---
robt r 1 25
First, it was over Trump’s nominee to be Treasury Secretary. The two finalists were Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and Trump’s co-transition chair, and Steven Bessent, the founder of the investment firm Key Square Capital Management.
Lutnick turned for help to Elon Musk, who posted on his X that Lutnick would be a better choice for treasury secretary than Bessent, because “Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change. Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.”
I’ve spent quite some time around presidents and president-elects and even advised them about personnel decisions. The most basic rule of such advice-giving is you never make your advice public because it puts a president or president-elect in the awkward position of conspicuously backing you or not.
In this case, Trump didn’t back Musk’s candidate, and business-as-usual Bessent will be Treasury Secretary.
The problem for Musk isn’t that he lost this skirmish. It’s that he got into it publicly at all.
Strike one against Musk.
Then it was the matter of visas to foreign skilled workers.
Musk posted that they should be allowed into the United States. “The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk wrote on X. “If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be.”
But several notable MAGAs, such as Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon, disagreed, to put it mildly. Loomer told The New York Times that Musk is “not MAGA and he’s a drag on the Trump transition,” and said she believed that Musk was using his relationship with Trump to further enrich himself. “Elon wants everyone to think he’s a hero because he gave $250 million to the Trump campaign. But that’s not much of an investment if it allows him to become a trillionaire.”
Bannon warned Musk “we’re going to rip your face off.”
Trump seems to have sided with Musk on this one, at least for now, but it’s bad form to start or expose a rift among a president or president-elect’s key advisors.
Strike two against Musk.
Then there was the little matter of Musk’s apparent Nazi salute on stage before Trump’s arrival in Washington’s Capital One arena on Monday.
Musk says it was misinterpreted. Others condemned it as an intentional sign of solidarity with and outreach to far-right groups.
No matter. The last thing a president needs — even one who’s a neofascist like Trump — is to provoke public worry over his administration’s neo-Nazi leanings.
But let’s not call this a strike against Musk, at least just yet.
The bigger problem for Musk is he just cast doubt on Trump’s first major tech investment.
On Tuesday, with much fanfare, Trump announced a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle to create at least $100 billion in computing infrastructure to power artificial intelligence — dubbed “Stargate.”
Trump took credit for the companies’ decision to spend up to $500 billion building data centers, which are huge buildings full of servers that provide computing power.
But in two messages on X late last night, Musk said that the venture wouldn’t succeed because it didn’t have sufficient funding. “They don’t have the money," Musk wrote in reply to an OpenAI post on the announcement. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
I don’t know if Musk is correct or if he’s just pissed off at OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman. (Musk has his own AI company and has sued OpenAI and Altman for violating antitrust law. Altman took to X Wednesday morning to refute Musk’s assertion about insufficient funding.)
But that’s not the point. If you’re a president’s major advisor (and First Buddy, as Musk likes to say), you don’t do a public bowel movement on one of your boss’s first big initiatives.
Strike three.
Musk just moved into his office in the Old Executive Building next to the White House. but he’s already a loose cannon that makes Trump look weak and submissive. My guess is Musk is out within a week.
---