The U.S. military began its latest round of strikes against Iran on Tuesday evening local time. U.S.
Page A7From§Eachthe matinee edition — 1 September 2026
Treasury Secretary calls domestic critics 'underachievers,' vows to 'asphyxiate' Iran as US bombs it twice in two days.
As it ran on the front
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had a message this week for Americans who think there's a role for government in easing their lives: you are underachievers. That is not a paraphrase. That is the word, delivered in public, aimed at people who support programs Bessent's own department administers the funding for. It is candor, frankly, and candor is underrated in Washington. The Secretary was simply being honest about who, in his estimation, is pulling their weight and who isn't. If that sounds harsh, consider the alternative: a Treasury Secretary who flatters you. Nobody wants that. Nobody asked for that.
At the same time, Secretary Bessent promised to 'asphyxiate' Iran — his word, again, not ours — by seizing the offshore accounts and luxury homes of the Revolutionary Guard. This is sanctions policy. It is tough, it is targeted, and it is — it is also happening at the same moment the United States is physically bombing Iran, for the second time in two days, so 'asphyxiate' may be undersell— it's a metaphor. It's a metaphor that happens to be running parallel to actual ordnance. That's a coincidence of scheduling, not strategy, and if it looks like both tracks — sanctions and strikes — are running at once, that is because Washington does in fact do more than one thing at a time. That is called capacity.…
…(cont) The strikes themselves followed attacks on US service members, which the administration has called self-defense, and which occurred twice within 48 hours, which the administration has called consistency. Whether it is consistency or an open engagement in the Strait of Hormuz is a matter of framing, and framing is what this desk is for.
As for 'underachievers' — Secretary Bessent was speaking in a domestic context, about domestic supporters of programs he has been candid about not personally needing. It is not his department's job to soften that. It is this desk's job. And this desk would like to note that calling half the country underachievers while asphyxiating a foreign state's elite is, at minimum, thematically consistent: effort is for other people. That's not the message we intended to send. But it is the one on the record, twice, in two days.
“He calls people who back the safety net "underachievers" and in the same breath promises to strangle a foreign country's economy, then the bombs follow the rhetoric inside 48 hours. Same official, same week — tough talk for the people at home, tough action for the people abroad, and somehow it's always the guy with no leverage who gets called lazy. Watch the wallet, not the podium.”
“"Underachievers" was clearly not a swipe at working people, it was tough love from the Treasury desk — okay, it was a swipe, but a motivational one. And "asphyxiate" is just standard sanctions language, everybody in finance talks that way, we're not literally— well, we are also bombing them, so, functionally, yes, asphyxiate. The strikes were defensive, twice, in two days, which is either restraint or repetition, and this administration would prefer you not do that math.”
The receipts
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described U.S. supporters of socialism Tuesday as “underachievers” who are “jealous”
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that he will “asphyxiate” the Iranian government until it agrees to a peace deal with President Trump — saying he’s working to seize offshore bank accounts and luxury properties owned by Tehran’s notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. During a discussion moderated by…
“The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.