Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that Americans will begin to feel the White House's efforts to rein in the cost of living in the first two quarters of 2026.
"I think Americans are going to feel it in the first quarter, second quarter, I think 2026, thanks to President Trump's signature plans, is going to be a great year for working Americans, for the markets," Bessent told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures."
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump faces fallout from the release of messages sent by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that mention Trump, and bipartisan pressure is ramping up on the administration to release the rest of the Epstein files.
Trump threatens Indiana Republicans over redistricting
Following the Indiana state Senate failing to secure the votes to pass redrawing the state’s congressional map, Trump threatened to primary any Republican who does not support redistricting efforts.
"Any Republican that votes against this important redistricting, potentially having an impact on America itself, should be PRIMARIED," Trump wrote on his social media platform.
President Donald Trump shows a fist while boarding Air Force One for travel to Palm Beach, Florida, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Nov. 14, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
Trump went on to threaten to help push out Indiana state Sens. Rodric Bray, Greg Goode and others.
"Senators Bray, Goode, and the others to be released to the public later this afternoon, should DO THEIR JOB, AND DO IT NOW! If not, let’s get them out of office, ASAP," Trump wrote.
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie
Nov 16, 2025, 10:23 AM EST
US aircraft carrier enters the Caribbean
The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group entered the Caribbean Sea Sunday, according to a U.S. Navy press release. The carrier and the three destroyers accompanying it have been in the western Atlantic Ocean since Nov. 11 while they made their way in a southwest direction towards the Caribbean. The ships entered the Caribbean through the Arenada Passage, the body of water separating the Virgin Islands from Anguilla.
The four ships in the strike group join the seven others that have been operating in the Caribbean for the last couple of months in what is known as Operation Southern Spear, targeting Latin American drug cartels, according to the Trump administration.
The carrier has more than 60 aircraft aboard, most of them fighter aircraft, raising the question of how they may be employed in the operations against the drug cartels, which has raised concerns that Venezuelan land targets might be next.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, seen in the North Sea during NATO Neptune Strike 2025 exercise, Sept. 24, 2025, in the North Sea.
Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
There are now 15,000 U.S. military forces operating in the Caribbean, the largest such presence in decades.
The government of Trinidad and Tobago announced on Friday that beginning Sunday, some of the 2,200 Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) aboard three amphibious ships would begin joint training on the islands on Sunday.
At its closest point, Trinidad and Tobago are just 30 miles from the coast of Venezuela.
Some of the MEU’s helicopters will be involved in the training that will take place during evening and nighttime hours in rural and urban areas.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Nov 14, 2025, 8:17 PM EST
$2,000 tariff dividend payments will happen 'next year sometime': Trump
President Donald Trump said Friday that his recent promise to send Americans $2,000 dividend checks to be distributed from tariff revenues would be something that happened down the line, maybe in the "next year."
"Not for this year. It'll be next year sometime," Trump told reporters on Air Force One. "It's a lot of money, but we've taken in a lot of money from tariffs. The tariffs allow us to give a dividend."
Trump announced the policy proposal in a brief message on social media on Sunday morning, focused on tariff-related tax revenue. The message did not specify who would qualify for the payout or how the policy would operate.
-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa, Hannah Demissie and Isabella Murray
Nov 14, 2025, 8:08 PM EST
Trump says he doesn't think he'll need to roll back more tariffs
A short time after signing an executive order to reverse some of the reciprocal tariffs he first announced in April, President Donald Trump said he doesn't think additional rollbacks of his tariff policies will be needed. He conceded, however, that prices have gone up for Americans on goods such as coffee.
"I don't think it'll be necessary," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday regarding additional tariff rollbacks. "We just did a little bit of a rollback on some foods, like coffee as an example, where the prices of coffee were a little bit high. Now they'll be on the low side in a very short period of time. I'm very good at this."
When pressed on his statement claiming that his expansive tariff policy won't increase the price of goods for consumers for months, Trump responded, "I said they may," and defended his tariff policies.
"The single greatest thing we have right now is the use of tariffs. And I used it properly for years," he said. "They've been used against us, and I think you know, whether you call them tariffs or anything else, if you didn't use them, you really would have an unguarded disaster on your hands."
-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa, Hannah Demissie and Isabella Murray
