Just the News: No Noise, Secretary Scott Bessent on Revoking Tax-Exempt Status for Fraudulent NGOs

Good evening America. Happy Friday and welcome to a very special edition of Just a News Noise. Tonight we are going to be talking about nonprofit nonsense. I'm going to explain in a second, but first let's get the formalities out of the way. I'm your host, John Solomon, reporting to you as always from the nation's capital. In America, we allow billions of dollars to flow through our economy through nonprofits and charities each year without charging those entities taxes. They're called tax-exempt groups, nonprofits, charities in layman's language. But increasingly those charities have become more political, more violent, more anti-American, and yet their tax breaks have stayed intact. This has concerned Congress in a big way over the last several months. We've had multiple members of Congress, you're going to get two more tonight, who want some of these groups' tax exemptions to be removed to make them pay taxes on the money that they collect from their donors. Why? Well, just take the last few months for some examples. We have seen evidence in the last several months that a charity collecting money in the name of fighting extremism was actually funding extremists. We've seen charities defraud the United States government and all of these large fraud schemes that are being uncovered by JD Vance and the Minneapolis prosecutors. We've seen other charities foment violence and unrest, anti-semitism, efforts to impede a law enforcement officer like ICE agents from doing their job using your tax exemption. You're being cheated that money when they take those activities in the name of doing good for the country and they don't actually do good. Tonight, we are going to dive into this issue in a second. We're going to be joined by the man at the top of the food chain for President Trump on this, the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. We also have the chairman of the House Committee that's taking a special task force look at this. Congressman Gil will be here in a little bit, Senator Ron Johnson, and a couple people who've been investigating this in the private sector who are now filing complaints. Before we get to them, let me turn to my amazing co-host, Amanda Head. Amanda, the last 6 months, I think we've seen more examples of charities gone bad, of nonprofit nonsense than any time in my 40 years as a reporter. It feels like the moment of crackdown may be upon us.

Absolutely. Well, and I look forward to talking to the Treasury Secretary about what silver bullets are available. Obviously, that tax exempt status is how so many of these organizations survive and even thrive. But also, you know, this pattern that you and I have detected, I'm going to ask the secretary about this pattern we've seen of government funding in the form of grants or other types of legislatively allocated funds that go to these organizations. Then the organizations get that money back to the politicians through donations and campaign funds. And it's a really ugly cycle that at some point there's got to be a stop.

Yeah. And then you have the fact that some of these charities were paid to basically traffic illegal aliens into the interior of the country. All these things are done in the name of doing good and getting a tax exemption, but they're not doing good for America. They're actually harming America. Recently in the last few months, the Treasury Department and the FBI created a special task force to start dealing in this. It brings all the resources of all the agencies to the forefront. We're very lucky to be joined by the man who just started that project. All right, joining us now, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent. Sir, great to have you on the show.

You have your finger in so many important things, but people are stepping back now. They're starting to understand that the nonprofit world we created for charity has gone a little bit astray. We got people defrauding the government, people impeding the government, people spreading anti-Americanism and foreign propaganda. I know you and your team are working hard to sort through that. Give us an update on what you found and what you think might be some of the solutions.

That's important, Mr. Secretary. That distinction, the tax exempt status being taken away, that is certainly a silver bullet. But what's the threshold? Because these days when you're looking at a lot of these organizations that are performing anti-American measures, frankly, these days that's subjective. What's the bar?

Yeah. So important. Sir, I want to ask a little bit about one big example that the Trump administration has already succeeded at. I believe the IRS was part of the team alongside the FBI. We had a charity that for decades said it was collecting money to fight extremism. It turns out they were taking that money and actually funding extremism. Of course, we're talking about the Southern Poverty Law Center. I know there's a criminal case ongoing. They got to go through the jury process. On the enforcement side, what could a group like that, now that the evidence is in the public, what could a group like that face in the near future?

Wow.

Sir, we've unfortunately seen a lot of these NGOs linked to foreign terrorism and if there's ever anything that is anti-American, that would be it. But there are a number of nations who have been mentioned. China of course is one of them. Iran, in some cases, North Korea, Russia. In your investigations or your inquiries into these organizations, who's the worst offender or are they all pretty much offending equally?

That's interesting. Let me ask a little bit about the rise of politics and nonprofits. Obviously, when you're a 501c3, you're not supposed to be political. You can be for your free speech, but you can't be political. There's lots of examples now when you go through these 990s. A group takes all their money in as a nonprofit donation, then they quickly transfer it to a C4, another political entity. Is that another area that your team will be auditing and looking at to make sure that we're not subsidizing tax-free politics?

Mr. Secretary, when it comes to flagging these organizations for inquiry or investigation, how much has your department relied on whistleblowers? And has there been a cascading effect? Once one of these organizations gets investigated, maybe that emboldens other people to speak out.

Yeah, that's an amazing tool and it does encourage people to come forward. Before we let you go, you have the helm of this economy. While the media sometimes talks it down, when you look at the fundamentals of this country, particularly job growth, people spending more disposable income in their pockets because of the Trump administration's policy, what's your outlook for the next year inside the US economy?

Mr. Secretary, a great honor to have you on. Thank you for helping us understand all the things you're doing to crack down on this nonprofit nonsense. Great to have you on the show today.

Thank you. You're very kind to say so, sir. Thank you so much. What a great opportunity to be with you. All right, folks. More of this very important discussion right after the commercial break.