Bessent accuses Carney of ‘virtue signaling’ after his big speech at Davos, with divorce between Canada and America in the air

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent escalated his war of words with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday, urging the former central banker to “do what he thinks is best for the Canadian people, not his own virtue signaling,” as he recounted a tense post-Davos exchange, with fallout mounting from Carney’s remarkable speech at the World Economic Forum meeting about a “rupture” in the world order.​

Speaking in Washington, D.C., with CNBC’s Sara Eisen in a Squawk on the Street interview on the sidelines of the administration’s Trump Accounts Summit, Bessent said he was a participant on the follow-up call after Davos between Carney and President Donald Trump. This talk has been portrayed very differently in Ottawa and Washington, with Carney suggesting he “dug in” and reinforced his message to Trump, while Bessent contends the Canadian leader “walked back” what he said onstage in Davos.

“I was on the call,” Bessent said, before launching into an unusually personal critique of Carney’s political pivot from technocrat to elected leader. “In my investment career, I’ve seen what happens when a technocrat tries to pivot and become a politician—never really works out well.”​

Carney rolled his eyes in Ottawa when presented with Bessent’s remarks and bluntly declared: “To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” he told reporters en route to a cabinet meeting. “Canada was the first countr...