All posts tagged: Scott Bessent

Bessent is performing IRS commissioner duties amid Trump IRS tax scrutiny

Bessent is performing IRS commissioner duties amid Trump IRS tax scrutiny

Published by Sam Flores

Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary, during a Senate Finance Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that he is “performing the duties” of Internal Revenue Service commissioner, even as he insisted he is not the agency’s acting commissioner, during a heated Senate exchange over President Donald Trump settlement with the IRS. Bessent, who had been the acting IRS commissioner since August, took over the commissioner duties in a little-noticed move two and a half months ago, the agency said in a post on its website March 13. The IRS said Bessent’s time as acting commissioner had “expired” but that he “retains the authority and responsibility to perform the functions and duties of vacant Treasury offices that are not filled on an acting basis.” The distinction became central during questioning at a Senate Finance Commitee hearing from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. She pressed Bessent over his current authority at the tax agency and whether hundreds of thousands of …

U.S. threatens sanctions and military action against Oman

U.S. threatens sanctions and military action against Oman

Published by Sam Flores

A man views the Rasool al-Adham mosque from the corniche at Sultan Qaboos port in Oman’s capital Muscat on February 5, 2026. Loic Venance | Afp | Getty Images The Trump administration’s threats against Oman, a longtime U.S. ally, have thrown a country known for cultivating a reputation as the “Switzerland of the Middle East” firmly into the geopolitical spotlight. Positioned on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula and facing Iran across the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, Oman has served as a key intermediary in regional crises, including the U.S. and Israeli-led war against Iran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday warned the U.S. would “aggressively” impose sanctions against Oman if it helped Iran to establish a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that typically handles around 20% of the world’s global oil traffic. “Oman, in particular, should know that the U.S. Treasury will aggressively target any actors involved – directly or indirectly – in facilitating tolls for the Strait and any willing partners will be penalized,” Bessent said in …

Iran reportedly launches missiles, Trump mulls war deal

Iran reportedly launches missiles, Trump mulls war deal

Published by Sam Flores

US President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on May 21, 2026. Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images Iran’s armed forces fired missiles at unidentified targets late Thursday local time, the state media outlet Fars reported. The latest military action in southern Iran came hours after the Pentagon said that Iran had launched a ballistic missile toward Kuwait and deployed attack drones in and around the strait. Earlier Thursday, a White House official confirmed an Axios report that the U.S. and Iran have “mostly agreed” to the terms of an agreement to temporarily end the three-month-old war. But President Donald Trump has yet to give final approval to the 60-day memorandum of understanding, which would extend an ongoing ceasefire and start nuclear negotiations, that official said. Axios reported that American officials said Iran has signed off on that deal, but noted that Tehran has not confirmed that. Major stock indexes rose Thursday, following the reported …

Bessent urges G7 to help U.S. attack Iran’s finances

Bessent urges G7 to help U.S. attack Iran’s finances

Published by Sam Flores

US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent arrives at meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in preparation for the summit of heads of State and government to be held in June 2026 in Evian, in Paris on May 18, 2026. Julien De Rosa | Afp | Getty Images Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday urged world leaders at a G7 conference to help the U.S. combat Iranian terrorism by “rooting out the financing that sustains it,” while laying out a new rubric for imposing “aggressive and targeted” sanctions. “Crushing the threat of terrorism compels all of you to step up and join us,” Bessent said in a speech to the “No Money for Terror” conference in Paris, after claiming that the U.S. often fights alone. The remarks follow previous calls by President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials for more countries to join its ongoing war against Iran, which continues to wreak havoc on the global economy even as the conflict appears to be locked in an uneasy stalemate. Bessent boasted at …

Will China help Trump bring the Iran war to an end?

Will China help Trump bring the Iran war to an end?

Published by Sam Flores

BEIJING, CHINA – MAY 15: U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping tour the Zhongnanhai leadership compound on May 15, 2026 in Beijing, China. Mark Schiefelbein-Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images China is eager to “help” peace negotiations between Washington and Tehran, U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday, as he concluded a two-day presidential summit in Beijing. In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump said that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, had ruled out sending military assistance to forces in Iran, but that he had offered diplomatic help. “He’d like to see Hormuz Strait opened,” Trump said, adding that Xi said China was ready to assist efforts to bring the war to an end. “He said, ‘if I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help,’” Trump said. Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Friday, Trump said he and Xi “agree almost entirely” on the situation in Iran. Asked if he believed China would put pressure on Iran to reopen …

Five takeaways from the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing so far

Five takeaways from the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing so far

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a state banquet hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People on May 14, 2026 in Beijing, China. Alex Wong | Getty Images News | Getty Images The U.S. and China agreed to forge more cooperative ties at their summit in Beijing on Thursday, in a high-stakes meeting full of friendly gestures between two countries that have been battling for years on issues ranging from intellectual property and human rights to technology and trade. Here are five key points, based on the meeting’s readouts from the Chinese government and a White House official. 1. New positioning Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to develop a “constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability,” according to Beijing’s official English readout of the summit. Beijing will treat this as the guiding framework for the next three years and beyond, Xi said. The strategic positioning would be led by cooperation and “measured competition” with manageable differences, Xi said, according to the readout, while stressing that …

Trump lands in Beijing ahead of high-stakes summit with Xi

Trump lands in Beijing ahead of high-stakes summit with Xi

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump landed in Beijing on Wednesday evening local time, kicking off a two-day summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the first such meeting in nearly nine years. The president was greeted at the airport by China’s Vice President Han Zheng, a military band, and hundreds of young people waving flags. Trump is scheduled to meet Xi on Thursday around 10 a.m. local time for an arrival ceremony, followed by a full day of meetings and events. The high-stakes summit is expected to cover a wide range of contentious topics, including trade, technology, export controls, Taiwan, and the Iran war, which is likely to feature prominently in the talks. Read more Trump-Xi meeting coverage Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held an hours-long preparatory meeting in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday, focused on economic and trade issues. Beijing later described it as “candid, in-depth and constructive.” Expectations for concrete deliverables from the summit remain low, however, as structural competition and distrust between the two superpowers run deep. Trump is accompanied …

Trump finally gets his man at the Fed. Will Kevin Warsh disappoint him?

Trump finally gets his man at the Fed. Will Kevin Warsh disappoint him?

Published by Sam Flores

Kevin Warsh, nominee for chairman of the Federal Reserve, is sworn in to his Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen building on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images It has taken eight and a half years, but on Wednesday President Donald Trump finally succeeded in reversing one of the few mistakes he has admitted to making as president. In November 2017, Trump chose Jerome Powell to chair the Federal Reserve, opting for someone he saw as malleable over a charismatic but youthful former Fed governor, Kevin Warsh. Trump has regretted it ever since. The question that has consumed the markets as the Senate moved toward Wednesday’s confirmation is whether Trump will come to regret this decision, too. Fed chairs “change once they get the job,” Trump said in January. If Warsh loses Trump’s backing, the new Fed chair may not have the bulwark of congressional support that helped Powell resist Trump.  Whether Warsh can succeed in the mission of “regime change” he has …

Warsh’s take on Fed independence is met with confusion, concern

Warsh’s take on Fed independence is met with confusion, concern

Published by Sam Flores

Most people don’t know and don’t have much reason to care what a currency swap line is, except that the financial instrument could soon help markets understand what Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Warsh’s unique ideas about Fed independence really mean. Warsh has said categorically the Fed should be “strictly independent” in the making of monetary policy. But he adds that he’s willing to work with Congress and the Trump administration on “non-monetary matters.” In answers to senators’ questions following his April 21 confirmation hearing, he elaborated: “Fed officials are not entitled to the same special deference in areas affecting international finance, among other matters.” Warsh has also talked often about a new “Fed/Treasury accord” that he’s suggested could govern the Fed’s balance sheet, though in ways he has yet to detail. To six former Fed officials interviewed for this article, those comments were unclear or confusing at best. When it comes to Fed independence, they found his analysis worrisome at worst. The outcomes could be benign, tinkering around the edges of existing conventions, or …

Warsh hints at a new reading of the Fed’s power over swap lines

Warsh hints at a new reading of the Fed’s power over swap lines

Published by Sam Flores

Kevin Warsh, nominee for US Federal Reserve Chair, testifies during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on his nomination on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 21, 2026. Mandel Ngan | Afp | Getty Images Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh believes the Fed’s statutory independence doesn’t fully extend to international policy issues, he said in in written responses published Tuesday to Senate Democrats’ questions about the Fed’s authority to establish swap lines. Warsh in those comments also flatly denies having any connection to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and hints he will abide by a plan to rely on the Fed’s inspector general to resolve a federal criminal investigation into the Fed under its current chair Jerome Powell. Swap lines have become an urgent question in Washington after the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that the United Arab Emirates had discussed opening one during conversations about potential U.S. assistance for any Iran war-related economic fallout. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said many countries in the Persian Gulf and Asia have requested swap …