A plan to lower tariffs on imported beef and trade tensions with Canada have compounded some G.O.P. worries about a central issue in the midterms.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s attempt to calm bond markets is a sign of weakness not strength“Look, there’s nothing magic about that $40tn number,” the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told CNBC insouciantly last week, as the country’s debt mountain surpassed another bleak record.Yet Bessent’s decision to intervene in government bond markets in an effort to combat soaring yields belied his studied calm in TV interviews – and reignited fears the US may be on the road to a debt crisis. C