WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top White House economic adviser accused Canada’s prime minister on Sunday of betraying President Donald Trump with “polarizing” statements on U.S. trade policy that risked making the American leader look weak on the eve of a historic summit with North Korea.
Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, lashed out at Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau as “amateurish” and “sophomoric” for a news conference he gave after Trump left the Group of Seven summit on Saturday.
The comments, made after Trump had left to go to Singapore for his much-anticipated meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, infuriated the U.S. president.
Trump called Trudeau “very dishonest and weak” on Twitter on Saturday and then sent Kudlow and trade adviser Peter Navarro to hammer the message home on Sunday morning news shows in an extraordinary assault on a close U.S. ally and neighbor.
Trudeau’s remarks prompted Trump to pull out of a joint communique that was a fragile consensus on the trade dispute between Washington and its top allies, Kudlow said.
“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.”
In Quebec City early on Sunday, Trudeau declined to answer reporters’ questions about the aftermath of the two-day G7 summit in Quebec.
At his news
