Trade Secretary Lutnick claims Canada ‘abandoned’ trade deal ‘solely for political reasons’
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said at the 11th hour that either party is responsible for breaking the trade deal, emphasizing that he is still blaming Canada.
Lutnick told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that Canadian negotiators “started adding crazy ideas into the mix” hours before the deadline to reach a deal that would prevent President Trump’s 50% tariffs on Canadian goods from going into effect. He cited medium- and heavy-duty trucks as Canada’s demand on Friday, when negotiations were finalized.
“So I said to one of the ministers, ‘Are you sure you’re trying to blow this up?’ And his answer to me was, ‘You’re not allowed to say that,'” Lutnick said.
“They blew it up just for political reasons,” he said.
Lutnick also acknowledged that the United States may have made a last-minute request, as President Trump said it sounded like something he had done.
— Kevin Breuninger
Bessent slams companies for ‘terrible job’ of explaining benefits of AI and data centers
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent answers questions during the 2026 G20 Finance Meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 1, 2026.
Melissa Sue Gerrits | Getty Images
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the debate over AI and data centers needed a “big reset” and accused AI companies of doing a poor job of being reliable messengers of the technology boom.
“I think the AI companies, whether they’re the builders of the data centers or the labs themselves, have done a terrible job of explaining themselves to the American people,” Bessent said Tuesday in comments after a G20 meeting with finance ministers and central bank governors in Asheville, North Carolina.
Bessent said companies need to convince Americans that “not all the profits will go to one group” and will be distributed equally.
—Chris Udaily
Musk warns of overregulation, predicts 20-30% boom due to AI
Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk speaks virtually at the G20 Innovation Ministers Meeting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, Tuesday, September 1, 2026.
Cornell Watson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
CEO Elon Musk is tesla and space xon Tuesday compared start-ups to saplings in a forest and said the government should try to “make defaulting legal rather than illegal” to encourage growth.
“The trend in most countries is to provide too much support to existing large trees in forests and not enough support to small seedlings,” he said, adding that the regulatory environment “should generally be biased towards supporting small trees.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, has made some bold predictions about the growth of AI and the potential of robotics.
“AI will probably expand the global economy by 20% to 30%,” he said, adding that he expects there will be more than 1 billion humanoid robots in the world in 10 years.
—Chris Udaily
David Sachs says local communities can benefit from data centers
Former White House AI czar David Sachs on Tuesday cited headwinds to building AI data centers and said local communities could benefit from construction projects.
“If data centers are operated correctly, electricity prices will go down, not up, because AI companies will generate net new electricity generation,” he said. “That’s really the key.”
Sachs, a venture capitalist who co-chairs the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said allowing companies to generate their own electricity would reduce costs by sending excess power back to the grid. He also said businesses could help pay for grid upgrades.
President Donald Trump lashed out at data center opponents on Monday, writing on Truth Social that the areas they block construction “must want to end up being backward and poor.”
Sachs insisted it was still a local decision.
“The federal government should not preempt states’ decisions regarding data centers,” he said. “This is fundamentally a local decision, and we respect that and are not doing anything to change that.”
—Chris Udaily
