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A Massachusetts man on Thursday was charged with attempting to assassinate a member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet, after he brought Molotov cocktails to the Capitol in January. Ryan English, who turned himself into Capitol Police over the incident, allegedly admitted in January that he brought knives and two Molotov cocktails fashioned out of 50 milliliter Absolut Vodka bottles, which were stuffed with cloth doused in hand sanitizer, to Capitol Hill. The man is now charged with carrying a dangerous weapon or incendiary device on the grounds of the Capitol, and unlawful possession of an incendiary device, the department said....

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Switzerland this weekend to discuss economic and trade matters, their offices announced Tuesday.“We have shared interests,” Bessent said later on Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle.” The current tariff war “isn’t sustainable,” said Bessent, “especially on the Chinese side. And, you know, 145 percent [tariffs], 125 percent, is the equivalent of an embargo. We don’t want to decouple, what we want is fair trade.”Bessent and Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts on both Saturday and Sunday, the Treasury secretary said.

The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was replaced Friday, only three days after assuming the role, as his appointment triggered a power struggle between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Elon Musk of the Department of Government Efficiency, the New York Times reported. Gary Shapley was replaced after Bessent complained to President Donald Trump that Musk circumvented Bessent’s office to secure the position for Shapley, the NYT reported. The outlet cited people who said they were familiar with the situation. Shapley was a longstanding IRS agent who accused the Biden administration’s Department of Justice of dragging out its...

In the tariff war between China and the United States, a lot of chatter in the Pravda Media is about Xi Jinping's defiance, his outreach to European countries and other less important but collectively significant developing countries, and his retaliatory moves against America. They make it sound like China has a lot of cards to play in the trade war with America. China has put civilian government officials on a "wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. https://t.co/rZWU2zsARQ— The Japan Times (@japantimes) April 14, 2025Collectively,...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that China’s escalation of tariffs is a “big mistake” because it is playing a “losing hand.” Bessent said, “If we put up a tariff wall, the ultimate goal would be to bring jobs back to the U.S. But in the meantime, we will be collecting substantial tariffs. If we’re successful, tariffs would be a melting ice cube, in a way, because you’re taking in the revenues as the manufacturing facilities are built in the U.S., and there should be some level of symmetry between the taxes we begin taking in...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday the U.S. holds a substantial advantage over China as the two nations exchange threats in a burgeoning trade war. “I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they’re playing with a pair of twos,” Bessent said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “What do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us, so that is a losing hand for them.” The comments come a day ahead of the U.S. raising its duties on China and dozens of other...

Inside the White House, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been perhaps the biggest proponent of ”Liberation Day,” President Donald Trump’s promised unveiling of sweeping new tariffs on Wednesday. But as the day nears, the potential fallout from those tariffs may well liberate Lutnick from his role in the administration, according to half dozen people close to the White House. While Americans and much of the world brace for a possible season of pain following the imposition of the new tranche of tariffs, Trump’s orbit is ready to play the blame game should things go poorly for the White House. And...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained why he fully supports Elon Musk, DOGE, and their speed of operation. “I am completely aligned with what Elon’s doing, and everyone said, do you have to do it so fast … like I said, I’ve only been in this business for seven weeks, I’ve only been in DC for eight weeks, but the thing I can tell you is if you don’t move fast the vested interest will weigh you down like the quicksand will come up, or the claws ..everybody’s got lobbyists … “I mean, think about it. Within a 10-mile radius of...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Tuesday that two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers who faced political persecution over their roles in the tax evasion investigation of Hunter Biden will return to the agency as advisers. Bessent said that Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler will join the Treasury Department as senior advisers after they were wrongfully targeted for their role in the investigation. Shapley was a senior supervisory special agent at the IRS, while Ziegler was a special agent. "I went and decided I would bring them into Treasury, give them a year to investigate the wrongdoing that's going on at...

Scott Bessent on CNBC: “The market and the economy have become hooked, become addicted, to excessive government spending and there’s going to be a detox period.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expects the US housing market to pick up steam after recent indicators came in below forecasts., and sees potential for inflation to return to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target “quickly.” “We’re still living through this Bidenflation” for now, Bessent said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s David Westin, referring to the Trump administration’s contention that former President Joe Biden drove up consumer prices with his economic policies. “Over the next six to 12 months, as we deregulate, drill more American energy” and bring certainty to extending the 2017 tax cuts, “we could very...

President Donald Trump celebrated the Treasury Department’s recent announcement that it is suspending enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act against U.S. citizens and domestic reporting companies. "Exciting news! The Treasury Department has announced that they are suspending all enforcement of the outrageous and invasive Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirement for U.S. Citizens," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This Biden rule has been an absolute disaster for Small Businesses Nationwide. Furthermore, Treasury is now finalizing an Emergency Regulation to formally suspend this rule for American businesses. The economic menace of BOI reporting will soon be no more." In a statement...

-snip- The US’s involvement would leave no room for corruption and insider deals. When I was in Kyiv, I met with many American companies that have been on the ground in Ukraine for years. And I have spoken with many more who are ready to support the Ukrainian economy through a just and lasting peace. The terms of this partnership will mobilise American talent, capital, and high standards and governance to accelerate Ukraine’s recovery and sends a clear message to Russia that the US is invested in a free and prosperous Ukraine over the long term. The US is a...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will travel to Ukraine this week to discuss a potential deal concerning rare earth minerals, according to a source familiar with his plans. Bessent will be the first cabinet-level official in U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to visit Ukraine. Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Trump have expressed interest in a pact that would give the United States access to Ukraine's rare earth resources in exchange for continued support in fending off the Russian invasion. The source, who requested anonymity as the plans were still confidential, did not offer additional details on the itinerary. The...

The bureaucratic empire that Rohit Chopra built at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was destined to crumble under the weight of its own excesses. From the moment he took the helm, Chopra ruled the agency as an unaccountable overlord, brandishing the regulatory hammer to bludgeon financial institutions into compliance with a progressive economic agenda. His tenure was a textbook case of administrative state overreach—punishing businesses, stifling competition, and reducing consumer choice in the name of “protection.” Trump, never one to tolerate bureaucratic tyranny, did what any president committed to free markets and limited government would do: he fired him....

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency full access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to three people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending. The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk’s lieutenants into the department’s payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and...

A Massachusetts woman who told police that she went to the U.S. Capitol to kill members of President Donald Trump's cabinet said she was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, prosecutors said in a court filing. Ryan Michael English, who goes by Riley English, was arrested Monday and remained in custody after her initial court appearance on Thursday. English didn't immediately challenge her pretrial detention, court records show. English, 24, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, told police that she felt like she was “on a mission” and “had been thinking about for this...

The 24-year-old trans-identified male from Massachusetts who was arrested on Monday at the US Capitol with Molotov cocktails and a knife and intended to kill Scott Bessent has been revealed to have been planning the attack for a month and intended to "hurt big players" in Washington, DC, according to a court filing from the Department of Justice seeking pretrial detention. In the filing, the DOJ said that Ryan Michael English, also known as "Riley Jane English" and referred to by she/her pronouns in the document, bought an atlas around one month prior to the January 27 arrest. The atlas...

The Massachusetts man who was arrested on Monday at the US Capitol armed with Molotov cocktails and knives was transgender. Local news outlet WWLP reports the man, named in the affidavit as Ryan Michael "Reily" English, was known as Riley Jane English, a 24-year-old transgender person. WWLP states that English is "a woman who lived in South Deerfield." English had told officers he was intending to kill Scott Bessent. WWLP had initially reported on English by given name Ryan, but in their updated report they state that "This story previously identified the defendant as Ryan Michael English, the name used...

A Massachusetts man arrested at the U.S. Capitol with Molotov cocktails and a knife told police he was there to “kill” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to court documents filed Tuesday. Ryan Michael “Reily” English, who turned himself in to U.S. Capitol Police at 3:12 p.m. ET on Monday, said he traveled to Washington, D.C., initially planning to kill Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and/or House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a police affidavit said. But English shifted his target to Bessent after stopping at a library in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and reading that the Senate was voting Monday on Bessent’s nomination...