Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made an eyebrow-raising claim about the soybean crisis on CNBC’s Squawk Box Thursday.

In recent years, China has consistently been the largest importer of U.S. soybeans, typically purchasing more than half of U.S. soybean exports. Last year, China bought $12.6 billion in American soybeans. But since May, that number has plunged to $0, as China has imposed retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans in response to Trump’s tariffs.

Trump effectively admitted that his trade war was harming American farmers in a Truth Social post Wednesday, in which he said soybean growers “are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying.” (He also unveiled a spin-off to his slogan “MAGA” that wouldn’t fit as easily on a baseball cap: “MAKE SOYBEANS, AND OTHER ROW CROPS, GREAT AGAIN!”)

On Squawk Box Thursday, Bessent blamed America’s ag trade woes on former President Joe Biden. “The Chinese followed through [on agricultural purchases] during President Trump’s term in 2020,” Bessent said. “And then, under President Biden, their feet were not held to the fire for these ag purchases.”

Bessent recalled a purported exchange with a Chinese delegation, led by the country’s top economic official, in May: “When I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you continue buying soybeans and the other products?’ they had one word. Guess what it was. ‘Biden.’”

The claim left the CNBC co-hosts momentarily speechless. “Biden,” Kernen repeated softly, before calling B.S. on Bessent using the former president’s own idiolect: “Well, that sounds like malarkey. Come on, man!”

Bessent on China: "At the meeting in Geneva when I asked them, 'Why didn't you continue buying soybeans and the other products' then had one word, and guess what it was? Biden." pic.twitter.com/IdwciFp2LR

During the Trump 1.0 years, soybean exports to China ranged from $3.12 billion at the lowest (during a 2018 trade war) to $14.07 billion at the highest in 2020. During Biden’s presidency, they were $17.92 billion at the highest in 2022 and $12.64 billion at the lowest last year.

Since halting U.S. soybean imports in May, China has turned instead to suppliers such as Argentina and Brazil.

No matter how aggressively the White House tries to frame Democrats for the government shutdown, the majority of Americans see Donald Trump and his allies as being at fault.

A new poll reveals that more Americans believe that the president and Republicans in Congress are to blame for the current partial shutdown, according to The Washington Post. The Post surveyed more than 1,000 Americans this week.

Roughly 47 percent of respondents said so, while 30 percent said that Democrats were primarily responsible. Twenty-three percent of those surveyed said they were not sure who was primarily responsible for the shutdown.

In an open-ended response format, some of those who blamed Republicans cited the party’s current grip on all branches of government and their inability to negotiate. Some of those who blamed Democrats believed that liberals have “untenable” or “unreasonable” requests for funding the government, while still others echoed false narratives that Democrats are trying to offer government-subsidized health care benefits to undocumented immigrants.

The understanding of who was at fault was, unsurprisingly, extraordinarily partisan. The majority of Republicans—some 67 percent of those that identified with the party—responded that Democrats were at fault, while an overwhelming majority of Democrats (87 percent) responded that Republicans were to blame.

The Washington Post noted that the results of the poll were comparable to past government shutdowns, with Republicans shouldering the bulk of the blame.

So far, the shutdown has furloughed more than half a million federal employees, according to a New York Times monitor. That includes 89 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency, 87 percent of the Education Department, and 71 percent of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Trump administration has been crystal clear in blaming Democrats for the critical congressional failure this week. On Tuesday, it issued ideological messaging via executive agency heads to thousands of federal employees, in potential violation of the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch and the Hatch Act. The near-identical notes were received by workers at the Treasury Department, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration.

The White House website featured similar messages Wednesday. A banner atop the page reads: “Democrats have shut down the government,” followed by a timer tracking the amount of time it’s been since both parties failed to reach an agreement to continue funding the country.

A since-deleted animated banner above that read, “Democrat Shutdown: Democrats In Their Own Words.” That banner linked out to another White House page titled “Live News” that features a running feed of edited comments from top Democratic lawmakers about the continuing resolution. (The feed was not live, nor did it direct users toward news.)

The Trump administration is doubling down on its shutdown ultimatum to Democrats: Surrender to our backward austerity bill, or we’ll rip more funding and resources from the hands of your constituents.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked Thursday about Trump’s promise to work with Office of Management and Budget Director (and Project 2025 architect) Russ Vought to ax so-called “Democrat Agencies” in the government. “Is that real?” a Fox News host asked Leavitt. “Or is that a negotiating tactic?”

“Oh it’s very real. And the Democrats should know that they put the White House and the president in this position,” Leavitt replied. “And if they don’t want further harm........

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