Bashing the leader of one of America’s venerable allies, the White House escalated its trade tirade and leveled more withering and unprecedented criticism on Sunday against Canada’s prime minister, branding Justin Trudeau a back-stabber unworthy of President Donald Trump’s time.
“There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door,” Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said in an interview nationally broadcast in the US.
The verbal volleys by Navarro and Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow picked up where Trump left off Saturday evening with a series of tweets from Air Force One en route to Singapore for his nuclear summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Kudlow suggested Trump saw Trudeau as trying to weaken his hand before that meeting, saying the president won’t “let a Canadian prime minister push him around. ... Kim must not see American weakness”.
Just as the Trudeau-hosted Group of Seven meeting of the world’s leading industrialised nations had seemed to weather Trump’s threats of a trade war, the president backed out of the group’s joint statement that Trudeau said all the leaders had come together to sign.
Trump called Trudeau “dishonest and weak” after Trudeau said at a news conference that Canada would retaliate for new US tariffs.
Trudeau didn’t respond to questions about Trump when the prime minister arrived at a Quebec City hotel on Sunday for meetings with other world leaders.
Trudeau spokesman Cameron Ahmad said on Saturday night that Trudeau “said nothing he hasn’t said before — both in public and in private conversations” with Trump.
Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Trudeau, jabbed on Trump on Twitter.
“Big tough guy once he’s back on his airplane. Can’t do it in person. ... He’s a pathetic little man-child.”
Trudeau said he had reiterated to Trump, who left the G-7 meeting before it ended, that tariffs would harm industries and workers on both sides of the US-Canada border. Trudeau told reporters that imposing retaliatory measures “is not something I relish doing” but that he wouldn’t hesitate to do so because “I will always protect Canadian workers and Canadian interests”.
Navarro, the Trump trade adviser, said his harsh assessment of what “bad faith” Trudeau did with “that stunt press conference” on Saturday “comes right from Air Force One”.
“There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door,” Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said in an interview nationally broadcast in the US.
The verbal volleys by Navarro and Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow picked up where Trump left off Saturday evening with a series of tweets from Air Force One en route to Singapore for his nuclear summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Kudlow suggested Trump saw Trudeau as trying to weaken his hand before that meeting, saying the president won’t “let a Canadian prime minister push him around. ... Kim must not see American weakness”.
Trump called Trudeau “dishonest and weak” after Trudeau said at a news conference that Canada would retaliate for new US tariffs.
Trudeau didn’t respond to questions about Trump when the prime minister arrived at a Quebec City hotel on Sunday for meetings with other world leaders.
Trudeau spokesman Cameron Ahmad said on Saturday night that Trudeau “said nothing he hasn’t said before — both in public and in private conversations” with Trump.
Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Trudeau, jabbed on Trump on Twitter.
“Big tough guy once he’s back on his airplane. Can’t do it in person. ... He’s a pathetic little man-child.”
Trudeau said he had reiterated to Trump, who left the G-7 meeting before it ended, that tariffs would harm industries and workers on both sides of the US-Canada border. Trudeau told reporters that imposing retaliatory measures “is not something I relish doing” but that he wouldn’t hesitate to do so because “I will always protect Canadian workers and Canadian interests”.
Navarro, the Trump trade adviser, said his harsh assessment of what “bad faith” Trudeau did with “that stunt press conference” on Saturday “comes right from Air Force One”.
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