WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro expressed regret Tuesday for having said there is “a special place in hell” for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Let me correct a mistake I made,” Navarro said at a Wall Street Journal conference, according to video provided by the Journal’s CFO Network. “In conveying that message I used language that was inappropriate.”
Trump was furious after Trudeau had said at the end of a contentious economic summit in Quebec that he wouldn’t let Canada be pushed around in trade relations with the United States.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Navarro said: “There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump.”
The United States has alienated Canada and other allies by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, arguing that they pose a threat to U.S. national security. The move has been roundly criticized by Canada and the European Union, leading to heightened tensions at last week’s summit of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies — just before Trump left for Singapore and a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jon Un.
Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, suggested that Trump saw Trudeau as trying to weaken his hand before the summit with Kim. Kudlow said the president won’t “let a Canadian prime minister push him around. … Kim must not see American weakness.”
Kudlow later suffered a “very mild” heart attack, the White House said Monday, but was in good condition.
