French rip ally diss, thug hug
France’s foreign minister blasted President Trump for offering the cold shoulder to US allies at the G-7 economic summit in Canada and then “practically” hugging North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, according to a report Wednesday.
Jean-Yves Le Drian acknowledged that Trump’s historic sitdown in Singapore with Kim was “an undoubted step forward,” but questioned the president’s treatment of longtime friends.
“In the space of just a day, you see President Trump attacking Mr. Trudeau, who is a historic ally, and you see President Trump breaking with his collective allies after the G-7 meeting in Quebec, and the next day, [he] practically hugged a dictator born into a Communist dictatorship, which just a few days ago he said he was completely opposed to,” Le Drian said, Agence France-Presse reported. “We are in a destabilizing situation.”
Le Drian also questioned whether Kim’s promise to rid the Korean Peninsula of nukes would ever be achieved, saying, “There have already been in the past gestures toward denuclearization by the father of Kim Jong-un that came to nothing.
“So today it’s good news, let’s take it as such, but let’s make sure this principle of denuclearization, which was flaunted at this summit, is really irreversible and verifiable.”
En route to the Kim summit, Trump withdrew from a joint statement issued Saturday by the G-7 on trade after he said he felt insulted by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau held a press conference earlier to say Canada would not be “pushed around” by the US and threatened to impose retaliatory penalties against American goods after Trump put tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports.
Trump shot back in a tweet that Trudeau was “weak & dishonest.”
Trump’s treatment of Trudeau was in stark contrast to how he described the murderous despot Kim, whom he called “talented” and a man who “loves his country.”