By Ben Meiselas
Donald Trump’s cabinet is spiraling out of control. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent admitted live on CNN that “there are sectors of the economy that are in recession.” It’s something many Americans already knew from lived experience, but hearing it confirmed by a top Trump official marks a rare moment of candor from a regime built on denial and deceit.
The admission came just days after Trump and his inner circle threw a “Great Gatsby”-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, complete with the slogan “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody.” The timing could not be more grotesque. As millions of Americans worry about the loss of healthcare and SNAP food benefits, Trump and his cronies are dancing under chandeliers paid for with taxpayer dollars.
Meanwhile, new polling shows a sharp rebuke from voters. One year before the 2026 midterms, Democrats hold an eight-point lead over Republicans, the largest advantage either party has seen on the congressional ballot since 2018. Americans are clearly fed up with the cruelty, chaos, and corruption that now define the Trump regime.
Bessent’s performance on Sunday only deepened the sense of disconnect. When pressed about the lavish spending and Trump’s endless golf outings on the public dime, he did what every Trump official seems trained to do: blame Barack Obama. “I believe President Obama played a record amount of golf,” Bessent said, deflecting from the glaring hypocrisy of Trump’s $300+ million White House ballroom and his taxpayer-funded parties.
Elsewhere on the Sunday shows, MAGA House Speaker Mike Johnson falsely claimed that the Epstein files had been fully released, even as Trump’s Justice Department continues to suppress terabytes of evidence. “We know Trump’s name is all over those files,” I said in my latest report. “That’s why they’re hiding the surveillance footage, the phone calls, the witness statements, all of it. Release the damn files.”
The chaos didn’t stop there. Senator Ted Cruz peddled a new conspiracy theory called “Arctic Frost,” which he described as “Joe Biden’s Watergate.” Trump’s propagandists boasted of “trillions of dollars” in trade deals allegedly signed in Asia — none of which actually exist. And Representative Buddy Carter seemed confused about Trump’s whereabouts, insisting he was “in Asia negotiating world peace” when, in fact, he was at Mar-a-Lago hosting yet another private gala.
Even within Trump’s ranks, cracks are showing. Even MAGA Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene complained that she still hasn’t seen a Republican healthcare plan. Speaker Johnson’s excuse? He couldn’t discuss it over the phone “because it might leak.” There is no plan. Well, at least none they want to say publicly. We all know their real plane would be to rip millions of Americans off their insurance. There’s no healthcare strategy, no SNAP protection, no coherent economic policy. It’s all just propaganda, dystopian AI, and parties.
And when Trump official Brooke Rollins called SNAP “a broken and corrupt program,” it revealed everything we need to know about their priorities. The same people who vilify the hungry are the ones who gorge themselves on public funds. These grifters in power steal so much of our money to make themselves richer. Kristi Noem and Kash Patel are happily enjoying their taxpayer-funded private jets. Yet they complain when someone in need receives a tiny bit of help so they can put food on the table. What a disgrace.
Trump’s government has turned cruelty into performance art. They are attacking healthcare, defunding nutrition assistance, and dismantling the social contract, all while throwing wealth-themed parties to celebrate their own power. They are rubbing their corruption and extravagance in our faces.
The American people are done being props in their masquerade. By a two-to-one margin, voters say Trump has gone too far in expanding presidential power and targeting civilians. As I’ve said before, the divide isn’t between left and right anymore. It’s between those who believe in democracy and those who believe they are above it.
The choice ahead is clear. You can’t serve both Mar-a-Lago and Main Street. And no amount of champagne, pearls, or jazz-age pageantry can hide the rot at the heart of this regime.
Thanks for your kind words about these mid-day recaps. Watch my report above, like and share this post, and keep spreading the word. And thanks again for subscribing to the MeidasTouch Podcast on your favorite audio platforms, like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I also hope you have a chance to watch our new documentary The Last Republican this weekend. Thanks to you, it’s now the #1 documentary in the U.S. on Apple TV.
