Politics

Newsweek - Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has claimed beef prices are rising because of immigrants bringing diseased cattle across the border. Speaking to Fox News Sunday, Bessent addressed reports that beef prices could hit $10 per pound next year, saying it was an issue “inherited” by the administration due to long-standing factors. 

“There’s also, because of the mass immigration, a disease that we’d been rid of in North America made its way up through South America as these migrants brought some of their cattle with them,” Bessent said....He added: “So part of the problem is we’ve had to shut the border to Mexican beef because of this disease called the screwworm.”  ....

While risks of screwworm infection have halted trade from Mexico, foreign supply makes up a small share of U.S. cattle, and evidence does not support Bessent’s claim that individual migrants are bringing in diseased cattle.

NY Times  - We heard it over and over on the campaign trail: Donald Trump’s promise of a crackdown on criminals and undocumented immigrants at a scale and breadth this country had never seen before. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE, has swept into American cities and is detaining more people than ever before.

However, 71 percent of those held in immigrant detention by the end of September did not have criminal convictions, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank focused on immigration. Many law-abiding immigrants who followed the rules in their applications for visas, green cards or asylum are being taken into ICE detention centers.

FCC chair Brendan Carr is on a crusade to Trumpify the airwaves

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave an update on President Donald Trump’s proposal to give $2,000 checks to Americans from tariff revenue.

Bessent told Fox Business on Sunday that legislation would be required to hand out the tariff dividends, but noted that working families are likely to see a pay bump in the first quarter of next year due to planned tax cuts on tips, overtime and Social Security.

“We are going to see a big bump in the first quarter with the refunds and the real income. President Trump has also talked about sending $2,000 refunds, and that would be for working families, we will have an income limit, those could go out,” Bessent said.
Why It Matters

The $2,000 checks have been repeatedly floated by Trump, but uncertainty remains about the possible timeline and final form. The payments would require Congressional approval, and Bessent has linked them to already-promised tax cuts.