ABC’s The View cohost Joy Behar threatened on-air Thursday to stop paying federal income taxes if President Donald Trump’s administration continues to scale back what the federal government funds.
Behar made the comment during a segment on the “Big Beautiful Bill,” Trump’s sweeping government overhaul package, which includes significant reductions in federal spending and a shift of responsibilities to the states.
“I’d like to know, why am I paying federal taxes if they’re not going to do anything, by the way?” Behar asked. “If they want the states to take care of everything, I’ll pay state taxes, and not federal taxes. Watch the IRS come after me now.”
The suggestion sparked laughter from the panel, though Behar appeared serious in her frustration over Trump’s shrinking of the federal bureaucracy and return of control to the states.
The conversation briefly shifted to the role of the National Security Council and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in managing federal resources, before Whoopi Goldberg jumped in to make light of a recent incident involving someone impersonating Rubio with artificial intelligence.
“People are imitating Marco,” Goldberg said. “You don’t know who Marco is anymore. You don’t know if that’s Marco you’re talking to or, you know, some kind of new Marco.”
Whoopi Goldberg seems to suggest that Secretary Marco Rubio has been replaced by someone else, a “new Marco”:
“People are imitating. You don’t know who Marco is anymore. You don’t know if that’s Marco you talking to or, you know, some kind of new Marco.” pic.twitter.com/6axwN1N29A— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 10, 2025
The comments come amid a string of eyebrow-raising remarks from The View cohosts. Just last week, both Goldberg and Sunny Hostin claimed that black Americans under the Trump administration faced “worse” treatment than citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
While Behar’s complaint may have been made half in jest, it echoes broader discontent among the left over the Trump administration’s push to reduce the size and scope of the federal government — a campaign promise now being rapidly fulfilled through legislative and executive action.