On the offensive
Trump’s top advisers accuse Trudeau of back-stabbing after G7 summit
Donald Trump’s top aides levelled blistering criticism of Justin Trudeau on Sunday for what they see as his betrayal of the president before his summit with North Korea, with one adviser saying Trudeau deserves a “special place in hell.”
Hours after the U.S. president left the G7 summit in Quebec on Saturday, he launched insults at the prime minister, calling him “very dishonest and weak.”
Trump lashed out at Trudeau after the G7 issued a fragile joint communique in which the embattled alliance managed to overcome some differences and find areas of common ground.
Within minutes of the official release of the document, Trump attacked Trudeau on Twitter over what he described as the prime minister’s “false statements” during the closing G7 news conference — and the president announced the U. S. would no longer endorse the communique.
Trump’s closest advisers added to the attack during televised interviews on Sunday.
It started on CNN’S “State of the Union” when Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the White House was angered by
Trudeau’s comments during the news conference that Canada must stand up for itself and that recently imposed U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum are “insulting.”
Kudlow pointed out that Trump “is not going to let a Canadian prime minister push him around” ahead of his high-stakes summit this week with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“He is not going to permit any show of weakness on the trip to negotiate with North Korea,” he said.
Kudlow accused Trudeau of “pouring collateral damage on this whole Korean trip. That was a part of Trudeau’s mistake. Trudeau made an error. He should take it back.”
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro piled on with scathing comments during an interview with Fox News Sunday.
“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,” said Navarro.
“And that’s what bad faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference. That’s what weak, dishonest Justin Trudeau did, and that comes right from Air Force One.”
Trudeau has used the word “insulting” several times in the last couple of weeks to describe Trump’s tariffs, as the prime minister has taken issue with the fact they’re being applied on the premise that Canada poses a national security threat to the U.S.
Kudlow said he personally negotiated with Trudeau during the two-day G7 summit in Quebec’s Charlevoix region and insisted the U.S. agreed to the language in the communique in good faith.
He described Trudeau’s actions during the G7 as a “sophomoric play.”
“He really kind of stabbed us in the back,” Kudlow said. “He did a great disservice to the whole G7.”
He insisted, like Trump himself has done many times, that Canada has enormous tariffs itself — especially on certain dairy and food products.