US treasury secretary criticised for ‘rude’ remarks about Swiss-German food at Davos | indy100

Politico/YouTube

While US president Donald Trump used his time at Davos to seemingly confuse Iceland with Greenland, talk about being called “daddy”, and fire insults at California governor Gavin Newsom, treasury secretary Scott Bessent sat down for a recording of Politico’s podcast The Conversation in which he criticised the local food he had eaten while attending the World Economic Forum.

Attacking the “manic push for net zero” which he says has been “pushed back” in “some recent scientific journals”, Bessent said: “Even Bill Gates is saying ‘the one degree, two degrees, three degrees, I’m not sure it matters’. If you look at what he’s doing with his own money, it looks like he believes we’re going to innovate our way out of any perceived climate problems.

“I think we almost reached a Saturday Night Live moment a few years ago, when it was, ‘you’re not going to eat anything, you’re gonna eat insects’... The inmates were running the asylum at that point.”

Host Dasha Burns then asked: “You’re not into the bugs?”

Bessent replied: “Well, I can tell you, after a few days of Swiss-German food, I may switch to bugs. I love Switzerland. I vacation in the French part of Switzerland – food couldn’t be better. The Swiss-Germans are great, just…”

He didn’t finish that sentence.

And the remarks, immediately branded “brutal” by Burns, have since been called out by X/Twitter users:

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“Scott Bessent is one of the reasons why Europeans hate and mock Americans,” wrote one:

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Former army general Ben Hodges tweeted: “Having lots of money is clearly no guarantee of having class”:

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European politics professor John O’Brennan said: “With every new insult, these idiots will only increase European determination to decouple entirely from the United States”:

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The Rest is Politics podcast host Alastair Campbell tweeted sarcastically: “Yeah cos American food so wonderful [sic]”:

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And political science professor Michael McFaul said: “I thought Bessent was more sophisticated than this. I was wrong”:

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Bessent has previously sparked ridicule and criticism for claiming beef prices are high because of diseased cattle brought in by migrants, and arguing the Trump administration bailing out Argentina actually was ‘America First’.

Yes, really.

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