US President Donald Trump said the recent G7 spat-dominated meeting in Canada was “good”, but in the same breath warned the host country would pay for the comments of its prime minister.
“I had a very good meeting with the G7,” Trump said, rejecting suggestions the summit was a failure. But he also said that critical comments from Justin Trudeau would cost Canada “a lot of money.”
“When I got out to the plane, I think that Justin probably didn’t know that Air Force One has about 20 televisions. And I see the television and he’s giving a news conference about how he will not be pushed around by the United States and I say push him around? We just shook hands. It was very friendly,” Trump explained the situation Tuesday when asked about the G-7 gathering at a press conference in Singapore following his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“… No, I have a good relationship with Justin Trudeau. I really did, other than he had a news conference, that he had because he assumed I was in an airplane and I wasn’t watching. He learned. That’s going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He learned. You can’t do that. You can’t do that,” the US president added.
Trump is still angry at Trudeau for a perceived slight during a speech by the Canadian Prime Minister following the G-7 meeting.
Trudeau said that the aluminum and steel tariffs imposed by the US on Canada on national security grounds were insulting and that “Canadians are polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”
Trump then tweeted Saturday evening, “PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings 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.”
The US president also withdrew U.S. support for a G-7 communique.
Source: Agencies
