WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials on Sunday accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of stabbing President Trump in the back, blaming him for the president's refusal to endorse a joint statement with other world leaders.
"There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door," White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro said on Fox News Sunday. "And that's what bad faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference."
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow accused Trudeau of undermining Trump right before his meeting in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"It is a historic negotiation and there is no way this president is not going to stand strong," Kudkow said on CBS' Face the Nation. "He's not going to allow the people to suddenly take pot shots at him."
But California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said Trump wasn't just taking on Trudeau, but all of the United States' best allies by not signing the G-7 statement after a two-day meeting in Canada with leaders of the world's largest industrialized economies.
"We don't want to stand alone in the world," Feinstein said on CNN's State of the Union. "We need to stand with our democratic allies."
Trump said on Twitter Saturday he directed officials not to endorse the communique as a response to comments made by Trudeau at a news conference after Trump left for his meeting in Singapore.
Trudeau told reporters that Canada would move forward on July 1 with retaliatory tariffs to answer for Trump's tariffs on aluminum and steel that were "unjustly applied to us."
"I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do because Canadians, we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around," Trudeau said.
Navarro called Trudeau's comments "nothing short of an attack on our political system." He accused Canada — America's second largest trading partner — of bungling the trade relationship between the countries and of trying to raise "protectionist barriers even higher" on Canadian products like maple syrup.
“They are simply not playing fair — dishonest, weak," Navarro said, echoing some of the same words Trump used in his tweets.
Like Navarro and Kudlow, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also called Trudeau's comments a stab in the back to Trump.
"He's not going to tolerate that, nor should he," Graham said on Fox News.
But Arizona Sen. John McCain, who is often aligned with Graham, pushed back Saturday against Trump's refusal to sign the G-7 statement.
"To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values," McCain tweeted. "Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn't."
Cox Media Group
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