This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 236.

… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent preposterously claimed on ABC that he is suffering with farmers going under because of Trump’s tariffs because he is also a soybean farmer: “Martha, in case you don’t know it, I’m actually a soybean farmer, so I have felt this pain too.”

… From his perch as a long-time global currency trader on Wall Street, Bessent also invested $25 million in midwest land, which he leases out to actual farmers. He is not a “soybean farmer,” he is the LANDLORD of some soybean farmers. And he’s claiming, with a net worth of $521 million, that he is also “feeling the pain” of the trade just like the farmers he is putting out of business.

… Axios: “The NYT reported in Aug that Bessent owns as much as $25 million worth of North Dakota corn and soybean farmland, which he rents out for more than $1 million a year in income. Bessent has delayed divesting his farm holdings, required under an ethics agreement in place since he took office, though he has said he will do so by the end of the year.”

… The interviewed continued, and it didn’t get any better from there. Q - “Coffee prices are up 19%, beef is up almost 15%, and bacon up almost 6% just to name a few. So when are all grocery prices going to come down as Trump promised? Bessent: Kristen (Welker), it’s unfortunate. As much as I like you, you like to cherrypick things.”

… Q - “Why didn’t the president tell the public he was going to tear down the entire East Wing, which as you know is part of the people’s house? Bessent: Well, I think this was a judgment call on the president. The president is a master builder .. I assume that maybe parts of the East Wing could’ve been asbestos, could’ve been mold.”

… Q - “How is bailing out Argentina America First? Bessent: It is America First because we are supporting a US ally.”

… Bessent then went over to CBS: Q - “People at home are seeing prices still high on furniture, energy, gardening, lawn care, apparel. Do you expect these things to cool off, and when? Bessent: You listed the things that are up, but we’re seeing plenty of things that are down.”

… Trump continues to threaten federal intervention to rig the midterm elections: “The 2020 Presidential Election, being Rigged and Stolen, is a far bigger SCANDAL. We now know everything. I hope the DOJ pursues this with as much “gusto” as befitting the biggest SCANDAL in American history! If not, it will happen again, including the upcoming Midterms. No mail-in or “Early” Voting, Yes to Voter ID! Watch how totally dishonest the CA Prop Vote is! Millions of Ballots being “shipped.” GET SMART REPUBLICANS, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!

… Gavin Newsom: “Trump’s presidency, de facto, ends next Nov. if we’re successful in taking back the House. CBS: You really believe if the Democrats take back power in the House, his presidency is over? Newsom: De facto, as we know it today. When a coequal branch of govt begins to assert itself. If you have a Speaker Johnson, we may have a third term of President Trump. I really believe that.”

… WSJ explained how Trump launched his ballroom construction and destroyed the East Wing so quickly. First he fired board members of the National Capital Planning Commission: “In their place, Trump installed his own panel of loyalists, giving Republicans control of a little-known body that has outsize influence over the historic WH complex.”

… “The NCPC has raised no public objections to his plans to remodel the most famous residence in the world. It was a classic example of the former real-estate developer in action: bulldozing through norms, exerting control over groups that might stand in his way, taking advantage of oddities in permitting rules and acting so quickly that nobody could stop him. The WH is exempt from much of the zoning, permitting and regulatory structure that governs most real-estate projects in the country.”

… “Trump told business leaders and lobbyists at his golf club in VA that the project was important to him personally, and they could write it off on their taxes. There have been discussions about donors being recognized via a plaque or names carved into a wall in the new building.”

… “Trump runs a weekly meeting about the ballroom in the Oval Office. The sessions feature architects, residence staff, the WH maintenance team, the military office and the WH Historical Assn. He is involved with every aspect of planning, asking granular questions about the floor color, the height and width of the windows and the precise positioning of the building on the WH grounds. Companies have brought product samples to the Oval Office for Trump to review, and he has kept materials in the dining room off the Oval as he weighs design choices.”

… Trump has marveled at his own ability to move forward, telling donors to the ballroom about a conversation he had with officials involved with the project: “They said, ‘Sir, you can start tonight,’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ They said, ‘You have zero zoning conditions. You’re the president.’ I said, ‘You got to be kidding.’”

… Sen. Bernie Sanders: “This year, Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill gave: Google an $18 billion tax break. Amazon a $16 billion tax break. Microsoft a $12 billion tax break. Facebook an $11 billion tax break. Now, they’re writing checks to Trump for his $300 million ballroom. Gee, I wonder why?”

… Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) was asked on NBC what the next Democratic president should do about Trump’s ballroom: “To really mess with him, just name it the Barack Obama Ballroom, and I think that will take care of half the problem.”

… Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA): “Don’t even think of seeking the Democratic nomination for president unless you pledge to take a wrecking ball to the Trump Ballroom on DAY ONE. a Trump monument to corruption will not stand.”

… NYT: “Timothy Mellon, a reclusive billionaire and a major financial backer of Trump, is the anonymous private donor who gave $130 million to the US govt to help pay troops during the shutdown. Trump announced the donation on Thurs, but he declined to name the person who provided the funds, only calling him a “patriot” and a friend. The Trump admin’s 2025 budget requested about $600 billion in total military compensation. A $130 million donation would equal about $100 a service member.”

… “Mellon, a wealthy banking heir and railroad magnate, is a longtime backer of Trump and gave tens of millions of dollars to groups supporting the president’s campaign. Last year, he made a $50 million donation to a super PAC supporting Trump, which was one of the largest single contributions ever disclosed. A grandson of former Treasury Sec. Andrew Mellon, Mellon was not a prominent Republican donor until Trump was elected. But in recent years, he has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into supporting Trump and the Republican Party.”

… “Mellon is also a significant supporter of RFK Jr.. Mellon donated millions to Kennedy’s presidential campaign and has also given money to his anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense.”

… George Conway: “Mellon is obsessed with Amelia Earhardt. Which explains why Trump has shown interest in her lately as well.”

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… Trump on Air Force 1 last night with his Qatari business partners, who gifted him a new AF1 jet and is building a $5.5 billion Trump golf resort in their country: “It’s such an honor to have you on this plane.” The Qatar Emir responded: “Yes, first time.”

… Laura Loomer was livid again: “I step away from my phone for 30 minutes and I come back to see a video of the Emir of Qatar (a very bad guy) on Air Force One.”

… NBC: “Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, his first stop in a 5-day Asia tour that is expected to culminate in a face-to-face with Xi in South Korea on Thursday. Trump has said that the first issue he plans to raise with Xi at their meeting is fentanyl. The US accuses China of failing to curb the international flow of precursor chemicals for the deadly opioid, which Trump has cited as one of his justifications for imposing tariffs.”

… I continue to stand by my prediction that Trump is going to come out of this meeting with an agreement from China to buy soybeans and approve the TikTok sale - two things that Xi doesn’t care very much about that mean a whole lot to Trump. What Xi will get in exchange for that is Trump’s agreement to sell out Taiwan, which won’t be announced immediately but will come later.

… Sell out Taiwan for soybeans. Art of the deal.

… Malaysia PM Anwar at a press conference with Trump: “We share lot of things in common. I was in prison. He almost got there.”

… NYT did a story citing sources inside the admin that Trump jokes to people all the time about how easy it is to manipulate and control Speaker Mike Johnson, at one point even saying: “I’m the speaker and the president.”

… Even conservative Reason is sounding the alarm bells on Trump: “The intense acceleration of the quest to aggregate power in the WH is now unambiguously the more immediate threat to liberty. It’s visible every day on my commute to work, as National Guardsmen linger in my DC Metro stop. It’s visible in the Sept gathering of the nation’s top military officials for something between a pep rally and a company retreat. It’s visible everywhere ICE is staging raids and setting up warrantless checkpoints. It’s visible in the admin’s moves to take a stake in Intel and broker a TikTok sale.”

… “The remedy isn’t complicated, but it is hard to execute. Congress must take back its rightful powers, narrow emergency authorities, sunset delegations, and relearn the civic discipline of saying ‘no’ to our own would-be redeemers, even when they’re on our own team. Kudos to a few senators, Rand Paul (R–KY) among them, who in early Oct tried to take back the power to declare war after the Trump admin made several unauthorized strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug smugglers.”

… Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was asked on Fox today about Trump’s strikes on boats in the Carribean: “I would call them extrajudicial killings. This is akin to what China does, what Iran does with drug dealers - they summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public. So it’s wrong. In the one instance you’re killed on sight. On the other instance, if you’re captured, we just say, ‘Oh well, we’re gonna send you back to your country.’ It doesn’t make any sense.”

… No wonder why Paul was the only Republican senator not invited to Trump’s luncheon last week.

… Sen. Ruben Gallego: “It’s murder. It’s very simple. If this president feels they are doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard. If this is an act of war, then you use our military and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder. It’s disgusting.”

… WaPo: “The largest law firms in the US have been far less likely to challenge Trump’s policies than they were during his first term, and smaller firms are carrying much more of the burden of high-stakes legal challenges. Large firms represented plaintiffs in 15% of cases challenging Trump executive orders this term, compared with roughly 75% of cases during a comparable period in Trump’s first term.”

… “The shift by large firms has put a significant extra burden on small- and medium-sized firms. They have taken on more of the workload in the nearly 400 lawsuits filed between Jan and Sept. Some of Trump’s executive orders this spring targeted major law firms.”

… NBC: “Federal workers lined up around the corner outside of the Capital Area Food Bank in DC after missing their first full paycheck since the govt shutdown began. The food bank, set up specifically for federal workers, provided boxed meals, household goods and personal hygiene items to over 250 federal employees.”

… NYT: “When Trump announced a $20 billion bailout for Argentina this month, Larry Ory, a farmer in Earlham, IA, could hardly believe it, especially after boatloads of Argentine soybeans began shipping to China, a once-critical customer for Ory’s family. For Iowans, losing China’s soybean market in the president’s trade war was only one of many economic shocks that have hit the state since the start of Trump’s second term.”

… “The cost of tractors and fertilizers have shot up with his tariffs. Labor has grown scarcer in agribusinesses. Major manufacturers have laid off workers. Even the ubiquitous wind turbines that provide income for some Iowa farmers are in the president’s sights: ‘Right now, we’re fighting different economic wars all at once. You can sustain it one at a time, but right now it’s death by a thousand paper cuts.’”

… “Iowa has become a stronghold for Trump. Yet perhaps no state has struggled more with his economic policies. During the Q1 of 2025, IA’s GDP dropped by 6.1%, more than any other state aside from neighboring NE. Manufacturing, which drives 17% of IA’s economic output, has been hit with higher production costs in part because of steep tariffs on inputs like aluminum and steel. Meatpacking plants, which help make IA the nation’s leading pork producer, rely heavily on foreign-born workers, hundreds of thousands of whom saw their legal status stripped away by the president. Trump’s war on renewable energy also threatens the wind industry that produces more than half of Iowa’s electricity.”

… Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS) to Meidas: “I’ve heard some of my Republican colleagues encourage Trump to be transparent about this idea of importing beef from Argentina. I’ll just say this - we don’t need transparency to know this policy is garbage. We need to be supporting American ranchers, farmers, and producers, and this ain’t it.”

… Former Canadian MP Charlie Angus on Trump imposing an additional 10% tariff on his country because Ontario Premier Doug Ford ran a TV ad against tariffs featuring Reagan: “This is a guy who showed an AI video of himself dumping diarrhea on his own citizens. So the fact that he’s freaking out because we showed a video that just had Ronald Reagan speaking shows he’s not trustworthy.”

… Trump told another one of his preposterous lies about it: “They cheated on a commercial. Ronald Reagan loved tariffs and they said he didn’t. And I guess it was AI or something. They cheated badly. Canada got caught cheating on a commercial. Can you believe it?”

… It was not AI, and Reagan was against tariffs consistently for 50 years.

… Bessent was asked about it: Q - “Will the 10% tariffs apply to all Canadian goods? Bessent: I’ve been traveling since this unfortunate event happened. We’ll have to see. Q - Does the president know if the tariffs will apply to all Canadian goods? Bessent: I’m sure he knows. Whatever is going on back in North America I think is taking second fiddle to President Trump’s leadership out here in the Pacific.”

… Q - “Why is the President setting trade policy based on a TV ad he doesn’t like? Bessent: This is a kind of propaganda against US citizens. It’s psyops. It’s kind of propaganda that the Premier of Ontario unilaterally launched. It was a terrible judgement by this premier, who has a reputation for being a hothead.”

… Guardian: RFK Jr is planning to issue guidance encouraging Americans to eat more saturated fats, contradicting decades of dietary recommendations and alarming experts. Cheryl Anderson with the American Heart Assn: “My response and sort of counsel to myself was to stay calm, and let’s see what happens, because there was no indication given as to how, why, when this potential shift would occur. The recommendation around saturated fat has been one of the most consistent recommendations since the first edition of the dietary guidelines. When you look at the current American diet, there’s too much saturated fat in it.”

… Fox32 Chicago: “Residents on Chicago’s Northwest Side are outraged after federal agents, once again, deployed chemical agents against protesters. This time it happened as parents and children were heading to a neighborhood Halloween parade in the Old Irving Park neighborhood. Resident Brian Kolp: “Started hearing some whistles and when I looked out I saw two ICE agents tackling a guy to the ground Literally in my front yard.”

… “That man been working on a nearby home when federal agents chased him down and took him into custody. His brother said he is an undocumented immigrant who came to the US with his family when he was 4-years-old. Within moments, angry neighbors poured out of their homes, joining protesters blowing whistles. As angry residents shouted, the agents began lobbing tear gas just minutes before the scheduled start of an annual Halloween parade.”

… Kolp: “You had folks who were literally out on the street taking their kids to this Halloween parade when this happened. And I didn’t see anybody with a weapon. I didn’t see anybody make physical contact with these agents. I didn’t see anybody do anything that justified, for instance, taking my 70-year-old neighbor to the ground. I was pretty upset to be honest with you. I am an attorney. I used to work with and in law enforcement. And watching this happen in my front yard was not something I ever thought was going to come to my front door. But here we are.”

… The Telegraph: “Being branded ‘absolutely terrible’ at your job is hard to spin positively. Especially if the person doing the branding is Trump. But Jacqui Heinrich, Fox News’ senior WH correspondent, remains unfazed. Heinrich, known for rarely pulling her punches when she interviews the president and his surrogates, has proved something of a test for Trump’s relationship with his favorite network.”

… “She questioned NSA Mike Waltz, later ousted for accidentally leaking military plans to a journalist, if Trump was being ‘played’ by Vladimir Putin. Trump responded with a Truth Social post: “I watched Jacqui Heinrich from Fox over the weekend and I thought she was absolutely terrible. She should be working for CNN, not Fox. Not surprisingly, I later found out that she’s a fan of the WH Correspondents’ Assn!”

… “The previous month, Heinrich criticized the admin’s moves to take over the assn, which determined the selection of the press pool. She has also come up against Karoline Leavitt, the WH press secretary, in a few uncomfortable, although fairly tame, exchanges.”

… Heinrich: “I don’t really give it much time or space in my head. My first question was like, ‘What is he mad about? What was it that upset him? I put so much of my effort into really being scrupulous with the facts and the details and making sure that everything is in context. As long as I’ve done that, I’ve done my job, people’s feelings about it are not really my business.”

… One WH correspondent: “The idea that she is some kind of caricature of a Fox personality is to underestimate her skills and presence in the briefing room. She is less interested in pleasing viewers and stoking their political resentments than she is in asking questions that matter and holding presidents, of whichever party, to account.”

… WSJ: “The future of Argentina’s free-market experiment hinges on its midterm congressional elections today. Rarely are Washington and Wall Street watching a local foreign election this closely, but rarely has so much been riding on the outcome, including a $40 billion US rescue plan. If Javier Milei’s party loses the election, the brash libertarian leader’s radical overhaul of Argentina’s economy will come crashing to a halt.”

… Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, was in the US gushing after a meeting with his new favorite compromised Republican, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: “I had a very productive and constructive meeting with great Rep. Luna. She’s been a strong voice for dialogue and for peace. She is also organizing a meeting between US Congress members and the Russian Duma to encourage parliamentary dialogue.”

… AZ journalist Brahm Resnik posted a video of former Senator now well-paid DC lobbyist Kyrsten Sinema threatening local officials for Trump: “Sinema lobbies for data center developer at Chandler AZ Plan Commission. Says she’s working ‘hand in glove’ with Trump Admin and warns the city to embrace DCs plan or face federal intervention. City Council vote on Sinema’s DC scheduled for Nov. 13.”

… Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), who is a Navy vet, on the Meidas podcast: "Q - Scott Perry says that Democrats join the military just so they can run for office — and that Democrats hate the military. What do you say to that? Deluzio: Just an unbelievable load of bullshit. I’d dare Scott Perry to go say that in front of the Democrats in his district who are veterans — there are thousands of them. And look, I’m not interested in any lecture from someone like him who tried to overthrow our govt after the 2020 election. If this guy had a spine, he’d do a town hall and say that to their faces.”

… Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) on ABC talking about the shutdown: “You gotta remember that in Trump’s big legislation they added $4 trillion to the debt in order to give a big tax cut for wealthy people on the backs of the American people and what their healthcare is gonna cost. That’s why these subsidies have gone away. They didn’t want it to be $6 trillion in debt, they wanted it to just be $4 trillion.”

… Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) on Fox: “We can’t do a deal with Trump and then have him tear it up tomorrow and start mass firings or canceling programs that he doesn’t like or canceling programs that help blue states. We have to be sure that a deal is a deal. Thus far he’s not been willing to even discuss a deal, much less guarantee that he’ll live by one.”

… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “One of the reasons that Trump is refusing to negotiate is because he likes the fact the govt is closed because he thinks he can exercise King-like powers. He can open up the parts of the govt that he wants. He can pay the employees who are loyal to him. This is a leader who is trying to transition our govt from a democracy to something much closer to a totalitarian state. This is part of what happens in totalitarian states - the leader, the regime only, decides what things get funded and what don’t often in coordination with their oligarch friends.”

… Murphy was asked about Maine US Senate candidate Graham Platner’s Totenkopf tattoo: “He sounds like a human being to me. A human being who made mistakes, recognizes them, and is very open about it.”

… Murphy said he is meeting with Platner this week: “I’m looking forward to sitting down and talking to him about it. He’s doing very well in Maine.”

… Fox: “CA officials are giving Planned Parenthood $140 million to keep 109 clinics open and offset the financial strain from cuts imposed by Republicans in Washington, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced. Newsom said the move affirms the state’s continued commitment to abortion access for women in the Golden State amid efforts by Trump and congressional Republicans to shut down Planned Parenthood.”

… Newsom: “CA is a reproductive freedom state, and this latest investment continues to show our belief in protecting access to essential health care in times of distress. Trump’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood put all our communities at risk as people seek basic health care from these community providers.”

… NBC: “A DC resident filed a lawsuit after he was handcuffed and detained last month for protesting members of the National Guard patrolling DC neighborhoods by playing ‘The Imperial March’ from the Star Wars franchise. In a suit filed in federal court, attorneys for Sam O’Hara said he would regularly protest the National Guard’s presence by walking several feet behind them and playing the march also known as ‘Darth Vader’s Theme,’ from The Empire Strikes Back.

… The ACLU is representing O’Hara. From the lawsuit: “Using his phone and sometimes a small speaker, he played The Imperial March as he walked, keeping the music at a volume that was audible but not blaring. O’Hara recorded the encounters and posted the videos on his TikTok account, where millions of people have viewed them.”

… Suing them for their authoritarian tactics is what every citizen should do if they are victimized by these people. O’Hara Strikes Back.