House Republican Rips Trump Cabinet Member’s Comments on Defending Europe: ‘How We Talked In the 1930s’

Trump Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sparked the ire of Republican Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who is also a former Air Force general, with his comments in a recent interview on Russian aggression in Europe.

Bessent joined Fox Business Network on Wednesday and said, “The Russians are testing the Europeans, and the European resolve needs to stiffen. They need to put everything on the table in terms of economic sanctions. You know, as I told my European counterparts about two weeks ago, all I hear from you is that Putin wants to march into Warsaw. But one thing I’m sure of: Putin’s not marching into Boston.”
“He’s not marching into Boston,” Bessent emphasized, adding:

But having said that, Poles are great allies. They… Before they had to be told to, they were already spending 5% of GDP. Polish economy is one of the great success stories since the wall came down. When the wall came down, the Polish economy and the Ukraine economy were the same size. Polish economy is three times larger now. If the Ukrainian economy were the size of the Polish economy, Ukraine would be financing their own war effort right now. And I doubt Putin would have come in.

Bacon, who has announced he’s not seeking reelection, shared the clip online and added, “This is how we talked in the 1930s, and we learned it did not work. We are in NATO for very good reasons.”

Bacon appeared to take issue with the idea that Putin attacking Warsaw would be any different from him attacking Boston in terms of a U.S. response, which under NATO’s Article 5 would require the U.S. to use its full military might to defend its NATO ally.

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