Bessent calls Europe’s sanctions “completely hypocritical,” the IMF tells the U.S. growth can’t fix its debt, and Navarro shows 500+ new factory projects. Why Bessent skipped Bangkok.
Susan Kokinda opens with the European Union’s largest expansion of its Russia sanctions list since the war began, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling Europe’s objections to the U.S.–Russia diesel deal “completely hypocritical”, since Europe is still Moscow’s biggest gas customer.
The episode follows the reactions to President Trump’s diesel deal, from Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and Boris Johnson to the EU’s foreign ministers, set against President Trump’s post on the European Union paying Russia $250 billion for energy and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak’s figure of $320.7 billion since 2022.
It then turns to the IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, where IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said growth alone cannot fix U.S. debt and deficits, the headlines that followed, and the IMF’s playbook since Bretton Woods ended in 1971.
It closes with Secretary Bessent skipping the meetings for “domestic engagements”, and Peter Navarro’s White House progress report on America’s manufacturing investments: over 500 projects, more than $380 billion in announced investment, mapped across the country.
00:00 The Midweek Update – Trump’s Treasury Chief Calls Their Bluff: The End of the IMF Playbook?
01:41 Trump Forces the Empire’s Hand
04:25 IMF Says: Growth Doesn’t Work
07:00 The Empty Chair
