Ololade Adeyanju/
The White House escalated the war of words against Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today with a top US official saying there is a “special place in hell” for him.
Top advisers to President Donald Trump have been reacting angrily to a press conference Trudeau gave after the G7 summit, where he slammed US for raising tariffs on steel.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated steadily since Trump announced the new tariffs last week.
But today two of Trump’s top advisers reportedly accused Trudeau of “stabbing us in the back” and making the US look weak before high-stakes negotiations with North Korea.
White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro, while attacking Trudeau, stated: “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. And that’s what ‘bad faith Justin Trudeau’ did with that stunt press conference.”
Likewise, US National Economic Council Director, Larry Kudlow, who was at the summit, said that Trudeau, not Trump, was to blame.
“He really kind of stabbed us in the back. He did a great disservice to the whole G7,” Kudlow reportedly said on CNN.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Chrystia Freeland, replied the pair, saying that Canada doesn’t find attacks “appropriate or useful”.
When asked about Kudlow and Navarro’s comments on Sunday, Freeland told reporters: “Canada does not conduct its diplomacy through ad hominem attacks. We don’t think that that is a useful or productive way to do business.”
“And perhaps we refrain particularly from ad hominem attacks when it comes to our relationships with our allies,” she added.
The latest spat comes after Trump blew up two days of negotiations at the G7 in Quebec, announcing via Twitter on Saturday night that he would not sign a communique agreed to by the leaders at the summit in protest against what he said was “false statements” made at a press conference by Trudeau.
Trump went further to describe Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak”.
Trump’s presence at the G7 had already been dramatic, with a viral photo released by Germany’s government showing him seated as other leaders crowded around him and appeared to be pressing him for something.
At his now controversial press conference, Trudeau had announced to applause that the leaders had managed to agree to a joint statement after some concern that divisions over trade would be impossible to overcome.
But, when asked by a reporter about Trump’s decision to impose steel tariffs on Canadian steel, Trudeau also said Canada would respond with retaliatory tariffs of their own on July 1.
The prime minister said it was “kind of insulting” that Trump would justify his tariffs in the name of national security, given Canada’s history of fighting alongside the US in combat.
“I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing but it is something we absolutely will do, because Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around,” Trudeau said.
Hours later, while aboard Air Force One, Trump fired off the tweets announcing he was pulling out of the communique, which included commitments ranging from trade to the environment to ending sexual- and gender-based violence.
“PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings, only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around.’ Very dishonest & weak,” Trump tweeted.
A spokesman for the Canadian prime minister said Trudeau had said nothing at the press conference that he hadn’t said before publicly and in private meetings with Trump, but Kudlow accused the Canadian leader of a “sophomoric political stunt for domestic consumption”.
Kudlow also said Trump was determined not to look weak as he arrives in Singapore to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“POTUS is not going to let a Canadian prime minister push him around,” he said. “He is not going to permit any show of weakness on the trip to negotiate with North Korea. Kim must not see American weakness,” Kudlow said, accusing Trudeau of “pouring collateral damage on the whole Korean trip”.
He said Trudeau needed to apologise, retract his statements, and wish Trump well in the North Korean meeting “instead of taking pot shots”.
Reacting to development, Republican Senator, John McCain, tweeted on Saturday: “To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values. Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn’t.”
Also, German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, wrote on Twitter: “You can destroy an incredible amount of trust very quickly in a tweet. That makes it all the more important that Europe stands together and defends its interests even more offensively.”
“#EuropeUnited is the answer to #AmericaFirst,” he added.
French President, Emmanuel Macron, also criticised the US, with his office releasing a statement warning “international co-operation cannot be dictated by fits of anger and throwaway remarks”.
“We are sticking to [the communique and its commitments] and whoever reneges on them is showing incoherence and inconsistency,” the French statement says.
Macron had earlier on Twitter mocked the idea that the US tariffs, which have also been imposed on the European Union and Mexico, were essential to protect homeland security.
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