Trump hits back at US trade partners
Allies keep distance as clash escalates
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump escalated a bitter clash with some of America’s closest allies on Sunday, lashing out through his advisers at Canada’s prime minister in unusually personal terms and leaving himself with a diplomatic crisis as he arrived in Asia to negotiate a nuclear agreement with North Korea.
A day after Mr Trump refused to sign a communiqué of the Group of 7 major industrial economies, his advisers went on the attack, accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “betrayal” and a “stab” in the back, even as Canada, Germany and France pushed back against what they called the US president’s “insult” and “inconsistency”.
The exchange left Mr Trump estranged from America’s partners at the moment he is about to stride onto the most important world stage he has assumed since taking office. Aides attributed his outburst over the weekend to his feeling undercut as he prepared to meet with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, while critics said he had stiff-armed his friends at the expense of a unified front.
Whether Mr Kim sees Mr Trump’s combative approach as a sign of strength or weakness, the rupture with other major powers was sure to shadow the session between the two in Singapore today, the first time leaders of the United States and North Korea have met in person. Mr Trump’s strategy for pressuring Kim to give up his nuclear weapons has depended on isolating North Korea, but he arrived in Singapore looking isolated himself.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Robert D Hormats, who advised Republican and Democratic presidents at a dozen Group of 7 summit meetings. “The irony is this institution that was designed largely by the United States was really designed to shore up alliances and political relationships and resolve economic issues. This just served to do the opposite of that.”
The latest meeting, held in Canada, was tense amid disputes over trade, security and other issues. But after negotiators for all seven countries crafted a final communiqué that even the reluctant US delegation agreed to, Mr Trump abruptly lashed out on Twitter from Air Force One on Saturday night.
He refused to sign the communiqué, blaming Mr Trudeau for making “false statements” at an end-of-summit news conference, and called the Canadian leader “dishonest & weak”.
By Sunday morning, Mr Trump’s aides were adding fire to the attack on Mr Trudeau. Larry Kudlow, the president’s economic adviser, said Mr Trudeau’s comments were “a betrayal” and that he had “stabbed us in the back”. Mr Trump “is not going to let a Canadian prime minister push him around,” Mr Kudlow said, adding, “He is not going to permit any show of weakness on the trip to negotiate with North Korea.”
Peter Navarro, the president’s trade adviser, was even harsher. “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,” Mr Navarro said.
Left unclear was what exactly Mr Trudeau had said that so offended Mr Trump. During his Saturday news conference, the prime minister was relatively measured but repeated his position that Canada “will not be pushed around” and would respond to US tariffs with tariffs of its own.
Mr Trudeau’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, told reporters that if anyone should be insulted, it was Canada, because Mr Trump had cited a national security justification for his tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Roland Paris, a former foreign affairs adviser to Mr Trudeau, went further. “Big tough guy once he’s back on his airplane,” he wrote on Twitter. “Can’t do it in person, and knows it, which makes him feel week. So he projects these feelings onto Trudeau and then lashes out at him. You don’t need to be Freud. He’s a pathetic little man-child.”
Other members of the Group of 7 stood with Canada against Mr Trump. “International cooperation can’t depend on anger and small words,” France’s Élysée Palace said.
Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain said through an aide that she was “fully supportive of Justin Trudeau”. The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, on Sunday called on European nations to stick together following Mr Trump’s announcement.
“It’s actually not a real surprise,” Mr Maas told reporters in Berlin. “We have seen this with the climate agreement or the Iran deal. In a matter of seconds, you can destroy trust with 280 Twitter characters. To build that up again will take much longer.”
Mr Trump never really wanted to attend the Group of 7 meeting, but aides pressed him to go even as they feared it would be a disaster because he was being forced to do something he did not want to do. He rebelled by showing up late and leaving early.
During closed-door meetings, Mr Trump largely listened through most issues, firmly crossing his arms and swivelling in his seat, sources say. At points, he looked around trying to catch the eyes of others, as if looking for reassurance, the witnesses said.
He arrived late for a Saturday session on gender equality and did not bother putting his headphones on for translation when President Emmanuel Macron of France spoke. At some points, Mr Trump closed his eyes in what people in the room took to mean he was dozing off.
But he came alive whenever trade was mentioned, mocking and insulting other leaders, particularly Messrs Trudeau, Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. Mr Trump’s conversation was described by European officials as a stream of consciousness, filled with superlatives but not following a linear argument.