Bessent: “Worst April Since Great Depression” — 10 Days Later, Nasdaq Is Up; Rubio Nukes NBC: “Children Were Not Deported — Their Mothers Were”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent exposed media hypocrisy on market coverage in April 2025: “There was a story 10 days ago that said this is the worst April for the stock market since the Great Depression. 10 days later, the Nasdaq is now up on the month of April. And I haven’t seen a story that says ‘stock market has biggest bounce back ever.’” Secretary Rubio then dismantled an NBC report claiming U.S. citizen children had been deported: “Three U.S. citizens ages four, seven, and two were not deported. Their mothers, who were illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers. The parents make that choice. You guys make it sound like ICE agents kick down the door and grab the two-year-old and throw them on an airplane. That’s misleading."

"Biggest Bounce Back Ever”

Bessent targeted the media’s selective coverage of financial markets.

“When I look at some of the things that are being published, there was a story 10 days ago that said this is the worst April for the stock market since the Great Depression,” Bessent said.

He presented the update: “10 days later, the Nasdaq is now up on the month of April.”

He noted the asymmetry: “And I haven’t seen a story that says, ‘Oh, stock market has biggest bounce back ever.’”

He delivered the diagnosis: “I think a lot of this is media driven.”

The media’s market coverage had followed a predictable pattern throughout the tariff era. When markets declined, outlets published alarming headlines comparing the drop to the Great Depression, the 2008 financial crisis, or other historical calamities. When markets recovered — often dramatically — the recovery received a fraction of the coverage, if any.

Bessent’s observation was mathematically verifiable. The Nasdaq had indeed experienced a sharp decline in early April 2025 following Liberation Day tariff announcements. Headlines had screamed about the worst market performance since the 1930s. Then, within 10 days, the Nasdaq had recovered all its losses and turned positive for the month. The recovery — a bounce of historic proportions — was barely reported.

The pattern was not accidental. Media outlets understood that panic-inducing headlines about market crashes generated clicks, views, and engagement. Recovery stories did not. The result was a systematically distorted picture in which the American public was exposed to every market decline and shielded from every market recovery. Bessent was calling out this distortion publicly, using specific data that any viewer could verify.

The NBC Deportation Hoax

Rubio addressed an NBC report with barely contained contempt.

“On the headline, that’s a misleading headline,” Rubio said.

He stated the facts: “Three U.S. citizens ages four, seven, and two were not deported. Their mothers, who were illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers.”

He described the family dynamic: “Those children are U.S. citizens. They can come back into the United States if there’s their father or someone here who wants to assume them.”

He attacked the framing: “You guys make it sound like ICE agents kick down the door and grab the two-year-old and throw them on an airplane. That’s misleading. That’s just not true.”

He laid out the logical trap: “You have two choices. You can say, ‘Yes, of course you can take your child,’ whether they’re a citizen or not, because it’s your child. Or you can say, ‘Yes, you can go, but your child must stay behind.’”

He predicted the alternative headline: “And then your headlines would read, ‘U.S. holding hostage two-year-old, four-year-old, seven-year-old while mother deported.’”

He stated the principle: “So the parents make that choice. I imagine those three U.S. citizen children have fathers here in the United States. They can stay with their father. That’s up to their family to decide where the children go.”

He summarized: “Children go with their parents. Parents decide where their children go. The U.S. deported their mothers who were illegally in America.”

Rubio’s deconstruction of the NBC story was a masterclass in exposing media manipulation. The original headline — “Three U.S. citizens ages 4, 7, and 2 deported” — was designed to create outrage by suggesting the government was deporting American children. The actual facts were entirely different: illegal immigrant mothers were deported, and they chose to take their children with them.

The distinction mattered enormously. The government had not targeted the children. It had not separated the children from their mothers. It had not denied the children their rights as citizens. It had enforced immigration law against adults who were in the country illegally, and those adults had exercised their parental right to take their children with them.

The No-Win Media Trap

Rubio’s description of the “two choices” the government faced revealed the impossible standard the media applied to immigration enforcement.

If the government allowed deported mothers to take their citizen children, the headline was: “U.S. citizen children deported.” If the government prevented deported mothers from taking their children, the headline would be: “Government separates children from mothers.” Either outcome produced a negative headline. The media had constructed a framework in which any enforcement action involving families was automatically cast as cruelty.

The solution the media implicitly preferred was that mothers with citizen children should never be deported at all — that having a child born in the United States should effectively grant immunity from immigration enforcement. This was, functionally, an argument for open borders achieved through the back door of birthright citizenship.

Rubio rejected this framework. The law was clear: illegal presence in the United States was grounds for deportation. Parentage of a citizen child did not override that law. The citizen children had every right to remain in America — with their fathers, other family members, or through the child welfare system. The deported mothers had every right to take their children with them voluntarily. But the mothers did not have the right to remain illegally in the United States simply because they had given birth here.

Media-Driven Volatility

Bessent’s “media driven” assessment of market volatility connected to a broader pattern. Financial markets were influenced not just by economic fundamentals but by the information environment in which participants operated. When major media outlets published headlines comparing April 2025 to the Great Depression, market participants reacted — sometimes selling positions based on the narrative rather than the data.

The recovery that followed the panic was driven by the same data-over-narrative dynamic. Once investors looked past the headlines and examined the actual economic fundamentals — falling energy prices, growing manufacturing employment, strong consumer spending, and tariff revenue flowing into the Treasury — they recognized that the market decline had been a panic rather than a correction.

Bessent’s role as Treasury Secretary required him to project calm and competence. By calling out the media’s selective coverage, he was not just scoring political points — he was providing market participants with a more accurate picture of economic reality. A Treasury Secretary who identified media-driven distortions and pointed to countervailing data was performing an essential stabilizing function.

The Trust Connection

Both segments of the video — Bessent on markets and Rubio on deportation — illustrated the same phenomenon: media outlets constructing narratives that served ideological purposes rather than reporting facts.

The market coverage was designed to create the impression that Trump’s tariff policy was destroying the economy. The deportation coverage was designed to create the impression that immigration enforcement was brutalizing children. Both narratives collapsed under scrutiny — the market recovered, and the children were not deported — but the initial impressions lingered with audiences who consumed only the headlines.

This pattern was the primary driver of the trust crisis that WHCA President Daniels had lamented at the correspondents’ dinner the same evening. The public did not distrust media because politicians told them to. They distrusted media because they could see the gap between what was reported and what was actually happening.

Key Takeaways

• Bessent exposed media double standard: “10 days ago, ‘worst April since Great Depression.’ 10 days later, Nasdaq is up on the month. No story about ‘biggest bounce back ever.’”
• Rubio on NBC: “Three U.S. citizen children were NOT deported. Their mothers, who were illegally here, were deported. The children went with their mothers.”
• Rubio: “You make it sound like ICE kicks down the door and grabs a two-year-old. That’s misleading. The parents make that choice.”
• Rubio described the media trap: if children go with mothers, “children deported”; if children stay, “government holds children hostage.”
• Bessent’s diagnosis: “A lot of this is media driven” — selective coverage amplifies panic, ignores recovery.