The Trump administration is drawing attention to an often overlooked data point that suggests Trump’s policies, and the passage of the &#8220;Big, Beautiful Bill,&#8221; have laid the foundation for an economic boom.
Treasury Department counselor Joe Lavorgna says that Federal Reserve data tracking the production of business equipment shows positive signs for future economic growth. Those signs come as President Donald Trump appears to be growing in popularity among business owners.
Economists view the figure that Lavorgna points to as a proxy for capital expenditure (CapEx), which encompasses most investments made by businesses in hard assets that are expected to increase production later on. Those investments could be new buildings or updated equipment, such as better computer software.
“What we observed in the first quarter is that equipment production rose at a 23% rate. Now, surprisingly, when we got the GDP data, we saw a 24% increase. Really, really strong, really exciting news,” Lavorgna told The Daily Wire.
Lavorgna contributed the surge in equipment production to the &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill&#8221; that passed Congress and was signed into law on July 4, though it authorized companies to expense business investments retroactively back to Inauguration Day.
“So, companies – getting very excited about the pro-growth policies that President Trump was putting forward – took that initiative in the first quarter, [and] increased production of business equipment,” the Trump administration economist said.
“Importantly though, in Q2 we saw another large gain in business equipment production, up almost 11%. That is a really strong increase following a boom in the first quarter,” he continued. “What that means is before the One Big Beautiful Bill became legislation, we had an almost 17% annualized increase over those two quarters of business equipment production.”
“That is remarkable,” said Lavorgna.
In the first half of 2025, CapEx surged 16.6%, according to Treasury Department data. That leap constitutes the largest two-quarter rally in CaPex, excluding the pandemic years, since 1997.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill jumpstarted investment that’s lifting productivity, wages, and living standards. Blue collar paychecks are rising fast — second only to @realDonaldTrump’s first term — and the best is yet to come,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted in a post on X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>’s pro-growth, America First agenda, we’re seeing a CapEx Comeback. Business equipment production jumped 11% annualized in Q2 after a huge 23% gain in Q1 — the strongest back-to-back growth since 1997.
CapEx is up 16.6% in the first half of 2025, signaling a… <a href="https://t.co/CcYf7QR9ov">pic.twitter.com/CcYf7QR9ov</a>
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecScottBessent/status/1947627779354193949?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
Recent polling numbers suggest that business owners are rallying behind Trump’s handling of the economy after showing pessimistic attitudes earlier this year. On Tuesday, the latest results from the quarterly CNBC-SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey results <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/22/main-street-business-confidence-rises-trump-tariffs-economy.html">showed</a> 46% of small business owners rate the U.S. economy as “excellent” or “good” – a leap of 16 percentage points since the Q2 survey results showed that number at 30%.

Scott Bessent

CapEx Comeback: This Often Overlooked Data Point Suggests U.S. Economy Is Primed To Boom

Department of the Treasury

Donald Trump

Economy

Trump Administration

The Trump administration identified three Mexican financial institutions that it says are complicit in laundering funds on behalf of criminal cartels that traffic fentanyl into the United States.
Two banks and one brokerage firm, which collectively manage $22 billion in assets, were identified by the Treasury Department on Wednesday as key players in the cartels’ fentanyl trafficking operations. The federal agency specifically accused the three institutions of laundering millions of dollars on behalf of the cartels and facilitating payments for the precursor chemicals for fentanyl, and now prohibits American financial institutions from carrying out certain transactions to and from the three Mexican institutions.
“Financial facilitators like CIBanco, Intercam, and Vector are enabling the poisoning of countless Americans by moving money on behalf of cartels, making them vital cogs in the fentanyl supply chain,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0179">charged</a>.
“Through the first use of this powerful authority, today’s actions affirm Treasury’s commitment to using all tools at our disposal to counter the threat posed by criminal and terrorist organizations trafficking fentanyl and other narcotics.”
The Treasury Department specifically explained that a CIBanco employee authorized the creation of an account by a Gulf Cartel member who purportedly intended to launder $10 million. The executive agency also warned that the bank has a “long-standing pattern of associations, transactions, and provision of financial services” with the Gulf Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), and the Beltran-Leyva Cartel.
Intercam executives are believed to have met with CJNG members to discuss money laundering schemes, which included processing transactions to and from China. Mexican companies also used Intercam to send more than a million dollars to a Chinese company with ties to an individual who shipped fentanyl precursor chemicals to Mexico.
Vector is similarly believed to assist in the procurement of those precursor chemicals on behalf of both the Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels. The federal agency asserts that a money launderer working on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel moved $2 million through Vector from 2013 to 2021.
The move marks another step in the Treasury’s campaign to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-treasury-official-reveals-how-the-trump-admin-is-choking-off-cartels-cash-flow?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+Treasury+Official+Lays+Out+How+Trump+Is+Choking+Off+Cash+Flow+To+Cartels">choke off funds</a> from the criminal cartels. The agency has unveiled numerous sanctions against leaders and personnel from the Sinaloa Cartel, Tren de Aragua, and Cartel del Noreste.
“If the money is not flowing back south, then there’s less of an incentive to bring the drugs and the guns and some of the illicit activity up to the north,” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender told The Daily Wire.

Fentanyl

Trump Admin Sets Sights On Mexican Banks Laundering Fentanyl Cash For Cartels

Border

cartel

drug cartel

Mexico

Treasury

The Trump administration’s Department of the Treasury on Wednesday announced sanctions on leaders of a ruthless Mexican drug cartel in a move that the federal agency says will hinder the organization’s drug trafficking operations.
The sanctions targeted five key figures of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), a vicious criminal enterprise that produces illicit drugs and traffics them into the United States.
“CJNG’s reign of terror across Mexico and its trafficking of fentanyl into the United States has destroyed countless innocent lives,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0169">said</a>. “The United States remains strongly committed to leveraging all available tools to degrade the capacity of CJNG and other cartels to flood our streets with dangerous drugs and perpetrate heinous acts of violence against civilians.”
Any property held by the five cartel members in the United States will now be frozen and reported to the federal government.
The Treasury Department described the organization as “a brutally violent cartel responsible for a significant share of fentanyl and other illicit drugs entering the United States,” adding, “It uses murder as a tactic to intimidate rivals, including sending messages to other cartels through the targeted killings of women.”
CJNG’s founder and leader, Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” was among the five men targeted.
“Under Oseguera’s direction, CJNG operatives have assassinated rivals, Mexican law enforcement, judges, and other government officials,” the Treasury Department noted, also pointing out that Oseguera’s leadership allowed the cartel to “function like a franchise business across several Mexican states,” allowing the criminal enterprise to spread across the country and rake in billions of dollars from the drug trade.
The Treasury also sanctioned Julio Alberto Castillo Rodriguez, who it identified as a senior CJNG member and the son-in-law of Oseguera. Castillo, believed to be a possible successor to Oseguera, operates a port in southwestern Mexico that the cartel uses to import fentanyl precursors.
Another target, Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytan, is known to recruit new CJNG members and train them at Izaguirre Ranch, a facility in the Mexican state of Jalisco, according to the Trump administration. Mendoza “directed lieutenants to train new CJNG recruits and kill those who defied instructions” and “has also been involved in the murder of numerous law enforcement officers,” the Treasury Department said.
The Treasury hit two more CJNG operatives, Audias Flores Silva and Ricardo Ruiz Velasco, with sanctions. Flores is a regional CJNG commander over several Mexican states and oversees laboratories that produce methamphetamine, while Ruiz runs the CJNG’s propaganda wing. Ruiz is also believed to have killed his girlfriend during a live social media broadcast.
The flurry of sanctions comes after the Treasury Department previously unveiled similar sanctions against members of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-treasury-dept-launches-sanctions-targeting-sinaloa-cartel">Sinaloa Cartel</a> and <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0146">Cartel de Noreste</a>. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender told The Daily Wire in an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-treasury-official-reveals-how-the-trump-admin-is-choking-off-cartels-cash-flow?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=28&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+Treasury+Official+Lays+Out+How+Trump+Is+Choking+Off+Cash+Flow+To+Cartels">exclusive interview</a> that the sanctions are a key tool in the Trump administration’s fight against the Mexican drug cartels.
“If the money is not flowing back south, then there’s less of an incentive to bring the drugs and the guns and some of the illicit activity up to the north,” he explained.

CJNG Graffiti

Treasury Dept Sanctions Five Key Leaders Of Mexican Drug Cartel

Crime

Drug Cartels

Treasury Department

World

The Trump administration on Monday placed new sanctions on a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel responsible for fentanyl production and trafficking.
The Treasury Department also <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0161">announced</a> sanctions on two sons of the notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera. Guzman’s sons, Archivaldo Ivan Guzman Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, are “fugitive leaders” of the Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel that runs fentanyl factories and trafficking routes into the United States.
“Los Chapitos is a powerful, hyperviolent faction of the Sinaloa Cartel at the forefront of fentanyl trafficking into the United States,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “At the Department of the Treasury, we are executing on President Trump’s mandate to completely eliminate drug cartels and take on violent leaders like ‘El Chapo’s’ children. Treasury is maximizing all available tools to stop the fentanyl crisis and help save lives.”
Los Chapitos has been identified as a top manufacturer of fentanyl pills through its many factories. Many of those pills are trafficked into the United States, fueling the U.S. drug trade and contributing to the tens of thousands of fentanyl overdose deaths in the United States every year.
The Sinaloa faction has also been linked to torture, extortion, and kidnapping, among other violent acts, and the turf wars it has fought against other drug cartels are believed to have taken hundreds of lives. The Sinaloa Cartel has also been linked to the 2024 killing of U.S. Marine Nicholas Quets in Sonora, Mexico.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=wisepops&amp;utm_campaign=dad&amp;utm_content=fathersdaygiftpopups" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gift Dad an All Access Membership. Use code DAD40 at checkout to save 40%!</a>
“The designation of the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) was a vital first step in honoring Nicholas’ memory and protecting other Americans from suffering similar tragedies. It sends a clear message: Those who target U.S. citizens — no matter where they are — will face the full force of American resolve,” Quets&#8217; father, Doug Quets, said in a statement.
The Department of State has placed a $10 million bounty on each of the &#8220;fugitive leaders” of Los Chapitos. The drug kingpin’s other two sons, Ovidio Guzman Lopez and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, are in U.S. custody along with their father.
Ovidio was arrested in Mexico in 2023, extradited to the United States, and is facing charges in Chicago on money laundering, drug, and gun offenses. Federal authorities arrested Joaquin last year in Texas where he is being held on charges related to money laundering, drug trafficking, and other crimes.
“El Chapo” has been found guilty on dozens of charges in the United States and is serving out a life sentence at a supermax facility in Colorado. The drug lord previously escaped two high-security prisons in Mexico before he was taken into custody by U.S. authorities.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera

Trump Admin Sanctions Sons Of ‘El Chapo,’ Leaders Of Sinaloa Cartel’s Fentanyl Factories

Global Politics

Politics

Sinaloa Cartel

The Trump administration has tapped the Treasury Department to track down and halt the flow of money to foreign drug cartels.
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender says the federal agency is choking off the cash flow that powers cartels’ human and drug smuggling operations by designating them as terrorists, he explained to The Daily Wire.
“One of the most important things that the president did upon coming into office was to declare a number of the narco groups terrorist organizations,&#8221; Faulkender told The Daily Wire. &#8220;What that does is it unleashes additional authorities at Treasury for us to better target some of the financial activities that these cartels are engaging in.&#8221;
Faulkender told The Daily Wire that the agency’s moves are cutting into the cartels’ flow of money, disincentivizing their human smuggling and drug-running operations.
“It&#8217;s one thing to have our partners at [the Department of Homeland Security] work on stopping the flow of people and drugs, but we can also use our financial tools to go after the money,” the Treasury official explained. “If the money is not flowing back south, then there&#8217;s less of an incentive to bring the drugs and the guns and some of the illicit activity up to the north.”
“Since the president took office, we&#8217;ve engaged in five different actions going after nine different entities for a total of 16 individuals,” he noted.
The Treasury Department unveiled sanctions on “two high-ranking members of the Mexico-based Cartel del Noreste,” a foreign terrorist organization formerly known as Los Zetas.
Cartel del Noreste “and its leaders have carried out a violent campaign of intimidation, kidnapping, and terrorism, threatening communities on both sides of our southern border,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent charged. “We will continue to cut off the cartels’ ability to obtain the drugs, money, and guns that enable their violent activities.”
That move follows the Treasury Department&#8217;s March announcement that it was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-treasury-dept-launches-sanctions-targeting-sinaloa-cartel">imposing sanctions</a> on six individuals and seven organizations believed to be laundering money for the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the world’s most notorious criminal organizations and a federally-designated foreign terror organization.
“We leveled sanctions against six individuals and seven entities involved in a money laundering operation, cutting off financing for these evil people,” Bessent said at the time. “Laundered drug money is the lifeblood of the Sinaloa Cartel’s narco-terrorist enterprise, only made possible through trusted financial facilitators like those we have designated today.”
Treasury also hit Brink’s Global Services, which specializes in transporting funds and other valuables for banks and other clients, with a <a href="https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-announces-37000000-civil-money-penalty-against-brinks-global-services-usa">$37 million civil penalty</a>, alleging that the company moved money across the southern border without following anti-money laundering regulations. The company’s violations, the Treasury Department says, exposed “the U.S. financial system to a heightened risk of money laundering, including from narcotics trafficking and other illicit activity.”
Faulkender says the Trump administration isn’t just launching a whole-of-government approach to combat the cartels’ drug and human smuggling, but is also pushing the Mexican government to track and penalize the flow of cartel money.
“The president imposed tariffs on the Mexican government and on products that are coming in from Mexico to elicit participation and cooperation from the Mexican government, and so we are seeing the Mexican government willing to work with us to go after these financial networks that are enriching the cartels,” he told The Daily Wire, adding that the government is “monitoring the money flows, tracking it down, either putting a complete stop to it and, and seizing that money, or at the very least, making it a lot more expensive for them to move that money around and try to deter them from engaging in these kinds of actions.”

Bank notes part of a seizure of more tha

EXCLUSIVE: Treasury Official Lays Out How Trump Is Choking Off Cash Flow To Cartels

Immigration

A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may access sensitive systems in the Department of Treasury after a weeks-long battle.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeannette Vargas said that one member of the DOGE team may access sensitive payment and data systems at Treasury as long as that member undergoes training. The member, Ryan Wunderly, would also need to submit a financial disclosure.
Vargas’ Friday <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.636609/gov.uscourts.nysd.636609.139.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruling</a> came nearly two months after she blocked DOGE from the systems amid a legal challenge from blue state attorneys general.
“The Court hereby modifies the PI Order to permit Defendants to grant Ryan Wunderly access to Treasury Department payment records, payment systems, and any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information and/or confidential financial information of payees, PROVIDED THAT (i) Wunderly first completes any hands-on training in such systems that is typically required of other Treasury employees granted commensurate access; and (ii) that Wunderly first submits his OGE 278 Financial Disclosure Report,” Vargas wrote.
In February, New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 18 other Democratic attorneys general in a lawsuit challenging DOGE’s access across the federal government. DOGE is spearheading President Donald Trump’s push to cut waste, fraud, and abuse from the government and better direct federal funds toward his agenda.
“Giving the world’s richest man unauthorized access to our nation’s central payment system, and our most sensitive personal information, puts all Americans – and the essential funds they depend on – at risk,” James <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2025/attorney-general-james-stops-elon-musk-and-doge-accessing-americans-private">said</a> in February. “With this illegal power grab, Musk and DOGE are trying to wipe out vital programs and services – from health care to public safety to education – that our communities need.”
James’ lawsuit argued that only trained career civil servants should have access to the Treasury systems, closely guarded because of the amount of sensitive and personal information of Americans stored in them.
The Trump administration had argued at the time that only two DOGE team members had been granted access to the Treasury systems, and that they had each received some training.
The ruling comes as DOGE continues its reviews of payments and systems across the federal government. DOGE <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doge-review-finds-three-dem-states-account-for-most-unemployment-fraud-since-2020">announced</a> on Thursday that an initial review of unemployment claims found $382 million in suspect payments. Nearly 80% of those payments came from three deep-blue states: California, New York, and Massachusetts.
“California, New York, and Massachusetts accounted for most of these improper claims, totaling $305M in unemployment benefits,” said DOGE. “Additionally, California accounted for 68% of the unemployment benefits paid to parolees identified by CBP on the terrorist watchlist or with criminal records.”

Letitia James

Judge Greenlights DOGE Access To Treasury Despite Complaints From Blue State AGs

Courts

DOGE

New York

U.S.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned China that their imposition of a 34% tariff on the United States was a “big mistake.”
Last Wednesday, President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/04/business/china-us-tariffs-retaliation-hnk-intl/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">imposed</a> an additional 34% tariff on all Chinese goods imported into the U.S. On Friday, China announced it would impose a reciprocal 34% tariff on all imports from the United States starting April 10. On Tuesday, Trump <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tariffs-china-50-percent-tariff-retaliatory/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> by announcing that the U.S. would apply an additional 50% tariff on imports from China if the Chinese don’t withdraw the 34% tariff.
“My advice on April 2 to our trading partners was not to panic, don’t escalate, and then we will see where President Trump is after a period of days or weeks,” Bessent said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “The response was overwhelming, so after a period of days, he decided that it would be a good time to begin negotiating.”
“The academic literature shows that it’s actually the non-tariff barriers which are both harder to quantify and harder to — they’re more insidious because they’re hidden, they’re obfuscated. So tariffs, non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation and then subsidies to both labor and industry &#8230; everything’s on the table,” he explained.
“If we put up a tariff wall, the ultimate goal would be to bring jobs back to the U.S., but in the meantime, we will be collecting substantial tariffs,” he said. “If we’re successful, tariffs would be a melting ice cube, in a way, because you’re taking in the revenues as the manufacturing facilities are built in the U.S., and there should be some level of symmetry between the taxes that we begin taking in with the new industry from the payroll taxes as the tariffs decline.”
“Many of our trading partners, they have queued up, and they have kept their cool,” he revealed. “They have not escalated, and they will get priority in the queue. I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they’re playing with a pair of twos. Traditionally, if you look at the history of the trade negotiations, we are the deficit country. So what do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us, so that is a losing hand for them.”
“We can see from the huge surpluses that some of these countries have; they’ve accumulated these gigantic surpluses over the years. That has to tell all of us that there are imbalances, and again, whether those imbalances are from the actual tariffs or non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, or the state-favored funding, it’s very difficult to disentangle, but those big surpluses tell me that there is a large imbalance, and President Trump is committed for the American worker to fixing those imbalances,” he declared.
“I think you are going to see some very large countries with large trade deficits come forward very quickly,” Bessent said. “If they come to the table with solid proposals, I think we can end up with some good deals.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/adNVYPWu92Y?si=87_jYdLYHFdaOXQJ" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

close-up frontal view of the hand of a person seated at a table playing poker with chips

‘They’re Playing With A Pair Of Twos’: Treasury’s Bessent Warns China On Escalating Tariffs

China

Tariffs

The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to end a controversial court order that has barred top officials access to the Treasury Department&#8217;s massive payment system, which oversees trillions of dollars in payments each year.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, an Obama appointee, ruled Saturday that nearly all Trump administration officials, including those from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, cannot access Treasury records for at least a week.
The ruling effectively sided with 19 Democrat attorneys general who sued the Trump administration over DOGE&#8217;s access to the system. DOGE says it wants access to view potential waste, fraud, and abuse. The agency does not have the authority to take any actions on its own but can make recommendations based on its findings.
Trump&#8217;s DOJ, in a motion filed this week, asked Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas to end or amend Engelmayer&#8217;s order, which they called a “remarkable intrusion” and unconstitutional.
“Basic democratic accountability requires that every executive agency’s work be supervised by politically accountable leadership, who ultimately answer to the president,” the DOJ <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/10/trump-administration-treasury-payment-system-access-00203341" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in the filing, according to POLITICO.
The order asks that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and top officials in the department be briefed on the payment system and perform their legally required roles, the outlet noted.
The administration is fighting numerous legal efforts by Democrats and their allies to block DOGE from effectively auditing the federal government to find waste. On Friday, DOGE scored a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doge-scores-legal-win-after-labor-unions-sue-to-stop-access-to-view-potential-waste" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legal win</a> when a federal judge decided not to immediately block the department&#8217;s access to U.S. Labor Department systems.
DOGE Chair Elon Musk has been the subject of numerous personal attacks, too. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NYC), for example, has <a href="https://x.com/RealDanZak/status/1886834419282919584" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/RealDanZak/status/1886834419282919584&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1739107639500000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1k1orHvP1qwTDoOZfi429Q">said</a> that the billionaire is “not smart” and “lacks intelligence.” Other prominent Democrats have argued that no one “elected” a billionaire to oversee government waste.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded last week to the criticisms, emphasizing that the American people overwhelmingly elected Trump to, in part, find waste with the help of Musk.
&#8220;President Trump was elected with a mandate by the American People to make this government more efficient,” she told reporters on Wednesday. “He campaigned across this country with Elon Musk, vowing that Elon was going to head up the Department of Government Efficiency, and the two of them, with a great team around them, were going to look at the receipts of this federal government and ensure it’s accountable to American taxpayers. That’s all that is happening here.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-horror-film-usaid-workers-panic-lash-out-as-trump-admin-guts-agency-over-waste" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘A Horror Film’: USAID Workers Panic, Lash Out As Trump Admin Guts Agency Over Waste</a>

Donald Trump Watches SpaceX Launch Its Sixth Test Flight Of Starship Spacecraft

Trump Admin Takes Action After Obama Judge Blocks DOGE From Searching For Waste In Treasury System

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Elon Musk

On Monday President Trump signed an executive order directing the Commerce and Treasury departments to create a US Sovereign Wealth Fund, which might be used to purchase a stake in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tiktok">TikTok</a>. 
A sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is a state-owned investment portfolio that governments use to purchase various financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, etc. SWFs have become increasingly common over the last few decades – nations such as China, Norway, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have <a href="https://www.swfinstitute.org/fund-rankings/sovereign-wealth-fund">trillions of dollars in assets</a>, and several American states including <a href="https://apfc.org/performance/">Alaska</a>, <a href="https://www.utimco.org/media/3939/2022-puf-audited-financial-statements.pdf">Texas</a>, and <a href="https://www.sic.state.nm.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/SIC-Stakeholders-Report_20210818_WEB.pdf">New Mexico</a> have SWFs worth tens of billions of dollars.
It&#8217;s not quite clear where the money would come from for the U.S. SWF because &#8220;the U.S. has significant budget and trade deficits&#8221; and not a budget surplus, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/sovereign-wealth-fund-trump-executive-order-2ee5088f">The Wall Street Journal</a>. 
SWFs are often financed by budget surpluses or profits generated by state-owned enterprises – after covering costs the government invests some taxpayer dollars to generate more revenue in the future via capital gains, pay for pension benefits, or promote certain policy goals like economic development or the control of &#8220;essential&#8221; resources. 
Like, say, a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/wealth/trump-signs-executive-order-create-sovereign-wealth-fund-2025-02-03/">massive social media company</a>.
President Trump has expressed interest in taking a stake in the social media giant before  –  he entertained the idea during the first press conference of his new administration.
“TikTok is worthless if I don’t approve it,” Trump <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS62kZg19eE">said</a>, “If I do the deal it’s worth maybe $1 trillion … if I do the deal for the United States I think we should get half.”
TikTok has more than 170 million American users and is one of the <a href="https://explodingtopics.com/blog/most-visited-websites">most frequently visited websites in the world</a>, but has come under considerable scrutiny as ‘Chinese spyware’ – the platform is currently owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance, and it has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-china-bytedance-user-data-d257d98125f69ac80f983e6067a84911">allegedly</a> been used to spy on American citizens and domestic enemies of the CCP. 
“TikTok’s own conduct makes clear that it is beholden to the CCP and presents an unacceptable threat to U.S. national security,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said in support of efforts to ban the app.
Last year Congress, with <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024145">bipartisan support</a>, passed a <a href="https://d1dth6e84htgma.cloudfront.net/TIKTOK_xml_655b9d7933.pdf">law</a> that effectively banned TikTok in the US unless the company was sold to a different owner. The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-allows-tiktok-ban-to-take-effect">upheld</a> that decision in January, shortly before Trump returned to the White House, concluding that the ban did not violate the First Amendment.
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the court wrote. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
The ban went into effect on January 19th, and the app briefly went dark in the United States, but one of President Trump’s Day 1 executive orders gave ByteDance a 75-day extension to find a buyer.
Trump has been highly critical of TikTok in the past, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-says-he-will-take-action-to-ban-chinese-owned-app-tiktok-from-u-s">attempted to ban the app</a> during his first term. However, his attitude towards the platform has warmed considerably since then – he currently has more than 15 million followers on TikTok and used the app during the election campaign to drive up his support among <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-gen-z-voted-may-surprise-you">younger voters</a>, who disproportionately use TikTok.
Previously the President has indicated that he was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/wealth/trump-signs-executive-order-create-sovereign-wealth-fund-2025-02-03/">in talks</a> with multiple potential buyers and that a decision would likely be made sometime in February. Other private investors have <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3z55zz7xo">expressed interest</a> in purchasing TikTok, including Shark Tank investor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kevin-oleary-signals-eye-popping-sum-of-cash-on-the-table-to-buy-tiktok">Kevin O’Leary</a>, and major American tech companies like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/white-house-talks-have-oracle-us-investors-take-over-tiktok-npr-reports-2025-01-25/">Oracle</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/trump-says-microsoft-is-talks-acquire-tiktok-2025-01-28/">Microsoft</a>.
While TikTok is still accessible to current users, the app is not available on major American app stores. The exact details of a potential deal remain unclear, and the president’s efforts to save the platform have generated some <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-intel-chairman-tom-cotton-leads-charge-against-reviving-tiktok">pushback</a> on Capitol Hill.

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Trump Orders The Creation Of U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund, Signals Interest In TikTok

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An Israeli man was &#8220;very surprised&#8221; to find he was sanctioned by the Biden administration on Thursday after he was confused for someone else with a similar name.
Aviad Shlomo Sarid, an active Israel Defense Forces reservist serving on Israel&#8217;s northern border, was sanctioned in President Joe Biden’s latest batch of sanctions on Israeli civilians who are accused of violence in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. The sanctions were meant to target a man named Shlomo Sarid, and various other individuals and farms with which Aviad Shlomo Sarid is not affiliated.
“While he is defending Israel, the American administration has imposed sanctions on him by mistake,” Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy head of the Samaria Regional Council who is helping Sarid get free of the sanctions, told The Daily Wire. “It&#8217;s very unfortunate and especially disturbing.”
“Every citizen of Israel should be afraid that his name is similar to someone who will enter the ‘black list,'&#8221; Ben Zion added.
Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said the Biden administration is “deeply concerned about extremist violence and instability in the West Bank, which undermines Israel’s own security.”
In addition to Sarid, Isachar Manne and Reut Ben-Haim are accused of being affiliated with Tzav 9, a group that has come under fire for protesting and disrupting the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza while Israeli hostages are still held captive. The five entities sanctioned include farms and outposts and Lehava, an anti-assimilation NGO that Miller accused of having members who “have engaged in repeated acts of violence.”
The addresses of the sanctioned individuals were released by the U.S. Treasury Department. Iranians and Russians recently sanctioned have not previously had their addresses released, <a href="https://www.jns.org/us-sanctions-eight-israelis-entities-over-violent-judea-samaria-extremism/">according to Jewish News Syndicate</a>.
Manne, who runs a farm in the south Hebron Hills, had one of its residents survive an attempted lynching in June 2022 by Palestinian rioters who beat him with rocks and clubs, according to Jewish News Syndicate.
Ben Zion said he fears that the sanctions against settlers living in outposts are only the first step before they target any Israelis living in Judea and Samaria and IDF soldiers serving there. 
&#8220;The State of Israel is a state of law and order and manages to enforce the law on its own and without external assistance,&#8221; Ben Zion said. &#8220;Today it is sanctions on social activists, tomorrow it will be a sanction on reservists and the day after that on public figures and politicians.&#8221;
Israeli civilians and members of the Israeli Knesset have repeatedly condemned Biden’s sanctions for undermining its ally Israel’s legal system.
“This is not acceptable behavior between friends, the people of Israel expect the U.S. government to act as partners,&#8221; Ben Zion said. &#8220;We are in a war of existence, a war for our lives, in these moments all we need is assistance, support and a strong hug!”
The Biden Administration has continued to impose sanctions on Israeli civilians since he issued Executive Order 14115, which allows the sanctioning of “persons undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank.” The sanctions block all property and possession of the designated individuals in the U.S. and prohibit American citizens from contributing funds, goods, or services to the sanctioned individuals.
“We strongly encourage the Government of Israel to take immediate steps to hold these individuals and entities accountable,” Miller states. “In the absence of such steps, we will continue to impose our own accountability measures.”
In the first round of sanctions, individuals lost access to their Israeli banks who feared defying the sanctions until the Treasury Department clarified that they were not intended to cut off access to local assets, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-says-israeli-banks-dont-have-to-close-accounts-of-sanctioned-settlers/">reported the Times of Israel</a>.

President Biden Speaks On COVID-19 Vaccines For Children Under 5

Biden Admin Accidentally Sanctions Israeli Man Fighting Hezbollah, Releases His Address

Israel

Judea and Samaria

State Department

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen signaled on Monday that she has no doubt the U.S. could fund Israel and Ukraine in their ongoing military conflicts despite America&#8217;s rising gross national debt.
In an <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/we-can-certainly-afford-two-wars-us-treasury-secretary-says-12985335" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with Britain&#8217;s Sky News, Yellen told the outlet that the U.S. could &#8220;absolutely&#8221; afford to provide military aid to Israel in its war against the militant terrorist organization Hamas while funding more support to Ukraine in its ongoing struggle with Russia.
&#8220;America can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel&#8217;s military needs, and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia,&#8221; Yellen said in an interview with Sky News.
Last month, America&#8217;s gross national debt <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/us-national-debt-surpasses-33t-for-first-time-in-history" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surpassed</a> $33 trillion, which didn&#8217;t draw heavy concern for Yellen, who said at the time that the net interest as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) remains under control by the federal government.
In her interview with Sky News, she emphasized the U.S. economy is doing &#8220;extremely well.&#8221;
&#8220;Inflation has been high, and it&#8217;s been a concern to households, it&#8217;s come down considerably,&#8221; she said. &#8220;At the same time, we have about the strongest labor market we&#8217;ve seen in 50 years with 3.8% unemployment. And at the same time, America — the Biden administration — has passed legislation that is strengthening our economy in years to come for the medium term,&#8221; referring to the Fiscal Responsibility Act that claims to reduce budget deficits by $1.5 million over the next decade.
Yellen said the economic impacts of the Israel-Hamas war were too early to gauge, as volatile oil prices remain a concern while other Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, could get involved in the conflict.
Still, the nation&#8217;s top treasury official said Israel and Ukraine remain a &#8220;priority&#8221; for the U.S. and called on GOP House lawmakers to fill the vacant speaker position after the lower chamber of Congress removed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) nearly two weeks ago.
&#8220;It&#8217;s really up to the House to find, seat a speaker and to put us in a position where legislation can be passed,&#8221; Yellen said, adding that &#8220;it shows that there&#8217;s a problem in the Republican party in terms of being able to effectively govern the country.&#8221;
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/15/world/middleeast/israel-ukraine-aid-biden-congress.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" data-analytics-product-module="body_link" data-analytics-post-depth="100" data-mrf-link="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/15/world/middleeast/israel-ukraine-aid-biden-congress.html" data-uri="fd1de9296c2b0e847f627d67f44e2411">told</a> reporters during his visit to Israel that he would not wait for the House to get in order before drafting legislation with the “most generous package” for Israel.
&#8220;We believe if we put together a strong package and pass it with an overwhelming, strong bipartisan majority, it will put pressure on the House, one way or another, to act,&#8221; Schumer said.
An <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-selects-2000-troops-for-potential-deployment-to-support-israel-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> 1,400 Israelis have been killed since Hamas launched a brutal terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, including more than 280 soldiers, while roughly 3,200 more Israelis have been injured. In addition, Hamas is believed to have taken nearly 200 hostages. Iranian officials reportedly said Hamas would release hostages held captive in Gaza but said that making preparations to free civilians is &#8220;impossible&#8221; under Israeli bombing.
U.S. officials said on Sunday the American death toll in Israel reached 30, and more than a dozen remain missing. It is unclear how many are being held hostage in Gaza after Biden said last week that some U.S. citizens were among those taken.
During the Sky News interview, Yellen stressed the importance of sparing civilian lives &#8220;to the maximum extent possible.&#8221;
U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, have reiterated their &#8220;unwavering support&#8221; for Israel&#8217;s right to defend itself in its war against Hamas.
Biden rejected the claim that the U.S. could not financially support Israel and Ukraine in their ongoing conflicts during an <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-joe-biden-2023-60-minutes-transcript/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with &#8220;60 Minutes,&#8221; adding that both could impact the safety of America.
&#8220;We&#8217;re the United States of America for God&#8217;s sake, the most powerful nation in the history — not in the world, in the history of the world,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense,&#8221; he said.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank Annual Meetings

Yellen Says U.S. Can ‘Certainly’ Afford To Provide Military Support For Israel And Ukraine

Yellen Says US Can 'Certainly' Afford To Provide Military Support For Israel And Ukraine

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Chuck Schumer

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House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced a breakthrough on Tuesday in his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/james-comer-says-hunter-biden-probe-critical-for-legislative-fix" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigation into the Biden family&#8217;s business dealings</a>.
&#8220;After two months of dragging their feet, the Treasury Department is finally providing us with access to the suspicious activity reports for the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions,&#8221; Comer said in a statement.
House Republicans hope the <a href="https://www.occ.treas.gov/topics/supervision-and-examination/bank-operations/financial-crime/suspicious-activity-reports/index-suspicious-activity-reports.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suspicious activity reports</a>, which financial institutions can use to flag possible criminal behavior, will help root out any evidence of international influence peddling schemes that may involve President Joe Biden.
&#8220;We are going to continue to use bank documents and suspicious activity reports to follow the money trail to determine the extent of the Biden family’s business schemes, if Joe Biden is compromised by these deals, and if there is a national security threat,&#8221; Comer said.
In recent weeks, Comer accused the Treasury Department of making <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-02-24-Letter-Treasury.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;several excuses&#8221;</a> for delaying compliance with his demands for information and began to increase pressure by seeking a transcribed interview with the agency official tasked with communicating with Congress. Now with the Treasury Department providing an &#8220;in camera&#8221; review of the suspicious activity reports, Comer said plans for an interview had been postponed.
The Daily Wire reached out to the Treasury Department for comment.
The White House has painted Republican probes into the Biden family, including Hunter&#8217;s art sales, as being steeped in politics. &#8220;Instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans&#8217; top priority is to go after President Biden with politically motivated attacks chock-full of long-debunked conspiracy theories,&#8221; <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63665351" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said White House spokesman Ian Sams</a>.
Democrats in Congress vociferously oppose the probes run by Republicans into the Biden family, including the president&#8217;s brothers and his son, Hunter Biden, whose financial dealings are also being scrutinized by federal prosecutors.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to Comer over the weekend <a href="https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/FINAL%202023.03.12.%20JBR%20to%20Comer%20re%20Mazars%20BofA%20Subpoena.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raising concerns</a> that a subpoena the chairman sent to Bank of America seeking 14 years of records involving people linked to Hunter Biden was geared toward giving former President Donald Trump an edge in a possible 2024 election rematch.
&#8220;I fear this wildly overbroad subpoena suggests that your interest in this investigation is not in pursuing defined facts or informing public legislation but conducting a dragnet of political opposition research on behalf of former President Trump,&#8221; Raskin wrote.
Comer defended his subpoena this week, saying that his committee learned John “Rob” Walker, who has been identified as a business associate of Hunter Biden in a venture with executives from CEFC China Energy, received a $3 million wire from two individuals associated with the Chinese Communist Party about two months after Joe Biden left the office of vice president.
Within a day, Walker&#8217;s account started transferring money into three different Biden family members&#8217; accounts, including a &#8220;new&#8221; member who has not yet been part of the GOP investigations, Comer said during an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EScaBsWMJz4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview on Fox News</a> on Tuesday. Although Comer did not reveal the identity of that &#8220;new&#8221; Biden family member, he stressed that this discovery &#8220;really changes things.&#8221;

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