作者： root

Why have tomato prices surged nearly 40% in a year?

2026-05-29T16:02:00-0400 / CBS News

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Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

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Updated on: May 29, 2026 / 4:15 PM EDT / CBS News

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Tomatoes are the latest popular food to take a bite out of consumer wallets, joining items like coffee, bananas and beef.

As of April, government data shows the fruit’s prices were up nearly 40% from a year ago, compared with 17% for food costs overall. Across the U.S., tomatoes cost an average of $2.69 a pound, a record high, according to Federal Reserve figures.

By comparison, coffee prices in April had risen 18.5% from the trailing 12 months, ground beef had jumped 19% and seafood was up 12%, labor data shows.

Several factors are driving up tomato prices, David Branch, sector manager at the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, told CBS News. The U.S. in July imposed a 17% tariff on Mexican tomatoes after withdrawing from a three-decade-old trade agreement that enabled duty-free tomato imports from Mexico. Although scuttling the deal benefited American farmers, consumers are feeling the pain.

U.S. tariffs collected on tomatoes have surged from just $16,424 in 2024 to nearly $4.6 million, according to federal data. In 2025, nearly 90% of U.S. tomato imports came from Mexico, Branch noted.

“Because the U.S. relies on Mexico for the majority of its tomato supply, any changes in trade policy can have a large impact,” added Brett Massimino, a Virginia Commonwealth University business professor.

Bad weather and disease are also indirectly pushing up tomato prices by hurting production in Mexico and Florida, reducing supplies.

“What’s making it unique is the fact that there is a shortage of tomatoes and there isn’t a shortage of other produce,” said Phillip Coles, a professor of supply chain management at Lehigh University.

Food industry analyst Phil Lempert, known as the SupermarketGuru, also said the Iran war is fueling higher tomato costs through higher oil prices. “Because of the Iran war, the price of transporting tomatoes is more expensive.”

Tomatoes are typically shipped on refrigerated trucks that require more diesel to power both the vehicles and the refrigerators housing the tomatoes, he noted.

“When you have a major rise in a core cost component, it winds up having a big impact in the end,” Massimino told CBS News. “It’s a weird situation that all these things are coming together at once.”

Edited by Alain Sherter

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ICE temporarily releases South American man it had planned to deport to Congo amid Ebola outbreak

2026-05-29 17:13 EDT / CBS News

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has temporarily released Jose Yugar-Cruz, a South American man who had been awaiting deportation to the Democratic Republic of Congo, his attorneys said Friday.

Yugar-Cruz was first detained after crossing the border in July 2024. Six months later, an immigration judge ruled he was more likely than not to face torture in his home country and could not be sent back there. ICE continued to detain him until late December 2025, when a federal judge ruled his detention was unlawful, but he was arrested again in April after Congo agreed to accept him.

On May 17, Yugar-Cruz was still detained in an Iowa jail when the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda a health emergency. As of Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 suspected or confirmed cases and over 240 suspected or confirmed deaths, according to the WHO.

“Prior to the outbreak and despite protests in Minnesota and in Iowa, the Department of Homeland Security had refused to stop Yugar Cruz’ deportation to the DRC or to consider relocation to another country and continent that would assure him a greater degree of safety as a victim of torture,” his attorneys wrote in a news release.

CBS News reached out to ICE about Yugar-Cruz’s release and whether it is conducting any deportations to the DRC during the Ebola outbreak.

Fifteen South Americans were deported to the DRC in mid-April, where they were sent to a hotel outside of Kinshasa, the capital city. Officials from the United Nations’ migration agency told them they could either agree to go back to their home countries and stay in the hotel “as long as necessary” while they arranged their return, or remain in Congo and pay for their own living expenses, The New York Times reported. A U.S. federal judge ruled one woman, from Colombia, had been sent to Congo illegally and should be returned to the U.S., since authorities in Congo had said they could not accept her due to her medical conditions.

Congo’s Ebola outbreak is largely concentrated in its Ituri Province in the northeast, about 1,000 miles from Kinshasa.

Yugar-Cruz’s previously planned deportation to Congo is part of a broader Trump administration push to send immigrants to countries they aren’t from. The administration has signed agreements with at least 33 countries to accept certain U.S. deportees, according to the monitoring group Third Country Deportation Watch, though the vast majority of third-country removals are to Mexico.

Immigration policy experts say the diplomatic efforts are more about sparking fear than scaling up deportations.

“They are an immigration enforcement tool designed to coerce and threaten people, along with horrible conditions of detention, to basically give up,” said Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, one of the groups behind Third Country Deportation Watch, which monitors third-country deportations.

Starting last fall, ICE attorneys ramped up efforts to cut tens of thousands of asylum cases short by moving to deport them to third countries that agreed to adjudicate their asylum claims there, but Third Country Deportation Watch estimates few were actually removed. Instead, after receiving the motion to “pretermit,” or end the case without a hearing, about 16% withdrew their asylum claims or agreed to voluntarily depart, a CBS News analysis previously found, and many other cases are stalled on appeal.

Before Congo, ICE previously unsuccessfully tried to remove Yugar-Cruz to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico and Canada, according to court records.

Yugar-Cruz’s detention and planned deportation had sparked an outpouring of support from advocates and members of the surrounding community in Iowa, with many writing letters of support, accompanying him to ICE check-ins and protesting his removal in front of the Linn County Courthouse, the county he was detained in.

“Thank you to everyone who advocated for me and spoke out against these third-country deportations. The fight continues forward,” Yugar-Cruz said in the news release.

His attorneys declined to provide additional comments or make Yugar-Cruz available for an interview following his release. Speaking from detention last month, Yugar-Cruz told CBS News he felt he had been treated like “a person with no value,” and as if he had committed a serious crime.

US military leader held rare meeting with senior Cuban military officials near US base at Guantanamo Bay

2026-05-29T23:44:36.258Z / CNN

By Natasha Bertrand

15 min ago

PUBLISHED May 29, 2026, 7:44 PM ET

SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan (middle) met with Cuban Army Corps Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo and other Cuban military leaders on May 29, 2026 at the perimeter of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

US Southern Command

Summary

• The commander of US Southern Command met with senior Cuban military officials at the perimeter of Guantanamo Bay, in a rare meeting.
• The meeting followed a US military buildup near Cuba with the USS Nimitz carrier strike group in the Caribbean.
• It’s at least the second high-level diplomatic contact between US and Cuban officials in recent weeks despite mounting economic pressure.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

The commander of US Southern Command met with senior Cuban military officials on Friday in a rare meeting on the perimeter of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, a US military installation located in Cuba’s southeast.

SOUTHCOM said that Commander Gen. Francis Donovan met with Cuban Army Corps Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo – Cuba’s first deputy minister of the chief of the general staff – and other senior leaders from the Cuban military “for a brief exchange on operational security matters.”

The meeting comes amid a US military buildup near Cuba, with the USS Nimitz carrier strike group arriving in the Caribbean last week. Donovan also met with the Cuban military officials just days after Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned that a US military assault on the island “will cause a bloodbath with incalculable consequences.”

It’s at least the second high-level meeting between senior US and Cuban officials in recent weeks. CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana in early May for a rare meeting with officials from Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior and heads of the island’s intelligence services.

SOUTHCOM said Donavan “led a perimeter security assessment” of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay “and discussed force protection, safety of service members and their families, and operational readiness with base officials.”

SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan inspects Naval Station Guantanamo Bay’s security posture.

US Southern Command

The US has accused Cuban officials of hosting Russian and Chinese listening posts on the island and thwarting US interests in the region, CNN reported, and has been applying increasing legal and economic pressure on the Cuban government in recent weeks. That’s in addition to a punishing oil blockade imposed by the US in January, which has plunged the island into economic crisis and led to power cuts, food and fuel shortages.

Related article Former Cuban President Raul Castro looks at the Cuban flag during his speech at the event celebrating the 65th anniversary of the triumph of the revolution in Santiago, Cuba, on January 1, 2024. Ismael Francisco/AP Raúl Castro indicted in a prosecution that has been in the works for 3 decades 4 min read

The Justice Department indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro earlier this month and the administration announced new sanctions on the Cuban government, including its main intelligence agency and interior ministry. Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said that “additional sanctions actions can be expected in the following days and weeks.”

5 economic signals suggest U.S. consumers are feeling the strain

May 29, 2026 / 5:47 PM EDT / CBS News

By

For years, American consumers have defied predictions and kept the economy moving forward with their spending even amid a raft of financial pressures. Yet signs of financial strain are emerging as households grapple with the highest inflation rate in nearly three years.

Consumer spending drives about 70% of U.S. economic activity, raising concerns about a slowdown if Americans pull back amid an ongoing spike in energy prices.

“If gas prices stay elevated, middle-income families will likely face more tradeoffs. For most households, gas isn’t optional — it’s how they get to work, take care of their families and manage daily life,” said Glenn Williams, CEO of Primerica, a provider of financial products.

Inflation tends to hit low- and middle-income households hardest because they spend a greater share of their income on basics such as gas and food.

To be sure, consumer spending is still growing, and U.S. households overall remain on sound financial footing. Driven by robust corporate profits, the stock market has also notched a succession of record highs, boosting investors.

But with the nation’s GDP expanding at a modest 1.6% annual pace in the first quarter, some experts caution that consumers may soon run out of steam. Read on to see what’s keeping some economists up at night.

Income growth lagging inflation

Two key inflation metrics — the Consumer Price Index and the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index — show that many Americans’ incomes are falling behind inflation. That means millions of households are losing purchasing power as consumer prices outpace their income.

“After adjusting for inflation, household income is down more than 1% over the past year — the type of drop normally associated with recession,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC, of the latest PCE data.

He added, “Excluding the pandemic era and distortions caused by changes in tax rates in 2013, this is the largest year-over-year decline in real after-tax income since the Great Recession in 2009.”

Rising credit card delinquencies

Credit card delinquencies across the U.S. have reached their highest level since 2011, when the economy was still recovering from the Great Recession, according to recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

This rise in missed payments signals that more consumers are struggling to meet their financial obligations, according to economists. Nationwide, about 13% of all credit card accounts were in arrears in the first quarter, according to data released this month by the bank.

Savings rate slides to 22-year low

The personal savings rate fell to 2.6% last month from 3.6% in March, the April PCE report showed on Thursday. That represents the lowest savings rate for Americans in two decades, said Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union.

“The savings rate a year ago was 5.5%. Now it’s 2.6%. The larger tax refunds are helping keep people afloat, but those will be exhausted by July. Belt-tightening is inevitable later this year,” she said in an email.

More 401(k) loans and hardship withdrawals

More Americans are taking out loans and making hardship withdrawals from their 401(k)s, according to Fidelity.

In the first quarter, 19.2% of Fidelity accounts had outstanding loans, up from 18.8% a year earlier. Hardship withdrawals, made for serious financial issues such as paying for medical care or avoiding eviction, rose to 2.5% in the first quarter from 2.3% a year earlier.

Cutting gas purchases

This year’s surge in gasoline prices is hitting households differently depending on their incomes, according to recent New York Fed research.

Lower- and middle-income households cut their gas consumption in March, when fuel prices began rising due to the Iran war, even as their overall spending climbed, the researchers found. By contrast, high-income households barely changed their driving habits, the researchers found.

“Our data shows 80% expect gas prices to rise over the next few months, and many households are responding by delaying major purchases, putting off maintenance or scaling back savings,” Primerica’s Williams said.

Some retailers are seeing similar signs of strain. Walmart said its customers purchased less fuel when filling up during the first quarter.

“The number of gallons that customers fill up with when they come to our fuel stations fell below 10 for the first time since 2022,” Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said in a call with Wall Street analysts earlier this month. “That’s an indication of stress.”

Edited by Alain Sherter

Coast Guard ending race-based admissions for officer commissioning program under Trump DEI crackdown

May 29, 2026 7:41pm EDT / Fox News

Removing DEI from military schools is a ‘move towards meritocracy’: Attorney

Constitutional attorney Mark Smith discusses the Department of Justice’s lawsuits alleging use of DEI at military schools on ‘Fox Report.’

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EXCLUSIVE:The U.S. Coast Guard will be ending admissions for college students wanting to commission as officers that take race into consideration as part of the Trump administration’s continued anti-diversity, equity and inclusion initiative, Fox News Digital has learned.

“The Trump Administration is more focused than ever on eliminating unconstitutional DEI policies like this one,” DHS General Counsel James Percival said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital on Friday.

He added, “Racial quotas, like those included in this program for students who want to enlist and commission as officers in the U.S. Coast Guard, are a direct violation of the United States Constitution’s equal protection requirements. By getting rid of these unconstitutional diversity quotas, we are returning the Coast Guard’s focus to military readiness, upholding the law, and making America a safer place.”

The College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative (CSPI), program previously included a preference for students from schools that had met quotas for including students from specific racial groups.

PETE HEGSETH DIRECTS MILITARY ACADEMIES THAT ALL FUTURE ADMISSIONS WILL BE BASED SOLELY ON MERIT

The U.S. Coast Guard will be ending admissions for college students wanting to commission as officers that take race into consideration as part of the Trump administration’s continued anti-diversity, equity and inclusion initiative, Fox News Digital has learned.(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced at end to those requirements on Thursday.

“Eliminating racial quotas in federal programs remains a priority of the Justice Department,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said. “Access to opportunities like the Coast Guard’s pre-commissioning initiative should be based exclusively on merit, not the racial composition of your college. This resolution helps ensure that equality of opportunity.”

ROGER GOODELL SAYS NFL WITH COOPERATE WITH FLORIDA AG PROBE INTO ROONEY RULE AND DEI HIRING PROGRAMS

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke out against DEI last week.(Adam Gray/Getty Images)

The Trump administration has taken similar steps to end DEI policies in the federal government and in the military as a whole.

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The Trump administration has made rooting out DEI policies a trademark of the president’s administration.(Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

Last week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke at the graduation ceremony at West Point, telling the cadets, “The battlefield does not grade on a curve, and you can’t throw your pronouns at the enemy. Combat is the ultimate test, and our best Americans must ace it.”

He also accused West Point’s leadership of having attempted to turn West Point into a “woke Princeton.”

Fox News Digital’s Preston Mizell contributed to this report.

新闻人间：周美青只想让马英九好好老去

2026年5月30日 05:00 / 联合早报

周美青只盼马英九安稳老去，却难挡司法与政治风暴侵扰其晚年尊严。

马英九基金会的财政纪律风波连日来愈演愈烈，基金会星期五（5月29日）正式对两位前执行长萧旭岑及王光慈提起涉及侵占、背信等刑事告诉。一场昔日幕僚间的恩怨，正式走入法庭，而被家人及旧属指为心智退化的前总统马英九已被卷入政治与司法的漩涡。

马英九疑似失智，近年来在政坛和舆论圈时有传闻。知情人士透露，马英九在中国大陆访问时，也曾发生一些状况，但大陆方面为马英九保留了颜面。

马英九从政期间，有个外号“马更正”，媒体报道他的正式发言或非正式谈话后，他都仔细阅读，倘内容有误或字眼有差异，会立即要求更正。但近年他经常把同一件事重复讲好几遍，声音有些沙哑，气息明显变弱，眼神有时惶然。

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黎康：网约车八小时松绑后

2026年5月30日 05:00 / 联合早报

中国官方星期三（5月27日）澄清，将于下周生效的《机动车驾驶人疲劳驾驶认定规则》中关于疲劳驾驶的认定，不涉及出租车（含网约车）等经营活动。图为北京街头一辆汽车与外卖骑手快速驶过。 （蔡家增摄）

原本下周生效的中国网约车司机每日限驾八小时新规，两天前让人意外地松绑了。

中国公安部两个月前发布《机动车驾驶人疲劳驾驶认定规则》（简称《新规》），于今年6月1日正式实施。《新规》规定，客运机动车驾驶人在24小时内累计驾驶时间超过八小时，即被认定为疲劳驾驶。长时间载客的网约车和出租车司机，也因此成为《新规》适用对象。

不过，《新规》标准起草负责人星期三（5月27日）突然作出澄清，上述规定不涉及出租车（含网约车）等经营活动。换句话说，这道原本触及中国网约车司机生存红线的限时令，在最后时刻被松开了。

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神舟21乘组成功返回地球

2026年5月30日 07:19 / 联合早报

中国神舟21号航天员乘组搭乘神舟22号载人飞船，星期五（5月29日）晚8时11分在东风着陆场成功着陆，航天员身体状态良好。

据中国载人航天工程办公室消息，星期五晚7时20分，北京航天飞行控制中心通过地面测控站发出返回指令，神舟22号载人飞船轨道舱与返回舱成功分离。

之后，飞船返回制动发动机点火，返回舱与推进舱分离，返回舱成功着陆，担负搜救回收任务的搜救分队及时发现目标并抵达着陆现场。返回舱舱门打开后，医监医保人员确认航天员张陆、武飞、张洪章身体健康。

神舟21号航天员乘组于2025年11月1日进驻中国空间站，三名航天员在轨驻留210天，刷新了中国航天员单个乘组在轨驻留最长纪录。

驻留期间，乘组进行了三次出舱活动，完成了神舟20号飞船返回舱舷窗巡检拍照、空间站空间碎片防护装置安装等任务，开展了多次货物进出舱任务，并在地面科研人员配合下，完成了涉及微重力基础物理、空间材料科学、空间生命科学、航天医学、航天技术等领域的大量空间科学实（试）验。

延伸阅读

下午察：神舟23号升空 中国人的登月梦还有多远？

神舟21号航天员乘组此次返回搭乘的神舟22号载人飞船于2025年11月25日从酒泉卫星发射中心升空，执行中国载人航天工程首次应急发射任务，随后成功对接于空间站天和核心舱前向端口；该乘组出征时搭乘的神舟21号载人飞船，已于2025年11月14日接替遭空间碎片撞击的神舟20号飞船，护送神舟20号航天员乘组安全返回。

航天员乘组星期六（5月30日）已乘坐飞机抵达北京，将进入隔离恢复期，接受全面的医学检查和健康评估，并安排休养。之后，他们将在北京与新闻媒体集体见面。

Reid Hoffman says E. Jean Carroll probe involving his nonprofit is meant to ‘silence’ Trump critics

2026-05-29T20:55:08.543Z / CNN

Democratic billionaire Reid Hoffman said Friday that the Justice Department’s criminal probe involving donations he made toward E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits is meant to “silence” those who stand up to President Donald Trump.

“He is investigating me because I supported E Jean’s lawsuit –– where a jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting her, and a court of appeals upheld the decision,” Hoffman said of Trump in a post on X Friday. He also wrote a post on Substack addressing the Carroll probe, which he says “reaches toward” him.

“Trump thinks this fabricated investigation will do three things: silence women, concentrate his power, and try to prevent me from continuing to give financial support to his opponents (whether it be sexual assault survivors, politicians seeking office, or organizations fighting on behalf of the American People),” he wrote. “He thinks fear is contagious and courage is not. He is wrong.”

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Carroll, the 82-year-old former magazine columnist who accused Trump of sexual assault and defamation, committed perjury in connection with her two civil lawsuits against the president.

Sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that the investigation also scrutinizes Hoffman’s nonprofit, American Future Republic, which helped fund some of Carroll’s expenses.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago, where Hoffman’s nonprofit is based, are reviewing statements that Carroll made in a deposition about that funding and whether she provided false information, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

After CNN first reported the investigation, the US attorney said the district had not opened a criminal investigation into Carroll. Multiple sources reaffirmed to CNN Carroll is a focus of the ongoing Justice Department investigation.

The latest investigation, which is in the early stages, touches on two of the people the president most loathes — megadonor Hoffman and Carroll, the only woman to take Trump to trial over civil allegations around sexual abuse and to win in court. Trump has denied assaulting Carroll and said she wasn’t his type.

Trump has made no secret of his animosity toward them both. He has repeatedly called a Carroll a liar and a “wack job” and adamantly denied ever sexually assaulting her.

In November, as pressure was building on the Justice Department to release the records related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Trump said he would ask DOJ to investigate several prominent democrats who had ties to Epstein — specifically Hoffman.

Hoffman at the time called Trump’s directive “baseless.” He wrote on X, “I was never a client of Epstein’s and never had any engagement with him other than fundraising for MIT.”

Hoffman is a major donor to Democrats and supported President Joe Biden in his re-election effort in 2024 and poured millions of dollars into political committees backing Kamala Harris’ campaign after she became the Democratic nominee.

https://www.cnn.com/

Daniel Dale fact checks claims Trump made about civil suit after appeal

The history between Hoffman and Carroll stems from his philanthropic effort to fund a broader swath of litigation that he described in 2023 as “protecting the rule of law from the threat posed by Donald Trump’s scorched-earth legal methods.”

“Trump has had many days in court; America and its citizens should have their say as well. And so I have been proud to help level the playing field in the courts for those whom Trump and his allies have attacked and bullied,” Hoffman wrote in a LinkedIn post aFort the time.

Hoffman said he funded a group training citizen to use Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain information from the government, and a 2017 lawsuit filed by nearly a dozen people who sued several white supremacists protesting in Charlottesville, Virginia, for emotion and physical trauma when the event turned violent.

One of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in that case was Roberta Kaplan, who in 2019 ended up filing the first lawsuit on behalf of Carroll against Trump. She filed the second lawsuit in 2022 and has vigorously represented Carroll since.

Hoffman’s financial involvement was not known publicly until 2023 when Carroll’s case alleging sexual abuse and defamation was about to go to trial.

Kaplan disclosed the funding following Carroll’s deposition.

The scope of the ongoing investigation is unclear, but what is known is that it includes whether Carroll perjured herself when testifying about how her case against Trump was funded.

In the deposition, Carroll said the case was being handled on a contingency basis — which is when lawyers take a portion of the judgment — that she wasn’t sure if she was paying for expenses, and that no one else was paying her legal fees.

Six months after the deposition, Carroll’s lawyer told the judge and Trump’s attorneys that Carroll “has recollected additional information” and “she now recalls that at some point her counsel secured additional funding from a nonprofit organization to offset certain expenses and legal fees,” according to court filings.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba alleged, “they conspired to conceal the truth for nearly six months.” She sought to delay the trial.

In response, Hoffman said in a LinkedIn post at the time, “While Trump’s legal team has characterized my support of Carroll’s lawsuit as ‘secret,’ I want to be clear that I’ve never taken any steps to hide the financial support that I have provided to this lawsuit after it started.”

Dmitri Mehlhorn, who was then one of Hoffman’s advisors, told media outlets when they have provided third-party funding to lawsuits “we have not met the plaintiffs, we do not decide who the organization chooses to support and the clients generally do not know our identity,” according to Forbes and CNBC.

CNBC reported that Mehlhorn said in Carroll’s case, “our particular grant was made before Ms. Carroll filed suit and we had no prior knowledge that our funding would go to support her in particular.”

Mehlhorn also told Bloomberg, “We later agreed that some of that money could be allocated to Ms Carroll’s suit in September 2020.”

Mehlhorn could not be reached for comment. Hoffman did not respond to requests for comment.

A federal appeals court later found in 2024, “there was no evidence to suggest that Ms Carroll was personally involved in securing the funding, interacted with the funder, received an invoice showing the arrangement before or after her counsel received the outside funding, or had discussed the arrangement with anyone between learning of it in September 2020 and being deposed in October 2022.”

The timing of the investigation comes as the Supreme Court is set to decide whether to take up the first of Trump’s appeals involving the $5 million judgment awarded by a jury to Carroll. Trump has indicated he will also ask the nation’s highest court to hear an appeal of the $83 million judgment related to the defamation lawsuit.

Senior leaders at the Justice Department referred the investigation to the Northern District of Illinois. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, however, has been recused from the matter because he worked as one of Trump’s personal attorneys on the Carroll appeals.

CodePink’s Media Benjamin confirms getting ‘serious’ Treasury Department query over Cuba trip

2026-05-29T19:14:48-04:00 / Fox News

Medea Benjamin called the inquiry an ‘intimidation tactic’ but acknowledged the volume of information requested is ‘serious’

By Asra Q. Nomani Fox News

Published May 29, 2026 7:14pm EDT

Hasan Piker faces legal scrutiny over Cuba trip, communist propaganda concerns

Fox News senior investigations editor Asra Nomani breaks down U.S. laws surrounding foreign influence and potential sanctions violations on ‘The Big Weekend Show.’

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CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin publicly confirmed for the first time that her organization received an inquiry from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), seeking detailed information about about its March trip to Cuba.

The inquiry, which is often called an administrative subpoena, comes as the Trump administration signals a broad effort to increase federal scrutiny of nonprofit organizations operating in foreign-policy and activist spaces. Last October, after the murder of conservative leader Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to strengthen enforcement against nonprofit entities that facilitate support for political violence.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reinforced that message this week, arguing that nonprofit organizations and fiscal sponsors can’t shield themselves from legal accountability when resources, funding, organizational infrastructure or grants are used to support unlawful activity and political violence.

“We’ve made substantial progress, and I think in the weeks and months ahead, we’re going to have a lot to report,” Bessent responded to a question in the White House press gallery. He said, for example, that under new changes, the IRS will “demand that nonprofits know their grant recipients.”

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Hasan Piker, a Democratic Socialists of America member, and CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans meet in Havana, Cuba, as part of a “United Front” supporting the communist regime.(CodePink via Storyful)

“So, if a grant recipient is violent, if they are suppressing people’s rights, then you are responsible for that,” Bessent said. “I think that’s a very good first step.”

The shift reflects a growing administration focus on whether nonprofit networks are exercising sufficient oversight over the projects, activists and international campaigns they sponsor. Against that backdrop, the inquiry by the Office of Foreign Assets Control into the Cuba convoy fits within an effort by Treasury officials to examine whether activist organizations are complying with laws and other federal restrictions, such as sanctions laws.

Speaking on camera in a video promoted by a far-left media platform, BreakThrough News, Benjamin said she and political streamer Hasan Piker first learned about the query when Fox News Digital broke the news last Saturday evening that Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had launched an investigation into the financial and logistical details of CodePink’s and Piker’s trip to Cuba trip.

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Medea Benjamin (right) and Olivia DiNucci (center) of CodePink protest against the U.S. war in Iran.(Fox News Digital)

The Office of Foreign Assets Control enforces U.S. sanctions on Cuba, which restrict Americans from engaging in many financial transactions with the communist government and require travelers and organizations to comply with licensing and record-keeping requirements for authorized activities.

“I actually didn’t get anything, and neither did Hasan Piker,” Benjamin said. “I mean, we heard this on Fox News, that there was this subpoena out, and I was going outside my front door, looking around for somebody to serve me.”

Benjamin said the inquiry arrived by email and had been sent to CodePink co-founder Jody Evans.

“It turns out that it was an email that was sent to CodePink co-founder Jody Evans, and it was so unofficial that it landed in our spam box,” Benjamin said. “So it was a letter, and it came from the Treasury Department, from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC.”

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Video

While criticizing the manner in which the inquiry was delivered, Benjamin acknowledged that the request itself was serious because of the volume of information federal officials are seeking.

“And I don’t want to say it’s not serious. It is serious, because they are asking for all kinds of information,” Benjamin said. “And this is a kind of intimidation tactic that means we have to get a lawyer, that we have to spend a lot of staff time, a lot of energy.”

According to Benjamin, the inquiry contains roughly a dozen detailed questions about the trip and its participants.

“They’re asking about 12 very detailed questions that include things like, ‘How did you get there? Where did you stay? What did you do every hour that you were there?’” Benjamin said. “I guess we have to tell them how many hours we slept.”

Benjamin said approximately 170 people participated in the convoy and suggested the scope of the inquiry could require organizers to account for the activities of every participant.

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Hasan Piker and Jodie Evans and Neville Roy Singham(Getty Images)

“There were 170 people, so I don’t know if they want to know what every single person did every single minute of the day,” she said.

Benjamin also confirmed that organizers brought humanitarian supplies to Cuba.

“What we brought — and we brought about $600,000 worth of aid — so it’s a lot, a lot of information that they want,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin framed the inquiry as an effort to discourage Americans from traveling to Cuba or participating in humanitarian missions to the communist island, but said organizers would continue their activities despite the federal scrutiny.

“And of course, this is to make people think, ‘Uh oh, should I go to Cuba? Uh oh, should I keep doing humanitarian aid?’” Benjamin said. “And the answer to that is, yes. We can’t be intimidated. In fact, we have to use this as another reason that we’re so angry at the U.S. government and redouble our efforts.”

Meanwhile, Piker has insisted that he hasn’t received the Treasury Department query. He stirred up another set of headlines speculating that the “real goal” of the investigation is to target American Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, who has pumped $285 million since 2017 into a network of groups including CodePink and BreakThrough News, allegedly spreading pro-China propaganda and sowing discord with massive anti-American street protests.

CodePink and BreakThrough News have been fixtures in those street protests, and Piker has supported them on his hours-long livestreams.

Asra Nomani is senior editor of investigations at Fox News Digital. She is a former reporter at the Wall Street Journal, where she covered stories related to money, politics and society. She is the author of “Woke Army: The Left-Green Alliance That Is Undermining America’s Freedom. She can be reached at asra.nomani@fox.com and on X at @asranomani.