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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday urged Americans to extend empathy, not to the family of a decades-long public servant and decorated Vietnam War Marine Corps veteran who died, but to President Donald Trump after the president publicly celebrated the passing of former special counsel and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
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Appearing Sunday on Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, the host asked Bessent whether Trump’s post on Saturday, “Good. I’m glad he’s dead,” was appropriate. It had become publicly known that Mueller had died shortly before Trump’s Truth Social message. Bessent acted almost offended by the question. He pointed to what he described as the treatment of Trump and his family, invoking the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
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“I was with the president in the green room at Davos, [Switzerland] and there was a video playing of what may have been an illegal raid on his home at Mar-a-Lago,” Bessent said. “They are going through his wife’s wardrobe. And I watched the look in his eye, and I think that neither one of us can understand what has been done to the president and to his family.”
Pressed on whether celebrating Mueller’s death crossed a line, Bessent returned to the same theme.
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“I think that given what has been done to President Trump and his family, it is impossible for either of us to understand what he has been through,” he said, adding, “I think that we should all have a little empathy for what has been done to him and his family.”
The Mar-a-Lago search Bessent referenced was carried out in August 2022 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of a Justice Department investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents after leaving office. Agents executed a court-approved warrant and recovered sensitive materials from the property, an inquiry that unfolded years after Mueller had left government.
Mueller’s investigation ended in 2019 and focused on Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Trump’s campaign benefited from it. By the time of the Mar-a-Lago search, Mueller was no longer in government and had no role in the classified documents case, a distinction Welker pointedly raised during the interview.
The backlash to Trump’s post spread quickly across Washington and beyond. Democratic Congresswoman Sarah McBride of Delaware called it “unconscionable,” while others pointed to it as a stark break from basic expectations of how public officials speak about the dead, particularly a decorated veteran. Online, the reaction was even sharper.
Grant Stern, executive editor of Occupy Democrats, responded to Bessent’s segment with disgust.
“Scott Bessent’s empathy removal surgery was a complete success,” he wrote on X.
