Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is leading the charge to focus on Minneapolis, Minnesota Somali fraud rings for targeted regional actions.  The IRS Criminal Investigations division has been dispatched to focus on the Minneapolis region to identify fraudulent use of public assistance services, combined with the abuse of federal taxpayer funds.

In a remarkable approach, Secretary Bessent announced during a Fox News interview that a regional targeting effort is now underway that will block anyone who receives public assistance from sending money overseas (remittances to foreign countries).  This is not a fee or tax on the remittance, or financial transaction; this is a complete block of their ability to send money overseas.  Anyone receiving public assistance will not be able to send money to foreign lands.

Yes, it seems like this is initially going to be subject to the honest admission of the money sender. However, with the IRS reviewing each transfer and cross referencing to public assistance records anyone who attempts to work around this regulation will be subject to federal laws on financial fraud, wire service fraud and potentially money laundering.  WATCH:

The interagency focus will eventually go nationwide, as with the new USAO position that focuses on public assistance fraud; but for now, that focused effort will target Minnesota.   Minneapolis will be the beta test for a national rollout.

All of the money service businesses in the region will now be reviewed and all financial transactions of $3,000 will be required to have an accompanying Suspicious Activity Report (SAR).  With DHS, FBI and now IRS investigators focused exclusively on the two counties involved in the Somali fraud rings, the fraudsters will be identified and prosecuted.

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Prior to the discovery of rampant fraud in Minnesota, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was already scheduled to deliver remarks to the Economic Club of Minnesota. Treasury Secretary Bessent is also the Acting IRS Commissioner, which gives him a very unique position from which to review and discuss the explosive issues of fraud within the state.

This is a MUST WATCH video in totality to understand exactly what Secretary Bessent is focused on.

Secretary Bessent begins visit by delivering prepared remarks to the audience outlining the success in President Trump’s economic policy approach, giving specific examples of granular policy accomplishments and what they mean to the average American. Secretary Bessent then sits down for a question-and-answer session where he drills into the issue of the fraud within the Minneapolis, Minnesota region.

Regarding the Somali fraud issue, Bessent notes the IRS Criminal Investigations department are leading the charge to identify the specific individuals and larger network groups within the region who will be held to account.  In the bigger picture roughly 10% of all government spending has been identified by the General Accounting Office as fraud.  This is a really good overall review of the current approach being taken by the Trump administration. WATCH:

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Giddy up.  Yesterday, President Trump and Marco Rubio announced the U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). {GO DEEP} Today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent makes the official notification to the UN.

The notification is important because the 1992 UNFCCC was ratified by the U.S. Senate 34 years ago, making it one of the first UniParty climate change pacts supported by the ¹DC business model.

According to the terms of the treaty, withdrawal from the UNFCCC requires an official notification to the United Nations, and the dissolution takes effect one year later.

TREASURY PRESS RELEASE – WASHINGTON – In alignment with the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the U.S. Department of the Treasury has notified the Green Climate Fund (GCF) that the United States is withdrawing from the Fund and stepping down from its seat on the GCF Board, effective immediately.

“Our nation will no longer fund radical organizations like the GCF whose goals run contrary to the fact that affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction,” said U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.

The Trump Administration is committed to advancing all affordable and reliable sources of energy, which are fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction. The GCF was established to supplement the objectives of the UNFCCC, and continued participation in the GCF has been determined to no longer be consistent with the Trump Administration’s priorities and goals. (SOURCE)

For those who have a tough time accepting wins, no, the next President cannot just rejoin the agreement; nor can the Senate block Trump’s withdrawal from it.  The entire process would have to be restarted, and it’s a heavy lift to sell the American public on paying higher prices just to make pontificating global elites feel better about themselves.

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As you review this latest data on trade, remember any drop in trade deficits has two big picture functions:

First, lower trade deficits generally mean the accompanying GDP release will be stronger than anticipated because imported products are a deduction from the valuation of all goods and services created in the U.S. economy.  Lower imports mean less is deducted.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, a drop in the trade deficit created by diminished imports means more wealth remains inside the USA.

We are not spending, sending money overseas, to import foreign goods at the same rate, and that money stays inside the U.S. economy. More wealth inside the U.S. provides the fuel for expanded domestic growth, more investment gains in USA manufacturing and USA industry and the ability to pay higher USA wages.

The Commerce Department is reporting today that the U.S. trade deficit for October 2025 dropped to the smallest amount in 16-years.  A significant amount of the deficit drop was because a high value of physical precious metals (gold/silver) was exported, simultaneous with big offshore pharmaceutical companies dropping the prices of imported products (policy and tariff pressure).

WSJ – The U.S. trade deficit shrank dramatically in October to its lowest level since 2009, the Commerce Department said Thursday, an unexpected twist in a year of volatile trade flows that have been buffeted by the Trump administration’s steep tariffs.

American imports fell to $331.4 billion in October, while exports increased to $302 billion. That yielded an October deficit of $29.4 billion, an imbalance nearly 40% smaller than September’s. (more)

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The United States Office of the Comptroller for the Currency (OCC) has delivered the preliminary results of an investigation into large U.S. banks and the practice of “debanking” customers based on ideology. [PDF HERE]

Between 2020 and 2023, the OCC found that JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., U.S. Bancorp, Capital One Financial Corp., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Toronto-Dominion Bank, and Bank of Montreal, all maintained policies that restricted legal companies from access to banking based on the “values” of the bank.

According to the OCC report, “these nine banks made inappropriate distinctions among customers in the provision of financial services on the basis of their lawful business activities by maintaining policies restricting access to banking services or requiring escalated reviews and approvals before providing certain customers access to financial services.”

Press Release – […] The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today released preliminary findings from its supervisory review of debanking activities at the nine largest national banks it supervises: JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, and BMO Bank.

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President Trump holds a roundtable discussion with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and various farm state senators as he outlines $12 billion in support and subsidy for American farmers.

With energy prices lowered, the costs for natural gas, fertilizer, diesel and gasoline prices have fallen; however, food costs have remained high.  President Trump announced with Brooke Rollins an initiative to help support American farmers with the intended objective to lower production costs from the field that will hopefully transfer to the fork.

Secretary Rollins and President Trump announce a $12 billion bridge subsidy to assist farmers with proactive planning for the 2026 planting season.  The money is coming from revenue generated by tariffs, and row crop farming will be the first subsidies delivered.  WATCH (media questions begin at 31:40):

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Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent appears on CBS’s Face the Nation for an inflation and affordability debate with narrative engineer Margaret Brennan.

The primary narrative can be seen in Brennan’s emphasis of the new democrat catch phrase “affordability.”  Having gaslit the American electorate over the issues of Joe Biden’s economic/energy policy which created record inflation, the same media who ran cover for Joe Biden have switched during the Trump administration to calling the subsequent high costs an “affordability” crisis.

In essence, Biden’s economic, energy and monetary policies drove 2021/2022 inflation to record levels, this made all prices rise massively.  Those high prices are now the “affordability problem.”  WATCH:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning and welcome to ‘Face The Nation.’ We have a lot of news to get to, and we begin with the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent. Good to have you here.

TREASURY SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Morning, Margaret.

SEC. BESSENT: Mr. Secretary, a lot of people are out there holiday shopping. Here is how the President described back in April, what to expect from this season.

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If we read between the lines in the latest update from President Trump emissary Steve Witkoff, we can clearly see the negotiations have entered into that critical phase where payments to all of the stakeholders will determine a successful outcome.

Pragmatic people have long predicted the ultimate solution to the bloodshed will only be determined once western interests get to the point where negotiators propose a long-term plan for continued financial benefit.  Too many people, “stakeholders” are making money from the conflict.

From a western perspective, support for the Ukraine conflict is based on money. Therefore, the solution to the conflict requires a system where the western opportunity for financial benefit continues.

Written in polite diplomatic terms, the continued payments are identified as “the prosperity agenda which aims to support Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, joint U.S.–Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects.” This is codespeak for the U.S. Senate and EU will retain a financial mechanism to exploit for personal benefit.

From the language it appears that Witkoff and Kusher are confident they can construct a financial reward system for western banks, investors, politicians and Ukraine officials that will retain the benefits of war without the ancillary ingredient of bloodshed.

If the U.S. delegation can pull this off, then Russia can gain the territory they want, corrupt Ukraine officials can keep skimming investment money, the EU can retain the power it wants to extract financial payments, American politicians can use the “long-term recovery projects” for money laundering and quasi-public/private investment banks can benefit from the exploitation of Ukraine resources.

Again, from a ‘western geopolitical perspective’, the territorial issues, security guarantees, EU membership status and the position of NATO are downstream details once the larger payment system is organized.  Put another way, they are down to the stuff that really matters, the money.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on Meet the Press to debate Kirsten Welker’s formatted corporate media talking points.  The source of most American division is found in the behavior of the media.

Video and Transcript Below:

[TRANSCRIPT] – KRISTEN WELKER: And joining me now is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Secretary Bessent, welcome back to Meet the Press.

SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, good to be with you today.

KRISTEN WELKER: It’s great to have you here in person. Thank you for being here. I want to start right there on the discussion of affordability. You just heard Vice President JD Vance ask people to have, quote, “a little bit of patience” with the administration. Let me ask you, Mr. Secretary, how long do Americans need to be patient? How long do they have to wait for the cost of living to come down?

SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Well, Kristen, in March of 2024, I – I wrote a piece, and I talked about the three I’s that were killing Americans: immigration, interest rates and inflation. The president’s closed the border, and the mass immigration is gone. And that was putting – a lot of the immigration was putting upward pressure on housing, downward pressure on wages. Interest rates are down. And now we are starting to see the affordability – we – the prices get better. We had a very big October for home sales. Energy prices, gas – gasoline is down. We saw – we believe health care is going to come down. We will see an announcement this coming week on that. And so across the board, prices are starting to come down. We’re having Thanksgiving week. This will be the lowest cost for a Thanksgiving dinner in four years. Turkey prices are down 16%.

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The govt shutdown made a mess of the economic data surveying and statistical analysis generally needed for accurate snapshots of the economy. However, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) was able to release the September jobs report data {SEE BLS REPORT HERE}.

The geopolitical trade reset continues delivering domestic economic fluctuations, as each sector and specific international dependency reacts to President Trump’s shifts and turns in targeted economic policy.  The September jobs report caught the economic pundits off-guard, as it showed a much bigger gain in jobs than they expected.

As noted by MSM, “The US added 119,000 jobs in September, far more than the 53,000 economists expected, and unemployment unexpectedly increased to 4.4% from 4.3%.”  President Trump’s immigration enforcement continues to capture and remove illegal alien workers from the U.S. economy. This is also driving up domestic wages.

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