caitlin maloney

The most recent tirade by President Donald Trump against Fox News has become embarrassing since it has been leaked that officials from the White House and Republican operatives had been secretly pressuring the network regarding its coverage of a Democratic senatorial candidate.

As part of the behind-the-scenes campaign effort, Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate in Michigan, has made appearances on Fox, which has made it more difficult for the Republicans to present him as politically extreme, according to Axios.

On Tuesday, White House officials raised their complaints directly with Fox regarding the interview given by anchor Martha MacCallum to El-Sayed. Furthermore, senior Republican operatives had also contacted the network's producers and executives in August to object to the favorable remarks made by host Jesse Watters.

On Tuesday, Trump publicly criticized the network, charging it with giving Democrats preferential treatment.

"Fox is promoting the Dumocrats, not the Republicans and MAGA. They have totally lost their way!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. He also charged MacCallum with giving a "softball interview" and objected to Fox not providing adequate coverage of his campaign rallies.

However, among Republicans, there is concern that Fox News is helping El-Sayed reach moderate voters in his campaign against Republican Mike Rogers.

Jason Roe, a strategist with the Michigan Republican Party, admitted there was a problem, stating that Fox was giving El-Sayed a "favor".

"It's only helping him reach center-right voters," Roe said. "But they are in business to make money, and he attracts eyeballs."

The frustration can be traced to El-Sayed's win in the Democratic primary, where Watters had praised the candidate for having defeated the party establishment, a comment which later appeared in El-Sayed's campaign television advertisement.

Watters then gave another surprise compliment.

"I actually like Abdul. I probably shouldn't like him, but I do," Watters said.

Fox reports that El-Sayed's appearance on Watters' show in August attracted nearly 3.4 million viewers. At the same time, Jay Wallace, president of Fox News Media, brushed off Trump’s comments, expressing the network's readiness to interview candidates that its audience might disagree with.

"Someone didn't necessarily like that," Wallace told Axios, apparently referring to Trump. "But that's what we do."

The New Republic's Greg Sargent expressed criticism, saying that the frustration of the Republicans came about because voters were given the chance to hear El-Sayed directly. "Translation: Don’t let voters learn the truth about this guy; it’ll make it harder for us to beat him!" he wrote.

Sargent called the apparent intention to limit such exposure "deeply humiliating" for Trump and his allies. Fox also mentioned that Rogers had been invited by Watters to take part in his show but had not replied.

The disagreement occurs while both candidates are vying for the vacant Senate seat in Michigan ahead of the November 3 midterms.

Isaias, rapidly intensifying into a hurricane, will hit the Gulf shore sometime today or overnight.

In Alabama, it is now law that the storm will strike from the Gulf of America rather than the Gulf of Mexico.

Of course, if you happen to be on the Mobile coastline, it hardly matters what name is used, what may matter more is whether this government engages with Federal Emergency Management Administration.

However, if you sit in the state Legislature, what you call the Gulf apparently is a matter of priority.

Alabama’s House Bill 2, which took effect last week, requires “all state and local entities and their employees” to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” following Donald Trump’s preference to reflect this “terminology in all newly created maps, documents, educational materials, websites, official communications, and other resources.”

Apparently, state is issuing instruction that the law covers anyone working in the state university system, journalists running WBHM, the University of Alabama at Birmingham-sponsored NPR affiliate radio station, or state working with a statement affecting, say, hurricane damage.

Republican lawmakers say faculty can call it the Gulf of Mexico “for historical purposes” during instruction.

Understandably, various university faculty have told publications like Inside Higher Ed this sounds, well, restrictive to academic freedom, though it is unclear just how often classroom professors talk about the Gulf with a label at all.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has ordered journalists at WBHM, NPR affiliate, to comply, according to emails obtained. Neither the Associated Press nor NPR, which supply news information to the radio station, accept the name change, which came about by a Trump executive order based on, well, nothing. Workers at the radio station said they will follow the law, but don’t understand how they are supposed to monitor mentions of the Gulf, as suggested by the university’s top lawyer.

Do We Need a Law?

A spokesperson for Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, said, “The state of Alabama refers to the Gulf as the Gulf of America, period. It is not hard to see that these so-called ‘free speech’ complaints are just a cover up for blatant bias against the Trump Administration.”

The law requires public employees to “make reasonable efforts to update all pre-existing resources owned by state and local entities” under their jurisdiction—including maps, educational materials and communications—to reflect the name change “where practicable,” making an exception if doing so “would impose an operational or financial burden.”

Jason Senkbeil, a tenured professor in the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa’s Department of Geography and the Environment, said “been calling it ‘the Gulf’ and not saying which one for years because I didn’t know where this was going.” Now he will do as ordered.

Others said if state professors can be mandated to use Trump’s name for the Gulf, why not for other elements of teaching and research? Indeed, is there a difference between a professor discussing some aspect of the Gulf environment and a state mapmaker? Is the extension to what the NPR station says on the air an abridgment of freedom of speech and of the press?

Mostly, the case raises the other question: Why is this the issue before a midterm election in which voters are angry about runaway prices from tariffs and the unwanted war with Iran, excesses in mass deportation, and concerns about government corruption?

Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The New York Times, Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times and leadership jobs at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team part of several Pulitzers in New York.

Here’s today’s trivia question (which may turn out to be not at trivial at all when all the facts emerge): Who solicited money from a presidential donor in return for access to the head of the IRS over the donor’s taxes, was a Fox News host, was engaged to the son of the U.S. president, was the former wife of someone who wants to be the next U.S. president, who raised money for and spoke at a rally that led to an attack on the U.S. Capitol, and now is a U.S. ambassador?

If you guessed Kimberly Guilfoyle, you’d be correct on all counts.

Rarely has a person been so enmeshed in the workings (or one might say, dysfunctions) of our current political-economic-media-influence system as Guilfoyle.

From 2001 to 2005, Guilfoyle was married to Gavin Newsom, now governor of California. In 2018, she began dating Donald Trump Jr., became engaged to him in 2020, and emerged as one of his father’s most outspoken defenders and a MAGA icon.

After Trump’s 2020 defeat, Guilfoyle sought to turn her status into a profitable business ventures including lines of hair care and fragrance products and a medspa. She also launched a political consulting firm and sought work in public relations.

In 2022, she launched what she termed an upscale vodka and champagne brand, American Dream, organizing a dinner for Mar-a-Lago guests that participants realized halfway through was an investment pitch.

According to a report in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal by Dana Mattioli, Drew Hinshaw, Rebecca Ballhaus, and Joe Parkinson, Trump grew frustrated with Guilfoyle for soliciting investments from Mar-a-Lago members for her companies, and complained that Guilfoyle was supposed to be raising money for him but instead was at his club raising money for herself.

The Journal reports that after Trump won the 2024 election, Eric Deters — a Trump donor and former co-owner of Snappy Tomato Pizza, a regional restaurant chain, who had mounted unsuccessful runs for Congress and governor — began soliciting Guilfoyle’s help on several matters, including gaining access to incoming Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Billy Long, to discuss an IRS probe into Deters’s tax deductions.

Guilfoyle offered to use her sway as Donald Jr.’s former fiancée. Deters promised to pay her as much as $1 million if she were successful.

Her engagement to Trump Jr. ended in December 2024. On December 10, 2024, Trump nominated Guilfoyle to be the U.S. ambassador to Greece.

After Billy Long was confirmed IRS commissioner, Guilfoyle sent him a congratulatory note, attaching a letter Deters had written outlining his tax dispute: “Don Jr. and I are very close with Eric Deters and his wife and I know he sent you a letter,” she wrote. “I am hoping I know how busy you are that you could give some time and attention to it.”

She assured Deters that “I wrote him a very nice message. Told him how important it was that you’re close to me and to don.”

The Journal reports that as her confirmation hearing approached, Guilfoyle complained to friends that she was broke.

She reached out to Deters with an urgent request: She needed $100,000 that she said she owed American Express — and needed Deters to give it to her in a way that wouldn’t leave a paper trail. “It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” she wrote on Signal, according to messages reviewed by the Journal.

“Honey please I need you to get this done for me today,” she texted Deters, adding a prayer hands emoji and a PDF with bill payment instructions from American Express. “You could just send it here,” she wrote on July 3, 2025, just days before her July 9 confirmation hearing.

Deters ultimately did not make the payment, But the set of transactions illuminates the casual pay-to-play world in which Trump, his family, appointees, and donors all operate.

The Senate confirmed Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece on September 18, 2025.

Billy Long is now the U.S. ambassador to Iceland.

The top two Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees have now called for an investigation into Guilfoyle.

Congressional Democrats are already looking into claims reported last month by the Journal that Guilfoyle told guests at a reception that the U.S. could undermine the Greek government if it chose to, that she promoted the business interests of one particular Greek construction and energy company, and allowed its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings.

In Trump world, being close to power creates a special economy of getting and giving. The arenas include Fox News, Mar-a-Lago, the White House, Capitol Hill, and extend even to our foreign embassies. All relationships within these arenas — personal, romantic, political, diplomatic — are transactional.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy fact-checked President Donald Trump during his appearance on Sean Hannity's show, refuting the president's claim about the upcoming midterm elections.

"We have to fact-check the president here, Sean," Doocy said during the segment, continuing: "Because he was telling us for weeks that he did not care about the midterms — Iran was too important. We know that is not true because he is the surrogate for Republicans. He's out almost every night."

Doocy spoke about Trump's extensive campaign schedule, including a planned Friday appearance in New York to back Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman and other GOP candidates facing tough races, adding that they are “having a hard time right now.”

This comes after The Atlantic reported that the White House had directed the Pentagon to prepare options for potential military strikes against Iran before the November 3 elections.

The report cited two officials from the administration who said that a final decision had not yet been made on launching attacks. On Thursday, Trump denied the report and stated on Truth Social that the United States would not carry out an attack on Iran before the midterms.

"We are having productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Trump wrote, while maintaining that the blockade against the country would continue.

Doocy admitted that it was still unclear how seriously Trump had considered the military options or whether his statement was based on concerns regarding the upcoming elections.

"We don't know if that is a head fake to get the Iranians on their heels or if it is an acknowledgment that this war is causing a lot of problems for Republicans," Doocy said.

He then described how the war is causing problems for GOP candidates running in districts where voters are struggling with high prices, also pointing out that the cost of living is being “exacerbated by the war.”

He also said that the administration was making an effort to show progress in the area of affordability as Americans started to cast their early votes. Yet Doocy was doubtful as to whether the White House could settle the Iran issue before Election Day.

"It doesn't seem like there's gonna be a deal, and it doesn't seem like there's gonna be an annihilation before November 3," Doocy said.

Hannity, a longtime Trump supporter, replied that the president might be intentionally keeping his military intentions vague.

"Could it be a head fake? Nothing would surprise me with this president," Hannity said, adding: "He's unpredictable, especially on that issue."

Republicans are battling increasing voter discontent regarding the Iran war and its economic effects, especially the rise in petrol prices, near the time of the elections.

President Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize again this year, and ex-Republican George Conway is laughing about it.

The award is given annually to those whose work was essential in making the world more peaceful and just the previous year.

Conway mocked the latest loss and teased a different kind of peace the president with bring about in the "not-too-distant-future."

"With deep sorrow and regret I must report that President Donald J. Trump did not win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. I know how devastated all of you must be. But inevitably someday in the not-too-distant-future he will give the world something much greater to celebrate," he wrote on X on Friday.

Those in the replies couldn't help but note that having a woman of color win the prize instead made it much better.

"A woman of color, on the International Court of Justice for her work vs genocide, war crimes etc. That was a direct shot from the committee at Trump, Bibi [and] Putin. So Trump is gonna be p——," biomedical engineering student Ben Johnson replied.

South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay was named on Friday as the award winner “for her efforts to promote peace and international law," ABC News reports.

In 1967, Pillay became the first woman to open a law practice in South Africa’s Natal province, defending anti-apartheid activists. She became the first Black woman appointed to South Africa’s High Court in 1995, the details on the Nobel website said.

She also served as a United Nations high commissioner for human rights, so the committee highlighted her decades of legal experience in pursuing justice and accountability on the international stage.

The committee’s choice of Pillay focused on her lifetime of defending human rights and strengthening international justice.

Previous U.S. winners include former President Jimmy Carter, Vice President Al Gore and former President Barack Obama.

Trump has lobbied for the award but has never secured it.

Norwegian politicians fear that Trump could retaliate against their country if he doesn't win the prize, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

As the Post noted, vice rector for research at Oslo New University College Kjetil Tronvoll argued the committee should "suspend the prize for three years until he steps down, in order for him not to be unnecessarily provoked by it."

“Peace-promoting activities are more needed than any time before,” Tronvoll said. “But the prize committee has earlier shown very much a lack of contextual, deeper global knowledge to understand how sensitive this prize is, and they don’t do enough due diligence and risk-awareness analysis.”

President Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, just 48 hours after he said no one in the award's history deserves it more than he does.

The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize went to South African human rights lawyer Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, who is 85, on Friday for her work in the field of international justice and human rights, according to The Washington Post.

This was another blow for Trump, since Pillay seemed to make a joke about the president's long-standing effort to win the award as she was celebrating her own victory.

"If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump," Pillay joked in a clip from the event as her colleagues cheered and clapped for her.

The announcement comes just about 48 hours after Trump made another pitch as to why he is deserving of the award.

"I settled eight wars," Trump insisted, while claiming that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, last year's winner, had told him nobody in Nobel history deserved the award more.

"I'm not bragging; I'm just telling you the facts," Trump said at the time.

He also claimed that the Nobel Committee had shown bias towards him and warned that failing to take into account his diplomatic achievements would bring the organization into disrepute.

Despite his claims, many of the conflicts he claimed to settle are still going on, such as the Israel-Gaza war and fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition, Trump is still embroiled in the war in Iran that has gone on months longer than he claimed he would finish the job.

Pillay’s legal career has spanned the apartheid years in South Africa, proceedings at international war crimes tribunals and work with the United Nations.

Before she became U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, she had a role in setting important legal precedents relating to genocide and sexual violence in the context of armed conflict.

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, expressed his praise for Pillay's contributions and at the same time stressed the importance of international accountability.

"Peace requires justice," Frydnes declared during Friday's announcement.

This is the second time President Trump has been passed over, after an odd incident in January when Machado presented him with her Nobel medal at the White House after receiving the prize in 2025.

The Nobel Committee later made it clear that it may not award the prize to anyone else, no matter who holds the physical medal.

This year the committee looked at 287 nominations before it chose Pillay. The award, which includes a prize sum of about $1.2 million, will be officially presented to her at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) had an awkward moment during a debate on Thursday, trying to leave after being asked a tough question before the moderator instructed him to return to his seat.

As Capitol Whip reported, "Oh wow. Mike Lawler got so rattled when Cait Conley accurately called him out on his SALT deduction lie that he tried to get up and leave before being told by the forum moderator to sit down and calm down."

They added, "Oh, and the crowd laughed at him, too."

In the video shared by the site on X, Lawler says he put "a $4,000 tax refund in your pocket this past April." His Democratic challenger, Cait Conley, replied "And that would have also happened if you did nothing."

Lawler insisted, "No, it wouldn’t have happened."

The moderator then said, "Thank you both. Thank you both. [crosstalk] Thank you. We’re going to calm down."

This is not the first time Lawler has had a very public and awkward moment while campaigning for reelection. In July he confessed that as a young man he was arrested for driving while driving.

"I ultimately went down to the city and proceeded to drink, made a decision to drive home," he told Newsweek. Lawler then admitted he was "deeply disappointed" in himself and described the incident as "one of the worst decisions" of his life. He also said that he was mortified to admit what had happened to his father, a recovering alcoholic who he said was deeply disappointed in him.

Afterward, he wrote on Facebook that people should avoid substance abuse while operating a vehicle.

"If you’ve been drinking or using drugs, don’t drive," Lawler wrote. "If someone else has, don’t get in the car with them. Call a friend. Call a parent. Use a rideshare. Find another way home."

Lawler also attracted scrutiny in August for his handling of a response to a question about his colleague, Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), who was accused of domestic violence against his wife and infant child.

"Look, this is a private family matter that unfortunately has spilled out into the public," Lawler told CNN host Dana Bash. "It should be adjudicated in family court. Max has been accused. Max has also made accusations against his ex-wife. It is tragic. And obviously I don't condone any level of abuse. But ultimately, there's been nothing that has been corroborated here, which is part of the reason why Max is continuing to run for reelection."

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who is often called the "Donald Trump whisperer," says the president probably doesn’t have the capacity anymore to openly admit his mistakes, even as he acts to reverse the damage he's done.

This applies to the destruction he heaps upon his own party this year.

The confession landed Thursday after CNN anchor Anderson Cooper pointed out that Trump has been to Texas three times, in part because he drove incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn out of the office by backing the current nominee in the Republican primary. Now Trump must content with unpopular candidate Ken Paxton, someone a conservative CNN political commentator called a “walking liability for the whole of the GOP.”

“I think he grasps the headwinds, but I don't think that he blames himself, based on everything we've seen him say and everything in my reporting and my colleagues reporting,” said Haberman. “He very infrequently blames himself.”

Despite this, Haberman said the reality is that the biggest issues facing the Republican Party have everything to do with his personal decisions and the policies he has singularly pursued without serious input or pushback from more intelligent advisors.

“Tariffs would be one of them. But the much larger issue is the Iran war and the price of gas and the affordability crisis, and the fact that the president talks about it in a way that is not very understanding about voters,” Haberman told Cooper.

Also included in the mass of bad tidings destroying Republicans this year is the increasingly obviousness whiff of corruption saturating the White House.

“All of this is why he has a problem, including what you were talking about in the previous episode, which is all of this self-dealing on a scale that we just have not seen ever in my lifetime like this at all, and I don't think in yours either. So, it's not that there have not been other allegations of corruption and other administrations,” said Haberman. “It's the level at which this is taking place.”

the Wall Street Journal reported news of Greece ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle Wednesday, asking a Trump donor to pay off some of her debt to shine her resume for a new White House post. And the candidate Trump is struggling to carry over the finish line has his own pong of corruption having nearly been impeached by his own Republican legislature over allegations of misconduct that included bribery and abuse of office.

“And so all of that is felt by voters. But he's blaming his strategists,” Haberman added. “He keeps saying things privately like, ‘you know, this plan is bad,’ but these candidates are his candidates. And these decisions are almost all his.”

- YouTube youtu.be

Under President Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has broken a number of precedents, from targeting Black and female officers in the military to purging top officers for not being sufficiently loyal to the Republican administration. Now he is ordering the first public execution in modern American history.

"Pentagon officials said on Thursday that the Army officer convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting would be executed in public, a practice that ended in the United States nearly a century ago and is most commonly carried out in a handful of countries including Iran, North Korea and the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan," reported Chris Cameron of The New York Times on Thursday. "The Pentagon said in a statement that the military execution, scheduled for Dec. 3, would also be broadcast via livestream. Such a broadcast has little precedent, and releasing video of executions is most often associated with extremist militant groups like the Islamic State."

On the social media platform X, commentators from all sides reacted with horror.

Billy Binion, reporter for the libertarian magazine Reason Magazine, argued, “This is sick. You can support justice for Nidal Hasan’s victims without making his execution a source of entertainment. This administration so often governs for the online mob. It’s depraved.”

Wajahat Ali of the liberal Substack The Left Hook wrote, “Public lynchings will be next.”

Glenn Greenwald, formerly of The Intercept and ideologically heterodox, said, “There are a very small number of countries that still carry out public executions. Those are the countries we are constantly told are uniquely primitive, barbaric, sick and evil. It’s revealing that Pete Hegseth wants the US to join that group but also entirely unsurprising.”

Jemele Hill of The Atlantic asked, “What’s the point of this?”

A retired intelligence officer and political commentator, Travis Akers, posted "this is vile. Does he deserve the death penalty? One million times yes and may he rot in h - - -. Should this be streamed for entertainment like the Romans throwing Christians to lions? Absolutely not."

American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick was similarly apocalyptic, saying that "Jesus Christ, I didn't think we'd actually get to the "public executions" stage of Trump's project to roll back the last 100 years of societal development."

Tennis player and liberal Martina Navratilova declared, “They better f------ not do this. Who are we as a nation? Who are we as a people????”

GingER, a commentary account, responded, “We are the United States of Mother F------ America! F--- with us. They should soak the bullets in bacon grease and burry him in a pig pen so they can s--- on him for eternity. F--- that muslim piece of s---. He killed innocent people.”

“So it’s about him being a Muslim?" Navratilova shot back. "Hmm. He doesn’t deserve any mercy but certainly not a televised execution. Come on. Who are you???”

GingER then said, “Yeah im skeptical of people that tend to spontaneously explode.”

President Donald Trump may have promised to lower health insurance premiums, but residents of a deep red state are experiencing higher costs as a result of his signature economic law, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill.

"A new round of Medicaid changes tied to the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' went into effect Oct. 1, impacting around 1,000 people in Nebraska, including refugees and asylum-seekers, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services," reported News Channel (KOLN)'s Darsha Dodge on Thursday."

Dodge quoted Kelsey Arends, a senior staff attorney for health care access at Nebraska Appleseed.

“That means higher insurance costs for all of us, higher costs at the hospital, at the doctor, longer wait times in the emergency room for everyone because folks aren’t able to access the preventive care they need,” Arends told the Nebraska outlet.

She added that people will be forced to choose between health care and other essentials, such as food and rent, once their insurance vanishes.

“When your neighbor doesn’t have access to health care, when your neighbor is forced to choose between paying for food and going to the doctor, paying for rent, it destabilizes our communities as a whole,” Arends told Dodge.

Despite the ongoing health insurance crisis in America, Republicans like Texas attorney general and Senate nominee Ken Paxton argue for slashing more services that people rely on, such as Medicaid and Medicare, while giving more tax cuts to the rich.

“There’s no doubt we have to cut some of the mandatory spending,” Paxton said in a secret recording that was leaked on Thursday.

He added, “Making some reasonable cuts to mandatory spending — you’re gonna have to do it. Or there is no solution. That’s just the reality. We have to suck it up.”

In September, Axios reported that UnitedHealthcare “has dropped around 13 percent of plans offered across 18 states.” Healthcare Dive reported that the company “expects to end 2026 with up to 1.1 million fewer MA members than it had last year.”

“UnitedHealthcare — the largest MA insurer in the US — offered plans in one fewer state and 109 fewer counties this year, cut allowances for certain over-the-counter health and wellness items, and prioritized plan designs with more limited provider networks,” Axios reported, basing its article on a study by Healthcare Dive. “The company also shifted commissions to brokers to incentivize enrollment in more profitable plans.”

President Donald Trump repeatedly refers to the economy as a "golden age" under his administration — yet a recent report indicates the opposite may be true. In fact, there is a flashing red light when it comes to a key sector indicating economic health or a lack thereof.

"Five years ago borrowing costs were so low that public debt looked almost costless," wrote The Economist on Thursday. "Today, with investors dumping their bonds, many big rich-world governments pay more to borrow than at any time since the 1990s or 2000s. Because the public debts of big advanced economies are about double, relative to GDP, what they were at the turn of the century, the result is immense pressure on budgets."

After detailing the ways in which the American economy is strong, The Economist proceeded to explain how the bond market is a potential giant weakness.

"President Donald Trump has recently mused that inflation can reduce debts 'very rapidly' and renewed his attacks on the Federal Reserve for failing to cut interest rates," The Economist observed. "Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a populist-left candidate for the French presidency, has accused the governor of the Bank of France, absurdly, of treason. Bond investors, gazing far into the future, perceive the growing danger that governments will use inflation to pick their pockets."

The Economist added, "The immediate impact of the bond-market sell-off varies greatly across countries. America is learning that its ai-fuelled expansion will not much help it cope with its debts, because interest costs rise in tandem with growth. The federal government’s annual budget deficit of about 6% of gdp is unsustainable. Fortunately, Uncle Sam still has the immense advantage of issuing the world’s reserve currency. As bond yields have risen in recent weeks the dollar has soared in value. A fiscal reckoning must eventually come—but not yet."

In the past, Americans have received bailouts from their economic distress. That may not happen if the bond market implodes.

"It would be a mistake for central banks to bail out governments which refuse point-blank to balance the books," The Economist concluded. "Their job is to unblock financial plumbing, not to underwrite decades of reckless borrowing. If central banks become cash machines for finance ministries, not guarantors of stable prices, long-term bonds will sell off even more. Voters will exact revenge. The best path forward in France and elsewhere is for politicians to explain to their electorates that public debt must be under control, and that together they must do whatever it takes."

In September, a key think tank warned about ripple effects of the bond market experiences a serious problem.

"On July 31, 2026, the 30-year Treasury bond yield closed at 5.27 percent, its highest mark since 2007," reported the Peter G. Peterson Foundation on Wednesday. "While there are many interactive and complex factors in the global economy that affect the interest rate environment, investors are demanding higher compensation for holding U.S. debt. As ratings agencies have serially warned, U.S. debt growth is unsustainable, and global investors appear to be weighing the risks of financing U.S. deficits more heavily."

They added, "These pressures have only intensified since July. On August 19, the U.S. Treasury announced that starting September 9, it would 'at least double' the size of its long-dated security buybacks in an effort to lower yields. While yields briefly dipped, they rebounded by the next day, reflecting the fundamental forces that drive bond prices, including continued market worry about the state of U.S. finances."