Struggling to afford basic necessities? Perhaps you only think you’re feeling the pinch, due to media bias against President Donald Trump—or at least, that’s what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested during a Sunday talk-show appearance.

On CBS News’s Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan asked Bessent about Trump’s recent controversial description of “affordability” as a Democrat-spun “con job.”

Considering that public opinion polls show Americans are widely concerned about the cost of living and largely disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy, Brennan wondered if this sentiment would resonate with voters. “Don’t you need to show that you feel the pain?” she asked.

Bessent began: “I think the president’s frustrated by the media coverage of what’s going on—”

“This is the polling of average Americans,” Brennan cut in.

“Yeah, but I think the average Americans are hearing a lot of it from media coverage,” Bessent replied.

The cost-of-living crisis has bedeviled the Trump administration and GOP of late. As recent elections and polls signal widespread public dissatisfaction with the economy under the Republican-run government, some conservative politicians and strategists have urged their party to radically change course, adopting an agenda that would actually address voters’ material concerns.

Another, seemingly less fruitful, option for the party would be to simply insist, as Bessent did, that Americans’ financial hardships are the result of media influence.

Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, seems unfazed by recent viral examples of federal agents targeting American citizens.

Over the past week, at least two videos circulated widely online and in the media showing immigration agents detaining or pursuing women as they cried out that they were U.S. citizens.

In Louisiana on Thursday, a 23-year-old mother was chased by agents while walking home from a corner store. She repeatedly told them, “I’m a U.S.-born citizen. I was born and raised here. This is my home. My baby’s waiting for me.”

And in Florida on Wednesday, a health care worker was detained during a traffic stop on her way to work. Despite intending to comply, she was threatened and forcibly removed from her car, she said. Footage captured by a Miami Herald reporter shows her being detained, yelling: “I’m a U.S. citizen. Please help me! This is unfair. Why are you doing this to me?”

On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, host Dana Bash confronted Homan with these two incidents.

“I can’t tell you how many times an illegal alien claims to be a U.S. citizen,” the border czar said, appearing comfortable with agents inflicting traumatic experiences on citizens as collateral damage in Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Homan went on to confess that he does not think “there’s been zero U.S. citizens that have been detained for questioning because reasonable suspicion said they may be in the country illegally.” However, he claimed, “as soon as that questioning’s over, if they’re a U.S. citizen, they’d be released.”

A recent ProPublica investigation identified more than 170 U.S. citizens who were detained by federal immigration agents. About 24 of them were reportedly held for more than a day, unable to call lawyers or their friends and family.

President Donald Trump woke up Sunday morning full of anger and regret, it seems.

In a morning post on Truth Social, the president ranted against a man he had recently pardoned—Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas—for not having the common decency to switch parties after Trump did him a favor.

Cuellar, a moderate Democrat, and his wife, Imelda, were charged in 2024 with accepting bribes from foreign entities. Trump, out of the kindness of his heart, as he narrated it, saw fit to pardon them. Then, however, things took a turn.

“Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be ‘running’ for Congress again, in the Great State of Texas (a State where I received the highest number of votes ever recorded!), as a Democrat, continuing to work with the same Radical Left Scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in Prison—And probably still do!” the president wrote.

He apparently was not expecting this.

“Such a lack of LOYALTY,” Trump went on, lamenting his decision. “Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”

The implication of all of this is clear, people took to social media to point out: that Trump was hoping, with his presidential power, to procure another House seat for Republicans. That his bid failed has made him extremely angry. And that he doesn’t mind that the world knows it.

President Donald Trump on Saturday put a lofty........

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