World

Toward the end of an extensive interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, MSNBC's Eugene Robinson was afforded an opportunity to question the Donald Trump official and put him on the spot over the tariffs that went into effect at midnight.

After making a pitch to co-host Joe Scarborough that the tariffs should soon increase employment numbers, Robinson asked Bessent, "Mr. Secretary, there's one question I've got to ask you, because there has been some confusion. So we've got a tariff of, what, 50 percent on Brazil now, I think. And so if someone here, an importer wants to buy Brazilian products today or tomorrow and import them, they're going to pay 50 percent to the Treasury. And so who writes that check?"

"Well, it's a couple of things," the Trump Cabinet member replied. "First, we could have substitutions. So there's very little that only comes from Brazil, you know that it could it could come from Argentina. It could come from ––."

"Right," Robinson interrupted. "But assuming it does come from Brazil, say, or it comes from any country with a tariff, who writes the check to the treasury?"

"Well, the check is written to the person who receives it at the dock in the U.S.," Bessent tentatively answered.

"Ummhmm, the check is written by the person who receives it at the dock. So tariff is paid in this country by the importer, is that right?" the smiling Robinson persisted.

"But the Brazilian exporter could decide that they want to keep market share," Bessent protested. "They could lower their price so that the full 50 percent of the tariff, say, and ––."

"You're right, they can eat part of the cost," Robinson interjected.

"Which is what we've seen," Bessent offered.

"Okay, okay, but the check is written by the importer right at the dock?" Robinson asked once again.

"Yeah, and then, you know, the importer can pass it on or not," the Trump official blandly suggested.

You can watch below or at the link right here.

- YouTube youtu.be

The cost to rehab the controversial luxury jet generously gifted to Donald Trump by the government of Qatar remains a mystery with the figures not being made available at the same time that there are questions about a "mysterious" Pentagon fund transfer.

According to a report from the New York Times' David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, the Pentagon has gone to great pains to hide the expense to make changes to the "free" jet that is supposed to replace the aging Air Force One.

The report notes, "Officially, and conveniently, the price tag has been classified. But even by Washington standards, where “black budgets” are often used as an excuse to avoid revealing the cost of outdated spy satellites and lavish end-of-year parties," adding that the reasoning behind hiding the cost is "inventive."

That led to speculation about a recent unexplained transfer of almost a billion dollars within the Pentagon.

Writing, "no one wants to discuss a mysterious, $934 million transfer of funds from one of the Pentagon’s most over-budget, out-of-control projects — the modernization of America’s aging, ground-based nuclear missiles," Sanger and Schmitt added, "congressional budget sleuths have come to think that amount, slipped into an obscure Pentagon document sent to Capitol Hill as a 'transfer' to an unnamed classified project, almost certainly includes the renovation" of the jet that has been descibed as a "palace in the sky."

The report adds that the plane will not be ready soon, if at all while the president is in office, and "will be transferred to the yet-to-be-created Trump presidential library after he leaves office in 2029, the president has said."

You can read more here.