Tag Archives: Scott Bessent

Politico: ‘Glaring red flag’: Treasury DOGE team discloses bank stock holdings

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The Trump administration official overseeing the Treasury Department’s massive financial operations reported owning stock in many of the large banks and companies that do business with the department, according to disclosures obtained by POLITICO.

Tom Krause, who is also the lead official for Treasury’s DOGE team, reported hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of shares in a wide range of financial companies, including those that provide services to the unit Krause oversees.

He and two other Treasury DOGE team members — Todd Newnam and Linda Whitridge— also reported owning shares of Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, which has lobbied heavily against IRS Direct File, a program targeted for elimination by Elon Musk and DOGE.

&c.

Who cares about a little conflict of interest when you’re working for the Grifter-in-Chief?

‘Glaring red flag’: Treasury DOGE team reveals bank holdings
Several former Treasury officials and government ethics experts said the disclosures raise ethics concerns.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/14/treasury-doge-disclosures-bank-stocks-00347972

Raw Story: ‘Not true!’ Trump hands gift to fact-checkers with wildly inaccurate brag

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President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday that gas prices were down to $1.98 a gallon — and it triggered hilarity.

Fact-checkers and online commenters immediately reacted as Trump added that gas prices are $1.88 in three states. “Can you believe it?” he asked.

According to the American Automobile Association, which charts national gas prices, the lowest price comes closer to $2.61 a gallon for E85 gas. Regular unleaded gasoline is $3.18, AAA’s data shows.

‘Not true!’ Trump hands gift to fact-checkers with wildly inaccurate brag
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday that gas prices were down to $1.98 a gallon — and it triggered hilarity. Fact-checkers and online commenters immediately reacted as Trump added that gas prices are $1.88 in three states. “Can you believe it?” he asked. According to the American Automobile Association, which charts national gas pri…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/not-true-trump-hands-gift-to-fact-checkers-with-wildly-inaccurate-brag/ar-AA1E4p5B

Huffington Post: The Trump Administration Thinks You Should Be OK With Being Poor

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But even as the bad news piles up, the Trump administration has decided to reassure panicked consumers with a chilling talking point: Poverty is good, actually.

Last month, as economists warned of the harm Trump’s tariff policies could cause, including drastically increasing the price of goods, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to dismiss those concerns by insinuating that being able to afford things is not important to Americans.

“Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,” Bessent said to a crowd of economists. 

It turns out this assertion was only the beginning of the Trump administration’s vision for a new American dream.

From Trump telling reporters that he’s not worried about empty stores to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying during an interview that in his version of America, multiple generations will work in the same factories, it sure seems like the Trump administration is trying to prime Americans for accepting and even enjoying a drastically lower standard of living.

The Trump Administration Thinks You Should Be OK With Being Poor
As the country’s economic outlook bleakens, Trump officials are trying to convince us that actually, being poor is a good thing.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-trump-administration-thinks-you-should-be-ok-with-being-poor/ar-AA1E4kNp

MSNBC: Trump’s treasury secretary accidentally summed up the bitter truth about his tariffs

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Amid his verbal squirming in Tuesday’s news conference, Bessent offered a perhaps unintended revelation. “President Trump is interested in the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past,” the secretary said. “We don’t need to necessarily have a booming textile industry like where I grew up again, but we do want to have precision manufacturing and bring that back.”

But textiles and other low-cost goods that rely on cheap foreign labor are subject to Trump’s tariffs, which means higher prices for consumers even if Americans won’t ever make those products again. And while precision manufacturing is great, it tends to be much more automated, which requires a smaller number of highly skilled employees. That means Americans won’t be working in that kind of factory by the tens of millions. 

In other words, Bessent accidentally summed up the effects of Trump’s tariffs: we’ll pay higher prices, but get little in return. Even before we feel the worst of it, Americans already understand. They aren’t happy and, if a recession comes, Trump will really feel their wrath.

Trump’s treasury secretary accidentally summed up the bitter truth about his tariffs
Before his second term began, President Donald Trump said that tariffs were “not going to be a cost to you, it’s going to be a cost to another country.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-s-treasury-secretary-accidentally-summed-up-the-bitter-truth-about-his-tariffs/ar-AA1DUn0r

Financial Times: Donald Trump’s ‘Marie Antoinette moment’: call for national sacrifice falls flat

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President faces backlash after warning Americans they will have to make do with fewer toys at Christmas

Here was the president acknowledging his trade war might cause real hardship for voters — many of whom elected him to bring down the cost of living and boost growth.

Trump’s enemies could hardly believe their luck. They mocked him on social media as a modern-day “Grinch who stole Christmas” and “Scrooge McTrump”. One television presenter, channelling the Sopranos, called him “Donny 2 Dolls”.

“‘Your family will have less, but it’ll be more expensive’ is definitely a solid economic pitch,” the stand-up comic Mike Drucker wrote on X.

…

Isaac Larian, chief executive of MGA Entertainment, the largest toymaker in the US, said the tariffs will be “disastrous”, predicting a “30-40 per cent drop in sales”.

The company gets 65 per cent of its products from Chinese factories, and the tariffs will force them to massively raise prices — from $15 to $29-$30 for a Bratz doll, one of its most popular items.

“If the tariffs are not reduced we’re going to be forced to lay off people, including people in our factory here actually manufacturing toys in the US,” said Larian, who said he voted for Trump last November.

https://archive.is/W4xe1#selection-2295.0-2302.0

Guardian: Trump tariffs prompt slump in shipments to US ports

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Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic trade war has triggered a slump in shipments to the US’s most important ports, amid the growing risk of a recession in the world’s largest economy.

In the latest sign of the US president’s tariff policies rattling the economy, figures show the number of vessels scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles next week is down by almost a third on the same period a year earlier.

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Analysts said the latest shipping figures, which are updated on a daily basis, indicated the fallout was escalating.

…

Highlighting that it typically takes between 20 and 40 days for a sea container to travel from China to the US, Sløk said there would be a knock-on impact on demand for US trucking from the middle of next month, which could lead to empty shelves and layoffs in the distribution and retail industries.

This could lead to a recession by the summer, he added.

Thank the narcissist in the White House! Does he care? No!

Trump tariffs prompt slump in shipments to US ports
Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic trade war has triggered a slump in shipments to the US’s most important ports, amid the growing risk of a recession in the world’s largest economy. In the latest sign of the US president’s tariff policies rattling the economy, figures show the number of vessels scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles next week is down by almost a third on the same period a year earlier. According to the data compiled…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-tariffs-prompt-slump-in-shipments-to-us-ports/ar-AA1DLit0

Stocktwits: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Says It’s Up To China To De-Escalate Tariff Wars: ‘They Sell 5 Times More To Us Than We Sell To Them’

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly said on Monday that China has the responsibility to de-escalate the ongoing tariff war and asserted that its high tariffs are unsustainable.

“I believe that it’s up to China to de-escalate, because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them, and so these 120%, 145% tariffs are unsustainable,” Bessent told CNBC.

LOL! You buffoons dug your own graves. It’s up to you to dig your way out, if you can. I doubt China cares much at this point, now that you’ve made the U.S.A. the laughingstock of the world.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Says It’s Up To China To De-Escalate Tariff Wars: ‘They Sell 5 Times More To Us Than We Sell To Them’
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly said on Monday that China has the responsibility to de-escalate the ongoing tariff war and asserted that its high tariffs are unsustainable. “I believe that it’s up to China to de-escalate, because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them, and so these 120%, 145% tariffs are unsustainable,” Be…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-says-it-s-up-to-china-to-de-escalate-tariff-wars-they-sell-5-times-more-to-us-than-we-sell-to-them/ar-AA1DM8kH

Telegraph: Trump’s attempt to upend the global order has already been defeated

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America has emerged from the trade war as an international laughing stock

Characterised by screeching handbrake turns, made-up policy on the hoof and mixed-messaging on steroids, it’s been another week of chaos in Washington.

If anyone knows what on Earth it is that the US is trying to achieve on trade, and much else besides, then I’d like to hear from them, because having come to the US capital in the hope of garnering some insights, I’m none the wiser.

What’s now increasingly obvious, however, is that Trump is in ragged retreat; he’s compromising all over the shop, such that if the plan was to upend the established global order, one can almost definitely say that, beyond the rhetoric, it is already over.

Rank lack of professionalism and organisation has defined the endeavour all along, and now it’s coming apart at the seams. Sensing an administration on the run, no one is any longer hurrying to do a trade deal with the US. From Britain to Canada and beyond, getting the right deal rather than a quick one has become the new mantra.

Trump has in the meantime made himself – and the US – into an international laughing stock, never mind the damage that policy uncertainty is inflicting on the global economy. You’d be forgiven for thinking that chaos is itself the policy goal.

Repeatedly forced to row back on its demands and aspirations, the White House has been left looking back-footed and ridiculous.

Trump’s attempt to upend the global order has already been defeated
America has emerged from the trade war as an international laughing stock

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/26/trumps-attempt-to-upend-the-global-order-defeated

Financial Times: Vance’s trolling audition to be Trump’s heir

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The many contradictions of the vice-president should not distract from his ambition

It was inevitable that memes about JD Vance would surface the moment Pope Francis passed away. “It’s good to see you in better health,” the US vice-president told the pope on Sunday. The pontiff died on Monday.

As Donald Trump’s chief attack dog — though not yet his heir apparent — Vance is a prime target of ridicule on liberal social media. But he is also a master troller himself. Vance knows that the surest path to Maga hearts and Trump’s approval is to enrage liberals. The question is whether he means anything by it.

And this:

The answer is unclear. Vance has gone from being a never-Trumper who saw Trump as “America’s Hitler” to an arch-Trumper who sees his boss as part of God’s plan. That is as dramatic a political conversion as can happen. Rather than search for an intellectual key, Vance’s shift can be put down to ambition. The better question is whether there are any limits to his ambition. Judging by his performance so far, the answer is not really.

What this last paragraph indicates is that we can’t trust J.D. Dunce to be the person that he pretends to be. He’s an opportunist, a weasel, pure and simple!

https://archive.is/fyhWg

CNN: It’ll be tough for Trump to dig his way out of this one

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With his chaotic trade policy, President Donald Trump is digging himself into an economic and political hole so deep, it may prove impossible to climb out.

On Wednesday morning, just after markets spent a day reeling from Trump’s on-again-off-again threat to levy extraordinary energy, steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and to destroy the country’s auto industry, Trump placed tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported from every country around the world, a policy that could drive up prices on a broad range of consumer and industrial goods for Americans. Europe immediately retaliated, adding pressure on a variety of American industries.

Wall Street has grown nervous about the damage Trump’s policies could inflict on America’s still-strong but increasingly wobbly economy. Stocks have plunged, with the Nasdaq falling into correction (a decline of 10% from its recent high) and the S&P 500 flirting with that inauspicious territory.

It’ll be tough for Trump to dig his way out of this one | CNN Business
With his chaotic trade policy, President Donald Trump is digging himself into an economic and political hole so deep, it may prove impossible to climb out.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/12/economy/recession-tariff-trump/index.html