San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Trump tweets out a trade tirade
President blasts Canada’s leader
QUEBEC CITY — President Donald Trump abruptly upended two days of global economic diplomacy late Saturday.
Trump refused to sign a joint statement with America’s allies, threatening to escalate his trade war on the country’s neighbors and deriding Canada’s prime minister as “very dishonest and weak.”
In a remarkable pair of acrimony-laced tweets from aboard Air Force One as he flew to a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump lashed out at Justin Trudeau, the prime minister who hosted the Group of Seven summit, accusing him of making false statements.
Literally moments after Trudeau’s government released the joint statement, saying it had been agreed to by all seven countries, Trump blew apart the veneer of cordiality that had been in place throughout the two days of meetings in a resort town on the banks of the St. Lawrence River.
“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news
conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communiqué as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” Trump wrote.
A few hours earlier, Trudeau had announced that the seven nations had reached broad agreements on a range of economic and foreign policy goals, but he acknowledged deep disagreements remained between Trump and the leaders of the other nations, especially on trade.
Trudeau sought to play down personal clashes with Trump as he wrapped up the summit, calling the meeting “very successful” and saying he leaves “inspired by the discussion.”
However, he also pledged to retaliate against the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products in defense of Canadian workers.
Trump, who apparently saw Trudeau’s news conference on televisions aboard Air Force One, clearly was enraged.
“PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @g7 meetings,” Trump said in a second tweet, “only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around.’ Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!”
The tweets followed two days of tense and often confrontational closed-door discussions between Trump and the leaders of the U.S.’ closest allies — France, England, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany — in the hopes of resolving a brewing trade war among friends.
Instead, the gathering apparently served to further inflame Trump’s belief that the U.S. is being treated unfairly by countries with whom prior presidents long ago had negotiated trade agreements for the flow of goods and services.
Earlier in the day, before Trump left the summit, he brought up the dramatic prospect of completely eliminating tariffs on goods and services, even as he threatened to end all trade with the allies if they didn’t stop what he said were unfair trade practices.
The other six leaders had been defiant in the face of Trump’s threats.
“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,” Trudeau said. “As Canadians, we are polite, we’re reasonable, but also we will not be pushed around.”
Speaking to reporters at the end of a contentious meeting in a resort town outside Quebec City, Trump said eliminating all trading barriers would be “the ultimate thing.” He railed about what he called “ridiculous and unacceptable” tariffs on U.S. goods and vowed to end them.
“It’s going to stop,” he said, “or we’ll stop trading with them. And that’s a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.” He added, “We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing — and that ends.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said the trade debates at the summit were “sometimes quite heated.” Asked who won the tug of war with Trump, Macron said: “There is no winner, there are only losers when you take that strategy.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May blasted Trump’s tariffs, saying she had registered “our deep disappointment at the unjustified decision” and that the loss of trade through tariffs would “ultimately make everyone poorer.”
Trump’s threats toward America’s trading partners Saturday came during a wide-ranging news conference as he skipped most of the second day of the summit in order to leave for a meeting in Singapore with Kim.
The president’s public comments on trade Saturday morning echoed the complaints he made directly to the leaders from Canada, Japan and Europe in private sessions Friday.
Trump confronted several of the leaders individually, giving examples of how, in his view, each of their countries had mistreated the U.S., whether it be through trade barriers or security commitments, according to a European official.
The president delivered a running monologue in one of the closed-door meetings, one person familiar with the discussion said.
One minute, he slammed Germany for taking advantage of the U.S. by selling so many cars there. The next, he talked about how his grandfather was German and how much he loved Europe.
Several of the leaders responded aggressively to Trump’s demands — as they have repeatedly done in public — listing their own complaints about
U.S. tariffs and other trade measures, the official said.
Several countries have said they will retaliate against the U.S.’ new steel and aluminum tariffs with increased tariffs of their own.
“If they retaliate, they’re making a mistake,” Trump said Saturday
Trump’s surprise proposal for a tariff-free G-7 followed from a conversation the president had on Air Force One heading to Canada with Larry Kudlow, his national economic adviser.
Kudlow, a self-described “lifelong free trader,” wrote an op-ed article in the Washington Post on Thursday saying he didn’t prefer tariffs but that Trump’s actions were “a wake-up call to the dangers of a broken trading system that is increasingly unfree.”
Speaking to reporters Saturday, Trump repeatedly insisted the private discussions with his counterparts — whom he referred to casually, as “Justin” or “Angela” — had been positive.
“The relationship that I’ve had with the people, the leaders of these countries has been — I would really rate it on the scale of zero to 10,” he said. “I would rate it a 10.”
A senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a deal with Mexico and Canada on the North American Free Trade Agreement seemed within reach, and Trump said he believed negotiators were close to an agreement to include one of two sunset provisions that would act as expiration dates for the deal.
But Trudeau said at the conclusion of the summit that his government is firmly opposed to that idea.