Trump, Trudeau spat continues long after G7 ends

President Donald Trump’s war of words with U.S. allies continued over the weekend as the White House accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “bad faith diplomacy.” Trump departed early from the weekend G-7 economic meeting in Quebec to prepare for his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Singapore. After Friday’s gathering, during which G-7 leaders agreed to a consensus trade statement, Trudeau told reporters Canada would not be pushed around by the United States. “I told the president that we would be moving forward with retaliatory equivalent tariffs as of July 1, and he expressed to me that he thought that would be a mistake.” Trump has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum from around the world, including Canada. After Trudeau’s news conference, Trump announced via Twitter he had withdrawn his support from the joint communique G-7 leaders drafted at the conference. World leaders condemned the increasingly personal spat, but Trump didn’t back down: “Why should I, as president of the United States, allow countries to continue to make massive trade surpluses, as they have for decades, while our farmers, workers & taxpayers have such a big and unfair price to pay? Not fair to the PEOPLE of America!” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro noted Canada already has high tariffs on American agricultural products like maple syrup under the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact the Trump administration wants to throw out and rewrite.