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‘Are you scared of Donald Trump?’: Bill Morneau faces tricky question from student

Click to play video: 'Schoolkid asks Bill Morneau if he’s afraid of Donald Trump'
Schoolkid asks Bill Morneau if he’s afraid of Donald Trump
WATCH ABOVE: Schoolkid asks Bill Morneau if he's afraid of Donald Trump – Feb 23, 2018

Finance Minister Bill Morneau visited school children in Toronto Friday, ahead of next week’s federal budget unveiling.

He tried on his new budget day shoes, and sat surrounded by students from the Rose Avenue Junior Public School.

READ MORE: Bill Morneau picks budget day shoes from Edmonton’s Poppy Barley for 2nd year in a row

Then, he was asked a question that seemed to leave him at a loss for words.

“Are you scared of Donald Trump?” Kaaviya Vasanthakumar asked, as her peers laughed out loud.

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau speaks with students from Toronto’s Rose Avenue Junior Public School. Chris Young/CP

The finance minister took a moment to collect his thoughts. He then offered a politically correct, but slightly unusual response, first focusing on the U.S. president’s hair.

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“Uh … no. We’ve had a chance to go down and meet Donald Trump a few times, and of course, he does go to the international meetings,” he said. “And … his hair really does look like you see it on TV. It is actually that colour.”

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WATCH: Bill Morneau gets new shoes before 2018 federal budget announcement

Click to play video: 'Bill Morneau gets new shoes before 2018 federal budget announcement'
Bill Morneau gets new shoes before 2018 federal budget announcement

Morneau then explained that being U.S. president is difficult, and that Trump is “trying to do his best.”

“It’s a really, really hard job, and it’s a really important job. So we all hope, that even though we see things in the newspapers that are critical, we all hope he does a good job.”

Vasanthakumar later explained to Global News why she asked the minister the tricky question.

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READ MORE: Federal budget 2018 to be introduced on Feb. 27

“Most people can get scared of [Trump] and what he’s doing, like building the wall from Mexico, and then about the oil trading,” she said.

But there was something even scarier on her mind, Vasanthakumar explained: “But then, also how he’s going to start World War III. I’m not sure if he’s gonna, but it might happen.”

She added she still thinks the minister is “probably” worried, but clarified her own position, “I’m not scared.”

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