Trump’s team accuses Trudeau of stabbing him in the back

WASHINGTON – Trump administration officials on Sunday accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of stabbing President Donald Trump in the back, blaming him for the president’s refusal to endorse a joint statement with other world leaders.

“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,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And that’s what bad faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference.”

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow accused Trudeau of undermining Trump right before his meeting in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“It is a historic negotiation, and there is no way this president is not go- ing to stand strong,” Kudlow said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

But California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said Trump wasn’t just taking on Trudeau but all of the United States’ best allies by not signing the G-7 statement after a two-day meeting with leaders of the world’s largest industrialized economies.

Trump said on Twitter on Saturday that he directed officials not to endorse the communique as a response to comments made by Trudeau at a news conference after Trump left for his meeting in Singapore. Trudeau told reporters Canada would move forward July 1 with retaliatory tariffs to answer for Trump’s tariffs on aluminum and steel that were “unjustly applied to us.”

“I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do because Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around,” Trudeau said.