A widely shared video of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gossiping with fellow world leaders about Donald Trump has found its way into the United States’ 2020 election campaign.
Joe Biden, the former U.S. vice-president and a leading Democratic presidential candidate, released a new campaign ad late Wednesday that uses the video to criticize Trump and his ability to lead alongside international counterparts.
The video was taken by British pool cameras at Buckingham Palace in London during a NATO reception on Tuesday night. In it, Trudeau, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Britain’s Princess Anne chat about Trump’s lengthy and unscheduled press conferences — particularly one that unfolded prior to his meeting with Trudeau.
Wait, There’s More: Trump, Trudeau, and the tension inside NATO
Trudeau is centrefold in the video, audibly describing the “40-minute press conference” Trump took with reporters. At one point, Trudeau says: “You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor.”
According to Trudeau, the latter comment was in reference to Trump’s unexpected announcement that the next G7 summit would take place at Camp David, rather than Trump’s own National Doral Resort in Miami, as previously announced.
Trump called Trudeau “two-faced” for the behaviour but said he still finds him to be a “nice guy.”
In the Biden ad, clips of Trudeau huddled with political leaders at Buckingham Palace is combined with footage from a speech Trump gave Sept. 25 to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where laughter broke out when Trump claimed his administration has “accomplished more than almost any administration” in U.S. history.
The words “a president the world is laughing at” are laid over the footage.
“The world sees Trump for what he is,” Biden says in the advertisement as clips of Trump roll by.
“Insincere, ill-informed, corrupt, dangerously incompetent, and incapable, in my view, of world leadership.”
The ad was tweeted Wednesday night on Biden’s account.
During a speaking event in Iowa the same day, Biden said he believes people worldwide are concerned about Trump in office.
“You saw what’s recently happened, you heard the reports, I didn’t see them, I just saw the reports today, where our NATO allies caught off guard making fun of the President of the United States of America,” Biden said, according to a CNN report.
“When is that, did you ever think you’d see that happen? Ever? And it matters to us. It matters to our security. But it gets back to basic fundamental values. And where are those values rooted?”
The Democratic Party will select its presidential nominee sometime in July.