U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discusses potential sanctions against Iran, the G20 summit, and a confrontation with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that required Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to step in. <\/p>\n
SEAN HANNITY: You know, last question, if I can, Mr. Secretary. You know, Canada relies on the U.S. for their national security. And before President Trump, they thought they were clever. They put heavy tariffs on American dairy farmers and other American products. Maybe you can sell 5 percent. After that 5 percent import number that they got to, then that would go up to 80 percent, go up 80 percent. And meanwhile, we’ve been a good partner to them overall. It was funny, your line, what else are they going to say when they say they’re doing okay? They really do need our country. What if we said to them, if you get in a conflict with any other country, we’re not going to be there for you.<\/a> What would happen to Canada then? TREASURY SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Well, you know, we’ve had a free rider problem with Canada for a long time. And Prime Minister Carney, after getting a little bit of a verbal beatdown from myself, Secretary Hegseth said, well, you know, you’ve got to stop throwing shade and to get the negotiations back on track. Well, he was the one who said we were at war. But I will tell you, Canada had a great military. They were right there at the forefront on the beaches of D-Day. And what the Canadian government has done to the Canadian Armed Forces, if you look at the ranks of NATO spending, they are near the very bottom. Like they’re somewhere around with Spain in terms of their military spending to GDP. And why is that? Because they were free-riding. And, you know, Sean, I will tell you who was not with the Prime Minister. The Canadian businesses are not with the Prime Minister. The Canadian military is not with the Prime Minister. And, you know, he thinks that he got to office on an anti-Trump, anti-Americans, the platform, and it’s not going to work out over the long term. So I hope that you will come back to the table. President had a the best trade deal we’d offered anyone, and he rejected it for political motives. SEAN HANNITY: Okay, well, I don’t think that’s going to end well for them. He keeps it up. Donald Trump’s not the right guy to pick the fight with. Anyway, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, thank you, sir. We appreciate your time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n