Speaking in a powerful interview with conservative journalist and commentator Christopher Rufo, Trump Administration Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed that the Trump Administration is moving to crack down on “dark money” non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to block them from launching “criminal protests” against the government.
As background, as Elon Musk revealed when speaking to Joe Rogan about George Soros, the left has long been accused of using NGOs to push its ideology and stir up protests that help make that ideology look more popular than it acutally is, and some of those “dark money” NGOs were tied to incidents like the anti-Trump protests that periodically broke out over 2025.
So, it was with that in mind that Christopher Rufo pressed the Treasury Secretary on what is being done to combat the issue. Beginning, he pointed out that some of the leftist-funded organizations are involved in outright criminal activity, saying, “There are 501(c)(3) nonprofit groups that [are] funded by left-wing dark money, that are organizing—or at least at arm’s length encouraging—criminal activities.”
Continuing, the journalist noted the various sorts of criminal activity in which the groups are engaging, and asked what is being done, if anything, by the Treasury Department to crack down on the groups and their donors. He asked, “Criminal protests. Criminal obstruction of federal officers, including ICE agents. Is the Treasury looking into this? Is it something you have authority to crack down on, and what can we expect?”
Responding, Bessent explained that the Treasury Department is investigating the matter, does have authority to crack down on the leftist groups, and will do so. Beginning, he said, “Yes, yes, and yes. So these groups that are engaging in this—we have the authority, and we are examining them.”
Continuing, he described the vast infrastructure that goes into supporting these networks, saying, “Because when you see these protesters, someone is financing them. There are safe houses. When you see the 300 people with the same laser that they’re using to blind DHS agents in courthouses in Portland, someone bought those lasers.”
Building on that, he suggested what sort of tactics are going to be used by the Treasury Department to deal with the groups by noting that the mafia had been successfully targeted, saying, “And again, what we do is follow the money—just like we followed it with the mafia, just like we follow it. We’ll find out who’s done this.”
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Still not done, he referred to the whistleblower program he has created to target the fraudsters in Minnesota, noting as he did so that a similar program can and will be used to root out the dark money NGOs and their criminal activities, saying, “I announced today that we are going to put in effect a whistleblower program. And my sense is that the rats will turn on each other.”
Further commenting on the Somali fraud issue, he said, “As I believe you reported—or someone talked about in a roundtable—one of the Somali fraudsters tried to bribe a juror with $120,000. What turned out, she’d been given $200,000 to bribe the jurors, and she skimmed. It’s like the scorpion—it’s in their nature.”
Watch him here: