Trump’s anger at G7 was show of strength to N Korea
DONALD TRUMP tore up a G7 agreement and lashed out at his allies in a demonstration of strength as he flew into Singapore ahead of tomorrow’s crunch talks with Kim Jong-un, according to a senior White House adviser.
He launched a blistering attack on Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, as part of a ploy to offer no hint of weakness as he prepares for high-stakes nuclear diplomacy, said Larry Kudlow.
The president touched down in Singapore aboard Air Force One yesterday, a few hours after Kim arrived with his entourage. Trailing in his wake was the turbulence of a G7 summit all but sabotaged by a pair of incendiary tweets aimed at Mr Trudeau, describing him as “dishonest” and “meek”.
It marked an extraordinary outburst against a nation long seen as one of America’s closest allies.
Mr Trump also ordered his officials not to sign a joint statement on trade, Iran and climate change.
As world leaders accused Mr Trump of undermining diplomacy in 280 characters, Mr Kudlow, his chief economic adviser, said the American president would not be pushed around by Canada just before meeting a “crazy nuclear tyrant”.
“He is not going to permit any show of weakness on the trip to negotiate with North Korea,” he told CNN’S State of the Union. US officials have taken pains to suggest that Mr Trump’s muscular, unconventional approach marks him out as uniquely qualified to pacify one of the world’s most unpredictable dictatorships.
Mr Trump has billed the summit in Singapore as a “one-time shot” at peace. He told reporters that he felt “very good” about its prospects before climbing into a limousine and heading to the hotel.
Meanwhile, Kim – making only his third known trip outside North Korea – held a surprise meeting with Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore.
“The entire world is watching… and thanks to your sincere efforts... we were able to complete the preparations for the historic summit,” he told Mr Lee.
American and North Korean officials are due to meet this morning to make final preparations for the summit on the resort island of Sentosa.
Mr Trump is understood to be planning to use the meeting to dangle US investment as a lure to the isolated, cash-strapped state. A source familiar with the preparations told the news website Axios that the president was particularly excited at the thought of getting iconic American companies, such as Mcdonald’s, into the nation.
GERMANY and France yesterday condemned President Donald Trump for his hasty decision to abandon a G7 communique, accusing him of destroying trust and acting inconsistently.
Mr Trump left the G7 summit in Canada much as he arrived, isolated and angry, despite talks that officials believed had papered over deep divisions on trade, tariffs and the environment.
As he departed, he managed to wrong-foot even his own team with two angry posts sent from Air Force One announcing he had ordered his officials not to sign a joint statement underlining the G7’s commitment to “free, fair, and mutually beneficial trade”.
He also accused Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, of being “very dishonest & weak” in an angry outburst.
His comments riled allies who accused him of undermining progress, with Emmanuel Macron, the president of France yesterday warning that international diplomacy should not be dictated by “fits of anger”.
Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, said: “In a matter of seconds, you can destroy trust with 280 Twitter characters.”
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said Europe would implement counter-measures against US tariffs on steel and aluminium. “The withdrawal, so to speak, via tweet is of course ... sobering and a bit depressing,” she told the German broadcaster ARD.
Mr Trump said in his tweets that Mr Trudeau was “dishonest” to blame the US for the breakdown over tariffs.
“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’,” he wrote.
Mr Trudeau also said he was planning to press on with retaliatory measures on July 1 in response to the Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Canada, Mexico and the EU.
The White House doubled down yesterday morning, delivering an extraordinary series of co-ordinated attacks on Mr Trudeau. Larry Kudlow, the chief White House economic adviser, who attended the summit, accused the Canadian prime minister of double crossing the US president.
“He really kind of stabbed us in the back,” he told CNN’S State of the Union.
It marks a stunning breakdown in relations between two of the world’s closest allies and a sign of Mr Trump’s impact on the world stage.
Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, told 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.”
For its part, Trudeau’s office said nothing had changed in the news conference.
“The Prime Minister said nothing he hasn’t said before – both in public, and in private conversations with the president,” said a spokesman.
The result is an increasing sense of disarray even after officials thought they had managed to put a gloss on two days of fraught negotiations.
Other G7 powers insisted they con tinued to back the joint statement.
A senior British Government source said: “We stand by the commitments made in the G7 communiqué.”
France and Europe were standing by the G7 statement, a French presidency official said, adding anyone departing from the commitments made at the summit would be showing their “incoherence and inconsistency”.
“International cooperation cannot depend on being angry and on sound bites. Let’s be serious,” a French official, speaking on condition of anonym- ity, told Reuters.
Observers said it was difficult to see any strategy in Mr Trump’s actions other than to cause trouble.
Sir Peter Westmacott, former British ambassador to Washington, told The New York Times: “Trump is readier to give a pass to countries that pose a real threat to Western values and security than to America’s traditional allies.
“If there is a ‘method to the madness’, to use the words of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, it is currently well hidden.”