Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent condemned Democrats on Sunday and said their rhetoric is putting President Donald Trump’s life in danger, shortly after an armed man breached the security perimeter at Mar-a-Lago before he was shot and killed by law enforcement.

“They are normalizing this violence. It’s gotta stop,” Bessent said during an appearance on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News.

He told anchor Maria Bartiromo a moment later, “This venom from the left really has to stop. They normalize this violence.”

Bessent called out a new ad from Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) in particular. The ad features several people saying “F*ck Trump,” and Stratton declaring she is “not scared of a wannabe dictator. I’m running for Senate to stand up to Donald Trump.” She also said she plans on holding “Trump accountable for the crimes he’s committed.”

The treasury secretary called the ad “profane” and said “that kind of venom” is “normalizing this violence.”

His comments came right around when authorities identified 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin as the man who entered Mar-a-Lago with a shotgun and a gas canister. The sheriff of Palm Beach county said Martin aimed his gun at officers before he was shot dead.

Bessent said that makes “two would-be assassins dead,” referring to Thomas Crooks, who shot Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024; Crooks killed Corey Comperatore with the bullet that hit Trump’s ear.

And Bessent noted that another man was in jail for trying to kill Trump, referring to Ryan Routh. He was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month for trying to attack Trump at his golf club in West Palm Beach in 2024.

The treasury secretary told Bartiromo he felt the Secret Service was operating at a much higher level compared to 2024, but Trump and his family “shouldn’t have to endure attempt after attempt” on his life.

Watch above via Fox News.

The post Scott Bessent Condemns ‘Venom’ from Democrats Against Trump After Armed Man Shot at Mar-a-Lago: ‘They Are Normalizing This Violence’ first appeared on Mediaite.

The man who was shot dead by law enforcement after breaching the security perimeter at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday has now been identified.

The Associated Press reported, and Fox News confirmed — among other outlets — that 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin was the man who, according to law enforcement, got inside the Mar-a-Lago perimeter with a shotgun and a gas canister.

“The Associated Press is out with some new details right now,” Fox News anchor Peter Doocy said during the open of The Sunday Briefing. “They have named — and we have confirmed the name — of the suspect, 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin. According to the Associatied Press in this bulletin that just crossed, he was reported missing by his family a few days ago. Investigators believe he headed south and picked up a shotgun along the way, and they think that because they found a box for the shotgun in his car.”

The AP added details on how Martin is believed to have gotten inside the security perimeter.

“It is now believed, according to the AP, that he might have piggybacked behind a vehicle entering Mar-a-Lago lawfully when the gate opened.”

Martin was shot dead by law enforcement after being asked to drop his shotgun and instead pointing it at officers, according to the local sheriff.

Watch above, via Fox News.

The post JUST IN: Armed Man Shot Dead By Officers After Breaching Mar-a-Lago Identified first appeared on Mediaite.

President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump initially dealt with his huge Supreme Court loss on tariffs by announcing he will impose a 10% tariff on goods from every country — effective almost immediately. Overnight, however, Trump changed his mind and upped the ante on his “retribution” for countries “ripping the U.S. off.”

Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday:

Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after MANY months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court, please let this statement serve to represent that I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been “ripping” the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level.

He continued, “During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again – GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!”

Trump unveiled the original 10% tariff plan Friday shortly after the justices outlawed most of the global tariffs the president announced last April.

The court held in a 6-3 decision that the president had overstepped his executive branch powers in implementing the tariffs without congressional buy-in. The White House had cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives the president power to “regulate” trade in response to an emergency.

But lawyers for the states and small businesses that challenged the Trump administration argued that the IEEPA law made no mention of the word “tariffs,” which Trump has repeatedly claimed is his “favorite word.”

“They said that Congress did not intend to hand off its power to tax or give the president an ‘open-ended power to junk’ other existing trade deals and tariff rules,” the BBC reported.

Chief Justice John Roberts agreed, writing, “When Congress has delegated its tariff powers, it has done so in explicit terms and subject to strict limits. Had Congress intended to convey the distinct and extraordinary power to impose tariffs, it would have done so expressly, as it consistently has in other tariff statutes.”

Trump slammed the conservative Roberts, as well as two justices he nominated, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, for ruling against him.

The post Donald Trump Ups The Ante After Losing SCOTUS Tariff Case: ‘Raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff’ to 15% first appeared on Mediaite.

President Donald Trump took a journey through homoerotic humor this week when he went from joking about a CEO wanting to “hug” him to “violently kissing” — and Trump refusing — over the course of several White House events.

Maybe Trump has been taking in a little too much Heated Rivalry content, because he had man-on-man action on his mind for the past few days.

It started Thursday morning when Trump caught himself musing about the “young, handsome” president of Paraguay during a “Board of Peace” event on Thursday and quickly disclaimed any attraction to men:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: President Penna [Peña] of Paraguay is here. President. President, thank you very much.

Young, handsome guy. It’s always nice to be young and handsome. Doesn’t mean we have to like you.

I don’t like young, handsome men.

Women, I like. Men, I don’t have any interest.

Then it was off to Georgia, where he toured a factory with Coosa Steel Chief Executive Officer Andrew Saville, whom Trump ribbed in front of reporters during a photo op:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This gentleman has a now-great company. He was in big trouble two years ago, and then I put on the tariffs, and now he’s going round the clock, making the racks, making the steel, making everything that he makes.

And it’s just amazing what’s happened, that anybody can be complaining about tariffs.

He just said, “I’d give you a big hug if the press wasn’t out here, because the tariffs have really been a big difference.”.

COOSA STEEL CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER ANDREW SAVILLE: It’s been a game changer.

Trump gave a speech later, during which he introduced Coosa and escalated the action to “violently kissing”:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I’d like to ask the president of Coosa Steel, Andrew Saville — very nice name — to come up and say a few words.

I’d to say — because I’m telling you, I met this guy, and I — he said something that his wife is going to be extremely upset.

I said, “How are you doing?”.

He said, “President, if I didn’t have all these cameras running, I would grab you and start kissing you violently!”.

And I said, “Why is that?”.

He said, “Because what you’ve done for us economically in this state, in this town, with the tariffs in particular.”.

So I want to just introduce Andrew.

COOSA STEEL CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER ANDREW SAVILLE: And we couldn’t be more than happy to call you Mr. President.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Wow, good man.

Finally, at a briefing on Friday to blast the bombshell Supreme Court decision striking down his emergency tariff regime, he clarified that he did not want to be kissed, even by this “very strong, powerful man”:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Yesterday, I was at a steel plant, as you know, and I went to a great, great place, great plant, great, wonderful people.

And they were telling me, I said to them, you were there, a lot of the press in this room. Of course, I don’t think the plane’s big enough to take the press in this room. But a lot of the press right here, we’re in Georgia.

I said to the owner of — I made a speech at a factory. They made steel products. And I said, how are you? Nice to meet you. How’s business?

“President, I’d love to kiss you.”.

This is a very powerful man. I don’t want to be kissed by that man.

But a very strong, powerful man who’s been in the steel business for many years. His father started it.

And he said, “Sir, I want to kiss you.”.

I said why?

He said “Because we were down to working one hour a week. And then you came in and imposed tariffs. And all of that foreign junk that they were dropping into our country stopped. And we’re now going to double shifts, seven days a week. And we may be, very soon, going to 24 hours around the clock, almost seven days a week.”

He said, “Sir, I want to kiss you so badly!”

And I said, “No, thank you!”

Trump is no stranger to this sort of humor, as his 2000 skit motorboating Rudy Giuliani in drag demonstrates.

Watch above via Pool.

The post Trump Riffs On Being ‘Kissed Violently’ By Grateful CEO In Escalating Series of Homoerotic Gags first appeared on Mediaite.

Screenshot via Fox Business

The Supreme Court’s shooting down of President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs on Friday didn’t require any great legal analysis but a simple recognition of the reality that no emergency existed in the first place to justify the sweeping tariffs – a point Trump himself has made over and over again in recent months.

Trump has long declared himself the “tariff king” and, in all three of his presidential campaigns, has argued against free trade that he has dubiously claimed “screws” the American people. In order to right that grievance last year, Trump announced global sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The IEEPA, which was signed into law in 1977, gives the president the authority to go around Congress to regulate international trade after declaring a national emergency on the sole grounds of an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”

Trump had repeatedly flaunted his own administration’s justification for the tariffs by making off-the-cuff remarks boasting of their success. He has regularly said he’s using his tariffs as a negotiating tactic with other countries, pushing allies and foes alike to bend to his will.

In January, Trump wildly threatened to levy tariffs against European countries that didn’t support his takeover of Greenland. In that case, turning the dynamic on its head as instead of using tariffs to combat a threat to the U.S., he used them to make NATO allies feel like they were, in fact, under threat from the U.S.

Trump also threatened tariffs on countries doing business with Iran, as a way to counter the Iranian regime’s mass slaughter of protesters. As well-intentioned as that threat may have been, it again made clear he was operating far outside the bounds of the IEEPA.

Trump had also made wild claims about the success of his tariffs, which in no way had to do with combating some “extraordinary threat” from abroad. Last December, Trump went so far as to claim his tariffs could bring in enough revenue (like a tax, which of course only Congress can levy) that they could replace income tax altogether.

“And I believe that at some point in the not-too-distant future, you won’t even have income tax to pay. Because the money we’re taking in is so great, it’s so enormous, that you’re not going to have income tax to pay,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting.

But, no comment was so blatant from Trump as what he said during a Fox Business interview in which he told Larry Kudlow earlier in the month. Trump recalled a phone call with the leader of Switzerland and bragged to Kudlow that he raised tariffs on the country because she was rude to him. Trump told Kudlow:

I got an emergency call from, I believe, the Prime Minister of Switzerland, and she was very aggressive, but nice, but very aggressive. “Sir, we are a small country. We can’t do this. We can do this, we can’t.” I couldn’t get her off the phone. “We are a very small country,” and I said, “You may be small, but we have a $42 billion deficit with you.” “No, no, we’re a small country.” Again and again and again. I couldn’t get her off the phone, so it was at 30 percent. I didn’t really like the way she talked to us, and so instead of giving her a reduction, I raised it to 39 percent.

Ignoring the fact that Switzerland has a president, Trump’s anecdote was just the latest evidence that he viewed his tariffs as more a personal plaything than as the dire emergency measure the law intended them to be.

Justice Neil Gorsuch explained in his concurring opinion striking down the tariffs why he viewed Trump’s actions as so far outside the spirit of the law.

“For those who think it important for the Nation to impose more tariffs, I understand that today’s decision will be disappointing. All I can offer them is that most major decisions affecting the rights and responsibilities of the American people (including the duty to pay taxes and tariffs) are funneled through the legislative process for a reason,” wrote Gorsuch, adding:

Yes, legislating can be hard and take time. And, yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the Nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man. There, deliberation tempers impulse, and compromise hammers disagreements into workable solutions.

And because laws must earn such broad support to survive the legislative process, they tend to endure, allowing ordinary people to plan their lives in ways they cannot when the rules shift from day to day. In all, the legislative process helps ensure each of us has a stake in the laws that govern us and in the Nation’s future.

Gorsuch so eloquently explains why Trump, over and over again, revealed just how illegal his tariffs were, because they were never about fighting off some emergency, but instead about fulfilling Trump’s latest impulses, whatever the consequences.

The post Nobody Did More to Make Clear Trump’s Tariffs Are Unconstitutional Than Trump Himself first appeared on Mediaite.

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CBS Sports host Kate Scott on Wednesday offered pointed criticism on the soccer player accused of hurling racist abuse at Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr.

Moments after Vini Jr. scored for Real Madrid in its Champions League match against Portuguese club Benfica on Tuesday, he was given a yellow card for the way he celebrated. That celebration drew the ire of multiple Benfica players, and the two teams began jawing at one another. At some point during the incident, Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni said something to Vini Jr. with his shirt covering his mouth. Apparently stunned by what he heard, Vini Jr. immediately ran to nearest official to report it. That official then initiated the racist abuse protocol, prompting an on-field investigation into the matter. Play resumed shortly after.

After the match, both Vini Jr. and his teammate Kylian Mbappe claimed they heard Prestianni say something racist. Prestianni has insisted that Vini Jr. misheard him, but he hasn’t confirmed what he actually said through his shirt.

On CBS Sports Golazo, Scott opened the show with a statement urging for change in the soccer community when she said:

Well, I guess today is a new day in football, but with the same old racist problems; and whilst we do wanna focus on the games ahead today — because the game is what we love — yesterday does still linger. And whether or not you like Vini Jr., that shouldn’t shape your opinion on this incident, and which team you support, it shouldn’t affect which side of the story that you fall on. This isn’t Real Madrid versus Benfica. It is right versus wrong. Vini Jr. and Kylian Mbappe said there was repeated racial abuse. Gianluca Prestianni said they misheard, but he covered his mouth to hide what he said from the cameras; and hopefully we can all agree that if what you’re saying on a football pitch is shameful enough to have to hide it from the public, then you’re wrong.

Scott took a moment to recognize Black players of the past who also had to endure racism. Then, she singled out Benfica manager Jose Mourinho, who suggested that Vini Jr. is at least partly responsible for the racism harassment he faces because of the way he provokes opposing crowds.

Scott continued:

Jose Mourinho is an iconic figure in world football. Yesterday, he switched the focus from what had actually been said to whether there was provocation for it. He essentially told us that Vini Jr. was asking for it. That is a damaging narrative from a man who is considered a leading figure in the global game.

Football governance struggles globally with racial diversity at its top executive levels, as do UEFA, but we do hope that the lack of Black voices in the room will not mean that Black players continue to go unprotected. Investigation and due process will have to occur. But whatever the results of that in this case, we hope that football becomes a better platform, where hatred is met with more than nominal fines and partial stadium closures, where diversity is truly celebrated, not just tolerated or abused with shirts over mouths.

The racial diversity on a football pitch in the Champions League is the representation of the global love for this game and the global belonging in this game. This is the very spirit of football. And if you don’t agree, then respectfully, you are the one who doesn’t belong.

— —

The post CBS Sports Host Blasts Player Accused of Using Racist Insult: ‘You’re Wrong!’ first appeared on Mediaite.