President Donald Trump's top economic adviser launched an unusually critical campaign against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Sunday morning, and placed the blame on Canada for Trump's refusal to sign the G-7 joint agreement. Larry Kudlow, who hosted a number of CNBC programs before replacing Gary Cohn at the National Economic Council, publicly accused Trudeau of stabbing the president "in the back" and "double crossing" him at last week's G-7 meeting.
The meeting of the world's top industrialized nations revealed a growing tension between the United States and its allies over trade agreements and worldviews. The President first insisted Russia be included in the summit once again, the country was excluded after its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Trump blamed former President Barack Obama, instead of Putin, for the annexation. Trump continued to ruffle feathers by threatening to end all trade with G-7 nations if they did not retool their "unfair" trade practices with the United States.
At the end of the summit, Trudeau held a press conference where he called Trump's tariff talk "kind of insulting," and said that "it would be with regret but it would be with absolute certainty and firmness that we move forward with retaliatory measures on July 1st, applying equivalent tariffs to the ones that Americans have unjustly applied to us."
The president responded to Trudeau's comments by refusing to sign the joint G-7 agreement that his own advisers helped shape. "Based on Justin's false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!" Trump tweeted Saturday. He later doubled down by calling Trudeau "meek and mild" and "dishonest & weak."
On Sunday, Kudlow reiterated Trump's stance. Trudeau "holds a press conference and says 'the U.S. is insulting' he said that 'Canada has to stand up for itself,' he says that we 'are the problem with tariffs," Kudlow explained on CNN's State of the Union. "He was polarizing. He really kind of stabbed us in the back, he did a great disservice to the whole G-7, he betrayed them." he said.
Kudlow went on to call the Canadian Prime Minister's press conference a "sophomoric, political stunt for domestic consumption."
"President Trump played that process in good faith. So, I ask you: He gets up in the airplane and leaves, and then Trudeau starts blasting him at a domestic news conference?" he asked CNN's Jake Tapper. "I am sorry, that's a betrayal. That's a double cross."
Kudlow later tied Trudeau's comments to the president's upcoming Singapore summit with North Korean despot Kim Jong-Un and explained that if anything went wrong during the negotiations, it would likely be Trudeau's fault.
Kim must not see American weakness," Kudlow said. "This is a case where Trudeau, it was like, I don't know, pouring collateral damage on the 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, and wish President Trump well in the Korean negotiations."
