White House ratchets up trade war with 'special place in hell' slug at Trudeau

Trump has tried to play down expectations for this week's initial meeting, but U.S. officials remain concerned about showing strength heading into the summit.

By PATRICK TEMPLE-WEST 06/10/2018 03:12 PM EDT Updated 06/10/2018 03:33 PM EDT

Tensions between the U.S. and Canada mounted on Sunday even as President Donald Trump tried to shift his attention to North Korea, with one U.S. official saying there is a “special place in hell” for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after bitter words between the two leaders.

National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow said Sunday that Trudeau “really kind of stabbed us in the back" when the Canadian leader told reporters Saturday that his country would stick to its plan to apply retaliatory tariffs to certain U.S. exports beginning next month.

"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 adviser Peter Navarro said Sunday on Fox News. "And that's what bad-faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference."

Trudeau’s administration punched back Sunday. Asked repeatedly by reporters about Navarro’s “special place in hell” remark, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said: “Canada does not conduct its diplomacy through ad hominem attacks.”

“One thing that I give thanks for is that I’m not responsible for explaining the reasoning behind any comments made by the officials of any foreign government,” Freeland told reporters in Quebec City.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/10/trade-trump-trudeau-special-place-hell-635162