U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday appeared to throw his support behind the separatist movement in Alberta, becoming the highest-ranking Trump administration official or conservative ally to do so.
Speaking on the right-wing TV station Real America’s Voice while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bessent said the province’s vast oil reserves make it “a natural partner for the U.S.” while criticizing Canadian leadership.
“Alberta has a wealth of natural resources, but they won’t let them build a pipeline to the Pacific,” he said. “I think we should let them come down into the U.S.
“The Albertans are very independent people,” he continued. “There’s a rumour they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.”
Asked if he knew something about the separation effort, Bessent said, “People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the U.S. has got.”
The treasury secretary is the latest Trump-aligned figure to push the idea of an independent Alberta, and whether it could become part of the U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to make Canada the “51st state” of the American union. His territorial ambitions have been further underscored by his recent push to acquire Greenland from Denmark, which, like Canada, is a NATO ally.
Organizers of the Alberta independence movement, including leaders of the Alberta Prosperity Project, have claimed they have had meetings with “senior” members of the Trump administration to promote the idea of a sovereign Alberta, although they have not disclosed any names.
In a November 2025 appearance on former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast — which also broadcasts on Real America’s Voice — conservative author Brandon Weichert said Alberta was the “linchpin” of Trump’s aims for the Western Hemisphere.
“When Trump says, ‘Canada’s becoming the 51st state,’ he’s really talking about Alberta, and that’s important because that’s a gateway to the Arctic” for the U.S., he said.
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Weichert also claimed to know many leaders in the Alberta independence movement and said they had held at least two meetings with the U.S. State Department.
He has repeatedly posted on X that “Alberta will become American.” Earlier this month, he wrote that the U.S. should also seek to acquire “Saskatchewan, and maybe Manitoba and some of those east coast smaller provinces to complete the package.”
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee told a BBC panel earlier this week that the people of Alberta would “prefer not to be a part of Canada and be a part of the United States, because we are winning day in and day out.”
Last January, when Trump first threatened a takeover of Canada ahead of his second inauguration as president, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah asked on Real America’s Voice, “Can we take Alberta and leave the rest?”
“It might be like our own little frozen Texas of the north,” he added. “They may even want to join us.”
In April, Fox News host Jesse Watters, a frequent defender and booster of Trump, made his own on-air pitch for Alberta as the 51st state.
The Alberta independence movement is collecting signatures to trigger a referendum in that province. The question they are asking is whether Alberta should be independent — not if it should join the United States.
To be successful, they need to collect about 177,000 signatures by May 2, of which 10 per cent must be eligible voters from the last provincial election.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she does not support the idea of the province seceding from Canada but believes Albertans should have a say on its future.
“The premier supports a strong and sovereign Alberta within a United Canada,” Smith’s spokesperson Sam Blackett said in a statement to Global News when asked for comment on Bessent’s remarks.
“Alberta wants to build new pipelines West, East, North, and South, and we will continue to work with our U.S. partners on building more pipeline capacity to U.S. markets. But the premier also believes the overwhelming majority of Albertans are not interested in becoming a U.S. State.”
When asked about Bessent’s comments Friday at the Liberal cabinet retreat in Quebec City, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Carney has laid out how Ottawa is diversifying trade and playing its role as a middle power to ensure “we have a strong economy to make the decisions that keep our country sovereign.”
“And that does not mean that you reply to any comment. We can control what we control,” he told reporters.
Solomon was referring to Carney’s widely praised speech at the World Economic Forum this week, where he warned about the end of the rules-based international order that had been led for decades by the U.S. The speech has been interpreted as a rebuke of Trump’s global trade wars and aggressive foreign policy.
Asked for his reaction to Carney’s speech on Real America’s Voice, Bessent claimed Carney was trying to hide his past as a central bank governor and the UN special envoy on climate action in order to appear “more reasonable.”
“I think Prime Minister Carney tried to put on a mask for a bit — he’s really a globalist,” he said.
“When he said he wants to make Canada an energy powerhouse, Canada has great natural resources, but I don’t think he wants to bring them out. He was just in China, and President Trump has said Canada should trade with China, but when he came out and said China shares Canadian values? Really?”
— with files from The Canadian Press
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