Trump's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow is on CNN bashing Trudeau:
More from Kudlow:
It's genuinely unclear what Trump and Kudlow are complaining about. Trump left the G-7 and did a news conference bashing Canada on trade. Then Trudeau did a news conference in which he said the same things about the steel/aluminum tariffs he's been saying for a week.
Kudlow on Trudeau: "He really kind of stabbed us in the back. He really, actually, you know: he did a great disservice to the whole G-7. He betrayed."
Kudlow: "We were very close to making a deal with Canada on NAFTA, bilaterally perhaps, and then we leave and Trudeau pulls this sophomoric political stunt for domestic consumption.”
They were not close to making a bilateral NAFTA deal. He's just making things up.
They were not close to making a bilateral NAFTA deal. He's just making things up.
Asked what Trudeau actually did that was so "cheap" and "sophomoric," Kudlow says, "He holds a press conference and he said the US is insulting, he said that Canada has to stand up for itself, he says that we are the problem with tariffs."
Kudlow on Trudeau: “You just don’t behave that way. It’s a betrayal. Essentially double-crossing."
Ah, Kudlow finally explains what's going on here: "Now, POTUS is not gonna let a Canadian prime minister push him around, push him, POTUS, around, President Trump, on the eve of this -- he is not going to permit any show of weakness on a trip to negotiate with North Korea.”
So...per the White House, Trump is insulting the prime minister of Canada because he wants to impress Kim Jong Un.
Kudlow elaborates: "Kim must not see American weakness. It’s that short.” Trudeau was "pouring collateral damage on this whole Korean trip, that was a part of Trudeau's mistake. Trudeau made an error, he should take it back, he should pull back on his statements."
Kudlow on Trump: He made a lot of goodill trade gestures, "and what does he get from Pierre Trudeau (sic)? Slam. Slap in the face."
Kudlow: "He can't put Trump in a position of being weak going into the North Korean talks. He can't do that. And by the way, President Trump is NOT weak!" This is a remarkable display of weakness...
Kudlow, who is an adviser to Donald Trump, on Trudeau: "Why throw a monkey wrench into a meeting of the Western allies?" It is hard to overstate how amazing this interview is.
Kudlow's last words: "We were coming together beautifully, okay? And then he goes out there and pulls this amateur political stunt…amateurish scheme that really broke up all the goodwill from that meeting in Quebec.”
Historians: is there any kind of precedent for a White House official going on TV and calling an ally prime minister "sophomoric," "rogue," "amateurish," "cheap," a "double-cross"er and betrayer?
Wow. This seems like an unprecedented low point in U.S.-Canada relations.
