The director of the national economic council under the Trump administration, Larry Kudlow, said during a CNN interview that Justin Trudeau stabbed the U.S. in the with his comments during a press conference held after U.S. President Donald Trump left the summit.
Kudlow accused Canada Sunday of making polarizing comments about the United States’ trade policy, and said that Trump had to pull out of the joint scommunique because the Canadian prime minister has “stabbed us in the back.”
“He held a press conference and he said the U.S. is insulting. He said that Canada has to stand up for itself. He says that we are the problem with tariffs. The non-factual part of this is – they have enormous tariffs,” Kudlow said on CNN’s State of the Union.
“Here’s the thing,” he added. “He really kind of stabbed us in the back.”
He called Canada’s actions a “betrayal.”
Following the G7 leaders summit, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a press conference criticizing U.S. tariffs and said that Canada “will not be pushed around.”
Shortly after Trump departed the conference for Singapore, where the president is set to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he took to Twitter to launch an unexpected tirade against the prime minister.
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“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 Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” the president tweeted.
Trump said in another tweet that Trudeau was “meek and mild” during their private meeting, only to hold a news conference calling the U.S. tariffs “insulting.” His tweet also accused the prime minister of being “dishonest and weak,” and claimed that he only placed tariffs on aluminum and steel in response to Canada’s “270% on dairy!”
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Leaders from Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the European Union and Japan attended a tense meeting this past Friday and Saturday at the G7 summit.
Trudeau hosted the summit on the back of several tense weeks of trade discussions with the United States, who imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from several countries a few months back, but offered Canada and Mexico an exemption from the fees as they continued NAFTA discussions.
However, in recent weeks, the Trump administration announced that it would be rescinding the exemption, prompting Canada to respond with retaliatory tariffs on CAD$16.5 billion worth of tariffs on products from the United States, which will come into effect on July 1.
-With files from Reuters