The Latest: Trump tweeting about G-7 before Kim meeting

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

LA MALBAIE, Quebec (AP) — The Latest on the trade fallout after the Group of Seven meeting in Canada (all times local):

9:40 p.m.

President Donald Trump is taking more swipes at Canada and its prime minister over trade issues as he settles in for a summit with North Korea in Singapore.

Trump was traveling from North America to Asia when he withdrew from a Group of Seven economic statement and insulted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “dishonest” and “weak.” In a series of tweets from Singapore, Trump kept up the tirade while contending that “Fair Trade is now to be called Fool Trade if it is not Reciprocal.”

President Donald Trump has arrived in Singapore for talks with the North Korean leader, but he remains focused on the G-7 conference of allies he just left behind in Quebec and the question of free trade.

“According to a Canada release, they make almost 100 Billion Dollars in Trade with U.S. (guess they were bragging and got caught!). Minimum is 17B. Tax Dairy from us at 270%. Then Justin acts hurt when called out!”

Trump was reacting to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said Saturday that Canada would retaliate for Trump’s proposed new tariffs. Trump aides accused Trudeau of betrayal of Trump for his statement on retaliation,

“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?” Trump said in a second tweet. “Not fair to the PEOPLE of America! $800 Billion Trade Deficit…”

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6:15 p.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she finds President Donald Trump’s tweet disavowing a common statement after the Group of Seven summit in Canada “sobering” and “a little depressing.”

In an interview Sunday on German public television, Merkel also says European leaders won’t be “taken advantage of” on trade. Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and the other leaders clashed with Trump over steel and aluminum tariffs as well as his decision to abandon a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program.

The group managed a common statement in which they agreed to disagree on some issues, only to have Trump disavow the document in a tweet after leaving the meeting. Trump has pointed to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s criticism of him as a reason for withdrawing from the consensus statement.

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10:20 a.m.

The White House is escalating its verbal attacks against Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of close American ally Canada.

President Donald Trump’s trade adviser says: “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.”

Peter Navarro tells “Fox News Sunday” that’s what Trudeau did to Trump at the end of the Group of Seven nations meeting in Canada over the weekend.

At issue are U.S. tariffs against Canada and Trudeau’s effort to retaliate against its neighbor — as well as Trudeau’s comment to reporters that all seven leaders had come together to sign a joint declaration after the G-7 meeting.

Navarro calls that a “socialist communique” that Trump pulled out of.

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10:05 a.m.

President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser says Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “really kind of stabbed us in the back” when Trudeau said at the end of the Group of Seven summit that Canada wouldn’t be pushed around by the U.S. and its trade tariffs.

White House aide Larry Kudlow tells CNN’s “State of the Union” says Trudeau has done a “great disservice” to the G-7 by saying Canada had to stand up for itself and that the U.S. was responsible for the problem with tariffs.

Kudlow says Trump won’t let a Canadian prime minister push him around on the eve of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

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1 a.m.

The annual G-7 summit appeared to have weathered tensions over President Donald Trump’s threats of a trade war. But then Trump pulled out of a joint statement while citing “false statements” by Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

It’s a startling attack on the leader of the U.S. neighbor and ally.

Trump made the comments in tweets from Air Force One as he headed to Singapore for his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Trump criticizing the Group of Seven nations host and stepped back from the generally positive tone that had ended the two-day meeting in Quebec.

A few hours earlier, Trudeau had told reporters that all seven leaders had come together to sign the joint declaration.

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